Time Crash was a special Doctor Who "mini-episode" produced for the 2007 Children in Need appeal. It was written by Steven Moffat, directed by Douglas Mackinnon and featured Robert Carlyle as the Twelfth Doctor and Peter Davison as the Fifth Doctor.
Synopsis[]
The Twelfth Doctor has accidentally piloted his TARDIS into the path of... the Fifth Doctor's TARDIS! As the current Doctor muses over aspects of the Fifth, the Fifth Doctor becomes increasingly worried as their combined TARDISes threaten to rip a hole in space and time the size of Belgium!
Plot[]
The Twelfth Doctor is in flight when the TARDIS goes haywire.
Suddenly, someone else is in the TARDIS: the Fifth Doctor. The Twelfth Doctor realises straight away this is his past incarnation and begins reminiscing about his adventures in his fifth incarnation, much to the latter's confusion. The Fifth Doctor, irritated, decides that the strange, long haired man in his TARDIS is an obsessive fan of his. The Twelfth Doctor, to his own bewilderment, can't convince his past self otherwise, butting back about the Fifth's need for brainy specs and a celery stick as a clothing decoration.
Meanwhile, the temporal collision of the TARDIS with its past (or future) self threatens to tear a hole in the universe the exact size of Belgium, which, as the Fifth Doctor remarks, is a rather undramatic description. The Fifth Doctor despairs of finding a solution in time, but the Twelfth purposefully, if maniacally, manipulates the TARDIS controls, and averts the disaster.
The Fifth Doctor is stunned - firstly at the unexpected solution, as the Twelfth has managed to create a supernova at the exact same time and place as the impending black hole to cancel it out, and then at the realisation that the other man is, in fact, his future self. His later self knew the solution only because he would remember witnessing it now.
The Twelfth Doctor then realises that the Fifth Doctor needs to be to send back to his own place in the timeline by now, and tries to figure out where he was, asking him if Nyssa and Tegan were with him, or whether he has encountered the Cybermen, the Mara, or the Master yet.
But before the Twelfth Doctor sends his past incarnation back, he starts reminiscing once again, telling the Fifth Doctor that he loved being him and having his youth and optimistic worldview. He reveals that a few of his future incarnations took quite a few of his current traits from him, such as the Tenth incarnation sometimes wearing trainers with his outfit. Plus, he demonstrates that his Eighth incarnation had his own "brainy specs".
The two Doctors then bid each other a warm goodbye: "To days to come," says the Fifth, raising his hat. "All my love to long ago," replies the Twelfth with a bow. The timestreams then start separating. As the Fifth Doctor rejoins his timestream, he calls out one last time, warning his future incarnation to put up his TARDIS shields.
But, suddenly, it's too late to put up the shields, and the Doctor turns on the scanner to see a missile in space heading straight towards the TARDIS...
Cast[]
Crew[]
To be added.
Worldbuilding[]
- The Fifth Doctor appears physically older in the presence of the Tenth due to their shorting out of the time differential between them.
- The Twelfth Doctor mentions Nyssa, Tegan Jovanka, the Mara, Cybermen and Time Lords in funny hats.
- The Twelfth Doctor comments on the "fashion choice" of the Fifth Doctor's celery. He also mentions his cricket outfit.
- The Fifth Doctor's parting words warn the Twelfth to put the shields up. Not doing so presumably resulted in a missile directly hitting the TARDIS.
- The Twelfth Doctor makes mention of the TARDIS' Helmic regulator, Zeiton crystals and venting the Thermo-buffer.
Notes[]
- In 1983, The Five Doctors was also broadcast as a part of the Children in Need charity drive, although it had been produced for the show's 20th anniversary.
- The Fifth Doctor mentions that the combined TARDIS's will cause a black hole the size of Belgium. This is likely a reference to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy in which the rudest swear word in the Universe is apparently Belgium, apart from Earth.
- This is the first on-screen TV appearance of the Fifth Doctor since TV: The Day of Vengeance.
- The special was introduced by Terry Wogan and Sheridan Smith.
- According to the writer, Steven Moffat, in an interview with Doctor Who Magazine #389, the events of Time Crash are canonical.
- Incidental music from the Fifth Doctor era is used as part of the background music.
- When the Twelfth Doctor puts on the Eighth Doctor's "brainy specs", he says "Snap!", referring to the children's card game in which players must say "Snap!" when two of the same card are played. The Doctor previously said "Snap!" to himself in The Two Doctors, when the Second and Sixth Doctors met.
- The Twelfth Doctor tells the Fifth that he loved being him, saying that before that he "was always trying to be old and grumpy and important like you do when you're young", presumably referring to previous incarnations such as the First Doctor.
- The Doctors have a slightly testy relationship. The Twelfth Doctor playfully teases his predecessor's decision to wear a stalk of celery in his lapel, while the Fifth Doctor calls his successor a long haired idiot and critiques his tendency to comment on "every single thing that happens to be in front of him." This is consistent with previous televised multi-Doctor adventures that have had the various parties getting on each others' nerves. In keeping with the previous stories, however, differences are set aside for the greater good and the different incarnations part on friendly terms.
- In the Doctor Who edition of Trivial Pursuit, Time Crash is dated to 2007.
Continuity[]
- The Twelfth Doctor mentions that he's not run into the Master for a long time. The Fifth Doctor asks if he still has "that rubbish beard", a reference to the fact that many of the Master's incarnations tend to sport a beard. (TV: Terror of the Autons, Logopolis, et al.)
- The Fifth Doctor previously met the First, Second and Third Doctors in TV: The Five Doctors, as well as the Seventh and Eighth Doctors in TV: The Eight Doctors
- The Tenth Doctor mentions "Time Lords in funny hats", encountered by the Fifth Doctor on his two visits to Gallifrey. (TV: Arc of Infinity, The Five Doctors)
- This is the first televised multi-Doctor story to account for the ageing of the actor returning to play a previous Doctor, by explaining it as a byproduct of being taken out of his timeline - although the concept of time differential was already introduced, and applied to Tegan and Nyssa, in TV: Mawdryn Undead.
- The Cloister Bell is heard. (TV: Logopolis, et al.)
- The Fifth Doctor appears prematurely aged. The Fourth Doctor previously appeared in such a state. (TV: The Leisure Hive) While those instances were done using heavy makeup or CGI, this instance was written in to account for Peter Davison's real aging since his last appearance in the role.
Home video releases[]
DVD[]
- This story was initially released in a vanilla edition alongside A Christmas Carol on 10 March 2008.
- This story was included in Doctor Who: The Complete Forty-Fifth Season along with the rest of the season.
- This story was included in Doctor Who: The Collection - Season 19.
Blu-ray[]
- This story was included in Doctor Who: The Complete Forty-Fourth Season on Blu-ray.