While the Fourth Doctor is trapped in a time vortex, the First, Second and Third Doctors are drawn to the forbidden Death Zone on Gallifrey, together with many of their companions. They are joined by the Fifth Doctor, who is fading from existence. The Doctors journey towards the Dark Tower at the heart of the Death Zone, encountering some of their deadliest foes en route -- including the Master, who has been recruited by the High Council. When the Fifth Doctor teleports himself to the Capitol, he uncovers evidence of a traitor amongst the Time Lord elite. All are embroiled in the Game of Rassilon, whose prize is immortality itself.

Doctor Who's very first episode aired on November 23rd, 1963. In 1981, more than two years before its twentieth anniversary, producer John Nathan-Turner was already planning for the milestone. Originally, Nathan-Turner hoped that an appropriate celebration could be incorporated into the programme's regular season. However, the revamped schedule being introduced for Season Nineteen in 1982 meant that Doctor Who would start broadcasting in January and run for only thirteen weeks. On August 3rd, 1981, Nathan-Turner wrote to David Reid, the BBC's Head of Series and Serials, to request that Season Twenty be brought forward to debut in the autumn of 1982. Season Twenty-One would then be in a position to feature an anniversary adventure during November 1983. Reid discussed the matter with the Controller of Programmes for BBC One, Alan Hart, who declined Nathan-Turner's request because it would interfere with Sink Or Swim, the BBC sitcom which starred Doctor Who lead actor Peter Davison.

Instead, Hart recommended that a ninety-minute anniversary special be recorded, to air between Doctor Who's twentieth and twenty-first seasons. Reid communicated this proposal to Nathan-Turner on August 25th. Rather than making the special in addition to Season Twenty, however, Hart's suggestion was that the budget for two of its intended twenty-eight episodes could be diverted, in much the same way that Season Nineteen had been truncated in order to fund A Girl's Best Friend, the pilot episode of a proposed K·9 And Company spin-off series. It was thought that additional funding might come from BBC Enterprises, the commercial wing of the Corporation, which reaped a significant profit from its exploitation of Doctor Who. Nathan-Turner approached Bryon Parkin, Head of BBC Enterprises, about participating in the special; although he was interested, it soon became clear that an agreement could not be finalised quickly enough.

Around May 1982, the BBC approached the Australian Broadcasting Commission about co-producing the anniversary programme

Another potential partner in the venture was the Australian Broadcasting Commission, which had been airing Doctor Who since the Sixties. The BBC and the ABC had already co-produced such science-fiction fare as Day Of The Triffids and the second season of Tripods. Nathan-Turner had courted the ABC since he took over Doctor Who in 1979, with Tegan Jovanka's nationality an explicit overture to the Antipodean broadcaster. Around May 1982, Hart approached the ABC about the anniversary programme. The two parties were able to come to terms on a co-production arrangement, with the ABC agreeing to contribute AUS$60,000 to the project.

With funding now in place, Nathan-Turner turned to the business of assembling the special. Following the lead of the tenth-anniversary adventure, The Three Doctors, he wanted to reunite the Doctor's various incarnations, and began by approaching the programme's past stars. His first point of contact was Tom Baker, whom Nathan-Turner feared would be the least interested in the project. Baker had only left Doctor Who in January 1981 after seven seasons as the Fourth Doctor, and was infamously mercurial. Nonetheless, in April, Baker indicated that he would consider appearing in the anniversary special, but that his involvement would depend on the script. Jon Pertwee (the Third Doctor) and Patrick Troughton (the Second Doctor) were contacted during the summer. Both men separately wrote to Nathan-Turner on July 14th to confirm their interest, although Troughton noted that his availability might be an issue, due to his commitments to the sitcom Foxy Lady.

Doctor Who's original star, William Hartnell, had passed away in 1975, so Nathan-Turner decided to find another actor to play the First Doctor. Nonetheless, he was eager that the special somehow acknowledge the fact that the role had been recast; Hartnell's widow, Heather, would later give Nathan-Turner her blessing. The two actors considered to replace Hartnell were Geoffrey Bayldon, who had played Organon in 1979's The Creature From The Pit, and Richard Hurndall, who had been recommended by fan adviser Ian Levine following his appearance in the November 1981 Blake's 7 episode Assassin. Nathan-Turner finally settled on Hurndall, as he had come to feel that Bayldon was too recognisable from his prominent roles in the children's series Catweazle and Worzel Gummidge.

To write the special, script editor Eric Saward lobbied for one of his predecessors: Robert Holmes. Holmes had continued to write for Doctor Who after leaving the script editor's post, but his last contribution had been The Power Of Kroll in 1978. Saward had recently viewed a number of old Doctor Who serials, and was impressed with the quality of Holmes' scripts. Nathan-Turner's preference since taking the reins of Doctor Who had been to avoid the use of writers who had preceded him on the programme, but he agreed to meet with Holmes.

The Daleks would not be utilised, since much of the special would be recorded on location

For his part, Holmes also had reservations about participating in the project. He had always disliked using other writers' characters and plumbing past continuity, and he was well aware that the anniversary special would compel him to do both. Indeed, Nathan-Turner had already decided that Anthony Ainley should return as the Master, while Saward wanted to include the Cybermen in a major role. It was agreed, however, that the Daleks would not be utilised; much of the special would likely be recorded on location, and the Daleks presented substantial challenges when taken beyond the confines of the studio floor. The robot dog K·9 would likewise be omitted.

On July 15th, the special was officially greenlighted by David Reid in the form of a ninety-minute telefilm. On August 2nd, Holmes was commissioned for a storyline entitled “The Six Doctors”, which would also feature the Doctor's original companion -- his granddaughter, Susan -- as well as Jamie McCrimmon, who had travelled with the Second Doctor. To account for the First Doctor's altered appearance, Holmes indicated that he and Susan would actually be cyborg infiltrators despatched by the Cybermen -- hence the additional “Doctor” in his working title. Alternatively, he posited that the Cybermen could torture the Fifth Doctor in a manner which caused him to regress backwards through his regenerations, and the resulting fatigue would help to explain why the First Doctor's appearance was different.

As the summer progressed, Nathan-Turner began securing the services of his large principal cast. The current Doctor Who regulars -- Peter Davison, Janet Fielding and Mark Strickson -- were contracted on July 29th, as were Pertwee and Ainley. They were followed on August 2nd by Troughton, who had been assured that the filming dates for the special would not interfere with the April 1983 recording of Foxy Lady. Then, on August 18th, Susan actress Carole Ann Ford committed to the project.

Meanwhile, it had become clear to Saward that Holmes was struggling with “The Six Doctors”. He recommended that a reserve storyline be commissioned, and suggested employing Terrance Dicks. Dicks was Holmes' predecessor as Doctor Who script editor, and had most recently written 1980's State Of Decay. Learning that Dicks was attending a Doctor Who convention in the United States, Saward telephoned him on the morning of August 22nd... but, forgetting to account for the several-hour time difference, he inadvertently woke the writer in the middle of the night. Dicks returned to London on the 23rd, and met with Saward the same day. Although he was irritated that he had not been Saward's first choice for the special, Dicks agreed to step into the breach in the event that Holmes dropped out.

Around the same time, Nathan-Turner discussed the project with Nicholas Courtney, who was reprising his role as Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart of the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce (UNIT) for Mawdryn Undead, which would air as part of Season Twenty in early 1983. Courtney was eager to participate in “The Six Doctors”; he was contracted on October 4th. Hurndall agreed to play the First Doctor on October 6th.

On October 13th, Robert Holmes informed Eric Saward that he was unable to proceed with The Six Doctors

On October 13th, Holmes informed Saward that he was unable to proceed with “The Six Doctors”. Saward was understanding, and offered Holmes the opportunity to write a wholly original four-part story for Season Twenty-One instead; this would eventually become The Caves Of Androzani. Saward and Nathan-Turner immediately met with Dicks, who would start from scratch with a brand-new storyline. Although the production team had wanted neither the Daleks nor K·9 to appear in the special, Dicks insisted that both were essential elements of Doctor Who's past which were important to recognise. He was commissioned to prepare a storyline on October 18th.

In addition to the five Doctors, Tegan, Turlough, Susan, Jamie and the Brigadier, Dicks was asked to include Sarah Jane Smith to accompany the Fourth Doctor; this would ensure that each Doctor was paired with one iconic companion. Originally, Nathan-Turner had hoped that Lalla Ward would return to play Romana opposite Baker's Doctor, since the two actors had been married in December 1980. Unfortunately, their break-up in April 1982 scuttled these plans, and Nathan-Turner's thoughts turned to Elisabeth Sladen, who had recently returned to the role of Sarah Jane in A Girl's Best Friend. Nathan-Turner was still anxious that Baker would opt out of the special but, to his surprise, the actor remained interested, although he would not commit to appearing until Dicks' script was ready. There was also concern that the salary necessary to secure Pertwee for both studio and location work would be beyond the project's budget.

By the start of November, Dicks' storyline had gained the title The Five Doctors; the notion of Hurndall playing an impostor First Doctor had now been abandoned. Ironically, Dicks decided to draw upon Holmes' own development of Gallifreyan culture in stories such as The Deadly Assassin, setting the action on the Time Lord planet and incorporating crucial roles for both Borusa, the Doctor's former teacher who was now Lord President, and Rassilon, the legendary founder of Time Lord society. Borusa presented Dicks with the opportunity to surprise viewers with the identity of the mastermind behind events, since Saward felt that his original choice of the Master was too obvious. Dicks added the Autons to the roster of returning monsters; the plastic servants of the Nestene Consciousness had been introduced during his time as Doctor Who script editor. The Dark Tower at the heart of the narrative was inspired by the imagery of Robert Browning's poem Childe Roland To The Dark Tower Came, originally published in the 1855 collection Men And Women.

Since the Fourth Doctor was arguably the most popular, Terrance Dicks decided to assign him the strongest role

Dicks' script for The Five Doctors was commissioned on November 10th. However, clearance also had to be obtained from the BBC since he was now working as a script editor on their classics serials; this was granted on November 24th. Because Baker's Fourth Doctor was arguably the most popular of the five incarnations, Dicks decided to assign him the strongest role in the narrative. It would be the Fourth Doctor who would travel to the Capitol using the Master's recall device and unmask Borusa as the traitor, although Dicks wanted to mislead viewers into thinking that Baker's Doctor might actually be the villain. The First Doctor, on the other hand, would have a comparatively minor role: he would remain in the TARDIS with Susan, Tegan and Turlough while the Second, Third and Fifth Doctors travelled to the Dark Tower via three different routes. Several characters from the 1983 story Arc Of Infinity, also set on Gallifrey, were added to the script: in addition to Borusa, these included Chancellor Thalia, Commander Maxil and the Castellan. It was agreed that Kamelion, a new robot companion introduced in The King's Demons -- the last adventure to be broadcast as part of Season Twenty -- would not feature in The Five Doctors.

As the end of 1982 approached, the line-up of characters for The Five Doctors was still uncertain. The issues with Pertwee's fee had been resolved, with the actor agreeing to a pay cut because he was so eager to play the Doctor again. On the other hand, towards the end of December it became apparent that Frazer Hines would not be able to reprise the role of Jamie McCrimmon, due to his obligations to the soap opera Emmerdale Farm. Dicks consequently adjusted his script to pair the Brigadier with the Second Doctor; it was now hoped that there might be money available to fly Katy Manning back from Australia to play Jo Grant opposite the Third Doctor.

Meanwhile, Baker was sent the first clutch of script pages on December 9th, and the actor indicated that he was in favour of appearing in The Five Doctors. As such, Nathan-Turner was flabbergasted when Baker's agent contacted him on December 29th with the news that Baker had changed his mind, and no longer wished to be involved. Baker subsequently visited Nathan-Turner in person to explain that he could not bear returning to the programme that he had just left after so many years. However, he did consent to the idea of his Doctor being represented by clips from Shada, a serial which had been planned for broadcast in 1980, only to be abandoned partway through recording due to a labour dispute. Nathan-Turner had previously investigated this option as a back-up plan, and the use of the appropriate material was cleared on January 10th, 1983.

The loss of Tom Baker from The Five Doctors forced Terrance Dicks to perform substantial rewrites

The loss of Baker from The Five Doctors forced Dicks to perform substantial rewrites on the script. The focus now shifted to the current Doctor, who took over his predecessor's investigation in the Capitol. However, it was felt that Davison's Doctor could not plausibly be painted as a potential villain, and so this element was dropped. Sarah Jane would now accompany the Third Doctor, while the First Doctor would journey with Tegan to the Dark Tower, and Turlough and Susan would remain behind in the TARDIS. The Fourth Doctor and Romana would become trapped in a time vortex; Dicks' idea was that this halted the process of each Doctor being kidnapped, explaining why the Fifth Doctor did not fall victim to the Time Scoop.

The cast remained in flux throughout early 1983. It was briefly hoped that John Levene might be able to appear as Benton -- now promoted to sergeant major -- in the scene at UNIT HQ, but he wanted both a more substantial role and a more substantial fee. Ian Marter was also contacted about reprising his role as Harry Sullivan, but he had to decline due to commitments in New Zealand. Of the four guest artistes from Arc Of Infinity invited back for The Five Doctors, only Paul Jerricho (the Castellan) was able to accept. For the fourth time in four appearances, Borusa would assume a regenerated form, with Philip Latham taking over for Leonard Sachs. The unavailability of Elspet Grey and Colin Baker meant that Chancellor Thalia and Commander Maxil would be replaced with two new characters: Chancellor Flavia (played by Dinah Sheridan) and an anonymous Commander (Stuart Blake).

Elisabeth Sladen was contracted for The Five Doctors on February 6th. On the 11th, writers Mervyn Haisman and Henry Lincoln agreed that their Troughton-era creation, the Yeti, could appear in The Five Doctors. It replaced an anonymous one-eyed subterranean monster. By now, Saward had dropped the sequence involving the Autons, which he felt was too long and costly. It would have seen Sarah Jane arrive in the Death Zone amidst a ruined replica of a high street, where a collection of fallen mannequins was revealed to be a battalion of Autons, leading to her rescue by the Third Doctor in Bessie.

During February, Deborah Watling (Victoria Waterfield), Wendy Padbury (Zoe Heriot), Caroline John (Liz Shaw) and Richard Franklin (Mike Yates) all agreed to make cameo appearances as phantom images in the Dark Tower; Watling, Padbury and John were contracted on February 21st. However, Watling was cast in The Dave Allen Show several days later, which forced her to reluctantly back out of The Five Doctors. She was released from her contract on March 4th. Another former companion, Louise Jameson (Leela), offered her services for the special, but there was no opportunity to insert her into the storyline.

To make The Five Doctors, John Nathan-Turner approached Waris Hussein, who had directed the very first Doctor Who serial

To make The Five Doctors, Nathan-Turner decided to dispense with his policy of avoiding directors whose involvement with Doctor Who predated his producership. During the summer of 1982, he had approached Waris Hussein, who had directed 100,000 BC, the very first Doctor Who serial. Although Hussein gave the offer some consideration, he and the production office were unable to agree on terms. Then, in November, Nathan-Turner had contacted Doctor Who veteran Douglas Camfield, whose last work had been on 1976's The Seeds Of Doom. However, Nathan-Turner had previously refused Camfield's inquiries about returning to Doctor Who; still hurt by this rejection, and with other work likely to pose an obstacle, Camfield reluctantly declined the new offer. Instead, The Five Doctors would be directed by Peter Moffatt, who had most recently handled Mawdryn Undead.

Location filming for The Five Doctors largely took place in Wales. Work there began on March 5th at Plas Brondanw in Llanfrothen, for sequences of the First Doctor in the rose garden, as well as the Doctor, Tegan and Turlough at the Eye of Orion. Plas Brondanw was the estate of Lady Amabel Williams-Ellis; her late husband, Sir Clough Williams-Ellis, was the architect who had designed Portmeirion, the Italianate village at which 1976's The Masque Of Mandragora had been filmed.

On March 7th, Nathan-Turner was able to reach an agreement with the production team of Emmerdale Farm which would permit Hines to replace Watling in the Dark Tower sequence. Originally, the phantoms were unmasked when Victoria referred to the “Brigadier”, prompting the Doctor's realisation that Lethbridge-Stewart had been a colonel when she knew him. Now the Doctor would instead recall that the Time Lords had erased Jamie and Zoe's memories of their travels in the TARDIS, which meant that they shouldn't recognise Lethbridge-Stewart at all.

The rest of the Welsh shoot was largely scheduled to be split between two quarries near Blaenau Ffestiniog, both of which were owned by Cwt y Bugail Quarries and would pose as different areas of the Death Zone wasteland. Moffatt filmed at Carreg y Foel Grom from March 7th to 9th, before shifting to the Manod Quarry on the 10th. Also recorded on the first day at Manod was the subterranean scene involving the Yeti. The costume was a relic from 1968's The Web Of Fear, and was now found to be infested with fleas. On March 11th, the Raston Robot sequence was filmed at Manod, with Nathan-Turner stepping into the director's shoes for some second-unit shots, due to the large amount of material to be captured. The same day, Moffatt was forced to return to Plas Brondanw to remount the Eye of Orion scenes, as the original footage had been irreparably damaged. Strickson had not expected to be needed for the rest of the location shoot, and had gone on a driving holiday with no means of contacting him. The production team had to resort to radio appeals, before they finally reached Strickson via a family member and summoned him back to Wales.

Further work at the Manod Quarry took place on March 13th and 14th, including the Third Doctor and Sarah Jane reaching the Dark Tower. As scripted, the Doctor constructed a makeshift hang-glider using the Raston Robot's spare equipment and his own cloak, and flew across the chasm. Unfortunately, the Visual Effects Department had been unable to construct a convincing prop, and Pertwee refused to go ahead with the scene, which he felt to be preposterous. Moffatt and Nathan-Turner worked together to come up with an alternative version of the sequence, with the Doctor instead throwing a line across to the Dark Tower. The Third Doctor's rescue of Sarah Jane from the precipice, recorded on the 14th, also posed difficulties. Moffatt had been unable to locate a suitably steep incline, and was forced to try to achieve the effect using camera trickery -- albeit with limited success.

The last day of recording in Wales was March 15th, with the remaining Death Zone material completed at Cwm Bychan lake near Llanbedr. Moffatt's team then returned to England for further location filming on March 17th. Denham Green in Buckinghamshire provided two locations: Tilehouse Lane was the roadway from which the Third Doctor was abducted, while the youth hostel at Halings House again posed as UNIT HQ, as in The Three Doctors. Sarah Jane's home was actually on West Common Road in Uxbridge, London, and she was caught by the Time Scoop on nearby North Common Road. John Leeson returned to provide the voice of K·9 in this sequence. The same day, a photocall was held with Davison, Pertwee, Troughton, Hurndall, Ford, Courtney, Sladen and the K·9 prop. Baker had promised to attend this event, but he did not appear. Suspicious that this might transpire, Nathan-Turner had arranged for a wax replica of the actor in costume -- normally on display at the Madame Tussauds museum -- to be on hand. The presence of the dummy became a source of much merriment for the cast.

On March 18th, recording at the BBC Television Film Studios in Ealing, London involved the scene of the Doctor and Sarah Jane on the roof of the Dark Tower, as well as the material inside UNIT HQ. The Five Doctors then moved to BBC Television Centre Studio 6 in White City, London from March 29th to 31st. The TARDIS control room set was needed throughout the block, and sported a new console designed by Mike Kelt of the Visual Effects Department. Kelt had first approached Nathan-Turner about this project during the making of Enlightenment in January.

Terrance Dicks had indicated that Rassilon should be dressed in the manner of the Time Lords seen in The War Games

Scenes in Borusa's secret sanctum, the conference room and the Capitol corridors were taped across March 29th and 30th. The first day also dealt with sequences in the hallways of the Dark Tower, including those haunted by the phantom companions, while the First Doctor and Susan's encounter with the Dalek was recorded on the middle day. This Dalek was assembled from surviving components constructed during the Sixties. For its destruction, the skirt section from a “goon” Dalek, built for 1973's Planet Of The Daleks, was substituted. Apart from the remaining TARDIS sequences, the final day of production on The Five Doctors was dedicated to material set in the Dark Tower: the main gate, the chessboard trap and Rassilon's tomb. Dicks had indicated that the apparition of Rassilon should be dressed in the manner of the Time Lords seen in their first appearance, in 1969's The War Games, but this approach was not pursued by costume designer Colin Lavers.

In post-production, a clip from the final episode of 1964's The Dalek Invasion Of Earth was added to The Five Doctors as a pre-titles sequence, ensuring that Hartnell had a presence in the special. This footage was sepia-tinted by video effects designer Dave Chapman, to make the transition from monochrome to colour less jarring. For the Fourth Doctor and Romana's release from the time vortex, an extract from Shada Episode One, in which the pair approached the gates of Cambridge University, had initially been selected. However, Nathan-Turner was keen to depict all of the Doctors departing in the TARDIS, and so a clip from Episode Three was used instead. Unfortunately, it did not match up as well with the abduction sequence, which was also taken from the opening installment and saw the two Time Lords punting on the River Cam. Meanwhile, composer Peter Howell devised a special version of the Doctor Who theme music for the closing titles, combining the original Delia Derbyshire version with Howell's own contemporary arrangement.

The production team had hoped that The Five Doctors would air on November 23rd, to precisely mark the twentieth anniversary of Doctor Who. To Nathan-Turner's chagrin, however, the BBC ultimately postponed the broadcast by two days, to form part of the Children In Need charity appeal. This meant that, for the first time ever, an episode of Doctor Who would have its premiere outside the United Kingdom: more than a hundred Public Broadcasting Service stations in the United States had made arrangements to transmit The Five Doctors on the anniversary date itself.

The Five Doctors was promoted with an appearance on the front cover of the Radio Times, the first for Doctor Who in a decade and the only time during the Eighties that the programme would receive this honour. The Target novelisation of The Five Doctors was originally scheduled for release on November 24th, with the understanding that this would be the day after transmission. Nathan-Turner was frustrated to discover that it actually began appearing on store shelves two weeks early. The novelisation was written by Dicks, whose involvement with televised Doctor Who had now come to an end after a decade and a half.

• Doctor Who Magazine #313, 6th February 2002, “Archive: The Five Doctors” by Andrew Pixley, Panini Publishing Ltd.
• Doctor Who Magazine Special Edition #1, 2001, “Diamond Life” by Andrew Pixley, Panini Publishing Ltd.
• Doctor Who: The Complete History #37, 2017, “Story 129: The Five Doctors”, edited by John Ainsworth, Hachette Partworks Ltd.
• Doctor Who: The Eighties by David J Howe, Mark Stammers and Stephen James Walker (1996), Virgin Publishing.
• Doctor Who: The Handbook: The Fifth Doctor by David J Howe and Stephen James Walker (1995), Virgin Publishing.
• In·Vision #69, January 1997, “Production” edited by Anthony Brown, Cybermark Services.