Dimensions in Time (TV story)

Dimensions in Time was a two part adventure broadcast in 1993 to commemorate the thirtieth anniversary of Doctor Who. It featured many of the characters from the original series. Despite this, the story is generally regarded as a Doctor Who pastiche, and not a canonical story.

The Rani is assembling a menagerie of sentient life-forms from throughout space and time, hoping to use them to gain control of all individual minds in the Universe. She requires only one more specimen, a human from Earth. Knowing that the Doctor will act to stop her, she creates a temporal trap to ensnare the Doctor in all his incarnations.

The Rani has already captured the First and Second Doctors, and the Fourth Doctor attempts to send a warning to his previous and future incarnations, but is too late. The renegade Time Lady seizes control of the TARDIS and the Seventh Doctor and Ace, en route to China, find themslves instead materializing in Cutty Sark Gardens in 1993. They then find themselves jumping time tracks between the years 1973, 1993, and 2013, in an area within a few miles of Albert Square in London's East End. The Doctor is also changing back and forth between his Third, Fifth, Sixth and Seventh incarnations, while Ace keeps being replaced by various past companions. Worse, the Rani has released her menagerie, all under her control, to attack the Doctors and their companions.

Cast
Third Doctor - Jon Pertwee

Fourth Doctor - Tom Baker

Fifth Doctor - Peter Davison

Sixth Doctor - Colin Baker

Seventh Doctor - Sylvester McCoy

Susan Foreman - Carole Ann Ford

Victoria Waterfield - Deborah Watling

Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart - Nicholas Courtney

Liz Shaw - Caroline John

Mike Yates - Richard Franklin

Sarah Jane Smith - Elisabeth Sladen

Leela - Louise Jameson

Voice of K9 - John Leeson

K9 Operator - Matt Irvine

Romana - Lalla Ward

Nyssa - Sarah Sutton

Peri - Nicola Bryant

Mel - Bonnie Langford

Sophie Aldred - Ace

Sharon Watts - Letitia Dean

Gita Kapoor - Shobu Kapoor

Grant Mitchell - Ross Kemp

Phil Mitchell - Steve McFadden

The Rani - Kate O'Mara

Frank Butcher - Mike Reid

Pauline Fowler - Wendy Richards

Vanir - John Frank Rosenblum

Mandy Salter - Nicola Stapleton

Pat Butcher - Pam St. Clement

Kathy Beale - Gillian Taylforth

Sanjay Kapoor - Deepak Verma

Big Ron - Ron Tarr (scenes not shown in televised version)

Cyrian - Sam West

Ian Beale - Adam Woodyatt

Sea Devil - Michael Fillis

Ogron - Derek Handley

Tractator/Tetrap/Zog/Dragon Operator - Martin Wilkie

Crew

 * Ken Trew (costumes)

Bad Guys
The Rani, her assistant Cyrian, and her menagerie of various aliens from the show's history.

Story Notes

 * This story was broadcast as a segment of the Children In Need charity telethon, with Part One being introduced by Noel Edmonds and Jon Pertwee (in character as the Doctor), and Part Two being broadcast as part of Edmond's House Party programme.


 * Broadcast in a 3-D television format which could be viewed normally or with special glasses.


 * This story is generally not considered to be canon by most Doctor Who fans.


 * Commemorates the thirtieth anniversary of the first broadcast of Doctor Who in 1963.


 * Jon Pertwee's last performance as the Doctor before his death in 1996.


 * It featured Tom Baker's first performance as the Doctor since leaving the series. He had turned down a part in the twentieth anniversary story, "The Five Doctors," a decision he later said he regretted.


 * Because First Doctor William Hartnell and Second Doctor Patrick Troughton were both deceased by the time this story was produced, the idea was developed to use still images of them, already caught in the Rani's temporal trap. Because the stills could not be made to look three-dimensional, busts of the actor's heads were fashioned and filmed for the special.


 * For scenes set inside the Rani's TARDIS, the Doctor's console from the original series was set inside a TARDIS  console room mock-up constructed for a recent fan convention, the original console room for the series having already been destroyed.


 * This story features guest and cameo appearances by various characters from the popular BBC soap opera EastEnders, with the bulk of the story being set in the same neighborhood as that series. While cross universe stories in which the Doctor meets characters from various other televsion, film, and literary works have long been a popular motiif in fan fiction pieces, this is probably the first professionally produced instance of such a motif being employed in a Doctor Who story, outside the occassional in-joke reference in the Doctor Who novels. Five years after this story was produced, Louise Jameson joined the cast of EastEnders for two years as Rosa Di Marco.

Continuity
As this story is generally not considered canon, there is no real continuity with the original series, aside from the characters. Susan calls out for Ian and Barbara, the Doctor's first human companions, when she initially finds herself displaced in time.

Errors and Plot Holes

 * Susan does not recognize the Sixth Doctor as the Doctor, yet Victoria recognizes the Third Doctor and Leela recognizes the Seventh Doctor. This agrees with the novels, where Leela met the Seventh Doctor in Lungbarrow.


 * Nyssa and Peri show no surprise at meeting each other, even though they never met on the original series.


 * Leela can remember which companion she was before the last time change, indicating that Ace has been changing back and forth into different companions, just as the Doctor has been changing back and forth into different incarnations of himself. How this is possible, considering that the companions are all different individuals as opposed to the same one in different versions like the Doctor, or how Ace could be two different companions at the same time, is never explained.

More Info

 * Story Synopsis


 * Story Transcript