Doctor Who: The Five Doctors (UK)

This is classic anniversary story with many elements of the previous 20 years included. The picture is of a high quality, and the surround sound a nice feature. What lets this disc down is the lack of extras. For a programme with such a huge public profile, there should have been a wealth of additional features that could have been included, such as BBC trailors for the story, the various interviews done, to promote the anniversary (Blue Peter, Pebble Mill etc) or even footage from the Longleat anniversary event, and the BBC have let this disc down on this front. It would have been nice to have had the original version of this story included as well (which is now no longer available), but I suppose that as this was one of the BBC`s first released DVD`s they were unwilling to spend time or money on extras until they knew whether it would sell, or not. However, as the recent releases show, they have more than made up for this, and they can always make more money out of us by releasing a special edition!!

The Five Doctors was the first Doctor Who story to make the transition to DVD and as such appears in different packaging to the later releases. It also contains next-to-no extras (the one it has, an isolated soundtrack, doesn`t work correctly sadly) but does present the story with extra footage and remastered effects, as well as 5.1 Surround Sound. Sadly there is no option to view the story in its original broadcast form. It is also perhaps now a moment to point out for those with multi-region players that the American release contains a rather splendid feature commentary with Peter Davison and script-writer Terrence Dicks (probably the best of the bunch, writing as of 19th Febuary 2005). As the Region 2 release doesn`t match the others in the series of discs it might be worth considering importing that disc.

The plus of the Region 2 release however is a rather charming 16 page booklet detailing the histories of characters from this story and can be used for general swatting-up by those to whom this is their first introduction to the good Doctor. However, if this is to be your first introduction there are better places to start for sure.

The story is a mess, largely because the writer is working in four Doctors and four companions into the narrative (it should really be called the three and a half Doctors - Hartnell had died by this point and was recast here and Baker refused to participate so some old footage is recycled from an abandoned story) and the story follows largely predictable lines. The ending is a nice nod to the past though and it is always good to see Patrick Troughton and Nicholas Courtney reappear. Oh - and the Raston Warrior Robot is fantastic.

Viewed as a celebration of Who the story works (just) but in the context of a story in its own right, it has too many holes and inconsistencies to be taken as a good example of Doctor Who. If you are going to buy it, the Region 2 version is inferior to the Region 1 and so I cannot recommend this edition.