This 53-year-old Doctor Who story changed the landscape of the sci-fi series forever by breaking one of the most important rules of the show, and many subsequent stories have repeated it. Doctor Who has been able to become the longest-running sci-fi show in TV history because of the Doctor’s ability to regenerate, allowing new actors to take over the role of the Time Lord every few years, keeping the series fresh. Against the rules of time and space, however, multiple incarnations of the Doctor crossed paths for the first time 53 years ago.
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Told over four episodes that premiered on December 30, 1972, “The Three Doctors” brought together William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton, and Jon Pertwee as their iterations of the Doctor to battle Omega. This was the first time multiple versions of the Doctor appeared together on-screen in Doctor Who, but, in the years since, the series hasn’t stopped bringing its titular hero’s incarnations together. In “The Three Doctors,” the First, Second, and Third Doctors stop Omega, the creator of the Time Lords’ time travel technology, from draining the universe’s power, kick-starting some of the best multi-Doctor episodes in the following years.
What Other Doctor Who Episodes Have Featured Multiple Doctors?
“The Three Doctors” established a new status quo for Doctor Who, as many subsequent stories went wild when bringing multiple versions of the Doctor together. “The Three Doctors” opened the 10th anniversary year of Doctor Who, while, ten years later, Doctor Who celebrated its 20th anniversary in “The Five Doctors” in 1983. Richard Hurndall portrayed the First Doctor after Hartnell’s 1975 death, while Tom Baker refused to appear as the Fourth Doctor, so archive footage was used. Troughton returned two years later when the Second and Sixth Doctors (Colin Baker) teamed up against the Sontarans in “The Two Doctors.”
During Doctor Who’s hiatus, 1993’s “Dimensions in Time” brought together the Third, Fourth, Fifth (Peter Davison), Sixth, and Seventh Doctors (Sylvester McCoy), and their companions, to fight the Rani in a strange Doctor Who and Eastenders crossover in support of Children in Need. “Dimensions in Time” is not considered canon, but the Tenth Doctor’s (David Tennant) meeting with the Fifth Doctor in the 2007 Children in Need short, “Time Crash,” is widely considered canon. “Time Crash” led directly into the 2007 Christmas special, “Voyage of the Damned,” and marked the first multi-Doctor story of the modern era.
In the following years, “The Day of the Doctor” celebrated Doctor Who’s 50th anniversary by bringing together the Tenth, Eleventh (Matt Smith), and War Doctors (John Hurt), before “Twice Upon a Time” teamed up the First (David Bradley) and Twelfth Doctor (Peter Capaldi), both coming to terms with their impending regeneration. Jodie Whittaker’s era as the Thirteenth Doctor introduced the Fugitive Doctor (Jo Martin) and ended with Doctorful “The Power of the Doctor,” while “The Giggle” marked the show’s ground-breaking bi-generation, allowing the Fourteenth (Tennant) and Fifteenth Doctors (Ncuti Gatwa) to exist simultaneously.
Most recently, the Fifteenth Doctor was briefly met by the Thirteenth Doctor in his TARDIS in “The Reality War” in 2025, with Whittaker’s incarnation giving him essential advice. Now that Billie Piper seems to have debuted as the Sixteenth Doctor, there is rising speculation she may team up with the Eighth Doctor (Paul McGann) or even the Fourteenth Doctor in 2026’s upcoming Doctor Who Christmas special. Only time will tell which Doctors come together in the series future.
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