Modern Series Episode 14:
Children In Need Special
2005
Rose confronts the stranger who claims to be the Doctor. But even as the
man tries to convince her of his true identity, something appears to have
gone badly wrong with the incredible change he's just experienced.
During the twentieth century, Doctor Who had twice contributed
material to the BBC's annual Children In Need charity telethon,
which had been running since 1980. In 1983, the twentieth-anniversary
special The Five Doctors had formed part of
the appeal while, a decade later, the EastEnders crossover Dimensions In Time had celebrated thirty
years of Doctor Who while raising money for disadvantaged
youths. Given the enormous popularity of the programme's resurrection in
2005, it was perhaps inevitable that Doctor Who executive
producer Russell T Davies would soon receive an invitation to
participate in that year's edition of Children In Need, which
spanned November 18th and 19th.
Initially, Davies was reluctant to take part, recalling that Dimensions In Time had effectively presented
a pantomime version of the programme. He had a change of heart when his
fellow executive producer, Julie Gardner, instead touted the model of
The Five Doctors, which had served as a
bridge between Doctor Who's twentieth and twenty-first seasons.
At Gardner's instigation, Davies fashioned a short script which picked
up from the end of the Season Twenty-Seven finale, The Parting Of The Ways, in which
Christopher Eccleston's Ninth Doctor had regenerated into a new
incarnation played by David Tennant. It would serve to remind viewers
where the programme had left off back in June, and provide an exciting
cliffhanger into the forthcoming festive special, The Christmas Invasion.
Russell T Davies facetiously referred to the Children In Need sequence as “Pudsey
Cutaway”
The mini-episode would therefore be the first broadcast Doctor
Who material headlined by Tennant; in production terms, however, the
actor would have already filmed one-third of his inaugural season by the
time it went before the cameras. The segment was intentionally untitled,
with Davies facetiously referring to it as “Pudsey Cutaway”
(after Pudsey, the Children In Need mascot introduced in 1985,
and the alternative “Dalek Cutaway” title for the 1965
single-episode story Mission To The
Unknown). The BBC formally announced its existence on October
25th.
The mini-episode was recorded in its entirety on November 3rd, 2005.
Only Tennant and Billie Piper (Rose Tyler) appeared in the segment,
which was recorded on the TARDIS set in the usual Doctor Who
studio space at Unit Q2 in Newport. Location filming for Season
Twenty-Eight's third production block -- consisting of Rise Of The Cybermen / The Age Of
Steel and Army Of Ghosts /
Doomsday -- had already begun at this point. However, the
Children In Need segment was directed by Euros Lyn, who had just
completed work on Block Two (Tooth And
Claw and The Girl In The
Fireplace). Two weeks later, on November 18th, the Doctor
Who sequence helped Children In Need raise 17.2 million
pounds.
- Doctor Who Magazine Special Edition #14, 9th November 2006,
“Children In Need” by Andrew Pixley, Panini Publishing
Ltd.
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Original Transmission
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Date |
18th Nov 2005 |
Time |
9.08pm |
Duration |
7'14" |
Viewers (more) |
10.8m (18th) |
Cast
David Tennant (bio) |
Rose Tyler |
Billie Piper (bio) |
Crew
Written by |
Russell T Davies (bio) |
Directed by |
Euros Lyn (bio) |
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