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Synopsis
The Doctor has just regenerated. But can Rose trust a man with a new face?
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 (archival footage)
- Ninth Doctor - Christopher Eccleston (archive footage)
Crew
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References
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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 DW: 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.
- At 7 minutes long the Children in Need Special holds the record for the shortest 'single episode' of Doctor Who ever, just beating DW: 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. In 2009, the series Tonight's the Night broadcast a 3-minute mini-episode based on Doctor Who, however the actors break character and so it isn't considered canonical.
- The mini-episode aired the same day the movie Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire was released. The film features Tennant as villain Barty Crouch Jr.
Title controversy
As the special provides no on-screen title (the only previous occasion in which this occurred being the DW: 1996 TV movie), there has been some debate over what title to attribute to this story.
- The title Children in Need Special is the one that has been accepted by most resources and, most significantly, is the title used by BBC Video for its DVD release of the story.
- Russell T Davies joked that the title was the Pudsey Cutaway, a reference to Mission to the Unknown (also known as the Dalek Cutaway), with the name Pudsey referring to the Children in Need mascot.
- The working name of this episode was reportedly Regeneration Facts[source needed].
- According to the 2009 book Companions and Allies this episode is titled Born Again, however a review of the book in Doctor Who Magazine #409 disputes the accuracy of this claim and, as noted before, BBC Video has not used this title for its official release of the story. Precedent has previously been set, with DW: An Unearthly Child, DW: The Daleks and other early stories for which their overall titles were disputed, that the title used for home video releases be cited as the official title.
Ratings
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Myths
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Filming Locations
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Discontinuity, Plot Holes, Errors
- How does the Doctor know that Jack is Okay? (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 DW: Utopia, exactly how the Doctor was aware of these things has yet to be revealed. The Doctor mentions to Jack in Utopia that he knew he was immortal now, and left him behind because of that reason.)
- Why would Rose think the Doctor is a Slitheen? In DW: World War Three, he told her that Slitheen can only fit inside the bodies of overweight people (She was confused because she did not understand what was happening to the Doctor, and was grasping for explanations at this point. It was not an entirely unreasonable idea, as she knew the Slitheen did use teleports and hide inside humanoid skins.)
Continuity
- This story directly connects the final moments of DW: The Parting of the Ways with the teaser of DW: The Christmas Invasion.
- Rose's suspicion that this new Doctor may be a Slitheen or other impostor recalls similar suspicions on the part of Ben Jackson regarding the newly regenerated Second Doctor in DW: 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 DW: The Twin Dilemma.
- The Cloister Bell was first heard in DW: Logopolis, but would not be named in the new series until DW: Time Crash and would be heard again in DW: The Sound of Drums, DW: Turn Left, and DW: The Waters of Mars
DVD and Other Releases
- This was released as an extra on the series 2 box set. For viewers in North America, this was the special's debut as it was not broadcast outside of the UK.
- 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.