Doctor Who: Every Multi-Doctor Story Ranked Worst To Best
6. The Five Doctors
The Five Doctors was a celebration of 20 years of time and space, and, if we're being honest, should've been called "The Four Doctors And Some Archive Footage".
William Hartnell had passed away by this point so Richard Hurndall was brought in to play his role. As for Tom Baker, he turned down the opportunity to appear in the special, so he was written out of the story and replaced by some unused clips from Shada.
He was also replaced in the publicity photos... by a waxwork model. Which is incredible.
The story, which features Doctor actors Patrick Troughton, Jon Pertwee, and Peter Davison, casts the Time Lords into Gallifrey's much-feared Death Zone, where they must reach the tomb of Rassilon himself to escape.
The Ainley Master also turns up to both help and hinder his nemeses, and there's a bit of Time Lord council stuff too. The plot is fine – if a little stagnant in places – but The Five Doctors does a good job of bringing its remarkable number of protagonists together for a harmless slice of fan service-y fun.