Doctor Who was dead. The show had been cancelled, so marketing department BBC Enterprises were somewhat surprised when Tom Baker turned up and explained hed like to play the Doctor again. He outlined an idea for a straight-to-video special in which an alteration to history prevented the fourth Doctors death at Logopolis, reducing the other Doctors to cameo appearances and radically redesigning the Daleks and Cybermen. While the film was eventually scuppered by a tide of legal and logistical problems, it did pave the way for all surviving Doctors to appear in a charity special for the shows anniversary. The result was Dimensions In Time, a two-parter screened as part of Children In Need that threw every fad and idea into the mix. As well as seeing the return of multiple companions and monsters, the show was also an Eastenders crossover, hopping about between multiple periods of Albert Squares history. Viewers could influence the story with a telephone vote (helping to raise charity funds in the process), low-rent 3D graphics were used to provide special effects (Tom Baker opens proceedings surrounded by swirling cubes and cones while talking into a radio microphone) and just to top it off, the whole thing was filmed in 3D. The plot is largely incomprehensible, with Doctors and companions alike swapping around at random and phrases like Time Brain being bandied around small wonder Amy worried her baby might grow up with a Time Head. While the special reached viewing figures comparable to todays Christmas Specials, its hard to call it a success it was no more a celebration of Doctor Who than projectile vomit is a celebration of food. It may have been declared posthumously non-canonical, but this was the classic production teams last hoorah and the single most absurd thing theyve ever done.
