Multi Doctor Stories

[Tallguy]

Or: Why I'm mad a Peter Capaldi.

I just saw an interview with Capaldi. They asked if he'd ever come back. He immediately (and gently) said "No."

And I get it. I do. It makes sense. But... Capaldi was a FAN. Old school. Makes David Tennant look like a poser. I would think he would remember The Three Doctors. The Five Doctors would have been during his rock star phase when he was doing acid with Craig Ferguson, so I don't know what he remembers of that. If someone has ever seen him in a fan / non-Doctor capacity saying that he didn't enjoy those outings then I have no ground to stand on. (Go find the video of him nerding out over the pre-Pertwee tunnel title sequences. The man is a geek.)

I know we have Eccleston who has his more than understandable reasons for not returning. And Tom Baker is, well, Tom Baker. AND I don't think it's something we need to do much less than every ten years. (The Two Doctors was a nice extra bite at the apple, I grant.)

But it's just been such a joy the very few times it has happened. And I REALLY want to see Smith and Capaldi in a scene together.

Big Finish is no substitute.

 

[Turtletrekker]

I love multi Doctor episodes. I was introduced to the franchise by an episode that had 13 different Doctors in it.

And Capaldi did get a multi Doctor episode. With the First Doctor no less. Can't get much more old school than that.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

Big Finish is no substitute.

Strongly disagree. Big Finish has produce many great stories in general as well as great multi-Doctor stories. Quite of a few those I would rank them among the best stories of the show.

 

[Timewalker]

The Five Doctors was my first introduction to the 1st, 2nd, 3, and 5th Doctors, plus most of their companions. Up to that time, I had only read the Target novelizations.

 

[The Wormhole]

While multi-Doctor stories can be fun, there's also limited potential to them. Sure, you get the nostalgia of seeing a previous Doctor (and maybe some former companions) return and seeing the various Doctors bicker with each other before ultimately working together can be fun. But really, in the end it's just a gimmick. I can accept it during an anniversary special, or for something short and frivolous like Time Crash, but anything more is an indulgence.

 

[FredH]

Multi-Doctor stories are (or can be) fun, but they should be an event. If you’re doing them basically all the damn time, which has sometimes seemed the case with Big Finish, the various comics lines, and some periods of the NAs back in the day, there’s really no point.

I seem to remember an old argument that you could just as easily do stories with multiple instances of the same Doctor from different points along that incarnation’s timeline meeting up, yet generally nobody does that. (Generally. There was a pretty good BF story where two instances of McGann met up, and didn’t get along.)

Frankly, it makes sense to save them for anniversary specials, where nostalgia is the point.

 

[kirk55555]

They're great, and I wish we got more of them. All of the televised crossovers have been classics, not a bad multi Doctor story in the bunch. The closest to a bad one would be Twice Upon a Time, which had a great story but kind of character assassinated the 1st Doctor by making him a misogynistic/racist 60s Grandpa (seriously, Moffat had definitely just decided that because the show started in 1963 that the 1st Doctor should act like an elderly human from 1963 would act when meeting Bill, which was really bizarre and completely off for the character even just going by how he was written in the 60s).

You're right about Big Finish not being a substitute, especially since, from what I've read and the few I've listened to, most of their "multi Doctor" stories aren't really multi Doctor stories, they're stories that feature two or more Doctors who don't interact with each other except for a few minutes in the last episode of the story if you're lucky. Thats not what most people want from multi Doctor stories.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

(Generally. There was a pretty good BF story where two instances of McGann met up, and didn’t get along.)

Which story was that? I think that must've been after stopped regularly getting them due to financial reasons.

 

[FredH]

Which story was that? I think that must've been after stopped regularly getting them due to financial reasons.

The Company of Friends. (Which would seem to be overwritten by the TV story “The Haunting of Villa Diodati”.)

 

[The Nth Doctor]

The Company of Friends. (Which would seem to be overwritten by the TV story “The Haunting of Villa Diodati”.)

Oh, wow, I completely forgot about that. I haven't listened to that one in many years.

 

[FredH]

Oh, wow, I completely forgot about that. I haven't listened to that one in many years.

I’ve long since drifted away from Big Finish, for all that I wish them well. There’s just too much, and I haven’t got the money to spend.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

Multi-Doctor stories are (or can be) fun, but they should be an event. If you’re doing them basically all the damn time, which has sometimes seemed the case with Big Finish, the various comics lines, and some periods of the NAs back in the day, there’s really no point.

This.

I get the appeal for licenses, especially in the print and comic sides -- there's no actor availability issues to deal with, and the pesky problem of actor aging goes away, too. In a very real way, tie-ins can do multi-Doctor stories better than television ever could. But, sweet baby jeebus, did Titan ever just hammer the whole idea into the ground.

 

[Tallguy]

most of their "multi Doctor" stories aren't really multi Doctor stories, they're stories that feature two or more Doctors who don't interact with each other except for a few minutes in the last episode of the story if you're lucky. Thats not what most people want from multi Doctor stories.

TBF there isn't as much interaction in The Five Doctors as one might think. One and Five are the most and it's not really One. Then we get a reprise of The Three Doctors at the end with Five eventually joining the fray.

Really, I'm OK with every ten years. It was just Capaldi's flat statement that he would never be part of it that made me sad. (Poor me.)

 

[The Wormhole]

TBF there isn't as much interaction in The Five Doctors as one might think.

Even in The Two Doctors, the two Doctors even meet up until the climax of Part 3.

 

[JD]

I'm a big fan of multi-Doctor stories, it's fun to see how the different incarnations of the Doctor and their companions interact, but it's the kind of thing really needs to be saved only for special occasions. Part of the fun is that it's such a rare occurrence, and I think they'd get old pretty quickly if they did them too often.

 

[Tallguy]

You know, ironically, The Two Doctors was weirdly special to me BECAUSE it was too often. "What? We weren't supposed to get this again until 1993!"

And of course, Mr. Troughton was gone by then.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

I love "The Two Doctors" because it's random. Also, Robert Holmes was firing on all cylinders, and he really does make it feel like it's as much a second Doctor story as it is a sixth Doctor one. "Five Doctors" is too crowded for that kind of feel, and "Three Doctors" feels like a third Doctor story with the second as his companion.

 

[JD]

This.

I get the appeal for licenses, especially in the print and comic sides -- there's no actor availability issues to deal with, and the pesky problem of actor aging goes away, too. In a very real way, tie-ins can do multi-Doctor stories better than television ever could. But, sweet baby jeebus, did Titan ever just hammer the whole idea into the ground.

I can kind of see why they did so many, since big annual crossovers are a regular comic book thing.