The True Story Behind Doctor Who's Abandoned Anniversary Movie

5. (Most of) The Doctors Aren't Impressed

Classic Doctor Who
BBC

As news of the project filtered out into fan circles in June, it wasn't until July that news of the production was broken in the 202nd issue of Doctor Who Magazine. Fans were incredibly excited at the prospect of Doctor Who returning to BBC1 after three years, but most of the Doctors were much less excited. In the years following the project, Jon Pertwee, Peter Davison, Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy have been vocal on the script's many problems, not least the fact that they were overshadowed by Tom Baker.

As Colin Baker remembered in an interview with TV Zone magazine:

"It's not a very sound strategy to present it in - the way it was presented, i.e. that one is much more important than the other four"

Jon Pertwee, meanwhile, objected to how the script approached Doctor Who in general, telling Starburst Magazine:

'It should have been given to a writer that knows something about what we're doing. Someone like Barry Letts.'

Sylvester McCoy later tapped into the inherent problem with the proposed story. He told TV Zone:

"I don't think it was even the kind of story fans would want to see for the 30th Anniversary. They want to see all the Doctors together."

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Citizen of the Universe, Film Programmer, Writer, Podcaster, Doctor Who fan and a gentleman to boot. As passionate about Chinese social-realist epics as I am about dumb popcorn movies.