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Dreamland is an animated special consisting of a 12 minute episode and five 6 minute episodes. Originally planned as seven 6 minute episodes, the first two were edited together, and the five part run aired on the BBC's Red Button service, as well as the BBC's Doctor Who website, between 21 and 27 November 2009. It was then broadcast, complete, on BBC Two on 5 December 2009, followed by a showing on BBC HD later that day. It is now shown on CBBC from time to time in its complete form.
Synopsis
During a visit to a local diner, the Doctor stumbles upon a mysterious alien artefact that leads him on a mission to rescue Rivesh Mantilax from the threat of the Viperox and the clutches of the American military.
Plot
A ship is being chased by two white ships. It is fired at and crash lands in New Mexico, 13th of June 1947, at the site of Roswell. Dry Springs, 11 years later. The TARDIS lands at a diner. The Doctor meets two people: Cassie Rice and a man called Jimmy. He notices a piece of alien equipment on the table, picks it up and it activates. Two men in black park outside the diner. One walks in after a small confrontation. They end up having a brawl. He chases the trio out and they get in Jimmy's truck. Jimmy and Cassie tell the Doctor of the Roswell crash and how near they are to Area 51. Jimmy is convinced that aliens have been killing his cattle as he works at a ranch. Cassie says a cougar did it. The Doctor makes Jimmy stop the truck where he sees a large footprint. The three of them are confronted by a large alien which the Doctor says is a Viperox. Cassie screams piercingly, angering the alien, who threatens to attack them. Jimmy catches and restrains Cassie, and the three of them run for their lives as the Viperox chases them. Suddenly, the Viperox is hit by a missile aimed at it by a helicopter. The helicopter lands and a man walks out and arrests them and takes them to Colonel Stark at Area 51. At Area 51 the three are locked up in a room together, until Stark arrives and tells them that their minds are to be wiped completely. The Doctor, Cassie and Jimmy are escorted to the lab by soldiers, who strap them down on operating tables and turn on the gas. Stark taunts the captives for a short while before leaving the room. As he walks out the Doctor manages to free himself and turn off the gas. He then releases Cassie and Jimmy, and the three of them escape through a ventilation shaft. As they get through they come out and go to a corridor. The alarm rings, and soldiers come out. They hide in a lab where they see a blue female alien sealed off behind glass. Soldiers burst in the lab and the Doctor, Cassie and Jimmy go up a lift. Once the lift gets to the top they are faced with armed gunmen. The Doctor tells his new friends to put their hands up and smile. In General Stark's office, a Viperox threatens Colonel Stark that the Colonel's failure would have dire consequences for the Earth.
The Doctor, Cassie, and Jimmy are being lead to the gas room when they come across an alien ship. The Doctor uses his sonic screwdriver and lowers it. All three enter it and the Doctor launches it. The controls are a bit wonky. General Stark is in the room with the Viperox Leader. He notes that this Doctor is not human. The space ship crash lands. Stark detects this and orders a landing team to search for the Doctor. The trio makes it out of the crash unhurt. They find a ghost town which was abandoned during the gold rush. They enter a room and light a gas lantern. When Jimmy goes to look around he finds the floor being completely destroyed. A Viperox arm grabs him and pulls him down into a tunnel. The Doctor and Cassie hear his cries and run after his voice. They find Jimmy being tied up in some sort of hardened insect goo. The Doctor confronts the leader Lord Azlok, who detects the Doctor's two hearts. While he is distracting them, Cassie lets Jimmy free. In a bid for protection Cassie chucks the gas light at the Viperox leader and his guards. The Doctor, Cassie and Jimmy run down a tunnel and find eggs of hatched Viperox. The Doctor discovers the Viperox have laid eggs and not brought an army being very clever. A few tens of young Viperox surround the Doctor, Cassie and Jimmy.
The Viperox Queen is annoyed at the Doctor, so she orders her troops to attack him and his friends. The Doctor, Cassie and Jimmy run and find a mine cart. The Doctor sets it to go and sets a trap for the baby Viperox. The Viperox get hit in this trap and fall down. The cart speeds along but it crashes into a rock. They climb out the cart and find four members of the Alliance of Shades. These people were sent to find alien invasions on level five planets and cover them up. Mister Dread, leader of the alliance and the man who attacked Jimmy, is there. The Doctor says they will destroy anything that knows about alien invasions. Their hands turn into guns and they attempt to vaporize the Doctor, Cassie and Jimmy. They, who turn out to be robots, are immobilised by arrows and defeated by Jimmy's grandfather Night Eagle. Night Eagle takes them to an alien he found called Rivesh Mantilax. Rivesh tells the doctor that his wife Seruba Velak is the alien the Doctor, Cassie and Jimmy found earlier, who crash landed in 1947. After the Viperox hit their ship, Rivesh tried to find her but he was gunned down. The reason why he came to Earth was the Viperox were at war with his species and almost killed them all. After Rivesh has told his story General Stark walks in and attempts to arrest Rivesh. He announces that the Doctor helped him save the world, but the Doctor feels like that is a bad thing.
The Doctor, Cassie, Jimmy and Night Eagle are being transported to Area 51 by the US army. Night Eagle says that people like Stark are hell bent on destruction. When they arrive at Area 51, they are surprised to see Lord Azlok there. Azlok says he and Stark have formed an alliance. The Doctor tells Stark not to trust the Viperox. Stark ignores him and Azlok proceeds to tell them about what Rivesh did to the Viperox trying to destroy the universe. Stark uses his computer to view what Rivesh is doing he is on a wheelchair. He also reveals that he plans to use the Ionic Fusion Bar to destroy New Russia. A metal slide door opens he sees Seruba behind the glass they both touch the glass. Mister Dread walks in, and it is revealed that he was working for Lord Azlok. He has the Ionic Fusion Bar in his hand. The Doctor zaps him with his screwdriver he is shut down again. He grabs the Ionic Fusion Bar and runs off, leaving his friends behind. Stark chases the Doctor to a roof and warns the Doctor to put the Ionic Fusion bar down. The Doctor turns Stark around on the idea that the Viperox are enemies. Azlok bursts in and says he will destroy the earth. He then flies off.
The Doctor and Stark run down to the room where Rivesh and Seruba are. Cassie, Jimmy and Night Eagle are there and Seruba is cradling Rivesh; he is near death. Seruba says there was something in the ship that could revive him. Stark says that anything found in the ship was stored in Area 51 Vault. The Doctor, Cassie, Jimmy, Seruba and Stark arrive at the vault. The Doctor asks Jimmy and Cassie to defend the TARDIS and nearby Dry Springs. Inside the Vault, the Doctor and Seruba go and look for the device they need. In the Viperox lair Azlok gets the Viperox Queen to release her newly hatched brood, so that they will destroy the whole town. The Doctor in the Vault comes across the Skorpius Flies, an alien brain with alien flies hovering round the brain. Seruba tells the doctor she has found the device that could revive Rivesh. The Skorpius Flies chase after them until the doctor finds a crate and hides inside. At the Area 51 base Stark is informed that they are getting reports of Viperox attacks. He orders a row of tanks to block the Viperox off. The Doctor and Seruba avoid the flies by escaping in the crate that they are hiding in. Cassie and Jimmy are driving along with the TARDIS strapped to their pick-up. Viperox begin to emerge from the ground and one bursts its way up in front of Jimmy's truck.
Jimmy manages to swerve and drives off while the Viperox chase them. Helicopters fly over head and fire at flying Viperox. Stark is annoyed that they are losing. Lord Azlok storms in and tries to get the truth of where the Doctor is. The Doctor and Seruba meanwhile have escape the vault, then they drive a Jeep to the base, where they see that it's under heavy attack. The Doctor is worried until Jimmy and Cassie show up with the TARDIS strapped to the back of their truck. They all travel in the TARDIS to the room in Area 51 where Rivesh is dying. In the nick of time, Seruba revives Rivesh. The Doctor asks for the device to be activated and Rivesh relishes the thought of killing the Viperox. However, the Doctor warns him not to detonate it, or it will completely wipe the Viperox out not only on Earth, but in the entire universe. He reinstates his beliefs and tells him that no-one should have the power to exterminate an entire species. Rivesh returns the favour of his revival and trusts the Doctor with the device. The Doctor uses his sonic screwdriver on it and then he rushes into the TARDIS and grabs a cable. At that moment, Azlok holds Jimmy hostage at the entrance to the TARDIS, threatening to kill him if the Doctor detonates it. The Doctor says he isn't going to set it off and explains that one day the Viperox will become a peace-loving race. Azlok dismisses this as madness, to which the Doctor replies that one thing the TARDIS does have is a killer-sound system; the Doctor connects the cable to the device and unleashes a deafening soundwave that affects all the Viperox in the area. On the Doctor's orders, they retreat, flee Earth and don't come back. Before he flees, Azlok furiously snarls that ""Your day will come, Doctor!", though, as before, the Doctor is dismissive of this threat of his impending death. After the attack Stark thanks the Doctor and Seruba and Rivesh leave in their ship. Stark tells them to keep quiet about the events and then the Doctor suggests that Cassie and Jimmy clear up the Viperox mess. As the TARDIS departs, Cassie and Jimmy hold hands.
Cast
Production crew
to be added
References
- The term "fallen angel" for a crashed alien vessel is also used in K9TV: Regeneration.
- The Doctor states that he isn't Human, and that being human or Time Lord is really just a matter of "accidental" spatial geography.
- The Doctor discusses the Cold War.
- The Doctor references the "optimism" of the 1950s, including that it was generally believed that humans would have flying cars in "ten years".
- When the Russians are referred to as "Reds", the Doctor momentarily confuses them with the English football team Manchester United.
- The spaceship and controls are exactly the same as the ship featured in SJA: Prisoner of the Judoon. In that episode Mr Smith mentioned that a spaceship crashed in Roswell, New Mexico in 1947, and that Androvax had used Mr Smith to acquire the schematics of the ship from the Dreamland base in Arizona.
- The Doctor says when being attacked by the Viperox Queen he said: "I don't think she's amused, I have that effect on royalty." A reference to past negative encounters with British royalty in DW: Tooth and Claw and DW: The Shakespeare Code, and as referenced in DW: The End of Time.
- Before they escape the gas chamber through air vents, the Doctor mentions "Star Wars","Alien", "Aliens", "Die Hard", "Die Hard 2" and "Die Hard 3" (all of which contain sequences in which characters have to escape from a seemingly enclosed area; usually through air vents).
- As the Doctor mentioned "Alien" and its sequel "Aliens", the scene where they discover the Viperox Queen and her nest of eggs is very suggestive of "Aliens". Also the manner in which the Viperox eggs open is also reminicsent of the way Alien eggs open in the films.
- The mining cart scene could be a slight reference to the cart chase in "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom".
- The warehouse could be a visual reference to another Indiana Jones film, "Raiders of the Lost Ark", as well as "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull", in which the warehouse is called "Hangar 51".
- The warehouse entrance resembles the entrance to the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository, located near the Area 51 base.
- "All I Have to Do Is Dream" by the Everly Brothers is heard playing when the Doctor first enters the diner.
- The Doctor once again claims to be 900 years old, though he's clearly rounding down at this point, having previously stated 903 in DW: Voyage of the Damned.
- When Saruba Velak and the Doctor elude the Skorpius flies by hiding in a crate it may be a reference to Solid Snake's form of hiding in the Metal Gear Solid series.
Story notes
- The total length of the serial is 45 minutes, or roughly the length of a standard live-action episode.
- Although produced and broadcast during the period the 2009 Specials were airing, Dreamland is not considered part of that series of stories, much as DW: The Infinite Quest is not considered part of Series 3.
- Dreamland is an alternate name for the secretive Area 51 U.S. Air Force base in Groom Lake, Nevada. It is the subject of many conspiracy theories, some of which involve the alleged Roswell crash debris and bodies being studied there. Area 51 and Roswell do feature in the story. Many years later, Mr Smith mentioned that a spaceship crashed in Roswell, New Mexico in 1947, and that Androvax had used Mr Smith to acquire the schematics of the ship from the Dreamland base in Arizona. The spaceship and controls were exactly the same as the ship featured in this story. (SJA: Prisoner of the Judoon)
- This story is next animated episode after DW: The Infinite Quest, which was aired during 2007 as part of Totally Doctor Who.
- Voice actor Lisa Bowerman is best known for playing Bernice Summerfield in the Big Finish Productions audio dramas (for which she currently directs productions); she was also a guest star in the 1989 serial DW: Survival as Karra.
- David Warner has also been involved in the Big Finish audio dramas, most notably playing an alternate version of the Doctor in the Doctor Who Unbound series.
- Music previously heard in Doctor Who is reused in this story.
- A shortened version of the Doctor Who theme and opening credits accompany the edited-together version of the story (unlike The Infinite Quest which used a full-length opening credit sequence).
- Unlike The Infinite Quest, Dreamland was rendered in computer generated CG in a pose to pose style animation method.
- Dreamland was originally broadcast in six parts, the cliffhangers were: Azlok threatening Colonel Stark, The Doctor discovering the Viperox queen, Colonel Stark finding Rivesh Mantilax, Azlok announcing his plan to "turn Earth to shreads" and Jimmy and Cassie encountering the Viperox as they try to get the TARDIS back to the Doctor.
- Acording to the Christmas Eve commentary, the first episode was originally two, with the cliffhanger being Colonel Stark preparing to use the mindwipe chamber. However it was later edited into a double length episode.
- The DVD and TV repeats use the 45 minute version, however, the six part version is still availible to watch on the Doctor Who website.
Ratings
to be added
Rumours
to be added
Myths
- Shortly after this serial was announced, there were persistent rumours that this animated adventure would involve the Tenth Doctor being trapped in a dream-like place, hence the title, wherein he encounters each of his past incarnations, taking advantage of the animated format of the adventure to bring back Doctors played by actors who are now deceased. The rumour stated that the deceased Doctors' voices will be performed using voice actors or, where possible, using archived audio clips. This was also to be how actors who do not wish to return to the show (stating an example as being Christopher Eccleston) would have been included in the special, as the aforementioned "hold-outs" had supposedly agreed that their likenesses can be used in the adventure. The broadcast of the serial, however, confirmed that this was not the case. It should be noted that such a scenario (the Tenth Doctor meeting visions of his former selves) already played out in the comic series IDW: The Forgotten.
- Cassie Rice is thought to be the Doctor's daughter in disguise, but this is mere speculation based on the fact that Georgia Moffett plays both characters.
- Some viewers thought the fighters chasing the saucer were too advanced for 1958; in fact, they appear to be F-100 Super Sabres, which were in service from 1954 to 1961.
Production errors
Production errors on an animated story are particularly hard to assess. Some degree of artistic license is to be expected; the production intent is not really to give a perfect emulation of a live-action shot. Thus, the much-criticized movement style of particularly the humanoid characters in this story can't be considered a "production error". The producers chose a particular physics model and used it consistently throughout the production, even though it gives characters like the Doctor a not-very-David-Tennant-like way of walking and talking. Nevertheless there does seem to be at least one movement pattern that breaks the logic of the movement physics. On several occasions, Azlok's head can be seen to actually pass through his shell, seemingly indicating a glitch in the collision detection code.
Another type of error that occurs in animation is when an object disappears from a location where it would logically be. During the sequence where the Doctor and his companions escape from the room where they were to be gassed, he throws his shackles to a particular spot on the floor. Yet when he ascends to the air vents and the camera looks back to that spot, the shackles are no longer there.
There are also a number of design errors with respect to backgrounds and object models. It is hard to definitively call these errors, because it must always be considered that the Doctor Who universe is not the same thing as the real world. What we know to be true in our universe does not necessarily obtain in the DWU. Just because Tony Blair was the British Prime Minister in the real world's 2007 doesn't mean that he was so in the DWU's 2007. However, the following errors are so minor, and so unremarked upon by the script, that they appear to be unintentional, and therefore errors on the part of the concept illustrators. Were this a live-action production they would likely be considered costuming, graphics or props errors. All of them display a lack of detailed knowledge about the United States by the British production staff.
- The opening sequence is set in 1947. As the craft crashes in the background in 1947, a road sign is seen to display the Interstate 25 shield. The Interstate System wasn't introduced until 1956. Additionally, I-25 runs more than 200 KM (100 miles) west of Roswell at its closest approach.
- On a close up on a group of American soldiers, the rank insignia on the caps is of the silver eagle, indicating that they are all colonels.
- The two US flags next to the door that Lord Azlok breaks through are the current 50-star flags, not the 48-star flag that would have been period-appropriate. In 1959, the US issued a 49-star flag, followed by the 1960 unveiling of the 50-star flag.
- After escaping the gas room, they enter "Lab 51" which has on the door "Authorised Personnel Only". Being an American facility, the spelling should have been "Authorized".
- The rifles in use by the US Army personnel appears to be the M1 Carbine, a semiautomatic weapon. However, the animation given to the rifles is that of a fully automatic weapon. Since this isn't a stylistic choice — there appears to be nothing about the animation engine that would have prevented suggesting a more semi-automatic style of firing —it appears to be a genuine animation error. An equivalent error in live-action production would be a property master giving a period revolver to a character only to have the foley department provide the sound of a sub-machine gun.
In addition to these "Americana" errors, an error creeped into the omnibus edition, which wasn't present in the original serialised version. When the Doctor and his companions get recaptured, Stark picks up the radio and hears the phrase "Prisoners have been recaptured". This tiny line of dialogue is missing from the soundtrack of the omnibus —and thus the DVD — even though the colonel still visually reacts to it.
Continuity
- The Doctor is called 'Doc' by Jimmy, which the Doctor dislikes. He previously been called Doc inDW: The Five Doctors.
- The Doctor seems to be rounding his age as he says that he is 900 in this story, but inDW: The End of Time, he says he is 906.
- The spaceship held in Dreamland was reproduced in SJA: Prisoner of the Judoon. In the same episode, Mr Smith hacked into the base's computer systems to gain access to the ship's designs.
Timeline
- Dreamland occurs after: DW: The Waters of Mars
- Dreamland occurs before: DW: The End of Time
Although there is nothing in the story that gives any indication as to when it takes place in the Doctor's timeline, writer Phil Ford has stated that it is set after the events of DW: The Waters of Mars. This is supported by The End of Time which established that following his encounter with Ood Sigma at the end of Waters of Mars, the Doctor fled and had numerous adventures before his next encounter with the Ood.
Home video releases
Dreamland was released on DVD in the UK on 2nd February 2010 at an RRP of £12.99 (UK). A North American DVD release is scheduled for 5 October 2010, after initially being announced for release on 4 May
Also included on a second disk is all three episodes of Doctor Who Greatest Moments: The Doctor, The Companions and The Enemies
International broadcast
At present, there has been no indication whether Dreamland will be broadcast, or made available online (officially) outside the UK. Most original video content on the BBC website is "geolocked" and restricted to UK users only. It is assumed Dreamland will be likewise restricted. The previous animated serial, DW: The Infinite Quest, was never broadcast in North America or Australia, and remained unavailable there until its DVD release. This appears to be the case with Dreamland, as well. However this story aired in New Zealand as part of UKTV's Doctor Who Weekend