New Doctor Who Guide: Children in Need Special

With the advent of new actor David Tennant playing the Doctor (the 10th!), it seems a good time to start reviewing new episodes as they come out. When the new season starts properly in the spring, these should come out a week or two after the program has originally aired, to give people who want it a chance to find and watch the episode before being spoiled on any of the details here. For those familiar with it, I will be following a format adapted from The Discontinuity Guide, which has previously been adapted by others to review novels and audio adventures. Since I have a little bit of catching up to do, I'll start out with the short post-regeneration sequence that was featured as part of the recent "Children in Need" fundraising event. Since this episode lasted all of 7 minutes, this entry will be a comparatively short one, with several items missing ("Dialogue Disasters" and "Dialogue Triumphs," for example, will be included when appropriate.). Also, if anyone finds that I've gotten something wrong, or feels that I should have added something, please feel free to let me know in a comment, and I will correct the entry. I'll have a larger entry next week when I get around to reviewing "The Christmas Invasion."

Children in Need Special

Continuity:
Links:Immediately after regenerating, the Doctor intends to take Rose to Barcelona ("The Parting of the Ways"). Rose thinks that the new Doctor might be the result of nanogenes ("The Doctor Dances"), or that he may be a Gelth ("The Unquiet Dead") or a Slitheen ("Aliens of London"/"World War III"/"Boom Town"). The new Doctor recounts his first meeting with Rose ("Rose") to prove his identity to her. The luminous gas escaping from the Doctor's mouth appears to be related to the time energies he removed from Rose which caused this regeneration ("Parting of the Ways"). As the TARDIS speeds toward Earth, the Cloister Bell sounds ("Logopolis").

Location: The TARDIS Console Room, en route to Barcelona, 5006; then en route to contemporary London at Christmastime.

Untelevised Adventures: The Doctor asks if Rose remembers "hopping for [their] lives."

The Bottom Line: In the span of less than 7 minutes, Rose is given a nice bit of characterization, and David Tennant as the Tenth Doctor holds promise, although there is little to be gleaned about his personality given the post-regeneration instability.