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Description
There's a bit of irony in that 1985's multi-Doctor story "The Two Doctors" was the first time that any multi-Doctor story lived up to its number of involved Doctors. 1983's "The Five Doctors" famously only featured three Doctors portrayed by their original actors onscreen (William Hartnell having died in 1975, with charactor actor Richard Hurndall standing in as the First Doctor in the story; Tom Baker bowed out at the last minute to be replaced by extracted footage from the aborted "Shada" and a wax dummy for publicity images), and then every other multi-Doctor story after this one dropped the numbering and went with a standard, standalaone title.

1972-73's anniversary serial "The Three Doctors" started this: Hartnell, in the last stages of his ill health, wasn't able to participate to a large degree of filming. As such, much of his action as the First Doctor is relegated to appearing on a viewscreen to give advice to his successors and appearing in various publicity photos. This probably benefited Patrick Troughton, as the loss of Hartnell meant that a lot of the action got shifted to him, and it really shows that Troughton hadn't missed a single beat since leaving the program. There's an anecdote that Pertwee, who later beame very close with Troughton in later years, was terrified however of Troughton's talents and ability to improvise and ad-lib on the set, which irritated the incumbent Doctor. The end result does show a fantastic interplay between the two actors, that it's such a shame Troughton passed away in 1987; it's fair to say that they might have made fan productions together showcasing the adventures of their two incarnations.

The serial itself though? It's a nice little romp. Reuniting the members of UNIT with Troughton (oh the sheer joy of Benton when he sees "his" Doctor again) as well as Jo's wordplay with the Second Doctor explaining how he and his successor are the same Time Lord (throwing in a bit of Beatles-speak to boot...when you watch a lot of Doctor Who, it becomes pretty apparent that there were a LOT of references to the Beatles even as far back as the earliest stories in the 1960s), along with the Third Doctor doing his usual action man, science stuff, with Pertwee getting in a lot of his calm and calculating assurances that were so intrinstic to his incarnation. It's a nice bonus that, with this serial, for all intents and purposes it was the most complete appearance of Patrick Troughton as the Doctor in the BBC Archives (I believe "The Dominators" has that distinction, although two different film recordings exist for it) until the retrieval of other long-lost episodes from the archives. along with it being his first in glorious technicolor.

Pertwee himself is wonderful as always. I honestly don't think there was a terrible performance from him as the Doctor in this period. Some dud stories, yeah...each Doctor has a few misses alongside hits. But Pertwee's acting wasn't by the numbers, he always found new ways to mine the depths of his Doctor. Patriarchal and anarchic, yet at the same time willing to respect authority...as long as that respect was returned (which is one reason why he wasn't above blasting the Brigadier and others for being too militaristic minded, but did chastise Jo for not showing the Brig the proper respect due his rank). And what there is of Hartnell is a nice reminder of why the First Doctor was beloved to those 1st generation fans. There's still a bit of magic to him, some whimsy. I don't know how hard it was for Hartnell to find the character again after so many years away, but he slips into it quite effortlessly enough...even though he had to read his lines from cue cards, I've heard.

Today, the story is harmless and inoffensive, and isn't really the most impressive of Doctor Who tales. Still a good one, in my opinion, and quite important for two reasons: the soft "reboot" it offered, and the introduction of the Time Lord Omega. That soft "reboot" is kind of a loose term since nothing really changed, except that at the story's conclusion the Doctor sees his multi-season exile on Earth lifted and his knowledge of time travel restored to him. From this point in Season 10 onward, the Doctor would be traveling far and wide across time and space. This meant that his ties to Earth were slowly falling away, even though the Doctor returned to his home at UNIT by the story's end, and as such UNIT ties began appearing far less often as Season 10 went on into Season 11, disappearing completely by the time Tom Baker took over the reins from Pertwee.

With Omega, we have the first building blocks of Time Lord politics and history shoved to the front. I often find it amazing that the writers would find new and interesting ways of creating that mythos, which would have culminated in Marc Platt's "Lungbarrow" if that had been filmed as part of Season 27. Omega's big reveal at the end may come across as a hokey effect but it's one that resonates and really nails the science fiction aspect so inherent to the Pertwee era stories (per a conversation, I always felt that Pertwee was the perfect foil for science fiction stories than many of his successors and even his predecessors. He was really into technology and automobiles, as seen in his love of gadgets used on the show). There's almost a dark aspect to Omega that I think was mined whenever he appeared, as he and the Doctor both have strong wills, and perhaps one reason the Doctor found himself bent on stopping the mad Time Lord was recognizing, just like with the Master, how easy it is to fall into that trap of darkness.

I loved the work I put into this one. I went a bit further with Omega's anti-matter universe, by using a glittering background to show how it's in flux. And while I wish I had the Thirteen Doctors Third Doctor in his actual red coat from the episode (hard to get ahold of), I like the placeholder of the Third Doctor as he appeared in Death To The Daleks since it's the only one I have with him in the bowtie he started wearing from this serial forward.

Description
There's a bit of irony in that 1985's multi-Doctor story "The Two Doctors" was the first time that any multi-Doctor story lived up to its number of involved Doctors. 1983's "The Five Doctors" famously only featured three Doctors portrayed by their original actors onscreen (William Hartnell having died in 1975, with charactor actor Richard Hurndall standing in as the First Doctor in the story; Tom Baker bowed out at the last minute to be replaced by extracted footage from the aborted "Shada" and a wax dummy for publicity images), and then every other multi-Doctor story after this one dropped the numbering and went with a standard, standalaone title.

1972-73's anniversary serial "The Three Doctors" started this: Hartnell, in the last stages of his ill health, wasn't able to participate to a large degree of filming. As such, much of his action as the First Doctor is relegated to appearing on a viewscreen to give advice to his successors and appearing in various publicity photos. This probably benefited Patrick Troughton, as the loss of Hartnell meant that a lot of the action got shifted to him, and it really shows that Troughton hadn't missed a single beat since leaving the program. There's an anecdote that Pertwee, who later beame very close with Troughton in later years, was terrified however of Troughton's talents and ability to improvise and ad-lib on the set, which irritated the incumbent Doctor. The end result does show a fantastic interplay between the two actors, that it's such a shame Troughton passed away in 1987; it's fair to say that they might have made fan productions together showcasing the adventures of their two incarnations.

The serial itself though? It's a nice little romp. Reuniting the members of UNIT with Troughton (oh the sheer joy of Benton when he sees "his" Doctor again) as well as Jo's wordplay with the Second Doctor explaining how he and his successor are the same Time Lord (throwing in a bit of Beatles-speak to boot...when you watch a lot of Doctor Who, it becomes pretty apparent that there were a LOT of references to the Beatles even as far back as the earliest stories in the 1960s), along with the Third Doctor doing his usual action man, science stuff, with Pertwee getting in a lot of his calm and calculating assurances that were so intrinstic to his incarnation. It's a nice bonus that, with this serial, for all intents and purposes it was the most complete appearance of Patrick Troughton as the Doctor in the BBC Archives (I believe "The Dominators" has that distinction, although two different film recordings exist for it) until the retrieval of other long-lost episodes from the archives. along with it being his first in glorious technicolor.

Pertwee himself is wonderful as always. I honestly don't think there was a terrible performance from him as the Doctor in this period. Some dud stories, yeah...each Doctor has a few misses alongside hits. But Pertwee's acting wasn't by the numbers, he always found new ways to mine the depths of his Doctor. Patriarchal and anarchic, yet at the same time willing to respect authority...as long as that respect was returned (which is one reason why he wasn't above blasting the Brigadier and others for being too militaristic minded, but did chastise Jo for not showing the Brig the proper respect due his rank). And what there is of Hartnell is a nice reminder of why the First Doctor was beloved to those 1st generation fans. There's still a bit of magic to him, some whimsy. I don't know how hard it was for Hartnell to find the character again after so many years away, but he slips into it quite effortlessly enough...even though he had to read his lines from cue cards, I've heard.

Today, the story is harmless and inoffensive, and isn't really the most impressive of Doctor Who tales. Still a good one, in my opinion, and quite important for two reasons: the soft "reboot" it offered, and the introduction of the Time Lord Omega. That soft "reboot" is kind of a loose term since nothing really changed, except that at the story's conclusion the Doctor sees his multi-season exile on Earth lifted and his knowledge of time travel restored to him. From this point in Season 10 onward, the Doctor would be traveling far and wide across time and space. This meant that his ties to Earth were slowly falling away, even though the Doctor returned to his home at UNIT by the story's end, and as such UNIT ties began appearing far less often as Season 10 went on into Season 11, disappearing completely by the time Tom Baker took over the reins from Pertwee.

With Omega, we have the first building blocks of Time Lord politics and history shoved to the front. I often find it amazing that the writers would find new and interesting ways of creating that mythos, which would have culminated in Marc Platt's "Lungbarrow" if that had been filmed as part of Season 27. Omega's big reveal at the end may come across as a hokey effect but it's one that resonates and really nails the science fiction aspect so inherent to the Pertwee era stories (per a conversation, I always felt that Pertwee was the perfect foil for science fiction stories than many of his successors and even his predecessors. He was really into technology and automobiles, as seen in his love of gadgets used on the show). There's almost a dark aspect to Omega that I think was mined whenever he appeared, as he and the Doctor both have strong wills, and perhaps one reason the Doctor found himself bent on stopping the mad Time Lord was recognizing, just like with the Master, how easy it is to fall into that trap of darkness.

I loved the work I put into this one. I went a bit further with Omega's anti-matter universe, by using a glittering background to show how it's in flux. And while I wish I had the Thirteen Doctors Third Doctor in his actual red coat from the episode (hard to get ahold of), I like the placeholder of the Third Doctor as he appeared in Death To The Daleks since it's the only one I have with him in the bowtie he started wearing from this serial forward.