Dimensions in Time (TV story)

Dimensions in Time was a two-part Doctor Who story broadcast in 1993 as a part of that year's Children in Need appeal. It featured Kate O'Mara's last televised performance as, and served as a special celebrating the 30th anniversary of the series. Another peculiarity of the piece was that it featured an unlikely crossover between the Doctor Who universe and long-running soap opera, EastEnders.

It was created to replace a longer, more ambitious planned 30th anniversary special, entitled The Dark Dimension; since the BBC had already obtained, at least in principle, agreement from most of the ex-Doctors to do some sort of anniversary programme, they went ahead with the shorter charity sketch. (DOC: The Seven Year Hitch)

Dimensions was a milestone production in many ways. It was the first and only time that John Nathan-Turner received a writing credit on a televised story, and it attracted the biggest audience of anything he had produced. It was also the final BBC1 appearance for most of the Doctor Who characters involved, the first time in Doctor Who history that 3D technology had been used in the recording and broadcast of a television story and the first time that the televised audience were able to affect the outcome of a Doctor Who story by telephone vote. It was also the first two-part serial since Revelation of the Daleks in 1985 and the last until The End of Time in 2009/2010 (although the revived series featured several two-parter stories before then, the episodes themselves were identified by individual titles rather than numbered episodes).

In an article recapping the experiences with filming on set, Sophie Aldred recounted the rushed environment, but otherwise noted that it still felt like Doctor Who, going as far as to lament that the story was not the start to a new season. (Doctor Who Yearbook 1995) However, many were not satisfied with the story, especially under the context of a celebration of 30 years of the program. Stephen J. Walker, David J. Howe and Mark Stammers gave it a 0/10 and called it "a dreadful travesty of a Doctor Who story". (REF: The Second Doctor Handbook) In his contemporary post mortem in Doctor Who Magazine, Nick Briggs said that in his opinion, "...this was not Doctor Who, just a charity get-together for a very good cause." (DWM 209)

Nathan-Turner, 4 years later, directly attacked those that took the story's production so personally, mocking the supposed need for him to justify the story's validity, alongside the concept of the supposed "Doctor Who mythos". Although, in the process, Nathan-Turner cast a degree of doubt on whether the story was intended to take place in the "real" Doctor Who universe, (DWM 249) multiple later licensed Doctor Who stories would go on to reference its events, with Steven Moffat's later televised sketch Dermot and the Doctor even acknowledging that the Doctor had been to Albert Square before. However, one of these references, an offhand line in the novel First Frontier, sought to dismiss the story as having been nothing more than a bad dream the Doctor had.

Publisher's summary
The First Rani traps the Doctor in his third, fifth, sixth and seventh incarnations, as well as several of his companions, in Albert Square, London in 1973, 1993 and 2013.

Part one
The Rani has captured the First and Second Doctors as part of her plan to assemble a menagerie of all 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.

While the Fourth Doctor attempts to send a warning to his previous and future incarnations, alerting them to the threat, the Rani seizes control of the Doctor's TARDIS, knocking it off course. The Seventh Doctor and Ace, en route to China, find themselves instead materialising in Cutty Sark Gardens in 1973. As they walk, Ace is shocked to see the Doctor turn into his sixth incarnation. He explains they must have encountered a "groove" in time. Continuing their search, Ace finds a clothing stand and is offered a discount by its owner, much to the annoyance of his wife. The Doctor is shocked to discover that they have moved to 1993.

Suddenly, Ace is replaced by Mel and the Sixth Doctor becomes the Third. The Doctor explains to Mel that someone has been going through his timeline, pulling out early versions of himself and his companions. He meets two old shop owners who are selling what he sees as over-priced fruit. The Doctor learns that the year is 2013 just before he jumps in time again.

They 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 turning into past companions. Worse, the Rani has released her menagerie — including an Aldeberian, an Argolin, a biomechanoid, a Cyberman, a Stigorax, a Mentor, an Ogron, a Sandminer robot, a Sea Devil, a Tetrap, a Time Lord, a Tractator, a Vanir and a Vervoid — to attack the Doctors and their companions. The Rani tells the Doctors that they're all going on a journey — a very long journey!

Part two
The Rani is confronted by the Fifth Doctor, who psychically summons the Third Doctor to take his place. Liz attempts to disarm her, but flees when the Time Lady is distracted by a young woman.

The Third Doctor is fortuitously rescued by Bessie, being driven by Mike Yates, who shoots the Rani's gun out of her hand and takes the Third Doctor to a helicopter, where he meets the Brigadier. After turning into the Sixth Doctor, he departs to find his companions.

The Rani, now in her TARDIS, proclaims she only needs one more human to complete her menagerie, and sets a course for the Greenwich Meridian. Discovered by a pair of men, Romana II leaves her hiding place to find the Doctor, but is instead dragged into the Queen Vic pub by the Rani.

The Third Doctor makes it to the TARDIS with Victoria, and, emerging from the TARDIS in his seventh incarnation, sees the Rani's TARDIS materialising and witnesses Leela escaping from it. Leela tells him about the Rani's menagerie of clones, and he explains how the Rani is attempting to transfer a massive Time Tunnel to the Greenwich Meridian. Realising that the Rani is attempting to gain control of evolution, he asks Leela, what form she was in when the Rani cloned her. She responds Romana, there are now two time brains in the Rani's computer.

The Seventh Doctor sets out to override the Rani's computer, and harness the power of the Time Tunnel to pull in the Rani's TARDIS instead of him. He uses his psychic powers to join with his earlier incarnations, then uses a converter linked to the dual time brains in the Rani's computers to propel her TARDIS into her own trap, with his first and second incarnations emerging from the time tunnel. Having freed himself, his past incarnations and all their companions, the Doctor and Ace depart.

Doctor Who

 * Seventh Doctor - Sylvester McCoy
 * Sixth Doctor - Colin Baker
 * Fifth Doctor - Peter Davison
 * Fourth Doctor - Tom Baker
 * Third Doctor - Jon Pertwee
 * The Rani - Kate O'Mara
 * Ace - Sophie Aldred
 * Susan Foreman - Carole Ann Ford
 * Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart - Nicholas Courtney
 * Romana II - Lalla Ward
 * Sarah Jane Smith - Elisabeth Sladen
 * Nyssa - Sarah Sutton
 * Leela - Louise Jameson
 * Peri Brown - Nicola Bryant
 * Melanie Bush - Bonnie Langford
 * Voice of K9 - John Leeson
 * K9 Operator - Matt Irvine
 * Liz Shaw - Caroline John
 * Mike Yates - Richard Franklin
 * Victoria Waterfield - Deborah Watling

EastEnders

 * Gita Kapoor - Shobu Kapoor
 * Grant Mitchell - Ross Kemp
 * Phil Mitchell - Steve McFadden
 * Sharon Watts - Letitia Dean
 * Frank Butcher - Mike Reid
 * Pauline Fowler - Wendy Richard
 * Mandy Salter - Nicola Stapleton
 * Pat Butcher - Pam St. Clement
 * Kathy Beale - Gillian Taylforth
 * Sanjay Kapoor - Deepak Verma
 * Ian Beale - Adam Woodyatt, Tim Handel
 * Sylvia Weng-Chung - Rachel Hiew
 * Maggs - Margaret Heald
 * Big Ron - Ron Tarr (alternate scene in place of Mandy; not in televised version)

Others

 * Cyrian - Sam West
 * Sea Devil - Michael Fillis
 * Ogron - Derek Handley
 * Tractator/Tetrap/Zog/Dragon Operator - Martin Wilkie
 * Argolin - Anthony Hopkinson
 * Cybermen - Tony Kirke, David Miller
 * Fifi operator - Stephen Mansfield
 * Kiv - Philip Newman
 * Mawdryn mutant - Paul Lunn
 * Mogarian - Steven Coats
 * Plasmaton - Tim Packham
 * Ruffian - Alan Cave
 * Time Lord - Andrew Beech
 * Vanir - John Frank Rosenblum
 * Vervoid - Anthony Clark
 * Robot - Ilona MacDonald

Crew

 * Theme Music composed by - Ron Grainer
 * Theme Music arranged by - Cybertech
 * Incidental Music - Keff McCulloch
 * Production Manager - Gary Downie
 * Assistant Floor Manager - Jenny Drewett
 * Visual Effects Designer - Mike Tucker
 * Video Effects - Dave Chapman
 * Graphic Designer - Oliver Elmes
 * Costume Designer - Ken Trew
 * Make-Up Designer - Leslie Smith
 * Designer - Derek Evans
 * Producer - John Nathan-Turner
 * Director - Stuart McDonald

Deleted scenes
There were multiple deleted scenes:
 * The Daleks were to have been featured and their segment was shot, but, due to disputes with Terry Nation's estate, they were removed. (DWM 324)
 * At least two Dalek props, a Grey Dalek, similar in colorisation to those featured in Destiny of the Daleks, and an Imperial Dalek were present on set, with John Nathan-Turner choosing to use the Grey Dalek. While the scene was cut, the Grey Dalek was used in marketing.
 * Several longer versions of the ending were filmed. One features the Doctor asking Ace where she would like to go now. She states "...when you set the TARDIS to go to the Great Wall of China we end up Albert Square." "Well, in that case," the Doctor states, "Let's head for Albert Square".
 * The scene with Big Ron was recorded, but never used, as Mandy won the phone vote.

Ratings

 * Part one - 13.8 million
 * Part two - 13.6 million

Filming locations

 * BBC Elstree, Borehamwood, Hertfordshire
 * Old Royal Naval College, Greenwich, London
 * The Cutty Sark, Greenwich, London
 * National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London

Production errors
to be added

Myths

 * Some fans believed that as this story was produced specially for Children in Need, it could receive only ever one transmission and never be exploited commercially in any way. Actually, the story could in fact be commercially exploited and there are no contractual issues with cast, crew or Children in Need. The real reason that the story has not seen a commercial release is due to the impractically high price that Children in Need has stated for them to allow any commercial usage of the story.

Continuity

 * Sarah is wearing her "Andy Pandy get-up". (TV: The Hand of Fear)
 * Susan refers to the First Doctor as "the original". (TV: The Five Doctors)

Home video

 * This story was produced especially for Children in Need. Dimensions in Time would receive only one transmission and as of 2021, has not seen a commercial release due to the impractically high price that Children in Need requests for a commercial release of the story.