Whenever a big anniversary rolls around, there is now an automatic assumption amongst fans that we will get some sort of multi-Doctor story.
You might assume that this all started with The Three Doctors - but you can't really have a series of one. Besides, that 1973 story wasn't designed to be the 10th Anniversary story. It was designed as an attention-grabbing season-opener, whilst the linked Frontier in Space / Planet of the Daleks was supposed to be the big anniversary event, after Douglas Camfield advised against another twelve part epic.
It was really with the 20th Anniversary, and producer JNT, that the idea of the multi-Doctor special for big events began. But that wasn't his original intention. What JNT asked for was the shifting of Season 20 in the BBC schedules, so that one of the stories might fall around 23rd November 1983. This was turned down, but his boss offered instead the opportunity to produce a 90 minute one-off special which could be broadcast in November '83.
JNT had a pathological dislike of writers and directors associated with the series prior to him taking over. Script editor Eric Saward argued that an anniversary story involving old Doctors, companions and monsters really needed someone familiar with the series to write it, and so talked his producer into offering the job to Robert Holmes. He hated the idea, but came up with a story called "The Six Doctors", elements of which would find their way into the later The Two Doctors.
Holmes' Sixth Doctor was actually an android assassin - there to explain why someone else was playing the First Doctor (William Hartnell having died, of course). Basically, the Cybermen had copied him but got it slightly wrong.
Holmes eventually withdrew from the project, never happy with the "shopping list" style of putting a story together. Luckily Saward had contacted Terrance Dicks, to have him in reserve. Initially approached whilst Holmes was still working on his story, behind his back, Dicks was furious with Saward. He claimed it was no way to treat a writer of Holmes' calibre. And it was no way to treat a writer of his own calibre either. He only agreed to do it if and when Holmes withdrew.
Dicks was a veteran story editor, so was well able to juggle the various elements needed for The Five Doctors - including the on / off issues of what cast would be available at any one time - the most significant being the availability of Tom Baker. When he was down to do it, the Fourth Doctor was to have been the one to travel to the Capitol and work out who the villain was. The current Doctor would have led events in the Death Zone (what the First does in the finished story). The First would have stayed behind in the TARDIS. Ideally, Jamie and Victoria would have accompanied the Second Doctor, Jo the Third, and Sarah the Fourth. Frazer Hines couldn't get time off the farm, Debbie Watling got another job offer (which got cancelled anyway), and Katy Manning was in Australia. This is why we get the on-screen pairings of the finished programme.
JNT also refused to include K-9 or the Daleks, but Dicks insisted, backed by Saward, so they got to cameo. The Cybermen were the main monsters purely because Saward was mad about them.
Dicks had the Master behind the Death Zone scheme, until Saward pointed out how predictable this was - so the previously benevolent Borusa was made the Big Bad.
The Five Doctors was a big success. Fans loved it, whilst at the same time recognising that it was merely a collection of nostalgic set-pieces. Ratings were helped by it being shown as part of the Children in Need charity evening. For the first time ever, a Doctor Who story had premiered overseas, as the US got it on the anniversary date itself.
The next big anniversary was the 25th, traditionally represented by silver. By this time, the programme was in terminal decline and there would be no big special, let alone a multi-Doctor one. The story selected for screening on the 23rd November was a Cyberman one - written by someone who had never written a Doctor Who (let alone much else) and who would never be invited back to write another.
Most fans agree that the season opener - Remembrance of the Daleks - makes for a much better anniversary story, revisiting as it does Coal Hill School in 1963.
By 1993, the series had been off the air for four years. A planned special known as "The Dark Dimension"- once again a multi-Doctor story - collapsed due to financing issues (and arguments over the size of their roles from three of the surviving Doctors). As the most popular Doctor, Tom was going to have the biggest role, whilst Pertwee, Davison and the other Baker argued that the most recent Doctor, McCoy, should get the lion's share.
When this fell through, JNT came up with another Children in Need collaboration - the abomination that is Dimensions in Time. Yet again, a multi-Doctor story (though they are all supposed to be the same Doctor, split over three time zones), multiple companions (including Victoria in Victorian dress, despite the fact that she had been left on contemporary Earth in Fury From The Deep), and a bizarre mix of old monsters (whatever costumes a bunch of fans had to hand).
The VHS range made sure that every Doctor was represented with a release this year. The same thing happened for the 40th Anniversary with the DVD range.
The next big anniversary to be celebrated, for a series that was now actually in production, was the 50th, in 2013. Steven Moffat once again looked to a multi-Doctor format. His original intention was to have a new The Three Doctors, featuring the three actors who had taken on the role since 2005. Like Tom Baker before him back in '83, Christopher Eccleston refused to take part. Moffat therefore devised the hitherto unseen War Doctor instead. He had decided that the McGann version would never have fought in the Time War, but the Eccleston version might have (despite him seeming to have only just regenerated in Rose). Had McGann's incarnation been more war-like, we might have had him in The Day of the Doctor instead of John Hurt. As it was, he was given a token return in a short on-line only prequel minisode.
The Day of the Doctor does not really celebrate 50 years of Doctor Who. It is more about celebrating the series from 2005 - 2013.
Once again, the most popular Doctor got to feature, though Tom was given the enigmatic role of "the Curator" - some sort of future incarnation of the Doctor.
There was no room for Davison, Baker C, or McCoy - so the former and his daughter came up with The Five-ish Doctors (Reboot). One of the highlights of the anniversary (as was the McGann item), it showed how the actors tried to inveigle their way unofficially into the episode, allowing lots of companion actors to feature.
We have just been notified by Davison that there isn't going to be a new version of this for the 60th. From what we can gather, there isn't going to be a multi-Doctor story for the diamond anniversary either - though apparently Tennant and Gatwa do overlap.
One of the three specials is going to be an adaptation of sorts of a DWW comic strip from the Fourth Doctor era, and another sees the return of a villain from the Hartnell era (allegedly).
But there's a lot we still don't know. Eccleston has ruled himself out, as has Capaldi - but in the case of the latter this might just be a case of "the Doctor lies".
There have been two multi-Doctor stories that had nothing to do with anniversaries - The Two Doctors, and Twice Upon A Time - so we may well see guest appearances from Davison, the Bakers, McCoy, McGann or Bradley within these three 60th specials.
After all, they managed to fit five of them into the BBC's centenary special - The Power of the Doctor.
We also have the proposed spin-off series to look forward to, one of which focusses on UNIT and another possibly on the monsters. Plenty of scope to have some, possibly final, appearances by the older Doctors.
I doubt that we will ever have another big multi-Doctor story, of The Five Doctors variety. If we get anything at all, it will be akin to The Power of the Doctor model, or something smaller scale like The Two Doctors / Twice Upon A Time.
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