1)Looking for a way to celebrate the show's tenth anniversary, Barry Letts and Terrance Dicks decided to act on the fan suggestion of having the three Doctors meet, an idea which was unfortunately hampered by the fact that William Hartnell was suffeirng from severe arteriosclerosis, and was thus unable to fully take part in the program, being limited instead to a few short scenes in which he is somewhat obviously reading from cuecards. It's kind of sad, although there are one or two moments where he shows something of his old fire. On the other hand, there's alot of good interaction between the Second and Third Doctors - the fact that Troughton and Pertwee had such different acting styles added some genuineness to the friction between their characters. I also especially liked the scene at the end where the Doctor regretted what he had to do to Omega.
2)Doctor Tyler was played by Rex Robinson, in the first of his three Doctor Who roles.
3)The Gell Guards were kind of lame.
4)I did like the Brigadier's reactions to seeing the Second Doctor again, and his first look inside the TARDIS. The scene at the end where he salutes the Doctors was very nicely-played.
5)Stephen Thorne was quite good as Omega - the "mask removal" scene was quite chilling. Apparently, he's still alive and hearty - take note, Mr, Moffat!
6)The end result of the story is the rescinding of the Doctor's exile as a reward by the Time Lords. Apaprently the Letts/Dicks fac-gime had never liked the idea of the Doctor being "Earthbound" and were happy enough to undo it. I tend to agree - while I enjoyed the UNIT setting, it had tended to become somewhat repetitive.
7))Some fun quotes:
- "So, you're my replacements, a dandy and a clown?"
- "...As vulnerable as those we are pledged to protect." Since when were the Time Lords "pledged to protect" anyone? I thought they were all about non-interference.
- "Keep it confused, feed it with useless information. I wonder if I have a television set handy?"
- "So this is what you've been doing with UNIT funds and equipment all this time?"
- "Care for a jellybaby?" A pre-Tom Baker jellybaby sighting!
- "I've always had a great respect for his advice."
- "I'm fairly sure that's Cromer."
- "Three of 'em. I didn't know when I was well off."
- "Wonderful chap - both of him."
- "I shudder to think what you'll do without me." William Hartnell's last words as the Doctor. He died three years later.
8)Cliffhangers:
- Episode One: The Third Doctor and Jo disappear!
- Episode Two: UNIT HQ disappears!
- Episode Three: The Third Doctor battles the goofy dark side of Omega's mind!
- Episode Four: Mister Ollis wants his supper!
Overall:
Not bad - a bit creaky in parts, and not what it might have been had Hartnell been a bit healthier, but all-in--all a justifiable anniversary exercise.
[Part of list of Doctor Who episodes here.]
Replies
You left off 2 of my favorite Three Doctors quotes:
1. "Liberty Hall, Dr. Tyler. Liberty Hall."
2. Me: What do you get when you cross a dandy with a clown?
The Baron: A dandiclown.
{OK, the 2nd one is really just Who-related, but it's still one of my favorites.}
This was my first exposure to the Second Doctor and (I think) the first First, too. It's fairly weak story-wise, but it's awfully fun.
"the fact that Troughton and Pertwee had such different acting styles added some genuineness to the friction between their characters"
It's kinda like watching THE RAVEN, where Boris Karloff is trying to follow the script, but Peter Lorre keeps improvising (while Vincent Price just manages to go along with whatever the others are doing).
"Apaprently the Letts/Dicks fac-gime had never liked the idea of the Doctor being "Earthbound" and were happy enough to undo it."
It's kinda bizarre, when you think about it, that producer Derrick Sherwin was the one who cast Jon Pertwee and set up the whole new format, but only did ONE story before handing it on to the incoming team. 5 years later, Barry Letts cast Tom Baker, but on the other hand, he didn't really change the format. That he left up to Philip Hinchcliffe & Robert Holmes.
I keep wondering how the show might have gone if JNT & Eric Saward had both left after Colin Baker's 1st story. (AND HOW I WISH THEY BOTH HAD!)
From the "Lost Stories" series, the original treatment of what later became the TV serial "The Three Doctors."
DEATHWORLD:
The Doctor was dead, to begin with. Killed alongside his beloved Jo Grant in an explosion in the UNIT labs. But Time Lords are notoriously hard to kill.
Because with UNIT under siege, the Brigadier is rescued by two familiar faces... the Doctor he first encountered, fighting the Yeti, and Jamie McCrimmon. With yet one more waiting in the wings.
They are all pawns in a deadly game of chess played by a being more powerful than any they’ve ever encountered before. And when you battle Death himself... can anyone even win?
TRAILER
Interesting. I've never heard of this story.
THIRD DOCTOR: I'm he and he's me.
JO: And we are all together, goo goo g'joob? (The Doctors look confused) It's a song by the Beatles.
SECOND DOCTOR: How does it go?
Interesting. I've never heard of this story.
More info if you're interested:
BIG FINISH’S range of Lost Stories always attracts extra interest from fans who are intrigued by the possibilities of the never-weres and might-have-beens. Since the range began, it’s featured stories adapted from fully written scripts or developed from approved detailed outlines that never made it to the script stage – in some cases from just rough outlines. Each of the first seven Doctors have starred, but the latest two releases feature something that hasn’t been done before – a multi-Doctor story – as the First, Second and Third Doctors take centre stage in Deathworld and the Second Doctor appearing in Operation Werewolf.
Deathworld is based on the original treatment written by Bob Baker and Dave Martin for what later became the tenth anniversary TV serial The Three Doctors. The script is very different to the story that ended up on screens, however. There’s no Omega here, and instead the Doctors become caught in a temporal game of chess played between the President of Gallifrey and Death itself. The audio adaptation is written by John Dorney with the First, Second and Third Doctors voiced by Stephen Noonan, Michael Troughton and Tim Treloar. Producer (and actor in this one) David O’Mahony says: “After Bob Baker and Dave Martin submitted the idea for Deathworld in 1972, the script went through multiple rounds of rewrites and changes to characters, locations and actors to the point that The Three Doctors was completely different to the adventure first conceived.
“John and script editor Simon Guerrier wanted to go back to the original concept and explore what that idea had first been. Deathworld is the epitome of a Lost Story – taking a great idea and being able to fulfil it without the time and budget constraints of when it was pitched for television.” John says: “Deathworld has been on the backburner for many years. We’ve always wanted to make it, we were going to record it and I was going to write it. But, for whatever reason, we never quite got round to making it happen until now! And it was really good fun – I’ve not really done a multi-Doctor story before, so getting to play in that sandbox was exciting. “It was an intriguing one as well because, obviously, we’ve seen the Doctors interact on TV in The Three Doctors, which meant we really didn’t want to repeat those kind of beats. “I don’t think I have any lines like, ‘Oh, you’ve redecorated. I don’t like it!’ Well, maybe I do... I wrote it so long ago! I have tried to avoid repeating things we get in The Three Doctors, though.”
JOHN REVEALS that he had to be creative with the source material. He tells Vortex: “I didn’t have a massive amount to work from. I had a couple of pages and various things I found in other publications that suggested revisions and drafts that I couldn’t track down. So, I tried to meld them all into one. It was fun. I’ve written a couple of Lost Stories before with a very similar kind of vibe, where there isn’t an insane amount of data available but at the same time there isn’t nothing either. It was a case of taking what I had and trying to find a way of making that work in a Doctor Who context. That was the biggest initial challenge I had. “The adaptation was interesting because on one level you can see the ideas and how they led to what we actually saw on TV in The Three Doctors, but at the same time it’s noticeably different as the style is a lot more fantasy-based. There are crazy concepts like a personification of Death and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, plus various mythical creatures and beasts.
“I felt that the approach with this should be the same sort of development you would give any other story, where you go, ‘OK, let’s tweak this’. It’s still recognisably the same story but you’re allowed to develop it to certain degree. I was trying to factor in all these things and then got some excellent script editing from Simon Guerrier and producer David O’Mahony. “I tried to incorporate everything that was included in The Three Doctors. Things like the flesh eating virus, zombies and the Seven Deadly Sins, and in particular I remember one bit that people said clearly couldn’t have been done at the time because it misunderstood the show’s concepts. But, I thought, ‘Well, I’m going to do that then!’ “The notion of what I wanted was the Doctors fighting the Lord of Reality as opposed to Time Lords. That was the root of where it all came together.”
John was also delighted to have some different character dynamics to play with, compared to the television episode. He reveals: “I was very keen to include Jamie because in at least some of the early discussions, he was going to be there. So that immediately gave me something new and different. You also get to have the relationship between Jamie and Jo, which was entertaining to play with. “The other thing that was fun was this meant we had the Third Doctor with Jo and the Second Doctor with Jamie… leaving us with the Brigadier to join up with the First Doctor, which isn’t a pairing that really got to be explored on TV. I got to put them together and it’s particularly entertaining as the First Doctor has no idea who this man is!”
DAVID SAYS: “The idea of producing the Lost Stories really resonates with me. With Deathworld, what a privilege it was to have all six of those leads – the three Doctors and the three companions. “Stephen Noonan is so studious with his acting, he’s very particular and does his research. He’s one of those actors that will spend weeks poring over the script and thinking about every line and every nuance. “With Michael, it’s lovely to have him involved and he has that twinkle in his eye that his dad had – you can hear it on audio in his performance. “I say this every time I talk about Tim, but if you close your eyes you’re listening to Jon Pertwee. It’s uncanny. I honestly don’t think Tim realises just how great he is. And he has such a lovely bond with Katy. There was one scene where she was moved to tears, which I think is testament to how good Tim is.”
John adds: “I just love the craziness of it all, really. I think one of the things that really struck me reading it and then watching a lot of Bob Baker and Dave Martin’s work was that it became very clear that they’re really good ideas men. “They’re flinging many concepts at their stories, so, if anything, my job was just trying to marshal them into a shape. “Getting to play in this slightly different flavour of Doctor Who was fun. That was one of the key things I really enjoyed with this, playing in a rather more obviously fantastical environment."
Very interesting.
I read elsewhere that Wiliam Hartnell's part in the 10th anniversary story was originally meant to be larger, but due to ailing health his role had to be scaled back.
Barry Letts said that when they decided to do the story, they called Troughton and he said he'd do it. Then they called Hartnell and he said he'd do it. Then a while later, Hartnell's wife called them and said Hartnell was too sick to do it (He had arteriosclerosis), so they worked out a way for Hartnell to play a limited part. I'm sure it's on the DVD extras somewhere.
Ah, yes. That might be where I heard it. I suspect "Deathworld" was the story they were working on from the time Hartnell originally accepted up until his wife notified them he was too sick.
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