Doctor Who - The Three Doctors
Capping off the 40th anniversary year of Doctor Who, The Three Doctors takes us back to the 10th anniversary - bringing Patrick Troughton and, at least on film, William Hartnell together with the then-current Doctor, Jon Pertwee. In the commentary, producer Barry Letts mentions that this was less the product of brilliant inspiration and more a case of bowing to public pressure - hardly a day went by that someone didn’t suggest uniting the various personae of the Doctor. In hindsight, this may actually be the most successful multi-Doctor outing of them all. Perhaps the reason for having multiple Doctors in the same story doesn’t flow as organically from the story as it does in The Two Doctors, and perhaps it doesn’t share The Five Doctors’ crowd-pleasing mix of past enemies, and perhaps it lacks the unabashed mess-with-your-mind quality of Zagreus. But something about The Three Doctors is still somehow magical and quite entertaining - maybe just because it’s the first one, it’s William Hartnell’s last acting job, and yes, perhaps it’s because of some rose-colored memories surrounding the first three Doctors, none of whom are with us any longer. I’ll cop to that without shame.
The commentary, as usual, is a highlight of the DVD, with Katy (Jo Grant) Manning and Nicholas (The Brigadier) Courtney along for the ride, and producer Barry Letts apologizing - through fits of giggles - for the blobby nature of the Gell-Guard creatures. (Y’know, having seen The Three Doctors at a fairly young age, I was never not sold on the Gell-Guards, but hearing three seasoned showbiz veterans collapse into hysterics at the sight of them makes them funny.) Katy Manning is still a nice surrogate for the audience, relating stories about the making of the show and yet also watching along and expressing surprise in all the right places, while Letts and Courtney are veritable powerhouses of Who trivia, Courtney especially - he knows, just through repeat exposure from his convention-guest career, stuff about episodes that he wasn’t even in, which impresses me. He’s also justifiably proud of having worked with all of the Doctors in one medium or another down through the years; memo to Russell Davies, et al.: book Nicholas Courtey to appear alongside Christopher Eccleston, on the double as the Brig might say.
There are other goodies aplenty: Pertwee-era-related excerpts from British Sky Broadcasting’s Who31 weekend in 1994 (featuring one of Pertwee’s last interviews and presented by the late John Nathan-Turner), Patrick Troughton’s appearance on Pebble Mill at One to promote his brief return to Doctor Who, and a Blue Peter appearance which celebrates the show’s ten years on the air, gives Jon Pertwee a chance to show off the 
brand new, custom-made Whomobile, and even gives the show’s co-hosts a chance to rib presenter Peter Purves about his own stint as one of William Hartnell’s companions. A reconstruction of the original trailer is also presented, complete with the abandoned “Delaware” synthesizer arrangement of the theme music.
The text commentary is also particularly informative, relaying things that, for once, I had never heard or read before. I didn’t know, for example, that the original concept for The Three Doctors was very much like the final concept of 1983’s The Five Doctors, right down to the individual incarnations of the Doctor being used literally as chess pieces.
A fitting anniversary tribute replete with new and old trivia makes this old favorite shiny and new again (and the ongoing, near-heroic efforts of the Doctor Who Restoration Team don’t hurt matters at all). Very highly recommended.