Doctors and Tribble-ations: An Idea for a Doctor Who 50th Anniversary Special

Doctor Who fans are looking forward to there being one or more special episodes in celebration of the show's 50th year. In the past there have been episodes like “The Three Doctors” and “The Five Doctors” which brought back actors who played the Doctor previously to play the role as the Doctor encountered his past regenerations.

But with the actors who played the first few Doctors having passed away, and some of the others being significantly older now (and in some cases larger, too) it might be a challenge to get some of them to play the role.

But what if they took a different approach, like what Star Trek: Deep Space Nine did in the episode “Trials and Tribble-ations”? There, the characters from the new series time travel back into the time of the earlier series, and encounter and even interact with the characters from the original series in the episode “The Trouble With Tribbles.” But it is accomplished by digital editing, not by getting the actors to revisit the roles.

Here is a YouTube video that places the original and edited versions side by side, so that you can see what was done – and how well it works, and with what comical effect.

Couldn't you imagine the Eleventh Doctor – and perhaps the Tenth, Ninth, Eighth, Seventh, however many are willing and able to actually revisit the role – traveling back into old episodes (some of which would need to be colorized) and having to avoid changing the timeline of their own experience?

I think that could be lots of fun.

If you've never seen it, I highly recommend watching “The Trouble With Tribbles” and then “Trials and Tribble-ations.”

Doctor Who fans – and if you're out there listening, Doctor Who writers and producers – what do you think of this suggestion?

Here's a video about how it was done: