Anniversaries are sacred, joyful occasions wherein people reflect on years gone by with admiration, nostalgia, and possibly a newfound appreciation. Or, if you’re the guys at RiffTrax, they’re opportunities to lovingly poke fun at stuff for 90-minute periods. That’s right, folks–RiffTrax is at it again, this time taking comedic aim at the 1983 20th anniversary special for Doctor Who, ingeniously titled “The Five Doctors.” This was a special that saw all of the Doctors up to that point reappear and team up to take on some mysterious foe, with the Master and some Cybermen along for the ride.
In our exclusive clip from the special–a Fathom Event in partnership with RiffTrax.com® and BBC Worldwide North America–we get to hear Bill Corbett assay the role of some Cybermen as they haphazardly step on an electrified chessboard (it all makes sense in context, pretty much).
“The Five Doctors” saw current Doctor Peter Davison in an adventure with Second Doctor Patrick Troughton and Third Doctor Jon Pertwee. That’s only three, you rightly say; well, William Hartnell had died and so the First Doctor was played by a guy named Richard Hurndall. Fourth Doctor Tom Baker wanted no part of it, so his “appearance” was limited to a clip from the unfinished 1979 serial “Shada.” But it does also offer fan-favorite stuff like Daleks, Cybermen, K-9 (for 12 seconds), tons of returning companions, a trip to Gallifrey, and a shiny mental guy called a “Raston Warrior Robot.”
All of this will surely be rife for a good riffing by Corbett and his usual cohorts, Michael J. Nelson and Kevin Murphy. They’ve already riffed the two 1960s Daleks feature films for VOD, but this will be the first time they’ve taken on the series proper–and live, no less! It’s going to be a sci-fi sidesplitting evening.
RiffTrax Live: Doctor Who – The Five Doctors will be shown in select cinemas nationwide through Fathom Events (tickets can be purchased here) on August 17 and August 24.
What moment from “The Five Doctors” are you most excited to see get riffed? Let us know in the comments below!
Images: BBC/RiffTrax/Fathom Events
Kyle Anderson is the Associate Editor and the resident Whovian for Nerdist. Follow him on Twitter!
