The Three Doctors (Doctor Who) the Third Doctor (Jon Pertwee) for help when Omega drains their civilisation's power. The serial opened the tenth anniversary year of the series, and features the first three Doctors all appearing in the same serial. This makes it the first "Doctor Who" story in which an earlier incarnation of the Doctor returns to the show. A superluminal signal is sent to Earth, carrying with it an energy blob that seems intent on capturing the Doctor. The homeworld of the Time Lords is also under siege, their power being drained through a black hole. Trapped themselves, and desperate to send help,
The Doctor (Doctor Who) elaborate that the Doctor chose the name as a promise for the sort of man he wants to be: "Never cruel or cowardly. Never giving up and never giving in." By contrast, the Eleventh Doctor spoke of the War Doctor (John Hurt) as being the man who broke that promise, being the one to fight in the Time War before learning the actual fate of the Time Lords. Since contradicted by the television series, the 2003 Telos novella "Frayed" by Tara Samms, set prior to the programme's first episode in 1963, presents the alternative explanation that the Doctor was given