Children in Need

Children in Need is an annual British charity appeal organised by the BBC. Donations are usually collected during telethons during November, and the BBC often commissions special episodes or other productions to air during this time.

Doctor Who has had a long association with Children in Need, and has produced no less than five original productions (four storyline-related, one concert) that were aired as part of the annual appeal.

The first and most extravagant of these was the 90-minute special episode The Five Doctors, which aired in November 1983 to mark the 20th anniversary of the series, which also coincided with that year's Children in Need Appeal.

In 1993, a two-part "mini-story" entitled Dimensions in Time was broadcast. This was a crossover with another popular series, EastEnders, and was originally broadcast in 3-D. All surviving Doctors (including Tom Baker) and many of the surviving companions appeared in this pastiche written by John Nathan-Turner which asked viewers to choose which EastEnders character would "save the day" in the second episode. The special - produced to mark the programme's 30th anniversary in lieu of the cancelled The Dark Dimension, was not well receieved by fans and today is not considered canonical (unlike the other specials).

Since the revival of the series in 2005, Doctor Who has twice presented mini-episodes for Children in Need. The first, known variously as the Pudsey Cutaway or, simply, Children in Need Special, aired in November 2005 and served to introduce audiences to David Tennant as the Tenth Doctor, providing a link between the end of The Parting of the Ways and The Christmas Invasion.

For 2006, the series presented a special televised concert of music from the series (which was later condensed into a special episode of Doctor Who Confidential).

In 2007, another mini-episode was produced to link Last of the Time Lords and Voyage of the Damned: Time Crash was a milestone production for the series revival and it featured the return of Peter Davison as the Fifth Doctor, making it the first multi-Doctor story of the revived series.

For the 2008 appeal, there was insufficient time for the production team to prepare an original production (according to Russell T Davies writing in Doctor Who Magazine), although there were subsequent media rumours of a potential reunion of the surviving Doctors. Ultimately, the show's contribution consisted of the pre-credits teaser from the upcoming Christmas special, The Next Doctor.