Story: Dimensions in Time
Written By: John Nathan-Turner and David Roden
Length: 2 Seven-Minute Episodes
Year: 1993
The first time Doctor Who made a return to television after the series had made its untimely (in the sense that it was getting good again or in the sense that it was too late, depending on your view) demise was this...a 30th Anniversary charity special made for the 1993 Children in Need telethon.
It's not very good.
Despite JNT's claim that it was a totally canon return for the show, no one else seems to agree with him, neither do I. The problem is simply this. It makes no sense and it is not any good. All surviving Doctors return. From Jon Pertwee all the way up to Sylvester McCoy. Hartnell and Troughton appear as creepy heads floating in the beginning, as they had both passed on by this point.
Our villain is the Rani, who as always is pretty terrible. Even worse is the fact that she was the third person on the list to get the call, both Anthony Ainley and Michael Gough refused to return as either the Master or the Celestial Toymaker, respectively. So we get Kate O'Mara, who was apparently not doing anything, to join us yet again as this terrible villainess.
The plot is completely confusing and never makes one lick of sense. For some reason the Doctor is flipping through his previous bodies, randomly...and their costumes...and Ace is apparently turning into Mel, Liz, Nyssa and Tegan, Leela, Sarah Jane, Susan, and etc.
THAT DOESN'T MAKE ANY SENSE.
Add to it all that it also acts as a crossover to the British soap opera East Enders...and you just feel like you have no choice but to ignore its canon status.
Tom Baker only appears briefly, looking much older now, on a weird microphone in some kind of cheap CGI space thing...where he warns his other selves of the terrible short mini-episodes they about to appear in.
All in all its interesting to see Jon Pertwee's final appearance as the Doctor, but beyond that it is pretty miserable.
NEXT TIME: The Pilot
Written By: John Nathan-Turner and David Roden
Length: 2 Seven-Minute Episodes
Year: 1993
The first time Doctor Who made a return to television after the series had made its untimely (in the sense that it was getting good again or in the sense that it was too late, depending on your view) demise was this...a 30th Anniversary charity special made for the 1993 Children in Need telethon.
It's not very good.
Our villain is the Rani, who as always is pretty terrible. Even worse is the fact that she was the third person on the list to get the call, both Anthony Ainley and Michael Gough refused to return as either the Master or the Celestial Toymaker, respectively. So we get Kate O'Mara, who was apparently not doing anything, to join us yet again as this terrible villainess.
The plot is completely confusing and never makes one lick of sense. For some reason the Doctor is flipping through his previous bodies, randomly...and their costumes...and Ace is apparently turning into Mel, Liz, Nyssa and Tegan, Leela, Sarah Jane, Susan, and etc.
THAT DOESN'T MAKE ANY SENSE.
Add to it all that it also acts as a crossover to the British soap opera East Enders...and you just feel like you have no choice but to ignore its canon status.
Tom Baker only appears briefly, looking much older now, on a weird microphone in some kind of cheap CGI space thing...where he warns his other selves of the terrible short mini-episodes they about to appear in.
All in all its interesting to see Jon Pertwee's final appearance as the Doctor, but beyond that it is pretty miserable.
NEXT TIME: The Pilot
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