Children in Need Doctor Who specials

Cafe Society
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I started watching Doctor Who when Tom Baker was the Fourth Doctor and it aired on PBS stations here in the U.S.

And I followed the 2005 revival and its spinoffs (Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures) with interest.

But somehow, I was never aware of the seemingly quasi-annual tradition of including a canonical Doctor Who short for watchers of “Children in Need,” the BBC’s annual fundraiser/telethony production.

I feel like someone came along and just casually mentioned, “Of course you know there are three more Firefly episodes, right?” How could I have missed these?

My post today is about the Time Crash special that aired seven years ago. I hesitate to spoiler-box something seven years old, but maybe someone else is as addled as I was and has never heard of these either.

I was amazed and delighted at the efforts to preserve canon – especially David Tennant’s explanation of why Peter Davison’s Fifth Doctor looks years older than he did in “real life.”

What else am I missing? Does the Master have his own show? Was there a Cyberman Cooking Channel?

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Not sure if you’ve already seen this: Children in Need | Tardis | Fandom. It has info about all the DW-CiN episodes/material.

Also, search for “doctor who” and “comic relief” to see some DW-themed spoofs and pastiches. The most (in)famous of these was: Doctor Who and the Curse of Fatal Death. BTW, it was written by Steven Moffat.

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There’s really only three Children in Need specials for the revival - 2005, 2007, and 2012. They’ve participated every year, but for 2006, 2010, and 2013, they’ve shown previews of regular episodes, and 2008, 2009, and 2011 were non-canon stuff.

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Other people do parodies as well. Ten & Company doing The Time Warp is so good that the BBC made it part of their Pre-Capaldi specials presented by Five.

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If anyone hasn’t seen it “The Five(ish) Doctors” produced as part of the 50th anniversary is wonderful. (Written and directed by Peter Davison and chockful of in-jokes)

http://www.denofgeek.com/tv/doctor-who/28339/just-brilliant-doctor-who-the-fiveish-doctors-reboot

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There’s also one for “Red Nose Day”, an entirely different charity.

Part 1 : Doctor Who: Time - Part One | Comic Relief 2011 - YouTube

Part 2 : Doctor Who: Time - Part Two | Comic Relief 2011 - YouTube
And some mini episodes

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I still think that Rowan Atkinson’s dry, sarcastic Doctor was an excellent interpretation. “I can still hear you.”

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I still occasionally refer to breasts as ‘Dalek bumps’, all these years later.

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I actually think Rowan Atkinson would make a great Doctor. And he would have been a great Voldemort if they had gone that way.

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I always like seeing Richard E. Grant in there, too: he was the agent of the Great Intelligence recently, but he almost made it to Ninth Doctor status with the Cosgrove-Hall animated Scream of the Shalka, which was cheaply animated but a fascinating look at the direction Doctor Who almost took before the relaunch. For the OP, the animated David Tennant story Dreamland is also well worth your time even despite the Playstation quality of the animation: try watching it with the picture off…

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There was a mini episode released before the Day Of The Doctor 50th special called Night Of The Doctor, it was excellent.

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So now both Marwood and Withnail have played the Doctor.