FIVE & TEN WILL GET YOU PLENTY

Last night the BBC hosted the annual "Children In Need" charity telethon, which fetched in a record 19 million pounds. (Don't ask me what that is in American currency. I only dabble in simoleons and quatloos.)

I suppose a lot of that money was generated by grateful fans of 'Doctor Who' because the special featured a seven minute "episode" of the series which fit in nicely between Martha's departure from the TARDIS and the collision with the Titanic (as seen in this season's final episode "The Last Of The Time Lords").

The scene - and I won't call it a sketch; this deserves to be included in the canon! - was entitled "Time Crash", and it featured the return of Peter Davison in the role of the Fifth Incarnation of the Doctor. Apparently, Number Ten forgot to raise the temporal shields of the TARDIS and that caused the ship to merge with itself in the time-stream when they crossed paths.

It was written by the fantastic Stephen Moffatt who must be a walking, breathing computer file on all things "whovian". With only seven minutes to play with, he touched on the Cloister Bell and other forms of TARDIS alarms, the changing styles of the TARDIS interior, past adventures from the era of Number Five (as well as 'Love & Monsters' for Ten), and of course, the celery boutonniere. Just splainin why Doctor Number Five looked so much older than he did when he regenerated would have taken more than that allotted seven minutes in lesser hands. But Moffatt tossed it off with a flippant observation by Number Ten which can now be used to provide the splainin for the same situation in 'The Three Doctors', 'The Five Doctors', and 'The Two Doctors' (and, I suppose, for 'Dimensions In Time').

Number Ten asked Five about where/when he was in their shared timeline. But as usual, he never stopped talking long enough to find out the answer. I'd be curious to know when this took place from the Fifth Doctor's perspective, as none of his companions were about.

But then again, the whole thing took only seven minutes. That might not have been enough time for Peri to step out of the shower, towel off the twins, get dressed and race back to the main console room.

Excuse me for a moment. My brain is apparently freeze-framed on the image of Peri in the shower......

Okay. I'm back.

If I was still running the feature, this would have certainly qualified to be the "Crossover Of The Week", even if it was with itself. (Because of the 'Children In Need' telethon being the showcase - sorry, 'Grim Adventures Of The Kids Next Door'.)

I just hope that when the next DVD collection is put together for 'Doctor Who', this scene is included as an extra!

BCnU!
Toby OB

"Time can take forever."
Olive Snooks
'Pushing Daisies'