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Time Crash (TV story)

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Time Crash was a special "mini-episode" produced for the 2007 Children in Need appeal. It featured a brief encounter between the Fifth and Tenth Doctors and was written by Steven Moffat. It also served as the explanation of how the Doctor's TARDIS was breached by the Titanic at the end of Last of the Time Lords. As such, it was very much a part of the overall continuity of the BBC Wales series of Doctor Who.

Synopsis

After saying his good-byes to Martha Jones at the end of "Last of the TIme Lords", the Doctor ends up accidentally piloting his TARDIS into the path of... the Fifth Doctor's TARDIS! As the current Doctor muses over aspects of the Fifth, the Fifth Doctor becomes increasingly worried as their combined TARDISes threaten to rip a hole in space and time the size of Belgium!

Plot

The Tenth Doctor has just said goodbye to Martha, and is attempting to take off when the TARDIS suddenly goes haywire.

Suddenly, someone else is in the TARDIS, the Fifth Doctor. The Tenth Doctor realises straight away this is his past incarnation and is soon reminiscing about his adventures as the Fifth Doctor, much to the latter's confusion. The Fifth Doctor decides that the strange skinny bloke in his TARDIS is an obsessive fan of his--possibly affiliated with LINDA--and the Tenth, to his own bewilderment, can't convince his past self otherwise. Meanwhile, the collision of the TARDIS with its past (or future) self threatens to tear a hole in the universe; one the exact size of Belgium, which, as the Fifth Doctor remarks, is a rather undramatic description. The Fifth Doctor despairs of finding a solution in time, but the Tenth purposefully, if maniacally manipulates the TARDIS controls and averts the disaster.

Stunned by the unexpected solution, the Fifth Doctor realises that the other man is in fact his future self. The Tenth Doctor bids a warm farewell to his past self; and, with a final warning to his future self to restore the TARDIS shields, the Fifth Doctor rejoins his own timeline.

But suddenly, it's too late to put up the shields... the Titanic has plowed through the wall of the TARDIS.

Cast

Crew

On initial broadcast, the only member of crew credited was writer Steven Moffat.

Uncredited crew

Though the following people were possibly credited in subsequent releases, they were not credited on initial transmission during the Children in Need telecast. The source of this list is likely the Internet Movie Database. Nevertheless, outside the top-line creatives — most of whom are confirmable through Doctor Who Confidential — this list has not been independently verified as of 16th May 2010.

References

  • The Tenth Doctor mentions running into the Master recently. The Fifth Doctor asks if he still has his "Rubbish beard", a reference to the fact that, discounting the decayed version of the Master encountered in The Deadly Assassin and The Keeper of Traken, the Master was bearded. (The Fifth Doctor cannot be taking into account the beardless incarnation of the Master later encountered by the Eighth Doctor.)
  • The Tenth Doctor's reference to Lucy Saxon following a question from the Fifth as to whether the Master still has "that rubbish beard?" is a reference to a term used in gay culture. A "beard" is the wife of a man who has not outed himself but wishes to keep up the appearence of a happilly married heterosexual man. The Master used Lucy Saxon to more plausibly maintain his fictitious identity.
  • The Tenth Doctor asks the Fifth Doctor about Nyssa, Tegan, the Mara, Cybermen and Time Lords in funny hats.
  • The Tenth Doctor mentions the (Fifth) Doctor's celery.
  • The Titanic crashes into the TARDIS at the end of the scene. The Fifth Doctor warns the Tenth to put the shields up. Not doing so resulted in the Titanic crashing into the TARDIS.
  • LINDA are mentioned, indicating that the Fifth Doctor is aware of the group.
  • The Tenth Doctor makes mention of the TARDIS's Helmic regulator, Zeiton crystals and venting the Thermo-buffer.
  • The Doctors have a slightly testy relationship: the Tenth Doctor criticises his predecessor's decision to go "hands free" without a sonic screwdriver and his decision to wear a stalk of celery in his lapel, while the Fifth Doctor calls his successor a skinny idiot and critiques his tendency to comment on "every little thing" he sees. This is consistent with previous televised multi-Doctor adventures that have had the various parties getting on each other's nerves. In keeping with the previous stories, however, differences are set aside for the greater good and the different incarnations part on friendly terms.

Story notes

  • This is the third filmed contribution by the new series production team to Children in Need. In 2005, they had offered the Children in Need Special (aka 'Pudsey Cutaway'). In 2006 they provided a live concert of music during the traditional Children in Need charity time period, and subsequently offered it to home viewers prior to the original broadcast of The Runaway Bride.
  • After it was cancelled, the original series was briefly revived in 1993 for the Children in Need special Dimensions in Time, starring a broad selection of the original cast (many playing their characters for the first and last time since their televised adventures). In 1983, The Five Doctors was also broadcast as a part of the Children in Need charity drive, although it had been produced for the show's 20th anniversary.
  • This story marks the first appearance of a Doctor from the original series in the new series, although recognisable drawings of original series Doctors were previously seen in Human Nature. Archive footage of the previous Doctors would later be used in The Next Doctor and The Eleventh Hour, among other stories.
  • This story is directed by Graeme Harper who also directed Peter Davison's last story (DW: The Caves of Androzani).
  • Steven Moffat (writer) also wrote the Comic Relief story, The Curse of Fatal Death.
  • The special was introduced by Terry Wogan and John Barrowman.
  • Peter Davison's name appears in the credits, the first time (other than the 1996 TV movie) that an original series Doctor has had his name at the start of an episode.
  • The Fifth Doctor remembers how to save the TARDIS when he is the Tenth Doctor because, as the Fifth, he saw what the Tenth did.
  • This is the first official episode of Doctor Who written by Steven Moffat that doesn't use his theme of highlighting childhood fears.
  • This episode marked the final use of the 2005 arrangement of the "Doctor Who theme" by Murray Gold; a new arrangement by Gold would be introduced in the next episode, DW: Voyage of the Damned.
  • According to writer (later executive producer) Steven Moffat, in an interview with Doctor Who Magazine #389, the events of Time Crash are considered canonical.
  • This is the first televised "multi-Doctor" story in the history of the show that did not include Patrick Troughton as the Second Doctor, who had appeared in DW: The Three Doctors, DW: The Five Doctors and DW: The Two Doctors
  • Incidental music from the Fifth Doctor era is used as part of the background music.
  • According to Doctor Who Confidential, the Fifth Doctor's costume consisted of an original series coat, shirt, trousers and hat band borrowed from an exhibit, and a new hat and hand-knitted jumper. The trousers had extra fabric sewn into the bottom, which identified them as the pair worn by Colin Baker in his first scenes as the Sixth Doctor. Peter Davison also remarked that a real stick of celery was included in the ensemble, rather than the fake piece used during most of his tenure.

Ratings

to be added

Filming locations

Myths and rumours

  • When the Fifth Doctor asks if the Master "still has that rubbish beard," the Tenth replies, "No ... well, a wife." This was interpreted by some fans as being a gay culture reference; a "beard" is a slang term for a member of the opposite sex who joins a homosexual individual in a marriage or other relationship in order to mask the fact that one or both partners is gay. Moffat confirmed it as a gay joke in Death Ray Magazine in 2008, when he proudly claimed "I've got the record for gay jokes. I've got the gayest joke of all time in Doctor Who - I've got the "beard" joke about the Master". However, the presence of the joke does not necessarily indicate that the Master, himself, was gay.
  • If what the Tenth Doctor says is correct when describing The Fifth's placement, this story must take place sometime after DW: Arc of Infinity and before DW: Mawdryn Undead for the Fifth Doctor. The Tenth Doctor makes the only references to imagery from the Fifth Doctor era: Nyssa and Tegan (who were with the Fifth Doctor from his first moments) and "Time Lords in funny hats" (presumably recognisable to any incarnation of the Doctor), giving no clear indication from when in his time stream the Fifth Doctor had been.

Production errors

If you'd like to talk about narrative problems with this story — like plot holes and things that seem to contradict other stories — please go to this episode's discontinuity discussion.

Continuity

  • This is the first on screen TV appearance of the Fifth Doctor since DW: Dimensions in Time (and the first 'official' on screen appearance since DW: The Caves of Androzani).
  • This story takes place immediately after Martha leaves the TARDIS in DW: Last of the Time Lords. A cutaway during her farewell in the original episode allows for this episode to occur between that episode and DW: Voyage of the Damned.
  • The Fifth Doctor previously met the First, Second and Third Doctors in DW: The Five Doctors, as well as meeting the Sixth and Seventh Doctors in BFA: The Sirens of Time, the Seventh Doctor again in MA: Cold Fusion and the Eighth Doctor in EDA: The Eight Doctors. He also briefly spoke to the Eighth Doctor over an intercom in BFA: The Four Doctors but was unaware of his identity.
  • LINDA is mentioned, they last appeared in DW: Love & Monsters.
  • The Fifth Doctor encountered "Time Lords in funny hats" in DW: Arc of Infinity and DW: The Five Doctors.
  • The placement of this story for the Fifth Doctor is unclear. The Tenth Doctor makes references to the era (most of which the Fifth Doctor would recognise right from the beginning of his incarnation, however gives no mention of Adric, for obvious reasons), but the Fifth Doctor gives no indication as to which part of his era he might be from.
  • Fifth Doctor identified new series' TARDIS console room's as a desktop theme named "Coral". Also says it to be worse than "leopard skin". His criticism of the TARDIS' redecoration is similar to that made by the Second Doctor to the Third Doctor in DW: The Three Doctors. The revelation that the TARDIS console room design can be changed like a computer desktop clarifies the differing look of the TARDIS interior in DW: Doctor Who, and minor changes seen over the years during the classic series. (The different appearance of the console room during the mid-Tom Baker era (DW: The Hand of Fear, et al) is explained on-screen as being a secondary control room.)
  • This is the first televised multi-Doctor story to account for the aging of the actor returning to play a previous Doctor, by explaining it as a byproduct of being taken out of his timeline.
  • The cloister bell was previously heard in DW: The Sound of Drums.
  • The Tenth Doctor exclaims "Snap!" when displaying his glasses to his younger self. While this is a common expression, it is interesting to note that it is the same word that the Sixth and Second Doctors used to greet each other when they met in DW: The Two Doctors.
  • When the Tenth Doctor tells the Fifth how he loved being him. He told him how before he was him when he first started he "was always trying to be old and grumpy and important like you do when you're young", describing the First Doctor.

Timeline

For the Fifth Doctor:

For the Tenth Doctor:

Home video releases

 
Voyage of the Damned DVD Cover
  • Released in the Series 4 DVD boxset in November 2008 along with the rest of the Series.
  • Released in a vanilla edition alongside Voyage of the Damned on 10th March 2008. Extras include the Children in Need Special: Time Crash and Confidential Cutdown

See also

Multi-Doctor stories

External links

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