Honestly I'm disappointed in Big Finish for not already making 30 box-sets featuring the Raston Warrior Robot and Hortense

My favourite Hortense moment was when he said "its hortense time" and then hortensed all over the daleks

Fun bit of trivia, the early version of the script that had Tom Baker in it had him essentially in the 5th Doctors role, the 5th Doctor in the 1st Doctors role and the 1st Doctor coordinating from the TARDIS psychically making contact with the others. While it would have been wonderful to actually have the 4th Doctor in the story. I do like how it turned out having the 5th Doctor solving the conspiracy, taking the role of main character which he should be considering he was the current Doctor at the time and having the 3 early Doctors fighting through the Death Zone and attacking the tower. With 3 from the top working down, 1 from the front pushing through and 2 from the caves and foundations working his way up. Would have loved to see 4 in 1s role and 1 in the TARDIS shouting at them all for getting it wrong or not being quick enough, although definitely could have done with a better trap than the Pi bored or at least a better way for it to work maybe depending how many people were on the bored made it harder to calculate the safe path or something.

Comparing Sarah Jane's entrance in this to School Reunion, I kind of like the lack of slow, dramatic scenes where the music swells and everyone needs to reveal their disappointments and sorrow. It seems to feed more into the ultimate humility the special shows at the end. Plus, they cleverly had Sarah teamed with a, for her, past Doctor, so chewing him out would do no good because to him he hasn't done it yet.

If it were Jamie and Victoria and 2nd Doctor realized they were illusions because of Victoria referred to the Brigadier as Brigadier instead of Colonel, it would have made that scene makes so much more sense.

Maybe the terrible Zodin was actually "the terrible Krotons" in the script, but Troughton changed it because he couldn't bear to be reminded of that particular adventure.

I wonder how many people were fooled into thinking hortense was a real classic doctor who companion

I'm just glad to know I'm not the only one who sees no discernable pattern in the checkerboard floor scene. I've always just gone, "Maybe I'm missing something? Hurndall at least makes it sound plausible that he knows what he's talking about."

Hortense would probably be better regarded if the BBC hadn't erased all his episodes, with the only remaining footage being recovered from Hong Kong, Nigeria, Australia and that enormous sinkhole that appeared in Tokyo a couple of years ago.

I remember seeing this as a kid for the first whenever it was in the early 90s on German TV, only ever having seen some Tom Baker on a British channel that we could get thanks to cable and the McCoy seasons later on. My mind was totally blown by all these other Doctors and lore and whatnot that I had been totally unaware of because Doctor Who totally wasn't a thing here. And yep, despite all that the story did work for me and I was invested regardless. Good work you did there, Terrance!

I hope Hortense returns for the 60th anniversary special. RTD seems like the kind of guy to do him justice onscreen. I've already sent sackfuls of letters to every BBC department requesting it, so fingers crossed.

Considering who she is, Susan really doesn't get much in the way of prominence onscreen. Beyond the First Doctor's era.

The pi thing feels like it's hearkening back to the early 1st Doctor era when the show had more educational tidbits. Except it's hollow because it doesn't really teach you anything. Except an approximation of pi, I guess, but it doesn't tell you what pi is for, so that knowledge is meaningless. Anyway, now do Dimensions in Time.

I worked on this show. I'm glad you liked some of it. Have you seen the 'Bugger I've lost them" Dalek out take ? It explains how it kept missing them. Blind as a bat ( with earplugs ).

You capture the nostalgia of this special perfectly. This was my first Classic who episode and this is exactly how I feel about it.

I noticed this is the special edition footage. That DVD has a great commentary on it from Tennant, RTD and Julie Gardener (I think?) and it's fun to see their perspective on an old show, eg. remarking on Patrick Troughton and Nicholas Courtney being allowed to walk into a dark cave holding a naked flame. ;) But the special edition ruins one of my favourite scenes. In the original, after the Master is hit by the rock fragments, the Doctor sees the recall device (that the Master had just showed him), picks it up and as the Cybermen arrive he says, "Sorry, must dash," and presses the button with a charming smile to escape, the suarve badass that he is. In the 'improved' version, they restore cut footage of the Castellan telling the Master he's going to transmat him to safety and the Doctor hears his tinny voice coming through the device, handing him the solution to his predicament on a plate. This was clearly cut in the original and it was all the better for it. Oh and the other thing is that they eliminated a classic Cyberman moment of the Cyber Scout seeing the Doctor and the Master and going, "Ahhhhhh!" Yes, it was dorky as fuck, but I felt sad when I realised they'd dubbed it out. :p

This was my first DW story that wasn't Tom Baker, I saw it on TV one time. Before that it was my dad's recordings of his era off of IPTV.

Bloody hell Stuart, how have you cranked these videos out so fast?!

I remember my cousin had it ripped onto a dvd and every time I visited I always asked for to watch it. I think it’s issues with the script is if you think about it, classic Who hardly focused on emotion sometimes and it was written as a replacement because Robert Holmes was supposed to write it but he dropped out because he couldn’t write it because of the demands JNT and Eric Saward gave him. Apparently they also didn’t want the Daleks in it but Terrance Dicks had to argue with them to get that 1 Dalek in it

You wouldn't believe how I just got out from watching your three doctors video only to stumble upon this new upload saying a minute ago

honestly Hortense's apperance in Big Finish box set "Evil of Scongo" is my favourite companion return, glad the actor came back to record this epic audio adventure featuring Doctor's most threatning villain - Scongo!

Honestly, I don't think that The Second Doctor was written to his full potential in this episode. He comes across as a lot more dotty and subdued than the ruthless and cunning trickster he was during his original tenure. Also, I do have a problem during the scene where Sarah falls down a cliff and meets Three. Given there wasn't a lot of fog and the edge was already somewhat defined, it seems like she fell on purpose. Hopefully that can be fixed for the Season 20 Blu Ray set with some extra fog and an animated gust of wind to justify her falling

I loved that π thing when I was a kid. Tegan describes it as the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter, which is fine. But then the Doctor refers to it as a "formula", rattles off the first 8 decimals, stops for some reason, and then just shuffles across. Tegan mentions "sums" and then also wanders across randomly. When the Master skipped across he didn't even stay inside the board. I think it's something to do with hyper-curved spacetime where a circle is able to manifest as a grid of squares in our dimension.

I kind of love that the episode doesn’t even bother to have real emotional resonance. This isn’t Day of the Doctor, they know that all this is just a fun anniversary bash to celebrate twenty years of Who.

Not all the Doctor's adventures are televised, such as with the terrible Zodin.

Pi had absolutely nothing to do with anything lol- it was just there to make The Doctor sound clever. Richard Hurndall was actually supposed to walk across the floor in a zig-zag but the actor just walked across it and they didn't have time for a reshoot lol

Is that Hortense, Doctor? Nah, she looks pretty relaxed, to me, Tegan.

It bothered me so much as a kid that the other incarnations weren't happy to see Susan again.

Am I the only one annoyed that in both the Five Doctors and the Three Doctors, the first incarnation -- the YOUNGEST and LEAST EXPERIENCED Doctor -- is also the smartest one who figures out the big mystery? That's not a good sign for how the Doctor's brain is aging, at LEAST.

Two Doctors Next! Hooray!

I always thought the warrior robot was the inspiration for the weeping angels

Before there were Hoenn trumpets there were Death Zone trumpets.

I refer to this one as The Threeish Doctors. Two, Three, Five, and a bloke in a wig.

Wait - there's actually going to be a *battle* in this one?

The original Bob Holmes script that Uncle Terry adapted WAS called the 6 Doctors and had the President un-named until the final reveal which had him as the final incarnation of the Doctor, bitter and twisted by his wasted potential and betraying everyone and everything he ever believed in just to save his own skin. The idea got recycled in the pre-JNT edit version of Trial of a Time Lord and its removal was the reason Doctor Who not only lost one of its best Story Editors but ended up being repeatedly sued by him for fucking up his late friend's awesome downer ending for the show.

If I ever get to write for big finish I'll make a story where the 5th doctor and his companion hortense team up with the 2nd doctor and they fight the terrible zodin. Then we can finally have this piece of canon answered and also get more hortense. I'd be a bit surprised if big finish haven't already done something with zodin.

The epitome of having too much on your plate and not being able to enjoy it all. It’s a good story, but hardly the pinnacle of classic who it was often named for many years. It is nostalgic for me I will admit, as I saw it when I was very small. The three doctors and even the two doctors I think are better

Just want to point out Pi isn't a formula It's a number I think it's also the second half of the board that's dangerous so I always thought it was you go that many across for each number

Bang on, old fruit! 5Drs was also one of my first, & you dissect it perfectly 👌 *please, please do keep doing Who shizzle. You are a light among many oiks as regards Who on KZfaq 😬✊

Terror of Zodin defo on the list for big finish

I'm just hoping that we finally get a New Who reunion with Susan next year. I was upset we never got Peter Capaldi and Susan, but I can settle for Tennant and Susan

Big Finish presents The Return of the Zodin

I could have coped with the Pi formula for the chessboard if it didn't change with each time the board is traversed!🤣

I did a Doctor Who Binge in 2013 of every episode from 1963, since the 60th Anniversary is next year, I think it's time for another

Actually the Raston warrior robot is sort of based on the Androids from Earthshock

The Five Doctors was and is amazing bit of Dr Who. Better than the 60th celebration effort.

The villain in The Rescue was Bennet pretending to be a native of Dido called Koquillion

The virgin 3rd Doctor being exiled to 1970s London and working for UNIT vs the chad 5th Doctor being exiled to 1930s Yorkshire and working as a vet.

"Well Captain, she looks perfectly relaxed to me!"

I think that they should bring back some of the old drs and david tennant

The rastion warrior robot is a repainted earthshock

My 1st classic episode!

I remember reading somewhere that Susan's inclusion was rather lost a minute to replace someone else, hence why her material is so generic.

Raston Warrior Robot MY BELOVED

I like The Five Doctors

I think the chess board is you have to walk over it in 4 steps it's actually loosely based on the floor in Death to the Daleks City of the Exxalons

Of course, we all know the best multi-Doctor story has to be Withnail & I ~

Hortense is Stu’s version of Scongo

The Five Doctors is my favorite story from Doctor Who... ironically it is also the one my favorite doctor didn't want to be a part of~

That chessboard scene was absolutely nonsensical.

Special Edition version of this video with David Tennant commentary plz.

Have to admit, it was a shocker when Hortense chose to be a companion for Zodin instead.

Googled the name because I wasn’t sure if it was just a one-off or something Stu made up entirely and there’s an actual character named Hortense in death and the queen

We love hortense!

That is one horrible-looking moon, Stuart.

You'd Think Borusa, as president with full access to the Matrix, would've unearthed any "Timeless Child" crap while researching perpetual regeneration & immortality etc. Also getting a lock on the "First" Doctor would've been an issue.

Great review

will you and jay do a breakdown of power of the doctor?

I recall watching this when it was first broadcast and feeling cheated when Tom Baker wasn't actually in the episode. They even used a wax work dummy of Baker with the other Doctors for the publicity shots, making it seem like he was part of the show (other than archive footage). And, as for the chess board scene - never made any sense to me.

You better review The Eight Doctors next. (Just kidding, even I wouldn't make you waste that much time.)

I can just feel people getting mad at you for using the version of this story with the Mr Whippy effect.

6:14-6:31 How come it's only a bad thing when the Chibnall era dose it but no one bats an eye about it for the rest of the show?

What happen to your recent Brexit video?

6:14-6:31 If a show you love is so easily ruined by Storm Trooper aiming, was it ever a good show to being with?

I kinda liked this one....

6:14-6:31 It's tragic that one Dalek failing to kill 2 people in a corridor with 20 shots automatically makes The Five Doctors a 0/10 doesn't hold up to time.

One thing that always bugs me about the scene with The Master and the First Doctor is what The Doctor didn't recognise the master. It was already well established in the show that The Doctor and The Master grew up together and now The First Doctor talks to him like it's the first time they met. Before you say "Well he changed his face so he wouldn't recognise him" the Third Doctor managed to recognise The Master on sight earlier on. There's no expanded media that helps explain this (that I know of) so it's just left as a scene that gives me a headache.

I'm surprised that you (and many others) seem to prefer Five to Three. Especially given some of the criticism you gave to each. I DO think Five is just one massive clumsy set piece that serves no purpose but to bring back fan favourites, and to have Pertwee get a Cyberman conflict

The Five Doctors was written by one of a former God of Dr Who, Terrance Dicks. Sarah-Jane, The Brigadier and Susan got good screen time and a sensible part in the story. The Power of the Doctor was written by someone out who pointed Dr Who was a bit shit in the 80's and went onto write plenty of shitty Dr Who scripts himself, go figure.

I disagree Richard dosent feel like William at all. William had an aggression to him Richard don't. And why is his dialogue all age related? "What are all you young people doing in my tardis". Granted this probably more a case that Terence Dicks doesn't get the character than Richards fault

6:14-6:31 If a show you love is so easily ruined by Storm Trooper aiming, your either overreacting and over exaggerating it's decline or it was never good to begin with.

You do realise Hortense is actually a female name right?