Pickled in Time

Still no time for current series reviews, I'm afraid. In the meantime, though, I just sent this to a Doctor Who mailing list:

Jesus on acid, I've just watched Dimensions in Time for the first time.

It seems my Dad recorded it in 1993, when I could't be arsed to watch, and what with recently transferring all his videos to DVD he sent me a copy.

Christ, it's abominable. I'd heard rumours, you know, read reviews, but I never imagined... not in my wildest dreams... that it could possibly... be quite... that... bad.

It makes Divided Loyalties look like The Infinity Doctors. It makes The Five Doctors look like The Tempest. It makes the 2005 Children in Need special look like a bit of the Bible that got lost sometime in the second century that makes the whole of the rest of it comforting, convincing and making perfect sense.

There's a moment in the middle where it almost looks as if there's a danger Peter Davison is going to put in a halfway decent performance, but instead he puts his fingers to his forehead and wobbles them manically around whilst shouting.

If this was John Nathan-Turner's idea of what people expected Doctor Who to be like, then suddenly a lot of things come into sharp focus. What's more, I suspect that if I was familiar with Eastenders it might actually be worse.

It's certainly helped to put in perspective some of my reservations about the use of past companions and continuity in School Reunion.