60 Years of Doctor Who Anniversary Marathon - Troughton 6th Review
Doctors Assemble! - Short
During the middle of the pandemic, Emily Cook, then editorial assistant of Doctor Who Magazine, created a multimedia campaign to help keep the show going and to provide outreach to people trapped at home. This project was called Lockdown! and it involved live streams of older episodes, original minisodes, singlongs, comics, short stories, charity outreach, and even fanworks.
The project had it’s own website, youtube channel, and twitter feed. It also featured cast and crew from various areas of Who, to provide semiofficial media.
Doctor’s Assemble! is a minisode, that’s more like a mini-podcast. It features all 13 Doctors (plus War) communicating over a live screen share chat as they try to figure out how to stop the Fourth Doctor’s Tardis from collapsing. The story is told through voice over only and still images. The only thing animated is the interior of the Tardis. This is both because of safe social distancing practices, and because none of the original actors reprise their roles here.
All of the voice actors are good, though some are better at impersonating their respective doctors than others. Some are uncanny in their recreations, and others you can tell are a recast but they get the personality right which is what’s really important.
Of course though what really shines here is the writing. It’s nothing complex and half the dialogue is in-jokes and memes, but the characterization is spot on and it’s just pure fun listening to all the Doctors bounce off each other. I especially like the dynamic of them all acting like bickering siblings, except for the first, who is their clueless old Grandpa who can’t figure out the tech and who they’re all trying to avoid getting in trouble with.
Also if you can track it down, Cook posted a special edition with a fun extra cameo at the end.
