The Three Doctors
(DVD)

 

Starring Jon Pertwee
4 Episodes
1973
98 minutes (color)
Single Disc




 

 

Production Notes
Doctor Who
Jon Pertwee
Patrick Troughton
&
William Hartnell

Jo Grant
Katy Manning

Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart
Nicholas Courtney

Written by
Bob Baker
and
Dave Martin
Directed by
Lennie Mayne

Produced by
Barry Letts

Original Airdate
Dec 30, 1972 - Feb 20, 1973

US DVD Release Date
March 2004

Warner Home Video
#E1925

U.K. Cover

 

 



 

Cover Blurb
The Doctor and UNIT are called upon to investigate strange events surrounding Dr. Tyler's research into cosmic rays. UNIT HQ comes under attack by an alien force, and the Doctor has no other option but to call on the Time Lords for help.

The Time Lords, too, are under attack - from a mysterious power emanating from a black hole in space. With power reserves falling, the only way they can help the Doctor is to break the First Law of Time and allow him to help himself. The First and Second Doctors are lifted out of their time streams and sent to Earth to help the Third.

Between the three of them, they must find a solution to the threat that not only endangers UNIT and Earth, but also the future of the Time Lords themselves.

 

 



 

 

 

DVD Features

  • 40th Anniversary Celebration:

 A specially created "music video" celebrating the first 40 years of the show's history.  The video uses quite a few clips spanning the entire history of the series.  A variation of the signature theme song (as performed by the group Orbital) is used in the video.  It runs for approximately 3 minutes.
 

 

  • Pebble Mill at One:

 An interview show famous in England.  This feature offers about 20 minutes worth of interviews with speical effects supervisor Bernard Wilkie actor Patrick Troughton (Doctor #2) done in December 1973.  Troughton is wonderfully unhelpful (not in an unpleasant sort of way, just mischievously) in the interview.  He constantly contradicts the person on the other end of the microphone.  "I never said that!"
 

 

  • Blue Peter:

 Originally airing in November 1973, this clip features Jon Pertwee (Doctor #3) and the newest gadget on the series, the Whomobile.  Also presented is a look back at the first 10 years of the series.  This feature runs approximately 14 minutes.  Of particular note is the person conducting the interview.  It is none other than Peter Purves (who played companion Steven Taylor to William Hartnell's Doctor many years earlier).
 

 

  • BSB Highlights:

 BSB was a satellite station which aired Doctor Who in the early 90's.  To kick things off they had a "Who Weekend" extravaganza with dozens of cast and production crew interviews and appearances.  Presented in this feature is approximately 10 minutes of interviews with Jon Pertwee, Nick Courtney, script editor Terrance Dicks and writers Bob Baker and Dave Martin.  Also included is a trailer for 'The Three Doctors' shown that weekend.  Doctor Who producer John Nathan-Turner interviews authors Baker and Martin.
 

 
  • Panoptican '93:
 This 30 minute gem includes footage from a convention in England celebrating the 30th anniversary of Doctor Who.  In this footage Jon Pertwee (Doctor #3) reminisces about the series with cast regulars Katy Manning (Jo Grant) and Nicholas Courntey (the Brigadier).  
 

 

  • Five Faces of Doctor Who Trail:

 A four minute trailer for "The Three Doctors" used during the "The Five Faces of Doctor Who" repeats from 1981.
 

 
  • Information Text:
 Lots of trivia and tidbits of Whovian detail are provided.  The text appears intermittently along the bottom of the screen and is written by Richard Molesworth of the Doctor Who Restoration Team
 

 
  • Commentary:
 An excellent commentary from Katy Manning (Jo Grant), Nicholas Courtney (the Brigadier) & Barry Letts (Producer).
 

 
  • Photo Gallery:
 A collection showing many publicity stills from the production of this story.  Many of the pictures are rare or even never before seen.
 

 

  • BBC1 Trail:

 Nearly a minute long, this original trailer comes from an off air recording made in 1972.  The audio was cleaned up and put back with restored scenes to make this trailer once again "viewable."
 

 
  • Who's Who:
 A feature unique to the North American DVD releases.  It lists short biographical information on many of the actors involved in the story.
 

 
  • Easter Eggs:
 None.  For a full list of known Easter Eggs and screen grabs of them click HERE.

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

Additional Notes

  • "The Three Doctors" serves as the 10th anniversary celebration of Doctor Who.
     

  • Originally written with a much larger role for the 1st Doctor, the story had to be reworked at the last moment when it became apparent that Hartnell wouldn't be able to handle the workload.  Even with the reduced workload, Hartnell was forced to read from cue cards for only a few scenes.
     

  • Hartnell was quite ill during the filming and died two years after this story was completed.
     

  • Troughton returned to the role of the Doctor only 4 years after his swansong story "The War Games."
     

  • Troughton and Pertwee struck up a lifelong friendship during the filming of this story.
     

  • At the end of this adventure, the Doctor is given his freedom back as a reward for defeating   (insert standard villain name here)  .  However, it would be several more years before Doctor Who left the U.N.I.T. storylines behind.
     

  • Katy Manning. Nicholas Courtney and Barry Letts actually recorded their commentary back in 2001.  This was done because Manning (who lives in Australia) was visiting England at the time and therefore, available.
  • The U.K. version of this DVD release also get a model of "Bessie" the 3rd Doctor's car.  It is doubtful that when it is released in North America that the model will be included.