Animated Specials Review
Animated Specials
Doctor: Tenth Doctor
The Animated Specials are generally harmless fun, but don’t offer anything special.
The Review
The Infinite Quest was initially aired as bunch of shorts on CBBC, and they’re stitched together here. It’s basically a quick animated version of The Key To Time with the Doctor and Martha being set up by Baltazar, a criminal to go on a fetch quest to find data chips to bring him to an ancient ship called the ‘Infinite’. In their adventures we see a planet run by ‘Oil Corp’ (very original), the best of the lot, a bug vs human war with a gun running frog ‘Mergrass’ voiced by Paul Clayton, which was a delight. Following that it was to Volag-Noc, the prison where Baltazar escaped from, then to the ruin of the Infinite itself, which lacked any power anymore to do what it wanted. There’s nothing objectionable, but the animation isn’t that great. At least we really have Tennant and Agyeman providing the voices, so that’s fun enough. It’s just a little piece of Doctor Who history.
Dreamland manages to have an even worse animation style, although by the end you’re used to it enough that you forget the flaws. In an obvious turn Doctor Who finally tackles the Roswell incident, and we get the Tenth Doctor in the deserts of New Mexico. It’s a suitably twisty plot that the classic series would have, and even manages to have some continuity with The Sarah Jane Adventures episode a year later. We meet the Viperox, as well as the unnamed classic Roswell alien design and in an all time surprise a straight-shooting US colonel turns good. Dreamland also has an incredibly rare Native American character and minor subplot which was nice to see. The plot is better than The Infinite Quest, but the animation is certainly a step down. Still, at only 46 minutes edited into one omnibus, it doesn’t overstay its welcome.
It makes sense considering that these were never intended to be seen by many people, but they’re so disposable. I finally decided to review them by admitting they were shown on television and a streaming service and clearly not 4th wall breaking. I just wish there was more going on there.
7.75/10 Just when you think you’ve seen everything from Tennant…there’s more.
Reviewing Doctor Who from Start to Finish 