While I do love Multi Doctor Stories, I find myself more and more intrigued by this Question, and if I am (hopefully) not mistaken I believe there isn’t a Thread about this. So I am just going to throw this Question into the Room: Do you think Multi Doctor Stories represent the Incarnations that returns properly?
Of course this Question doesn’t come from nowhere putting down some Notes for another Thread, which I am working for, made me think about this even more. Of course there is the infamous Example of the first Doctor in Twice Upon a Time, but I’d argue there are more examples, even if most of them don’t go this far.
For example, while I think both of them are great Stories, both Day and Three Doctors have one of their Incarnations being dialed up to 11 in certain Traits for comedic Purpose. While of course not being necessarily becoming a caricature of themselves, I do think certain traits were perhaps put more emphasis on to show the Difference more with the Incumbent ones.
There are also some other Examples, both on TV and outside, but I think this Example probably is good enough.
I am really curious what everybody else think!
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Well, they tend to, as you say, often exaggerate the returning incarnations.
This seems to be the case with Two in particular. There’s this common notion that he played the recorder a lot because he does it in a memorable scene in The Three Doctors. But if you think about it, he only really plays the recorder in a couple of stories early in his tenure before it is retired, so I wouldn’t call that a defining trait for him. The same can be said about his cosmic hoboness, which the multi-Doctor stories always emphasised over his more serious side that he frequently showcased during his own era.
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I do think The Three Doctors does Two rather well- but one thing about the Second Doctor is his tendency to exaggerate himself, so. “An unintelligent enemy is far less dangerous than an intelligent one.” Which is actually why I like the way he’s written in this serial- It’s the contrast with one and three and the dynamic with the UNIT characters that brings out his uniqueness and complexities. Then you gotta consider that more than any other type of story, multiple-doctor stories are big messy productions and a lot of their in world aspects are entirely determined by real life logistics- from Hartnell’s illness, the busy filming scheduele of the five doctor and it’s almost covid-filming like contingencies and little groups, and generally- the needs of the story outdoing not just the focus on any one character but the focus on characterization at all as opposed to- well. Spectacle? Breadth? call it what you will- sometimes it IS an epic story, sometimes it’s quantity over quality. TV is complicated like this.
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Off the top of my head I don’t have any complaints about Six’s representation in multi-Doctor stories with the exception of the stories he shared with River. I understand that every Doctor is contractually obligated to fawn over her, but it was to the detriment of his characterization. They made him a complete goof, a horndog, someone who trips over their own tongue and gets weak in the knees at the sight of a woman. In the River story he shared with Seven, they made Seven’s personality close to canon; this made the contrast between her and Six even more jarring.
I enjoyed the Six and River stories. They were entertaining, but in no way canonically accurate.
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That’s a good Point. I’d say Five Doctors does the best Job with him, at least in representing his Incarnations. It is true that the Recorder is often associated with him, but I think it’s less because of the Multi Doctor Stories (or only partially) and more about it being just something unique to him, similarly to Ten’s 3D Glasses to be honest (still don’t get why those but okay).
Oh I don’t think he is done badly in any Way, I do enjoy him in Three Doctors and one could argue he does it like that, although I am not quite sure (Three Doctors does have a Tendency to exaggerate quite a few Characters like the Brig). Obviously a lot of great Points brought up here, there is of course a Discussion to be had about the external Factors which can effect this in plenty of Ways. It isn’t necessarily even a bad Thing and I hope it doesn’t come across that I do think you have to get the Incarnation right to a tooth, sometimes exaggerating does work well in Cases of Day or Three Doctors.
@CommanderBayban Glad to hear your Thoughts on Six in this Story Type! I sadly can’t comment on that River Story in particular, but from the few Multi Doctor Stories with Six I have heard they do usually get him as right as you possibly can. I do think the EU often has probably a bit of a better track record, especially by its nature, since all those past Doctors even in their own Ranges are essentially “returning” ones in a weird way.
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He plays it in 7 of his stories ranging from Power of the Daleks to The Web of Fear. That’s a third of his televised serials. I think it’s enough to be a defining trait for Two.
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