Children in Need Special (TV story)

The Children in Need Special (known also by other titles, see below) was a short 7-minute mini-episode of Doctor Who produced in 2005 for that year's Children in Need charity appeal. Rather than create a one-off skit or non-canonical story (like Dimensions in Time), the Doctor Who team instead produced a link story, picking up immediately after the regeneration in The Parting of the Ways and ending just before the start of The Christmas Invasion. The story is considered canonical, detailing Rose's immediate reaction to the regeneration and setting up the Doctor's post-regeneration illness in the Christmas special, but viewing it is not necessary to understand the opening scenes of The Christmas Invasion. Two years later, another Children in Need special mini-episode would be produced: Time Crash and another mini-episode, Music of the Spheres, would be produced in 2008 (but not for Children in Need).

Synopsis
The Doctor has just regenerated. How will Rose react?

Plot
Inside the TARDIS, Rose questions the Doctor, who has just regenerated. She finds it hard to accept the Doctor has changed into a new body and thinks that one of a number of aliens may have replaced him. The Doctor allays her doubts by telling her about the first time he met her and dismisses her concerns about having left Jack behind on Satellite 5. The regeneration, however, has gone wrong and the Doctor is slightly crazed. He decides to land the TARDIS on Christmas Eve. With Cloister Bell warning of imminent danger, the Doctor screams in pain and warns of a crash landing.

Cast

 * The Doctor - David Tennant
 * Rose Tyler - Billie Piper
 * Dalek Voices - Nicholas Briggs (archive footage)
 * Ninth Doctor - Christopher Eccleston (archive footage)

Crew
to be added

Technology

 * Teleport
 * Transmat
 * Nanogenes

TARDIS components

 * Cloister Bell can be heard ringing in the TARDIS.

Individuals

 * Jackie Tyler
 * Jack Harkness

Planets

 * Barcelona

London Locations

 * Powell Estate

Races and Species

 * Gelth
 * Slitheen
 * Time Lords

Food and Beverages

 * Fish and Chips
 * Sausage and Mash
 * Beans on Toast
 * Turkey
 * Nut Loaf

Story Notes

 * This is a short sketch for the charity Children in Need.
 * In addition to the broadcast, this story was available for viewing on the BBC's website until 25 November, 2005, when the link was removed.
 * This story and Time Crash are the only TV stories other than The Edge of Destruction to be set entirely in the TARDIS.
 * The pre-credits sequence for the mini-episode was a montage of the climactic scenes of The Parting of the Ways.
 * Post-regeneration instability has been present, to varying degrees, in every one of the Doctor's regenerations.
 * The online feed of the mini-episode ended with several pre-recorded inserts of Tennant and Piper appealing for donations to Children in Need. The appeals in which they both appear are flippant in tone, with Piper claiming to be Tennant and vice versa in the first, and in the second the pair introducing themselves as Letitia Dean and Nicholas Lyndhurst.
 * Russell T Davies joked that the title was the Pudsey Cutaway, a reference to Mission to the Unknown (also known as the Dalek Cutaway). No on-screen title is shown for the mini-episode, making this the first Doctor Who episode to be presented without an on-screen title, notwithstanding the 1996 TV movie.
 * The working name of this episode was Regeneration Facts
 * According to the 2009 book Companions and Allies this episode is referred to as Born Again.
 * At 7 minutes long the Children in Need Special holds the record for the shortest 'single episode' of Doctor Who ever, just beating Time Crash, which was 8 minutes long. However, the 2009 Comic Relief mini-episode based on The Sarah Jane Adventures, From Raxacoricofallapatorius With Love, is the shortest of all at just over five minutes.

Ratings
to be added

Myths
to be added

Location Filming
to be added

Discontinuity, Plot Holes, Errors

 * How does the Doctor know that Jack is OK? Although the fact that the Doctor not only knew Jack survived the Dalek attack, but had become immortal due to Rose's interference, is confirmed in Utopia, exactly how the Doctor was aware of these things has yet to be revealed. It's possible that prior to the events of Bad Wolf that the Ninth Doctor had found out about Jack's fate.

Continuity

 * This story directly connects the final moments of The Parting of the Ways with the teaser of The Christmas Invasion. It is similar to the way in which the 2007 Children in Need special, Time Crash, links Last of the Time Lords with Voyage of the Damned.


 * Rose's suspicion that this new Doctor may be a Slitheen or other impostor recalls similar suspicions on the part of Ben regarding the newly regenerated Second Doctor in The Power of the Daleks. The Doctor's manic behavior towards the end of the story recalls similar, though much more violent,  "fits" displayed by the Sixth Doctor in The Twin Dilemma.


 * The Cloister Bell was first heard in Logopolis, but would not be named in the new series until Time Crash and would be heard again in The Sound of Drums and at the end of Turn Left

DVD and Other Releases

 * This was released as an extra on the series 2 box set. For viewers in Canada, this was the special's debut as it was not broadcast by the CBC.
 * The Region 2 DVD release accidentally contains a rough-cut version of the special instead of the final version. The Region 1 DVD release contained the correct version.