The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot

Plot

On Christmas Day 2012, former Fifth Doctor actor Peter Davison watches "The Snowmen" with his children. They remark on the upcoming 50th anniversary special and speculate as to whether Davison will be invited to return or if it will simply feature the most recent two Doctors, David Tennant and Matt Smith. Davison has a dream where he is invited back and given special treatment, ending with a vision of Janet Fielding telling him that none of the old Doctors will be asked to return. Over the next couple of months, he, Sixth Doctor actor Colin Baker and Seventh Doctor actor Sylvester McCoy desperately await a call inviting them to star in the special. A disillusioned Davison attends a convention, where he is unrecognised by the hotel receptionist and asked by fans if he has heard about appearing in the episode. He calls current Doctor Who executive producer Steven Moffat, who is more interested in playing with his action figures and deletes his messages from Davison, as well as Baker and McCoy who have also called about appearing (McCoy mentions appearing in The Hobbit and Baker mentions doing I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!).

At another convention appearance, Davison, Baker and McCoy all eye Eighth Doctor actor Paul McGann suspiciously. They discuss inviting Fourth Doctor actor Tom Baker to help them get involved, but when they call him he is revealed to be stuck in the Time Vortex again. McGann, having received no Doctor Who news from his agent, says he wants in on their plans – "work permitting, obviously." After the convention, McCoy returns to New Zealand to continue filming The Hobbit, but decides to return to England after director Peter Jackson leaves him sitting around doing nothing. Davison's scheme is revealed to involve the three of them (McGann has work commitments) protesting with picket signs outside the BBC Television Centre. John Barrowman informs them that Doctor Who filming now takes place in Cardiff. Barrowman abandons his secret wife and children to drive the trio there, singing show tunes all the way and giving them each a copy of one of his CDs.

The former Doctors enter the Doctor Who Experience, steal their old costumes, and with the help of Davison's son-in-law David Tennant are able to infiltrate Roath Lock and get onto the set of the 50th anniversary special, "The Day of the Doctor". They are initially unsure how to proceed with getting in the special, but end up taking the place of the three Dalek operators after locking them in their room. After a close call with some security guards which leads to the trio having to hide back on the set, they manage to escape and catch a bus back to London. Davison receives a call and ignores it; it turns out to be former Doctor Who executive producer Russell T Davies asking for a part in Davison's project, as he has also been left out of the 50th celebrations.

In the coda, Moffat deletes the scene where the former Doctors play Daleks. However, when Moffat's editor reviews another scene, he sees the former Doctors evade the on-set security guards by hiding under shrouds in the undergallery set; the editor conceals this from Moffat, ensuring that the former Doctors appear in the special after all.

Cast (in order of appearance)

Most of the actors appear as themselves. The summary below lists their original connection to Doctor Who.

Davison originally wrote a scene for Tom Baker. As Baker failed to respond to his emails, Davison used the same clip of unfinished Doctor Who story Shada (by way of The Five Doctors) to jokingly explain the absence.

Reviews

Ben Lawrence writing in The Telegraph gave the programme 4 stars (out of 5), describing it as "a sweet, often funny homage to the show," concluding that it "was both a satisfying in-joke for Whovians and a naughty dig at the neediness of actors." Comparing the programme to the 50th anniversary special, Los Angeles Times Television Critic, Robert Lloyd, described it as "equally wonderful in its way".

Home media

After months of speculation, on 23 July 2014 it was officially announced that The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot would be released on DVD and Blu-ray on 8 September 2014 alongside "The Name of the Doctor", "The Night of the Doctor", "The Day of the Doctor", "The Time of the Doctor" and An Adventure in Space and Time as part of the limited edition "50th Anniversary Collectors Edition" boxset.

Sequel

In June 2014, Eighth Doctor Paul McGann revealed that production had begun on a sequel to the special. No release date, plot or cast details were offered. However, in July 2014, Sixth Doctor Colin Baker contradicted McGann's earlier statement by telling Flicks and the City that "All I know is when I last spoke to Peter [Davison] the reaction to Five-ish Doctors has been so positive that we discussed whether it was a good idea to do another one and we agreed that we didn’t want to do one that was a pale imitation of the first. That would be anti-climactic," and that, "We have to come up with a really good idea first. There’s a couple of possibilities floating around, but nothing is set in stone. Clearly doing one about the 51st anniversary isn’t going to be interesting. It’s got to be about something else."