| Time Crash | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Doctor Who charity special | |||
 TheTenth Doctor compares his attire to his favourite incarnation's clothing, in a scene that was influenced bySteven Moffat's love of theFifth Doctor and positively reviewed by critics. | |||
| Cast | |||
| Production | |||
| Directed by | Graeme Harper | ||
| Written by | Steven Moffat | ||
| Produced by | Phil Collinson | ||
| Executive producers | Russell T Davies Julie Gardner | ||
| Music by | Murray Gold | ||
| Production code | CIN2 | ||
| Running time | 8 minutes | ||
| First broadcast | 16 November 2007 (2007-11-16) | ||
| Chronology | |||
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"Time Crash" is amini-episode of the Britishscience fiction television seriesDoctor Who. It was broadcast on 16 November 2007, as part of theBBC Onetelethon for the children's charityChildren in Need. Written bySteven Moffat, it starredDavid Tennant and brought backPeter Davison asthe Doctor.[1]
The episode, set during the last scene of the previous episode "Last of the Time Lords", depicts a humorous encounter between the Doctor'sfifth andtenth incarnations, played by Davison and Tennant respectively. "Time Crash" was praised by critics who reviewed the episode, and was a ratings success; it was the most-viewed show of the night, and briefly the most-viewed episode ofDoctor Who since 2005, with 11 million viewers.[2]
TheTenth Doctor tries to take off in theTARDIS after saying goodbye toMartha Jones, only for the time machine to spin wildly and sound an alarm. Checking out the systems, the Doctor suddenly collides with hisfifth incarnation, who is doing the same thing. The Tenth Doctor recognises his past self and is delighted to see him, gently poking fun at his particular eccentricities. However, the Fifth Doctor is annoyed, thinking that his counterpart is a "fan" who has somehow broken into the TARDIS.
The Doctors discover that the same TARDIS at different points in time have collided because the Tenth Doctor left his shields down. This creates a paradox that will cause a black hole strong enough to swallow the entire universe. The Tenth Doctor counters it with asupernova, a solution he remembers seeing himself perform in this same incident (apredestination paradox), making the Fifth Doctor realise the Tenth Doctor really is his future self. The Tenth Doctor reminisces as the Fifth Doctor begins to fade into a separate timeline, revealing various traits from his fifth incarnation that he retained for his tenth, and wishes him well.
As the time streams split, the Fifth Doctor calls out, warning the Tenth to put his shields up. TheTitanic collides with the TARDIS.
The episode was first conceived by executive producersJulie Gardner andRussell T Davies, who decided to air an interstitial scene forChildren in Need 2007. Gardner askedSteven Moffat to write the special, with the stipulations the scene could be shot in one day and one set, and require noCGI effects.Peter Davison was approached to reprise his role as the Fifth Doctor in July 2007, and accepted the role to impress his children.[3] The episode was officially announced by the BBC on 21 October.[1]
Moffat's script started by repeating Martha's departure. The script indicated that "this time, we stay with the Doctor. As before ... the Doctor takes a moment, then slam the controls,"[3] and described the Fifth Doctor as having a "frock coat, cricket jersey, and a stick of celery on his lapel". Moffat included several references to Fifth Doctor stories in his script: the Tenth Doctor commented about the Fifth Doctor's attire and his disuse of the sonic screwdriver. A line about the effects of the paradox the TARDIS collision had caused gave an explanation of why the Fifth Doctor looked far older than normal, addressing that Davison had left the role over twenty years before. The Tenth Doctor refers toTegan Jovanka,Nyssa, theCybermen storiesEarthshock (1982) and "The Five Doctors" (1983), theMara serialsKinda (1982) andSnakedance (1983), theTime Lords' "funny hats" fromArc of Infinity (1983), and the variousMaster stories during Davison's tenure.[3]
"Time Crash" was filmed atUpper Boat Studios inUpper Boat,Cardiff, as part of the fourth recording block of thefourth series (which included "Partners in Crime") on 7 October 2007.Graeme Harper, director of Davison's final serialThe Caves of Androzani (1984), directed the episode.[3][4] To replicate the Fifth Doctor's attire, the production team borrowed items from theDoctor Who exhibition inBlackpool and knitted a new cricket jumper to reflect the style worn fromCastrovalva (1982) toWarriors of the Deep (1984).[3] The accompanyingDoctor Who Confidential episode revealed that the trousers Davison wore in "Time Crash" were the same pair thatColin Baker wore in his early scenes inThe Twin Dilemma (1984).[5]
PreviousDoctor Who charity specials transmitted over the years includeDimensions in Time,Doctor Who and the Curse of Fatal Death andthe untitled 2005 special. The anniversary special "The Five Doctors" was broadcast on Children in Need night for its United Kingdom premiere broadcast.[6]
The Children in Need telethon was the most-watched television programme of the night, with a final rating of 9.6 million viewers, and figures peaked between 8:15pm and 8:30pm, when "Time Crash" was aired, with a total of 11.0 million viewers. The episode was therefore the most-viewed since the show's revival in 2005, surpassing the revival's premiere, "Rose", which achieved a rating of 10.8 million viewers.[2] Donations also peaked during the episode's airing.[7] When the episode was replayed four hours later, it garnered an audience of 2.5 million viewers.[8] This rating was later beaten by "Voyage of the Damned", which received 13.3 million viewers.[9]
The episode was positively reviewed by critics. Martin Conaghan ofTV Squad expressed the belief that the episode was "the highlight of the evening". He mainly complimented Moffat for his writing; he said that Moffat "has a knack for clever paradox-style stories, and managed to capture a fantastic little snippet of emotion, harking back to the early days of Doctor Who," specifically praising the farewell scene.[10] Dek Hogan ofDigital Spy mirrored Conaghan's beliefs; he called Moffat's script "witty" and hoped that Davison would return to film a full-length episode.[11]
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