You Only Live Thrice (Amalgamating “The Three Doctors”)

Anniversary episodes are tricky things. You want to make a big, enjoyable show of things to attract an even larger audience than normal, but they’re by definition a celebration of everything that’s come before, so the need to please loyal fans is extreme. Threading that needle can be tough, but Doctor Who figured it out early: bring back previous actors who played the Doctor, get them all on screen together, and see what happens. You can see that throughline all the way to last year’s The Power of the Doctor, and certainly bringing David Tennant back for the 60th anniversary of the show counts on some level.

As a gimmick to bring in eyeballs, a multi-Doctor story works, and it’s worked since the very first time they did it. The Three Doctors is memorable not for its universe-spanning stakes or Omega’s sinister mask, but for the delightful mixing of Jon Pertwee’s and Patrick Troughton’s acting styles to explosive effect. Sadly William Hartnell could only be present on a TV screen, which levels-down the whole affair. Is that enough to ruin it, though? And does the threadbare story even matter at all? Put down your claws, gel creatures — we need to enter the black hole before we can judge.

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Commentary for The Three Doctors begins at 19:50.

Omega on Big Finish

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Story Essentials: The Three Doctors

Season 10, Serial 1
Story number: 64, per the The Pull To Open Codex
Writers: Bob Baker and Dave Martin
Director: Lennie Mayne
Producer: Barry Letts
Aired 30 December 1972 - 20 January 1973

Pull To Open: The Three Doctors

Season 4
Episode 47

Hosts: ⁠Pete Pachal⁠ and ⁠Chris Taylor⁠

Music: Martin West/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Thinking Fish⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

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