Customer Reviews

Doctor Who: The Five Doctors (Story 130) (25th Anniversary Edition)

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4 star:		(5)
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I love this special....and I am torn whether or not I want to buy it again, while I struggle to replace all the DW I lost to Katrina ( I was converting to DVD anyway), but don't I already own this one on DVD...if this were Blue-Ray, I'd atleast be able to justify it...granted there are lots of extras I would like to see...but I not sure...but if u don't have it already...and I can't stress this enough..."YOU NEED THIS DVD!"

If you are just learning your way around the Doctor Who universe this is a milestone for you, the 5th Doctor teaming up with his past selves, how cool is that...and surprisingly obvious, he is a timetraver, a long lived one at that, even with the whole universe at his disposal he must meet himself now and again. Well, according to the Doctor it only happens in the direst of times...with the Timelords help, as in the THREE DOCTORS.
Here the Doctor is taken out of time at points in his LIVES, featuring oddly enough 3 original actors playing their respective Doctors, the First Doctor played here by another actor and the 4th Doctor is sparingly taken from the unaired Shada episode (by Douglas Adams). The Doctor is taken out of time to play the GAME OF RASSILON in the Timelord DEATH ZONE facing old enemies like THE CYBERMEN, THE DALEKS, YETI, THE MASTER, who is actually meant to be rescuing the Doctor. Also along for the ride lots of classic companions including the Doctor's first companion SUSAN "FOREMAN", fan fav SARAH JANE SMITH along with a K9 cameo, UNIT'S Finest the Brigadier , cameos by Jamie and Zoey (sort of). Tegan and Turlough are the 5th Doctor's current companions to they help out, but strangely absent is robot shape-shifter Kamelion, who isn't mentioned in the story, by timeline wise is in the TARDIS.

The Doctors and their companions are split up each finding their own way to the Dark Tower at the center of the DEATHZONE games, ultimately leading to a showdown with their abducting benefactor who is no stranger either.

The last DVD offered tweaked SFX options and several different edits have been offered of the Five Doctor's over the year, some more suspect then others, like the DVD deletion of the Cyberman's "AHHH" upon spotting the Doctor, which I greatly missed. The sometimes in, sometimes out "Cyber-barf" as well. Another change was the edited end effects of the TARDISes departure scene, which was removed, while making more sense in the latest edit, aren't nearly as cool.

This release ties in nicely to the inclusion of TIME CRASH the brief 5th Doctor 10th Doctor team up to be included in the season 4th set.

Drinking games for the Five Doctors:

This one is simple...drink whenever there is a retro-reference from the show's past...this one loaded with 'em...for example:.

..baddies from the past, lots of 'em...

...companions from the past, lots of 'em...

....quotes from the past "I'll explain someday..." or "reverse the polarity of the neutron flow!"

...Susan strains an ankle!....Classic!

This release does NOT contain THE KING'S DEMONS. Go to the Amazon UK site for a better description. This is a 2 disc set though.

The Five Doctors 25th Anniversary edition of The Five Doctors is a big improvement over the first Five Doctors DVD that was released way back in Sep 2001. This set contains both the orginal 1983 cut and the 1995 version. And has some very cool special features such as a nice documentry on the 20th Anniversary year hosted by Colin Baker. A very well done DVD set. As for the story I always thought it was ok.I do wish that Tom Baker agreed to apear in the story.My dad has always called it The 4 Doctors rather then 5. I can imagine alot of American fans was disapointed because for many Americans at the time Tom Baker was Doctor Who. Owell. Yeah I can see why he passed on doing it as he just left the roll and wanted to move on to other things. Owell.Anyways this is a very nice DVD set from The BBC.Looking forward to more Doctor Who DVD's in the future.

This is one of my all time favorite episodes, simply because it contains the most Doctors in one episode. I have the original DVD release from several years ago, and there was no question in my mind that I wanted this version, too.

While I have several other Doctor Who DVD's, I had never listened to the audio commentaries prior to this one, and I must say that I'm impressed. The Brigadier, Susan (Hartnell's Who's granddaughter), Sarah Jane, and Turlough offer commentary on the original release (1983 - disc 1) that really tie together experiences throughout the duration of the show through 1983 (and a little beyond). And the "Celebration" documentary on disc 1, hosted by Colin Banker, offered several insightful (and recent) interviews and archived footage from the party held in 1983. Disc 2 featured the updated/enhanced version of the story; however, as I had watched that several weeks ago, I cannot recall specifics about this disc. I do recall that the Outtakes (bloopers) reel was quite funny, and that the other special features were quite good, as well.

My only question that I have regards the location of the "special hidden feature" (disc 1) and the "Easter egg" (disc 2). I could not seem to fing them anywhere. Can anyone tell me how to access these features?

I have had this one since it's 2001 (might have been 2002) release on DVD. Although I found it to be quite a good story, I was disappointed that the DVD did not include the original edition, only the special edition, and it did not have many special features either. But I still enjoyed it. This version includes both editions along with many great special features. Why didn't they release this in 2001 (or 2002)?

Now lets talk about the story itself. This is a great little adventure. The five incarnations of the Doctor are being taken out of time and space and placed in the Death Zone on Gallifrey where they fight many old foes inlcuding Daleks, Cybermen, Yeti, and the Master; plus a couple of new ones too including the Raston Warrior Robot (a great new villain), and another renegade Time Lord who is behind it all and trying to gain the ultimate power and rule Gallifrey for eternity. Now it's up to the Doctors to join forces and battle these villains and save Gallifrey once again.

It is action-packed with lots of mystery, brilliant performaces from the cast, and some great directing. And even though you begin to suspect the main villain half-way through the story, the end still comes as a shock to see how he is defeated. The only let down is that you don't see much of Tom Baker in this story. He is only in two scenes. And although the special edition is better than the original, Tom Baker is seen even less in that one because they cut out one of his scenes, leaving only one. That's one thing I like better about the original version is that both scenes are included. That's the good thing about this DVD, you get to see both versions of the story, and the story itself is great. Highly recommended!

Originally created to educate young people in the realm of science and history, Dr. Who evolved into a fantasy flick that showcased the title character in a never ending battle of good against evil. The Five Doctors is a saga reminiscent of a time when his stories focused on drama and science fiction at a healthy unhurried pace that tested your scientific knowledge. This is so unlike the present Doctor Who emphasizing fantastic plots, soap opera drama and technology over sound scripting. The commentary and interviews on the DVD are great; I especially like the warmth displayed by companions of Dr. Who, towards the doctors particularly the late Jon Pertwee and Patrick Troughton. For those that remember and cherish the inane antics of the fourth doctor the eccentric Tom Baker, the dashing daringness and perennial, paternal attitude of the third doctor Jon Pertwee, the humanity of Peter Davidson the fifth doctor, and everything else about Doctor Who that once made the series great, this DVD IS A MUST!

I know the title is probably going to sound like a complaint, but really: It's more of an observation. It's a great story set during the Fifth Doctor's (Peter Davison) run that brings back Richard Hurndall(playing the First Doctor because of William Hartnell's death, though Hartnell is credited on the box along with Hurndall), Patrick Troughton (Second Doctor), Jon Pertwee (Third Doctor), and placed them working with Peter Davison's Fifth Doctor.

Tom Baker does make an appearance, but it appears to me to be nothing more than pre-existing footage that they used, then plot-deviced the Fourth Doctor out of the story. I could be wrong, though. I'm not really that well versed in the classic series. That's just how it appears in the show. I think they also used some stock footage of William Hartnell, as well.

The plot is interesting, taking the Doctors back to Gallifrey, and it's great fun to see multiple versions of the Doctor together. You get to see them deal with Time Lord traps, as well as the standard Dalek and Cybermen. Even the Master hops in for some fun.

For companions, we see Sarah Jane Smith (who probably holds the most draw for me, as a fan of the current Doctor Who series), Susan, and I think the Brigadier from the Second Doctor's time in UNIT, and several more. To be honest, it's quite a daunting list of companions for someone who isn't overly familiar with them all.

It's a two-disc set. The first disc has the original 1983 version, with audio commentary by Carole Ford, Nicholas Courtney, Elisabeth Sladen, and Mark Strickson, as well as what appears to have been a '20th anniversary' special filmed for the episode.

The second disc contains the slightly longer 1995 version (about 11 minutes longer) with audio commentary from Peter Davison and Terrance Dicks (the writer). It also contains a ton of extras that are too numerous to list here.

All in all, even as a fan of the new series just starting to explore the classic series, I loved it. I can easily recommend it to any fan of the series, new or old.

My favorite part of this two disc set was the Special Edition version. True they did take out the Cyberman's "Ah.." upon seeing Doctor # 3 and Sarah Jane, but aside from that, it was very good. The extra scenes and dialogue gave it a more 'backstage' feel and improved it overall.

I must correct a mistake by one of my fellow reviewers. Tom Baker was NOT the Doctor that was being shown on PBS at the time, it was Peter Davidson. I remember it quite distinctly because they showed 'The Five Doctors' around the same time it was being shown in Britain. This caused a small hiccup in the viewing order. The last episode that had aired was 'Time Flight'. Anyone who has watched that episode knows that Tegan was left behind at the end and the Doctor had taken off with Nyssa. Then the next episode shown was 'The Five Doctors'. Now Nyssa is gone, Tegan is back, and there is a strange new guy named Turlough with the Doctor. My older brother explained that Britain was ahead of the USA in the airing of Doctor Who episodes.
Okay now for the story! I loved this story and like a lot of fans I was disappointed that Tom Baker had decided not to come back to Dr Who. I was also a little freaked out by the strong resemblance between William Hartnell and Richard Hurndall. I loved seeing a lot of the old companions even if it was briefly like Zoe and Jamie. I also loved how the Brigadier knocked out the Master in the end. Strange that Rassilon has never reappeared in any current Doctor Who stories. After all, War or no war I doubt that he could be killed. I was a little disappointed by Sarah Jane's alleged "danger". The hill she fell down was not very high. In fact an eight year old could have made their way back up it without the help of anyone. A rope and a car winch were most definitely NOT needed! Talk about overkill.

This 2 DVD set is a must for any Doctor Who fan trust me , you will enjoy not only the main feature, but the real treat of this relase are their features, find the eastern egg on disc one and you will know why.

see the first five Doctors on here are great, the sum of all doctors and companions are a treat you can't miss. The Three Doctors, The Five Doctors, The Two Doctors and Time Crash...collect'em all!