Dreamland (Doctor Who)
Encyclopedia
Dreamland is the second animated
Animation
Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. The effect is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in several ways...

 Doctor Who serial (based on the British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 science fiction television live action series
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...

) to air on television. It stars David Tennant
David Tennant
David Tennant is a Scottish actor. In addition to his work in theatre, including a widely praised Hamlet, Tennant is best known for his role as the tenth incarnation of the Doctor in Doctor Who, along with the title role in the 2005 TV serial Casanova and as Barty Crouch, Jr...

 as the Tenth Doctor
Tenth Doctor
The Tenth Doctor is the tenth incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He is played by David Tennant, who appears in three series, as well as eight specials...

 and aired in six parts (one 12-minute episode, followed by five 6 minute episodes) broadcast daily from 21 November 2009 on the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

's Red Button service, the official Doctor Who website and the BBC iPlayer
BBC iPlayer
BBC iPlayer, commonly shortened to iPlayer, is an internet television and radio service, developed by the BBC to extend its former RealPlayer-based and other streamed video clip content to include whole TV shows....

. It was broadcast in its entirety on BBC Two
BBC Two
BBC Two is the second television channel operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It covers a wide range of subject matter, but tending towards more 'highbrow' programmes than the more mainstream and popular BBC One. Like the BBC's other domestic TV and radio...

 and BBC HD
BBC HD
BBC HD is a high-definition television network provided by the BBC. The service was initially run as a trial from 15 May 2006 until becoming a full service on 1 December 2007...

 on 5 December 2009.

There have been four prior animated stories, Death Comes to Time
Death Comes to Time
Death Comes to Time is a webcast audio drama based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who, produced by the BBC and first broadcast in five episodes on the BBCi Cult website from 12 July 2001, accompanied by limited animation.-Synopsis:When two Time Lords are...

, Real Time, Scream of the Shalka
Scream of the Shalka
Scream of the Shalka is a flash-animated series based on the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was produced to coincide with the 40th Anniversary of the series and was originally posted in six weekly parts from 13 November to 18 December 2003 on bbc.co.uk's Doctor Who...

and The Infinite Quest
The Infinite Quest
The Infinite Quest is an animated serial based on the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was made by BBC Television, but does not share the same producers as the live-action series. It was aired in twelve weekly parts starting 2 April 2007 as a segment of the children's...

.

Episode 1

13 June 1947: a spaceship, trying to escape from two others, is shot down and crashes on Earth near Roswell, New Mexico
Roswell, New Mexico
Roswell is a city in and the county seat of Chaves County in the southeastern quarter of the state of New Mexico, United States. The population was 48,366 at the 2010 census. It is a center for irrigation farming, dairying, ranching, manufacturing, distribution, and petroleum production. It is also...

. Eleven years later in Dry Springs, Nevada
Nevada
Nevada is a state in the western, mountain west, and southwestern regions of the United States. With an area of and a population of about 2.7 million, it is the 7th-largest and 35th-most populous state. Over two-thirds of Nevada's people live in the Las Vegas metropolitan area, which contains its...

, The TARDIS
TARDIS
The TARDISGenerally, TARDIS is written in all upper case letters—this convention was popularised by the Target novelisations of the 1970s...

 materialises at a diner, and the Doctor meets Cassie Rice and Native American
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...

 Jimmy Stalkingwolf. He uses his sonic screwdriver
Sonic screwdriver
The sonic screwdriver is a fictional tool in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who and its spinoffs. It is a multifunctional tool used by The Doctor. Its most common function is that of a lockpick, but can be used to perform other operations such as performing medical scans,...

 to investigate an alien artifact. Detecting that the artifact has been activated, two Men in Black
Men in Black
Men in Black , in American popular culture and in UFO conspiracy theories, are men dressed in black suits who claim to be government agents who harass or threaten UFO witnesses to keep them quiet about what they have seen. It is sometimes implied that they may be aliens themselves...

 arrive demanding the artifact in question. The Doctor and the others escape, to investigate Jimmy's "space monster". The monster turns out to be a Viperox battle-drone and is destroyed by a rocket from a USAF
United States Air Force
The United States Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the American uniformed services. Initially part of the United States Army, the USAF was formed as a separate branch of the military on September 18, 1947 under the National Security Act of...

 helicopter which arrives on the scene. The soldiers take them to Area 51
Area 51
Area 51 is a military base, and a remote detachment of Edwards Air Force Base. It is located in the southern portion of Nevada in the western United States, 83 miles north-northwest of downtown Las Vegas. Situated at its center, on the southern shore of Groom Lake, is a large military airfield...

 (aka Dreamland). In Dreamland, Colonel Stark locks them in a cell with a gas that will wipe their memories. The Doctor manages to break free, stop the gas, and escapes with Cassie and Jimmy via a ventilation shaft. The alarm sounds and they run into a lab where they find a captured grey alien. After fleeing pursuing guards in a lift they are recaptured at the top of the lift shaft. Colonel Sark is revealed to be working with a Viperox leader named Lord Azlok.

Episode 2

The Doctor, Cassie and Jimmy find themselves in a hanger which contains a spaceship similar to the one that crashed in 1947. The Doctor escapes by piloting the ship. They are pursued by two fighter jets and crash near an abandoned mining town called Solitude. Exploring an abandoned building, Jimmy is pulled into a hole in the floor by a Viperox. The Doctor and Cassie follow and find Jimmy being questioned by Lord Azlok about the Doctor. The Doctor emerges from hiding and confronts Lord Azlok. Lord Azlok reveals that he is only seeking "an enemy of our kind". Before the Doctor can find out the identity of their target, Cassie, who has freed Jimmy, effects an escape by starting a fire with an oil lamp. The group then stumble across a large number of Viperox eggs and are confronted by the huge Viperox Queen, which is laying the eggs. Behind them, their Viperox pursuers are bearing down.

Episode 3

The Doctor, Cassie and Jimmy escape through the mine tunnels in a mine railway cart. When the cart finally exits the mine shaft, the three are greeted by Mr. Dread and the other "Alliance of Shades" android. The four androids are then destroyed Jimmy's Grandfather Night Eagle, who turns out to be familiar with aliens. The group proceed to a cave where a grey alien by the name of Rivesh Mantilax is kept. He tells the story of how his people fought the Viperox and lost years before. After his tale, Colonel Stark enters the cave and thanks the Doctor for leading the army to the alien, proclaiming the Doctor has helped him to save the world.

Episode 4

Stark takes them back to Area 51 - along the way Night Eagle grimly notes, "Men like Stark don't save worlds. All they know is destruction." Rivesh Mantilax is reunited with his wife Seruba Velak and the alien tech found in the diner turns out to be a genetic weapon designed by Rivesh Mantilax to destroy the Viperox. The device can only be used by Rivesh Mantilax's DNA, and he is also the only one that can change the code to attack other beings, hence why Lord Azlok wanted it. Stark intends for the device to be reprogrammed to destroy the Russians, but the Doctor refuses to allow this and snatches the weapon, fleeing to the roof with Stark in hot pursuit. The Doctor, cornered by Stark, ultimately convinces him that his alliance with Lord Azlok and the Viperox will only lead to disaster - the Viperox will at some point betray Stark and conquer Earth (as they have already conquered the technologically superior race Rivesh and Seruba belong to, the US Army would have no chance at all). Stark orders his men to arrest Lord Azlok, but he escapes, declaring that the Viperox will "tear your world to shreds".

Episode 5

The Doctor and Stark run down to the room where Rivesh and Seruba are, but find that Seruba is cradling Rivesh. She reveals that Azlok has mortally injured him and he is dying. However, Surbua says there was something the ship that could revive him, but Stark says that anything found in the ship was stored in the Area 51 vault, which hasn't been entered for some time as something got loose in there. The Doctor, Cassie, Jimmy, Seruba and Stark arrive at the vault, and the Doctor asks Jimmy and Cassie to find the TARDIS back at Dry Springs. Inside the vault, the Doctor and Seruba go and look for the device they need. Meanwhile, in the Viperox lair Azlok gets the Viperox Queen to release her newly hatched brood, so that they will destroy the whole town. Back in the vault, the Doctor comes across a swarm of Skorpius Flies, a carnivorous alien species that form a group mind
Group mind (science fiction)
A group mind, hive mind or group ego in science fiction is a single consciousness occupying many bodies. Its use in literature goes back at least as far as Olaf Stapledon's science fiction novel Last and First Men ....

. Seruba tells the Doctor she has found the device that could revive Rivesh, but the Skorpius Flies chase after them until the Doctor finds a crate and hides inside. He helps Seruba escape inside the crate by working out how many steps he took on the way in. At the Area 51 base Stark is informed that they are getting reports of Viperox attacks. He orders a row of tanks to block the Viperox off. The Doctor and Seruba shuffle out of the vault inside the crate so the flies won't notice. Meanwhile, Cassie and Jimmy are driving along with the TARDIS on the back of Jimmy's pickup truck when the Viperox burst out of the ground into their path.

Episode 6

Jimmy manages to swerve and drives off while the Viperox chase after them. Helicopters fly over head and fire at flying Viperox. Stark is annoyed that they are losing, when Lord Azlok storms in and tries to get the truth of where the Doctor is. The Doctor and Seruba have escaped the vault and drive a Jeep to the base, where they see that it's under heavy attack. The Doctor is worried about getting in until Jimmy and Cassie show up with the TARDIS. The TARDIS materialises in the room in Area 51 where Rivesh is dying. In the nick of time, Seruba revives Rivesh. The Doctor asks for the device to be activated and Rivesh relishes the thought of killing the Viperox. However, the Doctor warns him not to detonate it, or it will completely wipe the Viperox out. Rivesh remains adamant on revenge, but the Doctor reinstates his beliefs and tells him that no-one should have the power to exterminate an entire species. Rivesh returns the favour of his revival and trusts the Doctor with the device. The Doctor uses his sonic screwdriver on it and then he rushes into the TARDIS and grabs a cable. At that moment, Azlok holds Jimmy hostage at the entrance to the TARDIS, threatening to kill him if the Doctor detonates it. The Doctor says he isn't going to set it off and explains that one day the Viperox will become a peace-loving race. Azlok dismisses this as madness and advances, but the Doctor connects a cable from the TARDIS console to the device and unleashes a deafening soundwave that affects all the Viperox in the area: the Doctor then orders the Viperox to leave Earth and never return. A furious Azlok vows that the Doctor's time will come
The End of Time
The End of Time: The Next Revolution in Our Understanding of the Universe, also sold with the alternate subtitle The Next Revolution in Physics, is a 1999 science book in which the author Julian Barbour argues that time exists merely as an illusion.-Auto-biography:The book begins by describing how...

, though the Doctor dismisses the warning of his impending death, before Azlok and the rest of the Viperox retreat and flee from Earth. After the attack, Stark thanks the Doctor and Seruba and Rivesh leave in their ship. The Doctor leaves the weapon with Stark in case the Viperox ever return, and Stark warns them to keep quiet about the events. The Doctor suggests that Cassie and Jimmy clear up the Viperox mess. As the TARDIS departs, Cassie and Jimmy hold hands.

Continuity

Several story elements introduced in "Dreamland" reappear in the live-action Doctor Who spin-off The Sarah Jane Adventures
The Sarah Jane Adventures
The Sarah Jane Adventures is a British science fiction television series, produced by BBC Cymru Wales for CBBC, created by Russell T Davies and starring Elisabeth Sladen...

. For example, blueprints for the alien ship were used in 2009 story Prisoner of the Judoon
Prisoner of the Judoon
Prisoner of the Judoon is the first serial of the third series of The Sarah Jane Adventures. It was first broadcast on the 15 and 16 of October 2009. It features the Judoon, the intergalactic police introduced in the 2007 Doctor Who episode "Smith and Jones".-Part 1:Sarah Jane Smith continues to...

, which was later constructed in the same episode, and the Men in Black androids subsequently appeared in the story The Vault of Secrets
The Vault of Secrets
The Vault of Secrets is a two-part story of The Sarah Jane Adventures which broadcast on CBBC on 18 and 19 October 2010. It is the second story of the fourth series...

, in 2010.

Characters

  • The Doctor - (David Tennant
    David Tennant
    David Tennant is a Scottish actor. In addition to his work in theatre, including a widely praised Hamlet, Tennant is best known for his role as the tenth incarnation of the Doctor in Doctor Who, along with the title role in the 2005 TV serial Casanova and as Barty Crouch, Jr...

    )
  • Cassie Rice - (Georgia Moffett
    Georgia Moffett
    Georgia Elizabeth Moffett is a British actress. Moffett was born in West London, the daughter of actors Peter Davison and Sandra Dickinson....

    )
  • Jimmy Stalkingwolf - (Tim Howar
    Tim Howar
    Tim Howar is a Canadian actor, singer and dancer, known as a London-based rock vocalist with Mike + the Mechanics.-Career:...

    )
  • Colonel Stark - (Stuart Milligan
    Stuart Milligan
    Stuart Milligan is an American actor based primarily in Britain, best known for his recurring role as Adam Klaus in Jonathan Creek.He attended South High School in Denver, Colorado...

    )
  • Saruba Velak - (Lisa Bowerman
    Lisa Bowerman
    Lisa Bowerman is a British actress.Bowerman trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, and was a regular in the first two series of BBC medical drama Casualty playing Sandra Mute, the show's first female paramedic. Her other television work includes: Dodgem, The Count of Solar, Grange Hill, The...

    )
  • Rivesh Mantilax - (Nicholas Rowe
    Nicholas Rowe (actor)
    Nicholas James Sebastian Rowe is a Scottish actor.-Biography:Rowe was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, the son of English parents Alison, a singer, and Andrew Rowe, a Member of Parliament and editor. He attended Eton and received a BA in Hispanic Studies from Bristol University...

    )
  • Lord Azlok - (David Warner
    David Warner (actor)
    David Warner is an English actor who is known for playing both romantic leads and sinister or villainous characters, both in film and animation...

    )

Cast notes

Georgia Moffett
Georgia Moffett
Georgia Elizabeth Moffett is a British actress. Moffett was born in West London, the daughter of actors Peter Davison and Sandra Dickinson....

 (Cassie Rice) guest-starred as Jenny
Jenny (Doctor Who)
Jenny, portrayed by Georgia Moffett, is a fictional character in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. She first appeared in the episode "The Doctor's Daughter", originally broadcast 10 May 2008...

 in the 2008 Doctor Who episode "The Doctor's Daughter
The Doctor's Daughter
"The Doctor's Daughter" is the sixth episode of the fourth series of British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was broadcast on BBC One on 10 May 2008.- Synopsis :...

", and is the real-world daughter of Peter Davison
Peter Davison
Peter Davison is a British actor, best known for his roles as Tristan Farnon in the television version of James Herriot's All Creatures Great and Small and the fifth incarnation of the Doctor in Doctor Who, which he played from 1982 to 1984.-Early life:Davison was born Peter Moffett in Streatham,...

 who portrayed the Fifth Doctor
Fifth Doctor
The Fifth Doctor is the fifth incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He is portrayed by Peter Davison....

 from 1981-1984. She portrayed Tanya Webster in the audio drama Red Dawn
Red Dawn (Doctor Who audio)
Red Dawn is a Big Finish Productions audio drama based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who.-Plot:...

with Davison reprising his role as the Fifth Doctor, and she narrated the Tenth Doctor audio-book Snowglobe 7
Snowglobe 7
Snowglobe 7 is a BBC Books original novel written by Mike Tucker and based on the long running science fiction television series Doctor Who. It features the Tenth Doctor and Martha Jones. It was published on 10 April 2008, alongside Martha in the Mirror and The Many Hands.- Synopsis :Snowglobe 7 is...

.
Lisa Bowerman
Lisa Bowerman
Lisa Bowerman is a British actress.Bowerman trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, and was a regular in the first two series of BBC medical drama Casualty playing Sandra Mute, the show's first female paramedic. Her other television work includes: Dodgem, The Count of Solar, Grange Hill, The...

 (Saruba Velak) played the Cheetah Person Karra in the 1989 Doctor Who serial Survival
Survival (Doctor Who)
-Writing:Writer Rona Munro approached script editor Andrew Cartmel at a BBC scriptwriting workshop and said that she'd "kill to write for Doctor Who." The story Munro developed incorporated themes including the morals of hunting...

(the last serial of the classic series to be broadcast). Since 1998, she has also played Bernice Summerfield
Bernice Summerfield
Bernice Surprise Summerfield is a fictional character created by author Paul Cornell as a new companion of the Seventh Doctor in Virgin Publishing's range of original full-length Doctor Who novels, the New Adventures...

 in the ongoing Big Finish
Big Finish Productions
Big Finish Productions is a British company that produces books and audio plays based, primarily, on cult British science fiction properties...

 audio drama series and in occasional Doctor Who audio stories.
Veteran actor David Warner
David Warner (actor)
David Warner is an English actor who is known for playing both romantic leads and sinister or villainous characters, both in film and animation...

 has also appeared in numerous Big Finish audio dramas, including two Doctor Who Unbound stories (Sympathy for the Devil
Sympathy for the Devil (Doctor Who audio)
Sympathy for the Devil is a Big Finish Productions audio drama based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. The Doctor Who Unbound dramas pose a series of "What if...?" questions.-Plot:What if.....

(which also featured David Tennant) and Masters of War
Masters of War (Doctor Who audio)
Masters of War is a Big Finish Productions audio drama based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. The Doctor Who Unbound dramas pose a series of "What if...?" questions.-Cast:*The Doctor — David Warner...

) and their series of Sapphire & Steel
Sapphire & Steel
Sapphire & Steel is a British television science-fiction fantasy series starring David McCallum as Steel and Joanna Lumley as Sapphire. Produced by ATV, it ran from 1979 to 1982 on the ITV network. The series was created by Peter J. Hammond who conceived the programme under the working title The...

audios.
Stuart Milligan appeared as Richard Nixon in "The Impossible Astronaut
The Impossible Astronaut
"The Impossible Astronaut" is the first episode of the sixth series of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Written by show runner Steven Moffat, and directed by Toby Haynes, the episode was first broadcast on 23 April 2011 in the United Kingdom, as well as the United States...

" and "Day of the Moon
Day of the Moon
"Day of the Moon" is the second episode of the sixth series of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Written by show runner Steven Moffat, and directed by Toby Haynes, the episode was first broadcast on 30 April 2011 on BBC One in the United Kingdom and on BBC America in the...

."

Reception

SFX magazine praised the show for its story but was slightly disappointed with the stiff animation: "In a year of Doctor Who specials this little gem deserves to be embraced as every bit as special as its live action counterparts. And that's saying something, considering the CG animation is, to put it politely, basic. But Dreamland is a perfect example of that old adage that a decent story is more important than flashy visuals."

DVD release

On 1 February 2010, BBC DVD and 2entertain released the story as a Region 2 two-disc set with all three uncut episodes of Doctor Who: Greatest Moments (a series of Doctor Who Confidential
Doctor Who Confidential
Doctor Who Confidential is a documentary series created by the British Broadcasting Corporation to complement the revival of the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Each episode was broadcast on BBC Three on Saturdays, immediately after the broadcast of the weekly...

specials) on another disc. Despite the Greatest Moments segments being longer than Dreamland, Dreamland was the title of the set, whilst the Greatest Moments segments are given the status of 'special feature'. It was released in the US and Canada on 5 October 2010. Although Doctor Who Dreamland was made in HD
High-definition television
High-definition television is video that has resolution substantially higher than that of traditional television systems . HDTV has one or two million pixels per frame, roughly five times that of SD...

 it has not as of yet been released onto Blu-Ray.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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