Episode #123 : Arc of Infinity

"You know how it is; you put things off for a day and next thing you know, it's a hundred years later."

Episode 123:   Arc of Infinity.
Companions:   5th Doctor, Tegan, and Nyssa.
Air Date:         3rd to 12th January 1983.

An antimatter creature has crossed into normal space via a phenomenon known as the Arc of Infinity but needs to bond physically with a Time Lord in order to remain stable. A traitor on Gallifrey has chosen the Doctor as the victim. The High Council, headed by President Borusa, decides that the Doctor's life must be terminated in order to avoid this danger. Tegan meanwhile arrives in Amsterdam to visit her cousin, Colin Frazer, only to learn that he has disappeared. She enters a crypt in search of him and is captured by a hideous creature, the Ergon.

Another classic villain returns... Omega! Once again he is trying to leave behind the anti-matter universe and return to our own. To do this he must bond with a physical entity and the Doctor has been chosen. There is no excuse given as to how Omega survived the events of The Three Doctors but he has, and this time with a much better costume design that makes him seem more menacing.

Tegan returns to the show after being fired as an air stewardess. We don't know why she was sacked and we never find out. My guess would be that she was vanished with the Doctor for a bit longer than she expected and couldn't explain why. Nyssa seems happy to have her back, the Doctor less so.

We get another look at Time Lord society and this time they live up to the corrupt reputation that later Doctor's would subscribe to them. They seem to have forgotten everything that happened the last time Omega showed up, or what good the Doctor has done, because they seem content to simply kill him rather than let him stop the menace that is growing. It seems very shortsighted of them really. One of the Time Lords, Commander Maxil, is played by Colin Baker who would eventually replace Peter Davison in the role of the Doctor.

One small niggle that starts to grow on me around about this time is where in time is present day Gallifrey? I have always assumed that the present for there is somewhere far far away in the distant future since you can't go past Gallifreyan present in a time capsule. But they seem far too concerned with events in the past if you get my meaning since both this story and The Three Doctors is set on 20th century Earth. It is never really explained and that bugs me somewhat.

Arc of Infinity is a good sequel to The Three Doctors with a far pace and some OK story lines. It does feel though that if the story had perhaps had another draft or two it may have been even better.

Episode #65 : The Three Doctors

"Well Sergeant, aren't you going to say that it's bigger on the inside than it is on the outside - everybody else does."

Episode 65:   The Three Doctors.
Companions: The 1st Doctor, 2nd Doctor, 3rd Doctor and Jo Grant.
Air Date:        Four episodes. 30th December 1972 to 20th January 1973.

Time itself is in peril! The Time Lords find themselves besieged by a mysterious enemy, the legendary Time Lord, Omega. Omega has been inhabiting the anti-matter universe on the other side of the black hole from which the Time Lords draw their power.
They enlist the Doctor in his first three incarnations to battle this foe, who turns out to be a legend from the Time Lords' remote past.
But vital cosmic energy is draining into a black hole and the Time Lords are under siege. The Doctor is their only hope but, trapped in the TARDIS, he's powerless. The only way out is to break the First Law of Time to let the Doctor help himself - literally.

The first of the multi-Doctor stories and a rather good one to boot. Although called The Three Doctors, it is primarily Patrick Troughton and Jon Pertwee. William Hartnell was rather unwell at the time of filming so he is shown only on the TARDIS display screen giving advice to his other selves. Sadly, he would pass away only a few months after this episode. It does however set up the possibility of other stories where multiple Doctors can meet and interact. Other than the presence of multiple Doctors, what makes it work so well is how their interactions together are written and how you get the impression that different incarnations don't really get along with one another.

The villain of the piece is a former legendary Time Lord named Omega. He has been trapped in an anti-matter universe since giving the Time Lords the ability to travel through time and space. Driven somewhat mad by his isolation he wants to return to our universe. Although defeated, Omega will return much later during Peter Davison's time as the Doctor in The Arc of Infinity.

The Brigadier shows his usual lack of thought in this story, refusing to believe anything the Doctors tell him, and insisting that the anti-matter universe is in fact somewhere near Cromer in East Anglia. While it may work for the story it does make his character seem awfully thick.

Upon the completion of this adventure, the Time Lords forgive the Doctor his transgressions and free him to travel in time and space once more.

The Three Doctors is a great piece of entertainment that every fan of the show should watch.