Dimensions in Time

26TH NOVEMBER 1993 - 27TH NOVEMBER 1993

(2 10-MINUTE EPISODES)

The Discontinuity Guide called it “Nostalgic and camp, amusing nonsense…” and

they were bang on the mark. Dimensions in Time, the 1993 Children In Need Special, panders to Joe Public’s idea of what Doctor Who is all about – big daft rubber monsters, silly time paradoxes, girls screaming, incredible cliffhangers etc – and that is not such a

bad thing, really. Dimensions in Time kept fourteen million viewers entertained and raised

a whole heap of cash for charity… it’s just a pity that it left a lot of Doctor Who fans cringing in the process! And it’s an even greater shame that none of the serious plans for the show’s thirtieth Anniversary ever materialised, though I suppose that a 17-minute ‘Five Doctors in Eastenders’ runaround was better than nowt at all.

“Doctor Leg? Doctor Who?”

From today’s perspective, the most amusing thing about this unique little two-parter is how well it predicted the future. Yeah, Arthur Fowler bought the bullet… Yeah, flares are back in fashion (well, boot-cut jeans and trousers… near enough!)… Even Jon Pertwee, in his little skit with Noel Edmonds before the first episode, looks to be right on the money with his prediction that Noel Edmonds would still be on television in 2010 – Deal or No Deal, anybody?

“Change. You. Me. Everything…”

The Doctor’s line about change certainly feels appropriate here. Only four years after the series’ cancellation, almost all the cast involved look completely different. The seventh Doctor seems to have taken to wearing spectacles; Tom Baker’s trademark curls have vanished; Colin Baker and Nicholas Courtney (in their only meeting on screen!) both look much older; and some of the companions were barely recognisable! In fact, only the ever-youthful Peter Davison and the ridiculously dressed Elisabeth Sladen look anything like familiar. Yes; the Andy Pandy outfit made a come back!

“Well I’ve seen them thrown out of the Vic, but, ah, never dragged in.”

For me, Frank Butcher stole the show with his one-liner (“Well I’ve seen them thrown out

of the Vic, but, ah, never dragged in”), but the whole affair is littered with such lovely little moments. Only Kate O’Mara (The Rani) and the Mitchell brothers have ‘straight’ roles, so

to speak. Romana running away from the menacing hard-men is one of my favourite bits!

However, there is enough tripe in Dimensions in Time to make a

Doctor Who fan weep with embarrassment. As if the horrendous speeded-up title sequence and theme arrangement were not bad

enough, the plastic heads of the first two Doctors flying around the

Doctor’s TARDIS were completely laughable! Worst of all though,

the plot is completely unintelligible. The seventh Doctor and Ace land

in 1973, “slip a groove” in time and then the Doctor whizzes through

all his past lives and Ace becomes every companion the producers

could get to reprise their roles! The Rani’s menagerie part of the plot

could have worked though, were it not for the constant chopping and

changing of Doctors and companions, but then I suppose they

wouldn’t have had much of a gimmick, would they?

At the end of the day, if nothing else Dimensions in Time should be lauded for resurrecting some of television’s greatest ever monsters - Ogrons, Cybermen, Sea Devils, Pat Butcher... - but as Doctor Who spoofs and parodies go, it is not anything special, and it’s certainly not a patch on the comic genius of Steven Moffat’s later Curse of Fatal Death.

In his novel First Frontier, David A McIntee speculated that this story may have been one of the Doctor’s nightmares. All I can say on that is, how apt.

Copyright © E.G. Wolverson 2006

E.G. Wolverson has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.

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