A temporal collision brings the Doctor face-to-face with his fifth incarnation. Desperate to save the TARDIS, the other Doctor is unaware that he's confronting his future self. They must find a way to work together before the paradox creates a black hole that will devastate space and time.

Ever since its return in 2005, Doctor Who had been a major part of the BBC's annual Children In Need telethon. This involvement began with a special mini-episode -- Children In Need (2005) -- which served as a prequel for the 2005 Christmas special, The Christmas Invasion. In 2006, the Doctor Who production team coordinated a lavish charity concert spotlighting Murray Gold's incidental music for the show. For 2007, it was decided that a second mini-episode should be created. Unlike the 2005 edition, which had been written by executive producer Russell T Davies, the scripting duties on this occasion were assigned to Steven Moffat, whose most recent contribution to the programme had been Season Twenty-Nine's Blink. Moffat had also written another Doctor Who charity production -- the satirical The Curse Of Fatal Death -- for the Comic Relief appeal in 1999.

Since 2005, a segment of Doctor Who fandom had been clamoring for the return of earlier Doctors. Davies had thus far resisted the temptation -- although the faces of many past Doctors could be glimpsed in the form of rough sketches in 2007's Human Nature -- but Moffat thought that the charity mini-episode was the ideal vehicle for such a gimmick. In enthusiastic agreement was David Tennant, who discussed the matter with Moffat on July 6th, 2007. Both men were keen to approach Peter Davison, who had played the Fifth Doctor; his was an incarnation which Moffat and Tennant remembered with particular fondness. Furthermore, Moffat's wife, Sue Vertue, had recently produced Davison's sitcom Fear, Stress And Anger, so Moffat was now personally acquainted with the actor.

Peter Davison had been enjoying the revival of Doctor Who

As it happened, Davison had been enjoying Davies' revival of Doctor Who, and his children and grandson were also big fans; he was therefore delighted to be asked back. Although Davison had been participating in Big Finish Productions' Doctor Who audio plays since their debut in 1999, this would be his first on-screen appearance as the Fifth Doctor since another Children In Need special, Dimensions In Time, in 1993.

Moffat wrote his script for the mini-episode while on holiday, soon after starting work on his Season Thirty serial, Silence In The Library / Forest Of The Dead. Entitled Time Crash, its events would transpire in the midst of the closing moments of the Season Twenty-Nine finale, Last Of The Time Lords. As such, all of the action would take place in the TARDIS console room, enabling the special to be recorded in a single day. Brought on board to direct was Graeme Harper, who had just completed work on Planet Of The Ood and The Unicorn And The Wasp for Season Thirty. Ironically, Harper's first directing job on Doctor Who had been Davison's final regular story, 1984's The Caves Of Androzani.

Time Crash was recorded at Doctor Who's regular studio space in Upper Boat on October 7th. It was made alongside the year's fourth production block, which was comprised of the Season Thirty premiere, Partners In Crime. A month and a half later, on November 16th, Time Crash aired as the centrepiece of the Children In Need event. Thanks in part to Doctor Who, the twenty-eighth edition of Children In Need raised more than 19 million pounds to benefit British youth.

• Doctor Who Magazine Special Edition #20, 19th November 2008, “Children In Need: Time Crash” by Andrew Pixley, Panini Publishing Ltd.
• Doctor Who: The Complete History #90, 2019, “Time Crash”, edited by John Ainsworth, Hachette Partworks Ltd.
• Doctor Who: The Writer's Tale by Russell T Davies and Benjamin Cook (2008), BBC Books.