The True Story Behind Doctor Who's Abandoned Anniversary Movie
How a Doctor Who movie got Lost in the Dark Dimension...
When Christopher Eccleston stated that multi-Doctor stories are "cash grabs", he wasn't far wrong. While the show was off the air, BBC Enterprises, the corporation's marketing arm, went all-in on video releases, books on tape, recorded soundtracks, and novels to keep fan appetites sated during the wilderness years. Their biggest Doctor Who-related project, however, ended up unmade.
Designed as a celebration of the show's 30th anniversary, Doctor Who: The Dark Dimension was intended as a feature-length, straight to video movie. The Dark Dimension is, like Shada, one of Doctor Who fandom's great obsessions.
Despite never having fully entered production, there have been multiple attempts by fans over the years to realise the story as originally intended. Rather than being fandom's white whale, The Dark Dimension, like Shada, is more of a cod - dangerously at risk of overfishing.
As the 60th anniversary of Who is only a year away, and with multi-Doctor stories back in the news, what better time to revisit the story of this abandoned anniversary special? It's time to enter the Dark Dimension...
10. BBC Enterprises Plans An Anniversary Movie
According to The Dark Dimension's scriptwriter Adrian Rigelsford, the planned movie was at the behest of Tom Baker. Speaking to the Space Mountain convention in Clacton-On-Sea in 1993, Rigelsford told fans that:
Tom Baker went to the BBC and said "I would like to be Doctor Who again", and that's the reason why it happened.
Baker apparently had also suggested that the script be written by Douglas Adams. In light of this, and the strong performance of Doctor Who in the home entertainment charts, BBC Enterprises began planning something special in September 1992. A brand new, feature-length episode for exclusive release on home video to mark Doctor Who's 30th anniversary in 1993. Rigelsford's script was commissioned two months later, and was specifically written with Tom Baker's request in mind.
The plot revolved around Hawkspur, a villainous alien who murders the incumbent Seventh Doctor and alters the Doctor's personal timeline so that Tom Baker's incarnation never regenerated. This older 4th Doctor would team up with Ace and the Brigadier to put history back on course. The other surviving Doctors would make brief cameo performances throughout.
While this may have satisfied fans and certain BBC high-ups who felt the series lost its way in the 1980s, it was a storyline that would prove controversial later in the pre-production process...