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Dreamland is an animated special consisting of 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.[3] It will then be broadcast, complete, on BBC Two on 5 December 2009, followed by a showing on BBC HD later that day.[4]
- For other uses, see Dreamland
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.[1]
Plot
A ship is being chased by two white ships it is fired at and crash lands in New Mexico, 3rd of June 1947, at the site of Roswell.
Dry Springs, 11 years later, the TARDIS lands at a diner. He meets two people Cassie Rice and a man called Jimmy. The Doctor notices a piece of alien equipment on the table he 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 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 it is a couger that did that. The Doctor makes Jimmy stop the truck where he sees a large footprint. The three of them are attacked by a large alien the Doctor says it is a Viperox. They run and the Viperox chases it, it is hit by a missile aimed at it by a helicopter. The helicopter lands and a man walks out he introduces himself as Colonel Stark. He arrests the Doctor, Cassie and Jimmy and takes them to Area 51.
At Area 51 the Doctor, Cassie and Jimmy are in a room together. Stark comes in and says there minds are to be wiped completely. He ties them down to tables and turns the gas on. As he walks out the Doctor makes himself free and turns the gas off. He, Cassie and Jimmy escape through a ventilation shaft.
As they get through they come out and go to a corridor. The alarm rings solders come out they hide in a lab where they see a blue female alien sealed off behind glass. Solders burst in the lab 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 there hand up and smile.
In General Starks 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 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 he orders a landing team to search for the Doctor.
The trio are ok they make it out unhurt. They find a ghost town which was abondoned during the gold rush. They enter a room and light a gas lantern. Jimmy goes to look around he finds the floor being completely destroyed. All of a sudden a Viperox arm grabs him and pulls him down into a tunnel.
The Doctor and Cassie hear his pleas they run after his voice. They find Jimmy being tied up in some sort of hardened insect goo. The Doctor confronts the leader Lord Azlok, he detects the doctors 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. All of a sudden 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 attemps to arrest Rivesh. He announces that the plan is to save Earth, but the Doctor doesn't like what he hears.
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.
At Area 51 they all walk in they are suprised to see Lord Azlok there. Azlok says he and Stark have allied together. The Doctor tells Stark not to trust the Viperox. Stark ignores him and 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. A metal slide door opens he sees Seruba behind the glass they both touch the glass.
Mister Dread walks in it is revealed that he was working for Lord Azlok. He has the Ionic Fushion Bar in his hand. The Doctor zaps him with his screwdriver he is shut down again. He grabs the Ionic Fushon Bar and runs of leaving his friends behind.
Stark chases after him, he chases the doctor to a roof, he warns the Doctor to put the Ionic Fushion bar down. He 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. Surbua says there was something 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 loosing. 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. 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. 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.
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 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.
- Although not mentioned, the spaceship and "space junk" is exactly the same as the ship in SJA: Prisoner of the Judoon. The controls are also the same.
- 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 DW: Tooth and Claw and DW: The Shakespeare Code.
- 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" in Part One, the scene in Part Two where they discover the Viperox Queen and her nest of eggs is suggestive of "Aliens"
- The mining cart scene in Part Three could be a slight reference to the cart chase in "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom".
- The warehouse in Part Five could be a visual reference to another Indiana Jones film, "Raiders of the Lost Ark".
Story notes
- The total length of the serial will be 45 minutes, with BBC Two and BBC HD scheduled to broadcast the "omnibus" version.[5][6]
- 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.
- 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.
- Some of the music in this episode is similar to DW: Blink
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.
Discontinuity, Plot Holes, Errors
- In Episode One, if the Viperox and the U.S. Military are supposed to be allied, why does the military helicopter kill the Viperox threatening the Doctor? The soldiers' orders were to bring them in, so the military could obtain the Ionic Fusion Bar and mind-wipe the trio; obviously the orders were by any means necessary.
- Is only Colonel Stark allied with the Viperox? If so, how does Colonel Stark manage to smuggle in Lord Azlok into Area 51? Obviously some soldiers would be in on the conspiracy.
- In Episode Two after arriving in Solitude and lifting a lantern, the Doctor asks for a match even though his sonic screwdriver can light a flame such as in DW: The Girl in the Fireplace. His screwdriver is noisier than a match; as the Viperox have sensitive hearing.
- In episode one in the air vents after the Doctor has escaped by breaking the shackles it cuts to the far corner and the shackles are missing.
Continuity
to be added
Timeline
- Dreamland occurs after: NSA: Prisoner of the Daleks
- Dreamland occurs before: NSA: The Taking of Chelsea 426
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 (more than a year later for North America). It remains to be seen if Dreamland will experience the same release.
DVD and Other releases
Many online retailers and [7] are reporting that Doctor Who: Dreamland will be released on DVD on 2nd February 2010 at an RRP of £12.99.
See also
External links
Footnotes