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Dimensions in Time is a charity special crossover between the British science fiction television series Doctor Who and the soap opera EastEnders. The special was broadcast in two parts on 26 and 27 November 1993 and was filmed on location at Greenwich and the EastEnders Albert Square set.
- Publisher's summary
- Plot
- Cast
- Crew
- Worldbuilding
- Notes
- Continuity
- Home video
The 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 Neomorph 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; the Doctor realises this means 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
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
•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
•Dr Legg and Arthur Fowler are mentioned.
•The Rani's menagerie includes an Aldeberian, an Argolin, a Biomechanoid dragon, a Cyberman, a Stigorax, a Mentor, an Ogron, sandminer robot D84, a Sea Devil, a Tetrap, a Time Lord, a Tractator, a Vanir and a Vervoid.
•The special had the working titles of 3-Dimensions of Time and •Noel Edmonds announced on the 27 November edition of Noel's House Party (during which part two of Dimensions would be broadcast) that the phone-in vote started the previous night to determine the outcome for resolving part one's cliffhanger had raised over £101,000 just prior to the second part airing.
•Because William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton were both deceased by the time the 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 actors' heads were fashioned and filmed. This approach also served as a safeguard against the possibility of any of the other Doctors proving unable or unwilling to appear, as they could then be incorporated into the story in the same manner.
•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, as the original console room for the series had already been destroyed.
•Ace, Leela, Romana, Victoria, Mel, Mike and Sarah Jane are seen wearing clothes similar to (or at least suggested by) what they wore in the series; Sarah Jane, for example, is wearing her Andy Pandy overalls from her final regular serial, The Hand of Fear despite having since adopted a more mature wardrobe in K9 and Company and The Five Doctors. While Leela's primitive garb is evocative of her typical series costume, she is without her standard boots and is instead barefoot which was previously the case only when swimming in the TARDIS swimming pool at the start of her final regular serial, The Invasion of Time. Liz and Peri are wearing clothes of a type they could have worn. Nyssa is shown wearing a regular Earth-style blouse rather than something closer to what she might have worn during her time with the Doctor.
•Louise Jameson had agreed to reprise the role of Leela on the condition that she would not wear her original, skin-baring outfit, which she had kept as a memento after leaving the series. Unfortunately, the best alternative that designer Ken Trew was able to find was an unflattering Hiawatha costume.
•Lalla Ward, as Romana II, gets the honour of referencing the play on the name Doctor Who. She is also the only Doctor Who character seen on her own during the story.
•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)
•This story was produced specially for Children in Need. Dimensions in Time would receive only one transmission and as of 2023, has not seen a commercial release due to the impractically high price that Children in Need requests for a commercial release of the story.
Dimensions in Time and Space. As Doctor Who ’s 50th anniversary year got underway, DWM changed size. The magazine had been produced in an A4 format since Issue 217 in 1994, but Issue 456 saw the magazine become slightly shorter and slightly wider...
- Doctor Who Magazine
The Time Scales presents 37 community ratings and 41 reviews for Doctor Who Dimensions in Time.
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Plot. The Fourth Doctor transmits a distress call, as the Rani kidnaps the First and Second Doctors. The Seventh Doctor and Ace find themselves diverted to London's East End, in the vicinity of Albert Square, Walford.
Nov 5, 2023 · Doctor Who has seemingly confirmed that its absurd 30th anniversary special, "Dimensions in Time" is canon, and is also hugely important to the story of the Seventh Doctor (Sylvester McCoy) and Ace (Sophie Aldred).
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Nov 15, 2013 · Dimensions in Time: A Positive Outlook on 30 Years of Who. Doctor Who, Features, News. Ahead of tonight’s Children in Need, John Hussey looks back on the most notorious special to come from the event. I’m a firm believer that one must appreciate the things in life they love the most.
