The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot
The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot is a 2013 comedy spoof and homage to the British science fiction television programme Doctor Who. It appeared on the BBC Red Button service after the broadcast of "The Day of the Doctor",[1] the official 50th anniversary special.[2][3] The programme was written and directed by Peter Davison,[4] who stars alongside fellow former Doctor actors Sylvester McCoy, Colin Baker and Paul McGann. It features appearances from then-stars of the show Matt Smith and Jenna Coleman as well as former stars David Tennant and John Barrowman. Additionally, then-Doctor Who executive producer Steven Moffat, his predecessor Russell T Davies and numerous others connected to the programme all appear as themselves in a more or less parodic manner.
The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot
Peter Davison
- Peter Davison
- Sylvester McCoy
- Colin Baker
- Paul McGann
United Kingdom
English
- Steven Moffat
- Brian Minchin
Simon Walton
- Ceres Doyle
- Jamie Pearson
31 minutes
23 November 2013
The plot focuses on the fictionalised Davison, Baker and McCoy, who become disgruntled after discovering they haven't been invited to take part in the production of the Doctor Who 50th anniversary special. The trio become embroiled in misadventures as they attempt to sneak onto the set of the official Doctor Who 50th anniversary special.
The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot was nominated for the 2014 Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation (Short Form),[5] (along with "The Day of the Doctor", An Adventure in Space and Time, "The Name of the Doctor", and episodes of Game of Thrones and Orphan Black).
Most of the actors appear as themselves. The summary below lists their original connection to Doctor Who. This list features names in order of appearance
Jemma Redgrave appears in the final scene on the computer monitor with Smith and Coleman. John Hurt's voice can be heard through archive recordings from "The Day of the Doctor" with Smith and Tennant in the scene where Davison, Baker and McCoy arrive on set. Both are uncredited for these appearances.
Davison originally wrote a part for Tom Baker. As Baker failed to respond to his emails, Davison used the same clip of unfinished Doctor Who story Shada previously used in the 20th anniversary special "The Five Doctors" to jokingly explain his absence.[8]
Reviews[edit]
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."[3] Comparing the programme to the 50th anniversary special, Los Angeles Times Television Critic, Robert Lloyd, described it as "equally wonderful in its way".[2]
Home media[edit]
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.[9]
Proposed sequel[edit]
In June 2014, Paul McGann stated that production had begun on a sequel to the special. No release date, plot or cast details were offered.[10] However, in July, Colin Baker contradicted McGann's earlier statement by telling Flicks and the City: "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 ... 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."[11] At a Doctor Who convention in March 2023, Sylvester McCoy stated that there were plans to make a sequel for the show's 60th anniversary, but that the BBC would not allow it.