Doctor Who: Multi-Doctor short Doctors Assemble is a bit of silly fun

Doctors Assemble, the latest Doctor Who video made during lockdown, has to be one of the sillier multi-Doctor stories out there. It’s also a rather fun watch.

Saturday gave us the latest Doctor Who watchalong with BBC film An Adventure in Space and Time, a drama based on the creation of the series. Six and a half years later, and it’s still a wonderful tribute to William Hartnell, Verity Lambert and so many others who made the show.

But more than that: as with every lockdown, we’ve been given a fun little freebie. And it’s quite a bold one, too: a fifteen-minute video featuring all of the Doctors called Doctors Assemble!

Of course, with this being a lockdown video, it’s not exactly a big, epic event. To be honest, the video comes across as an interesting little phonecall shared between all of the Doctors. The story – written by veteran writer James Goss – has a lot of fun with the different Doctors and their little quirks and habits. Storywise, it’s a bit of silly nonsense, which is probably what we need during lockdown.

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Big impressions

Another interesting feature with this video is that, with the exception of David Bradley as the First Doctor, it’s almost entirely voiced by impressionists. The video features the vocal talents of Chris Walker-Thomson, Jon Culshaw, Angus Villiers-Stuart, Wink Taylor, Jonathon Carley, Pete Walsh, Elliott Crossley, Jacob Dudman, and Debra Stephenson, with some voicing more than one Doctor.

Unsurprisingly, some impressions stand out better than others. Jon Culshaw has a lot of fun voicing both Jon Pertwee’s and Tom Baker’s Doctors, although it’s definitely strange to hear him voice Peter Davison’s. In fact, after years of listening to the original actors voicing the roles in Big Finish’s audios, it’s pretty strange to hear impressions of the Eighties Doctors in general.

Chris Walker-Thomson and Jacob Dudman are equally amazing as the Second and Eleventh Doctors, respectively. But one voice that really surprised me was Jonathon Carley as the War Doctor. In terms of capturing John Hurts’s voice, it really is uncanny. Honestly, that’s an impression I’d be keen to hear more of.

Overall, Doctors Assemble is a fun watch, and definitely shouldn’t be taken too seriously. Certainly, there have been more dramatic or emotional releases during lockdown, (Pompadour definitely springs to mind,) but none that are quite as gloriously silly as this one. Not a bad way to spend fifteen minutes, really.

What are your thoughts on Doctors Assemble? Is it one of your favorite lockdown vids so far? Did it live up to your expectations? Let us know in the comments below.