Dimensions in Time

Dimensions in Time was a two-part story broadcast in 1993 as a part of that year's Children in Need appeal. It featured Kate O'Mara's last televised performance as the Rani. It was the first two-part serial since Revelation of the Daleks in 1985 and the last until The End of Time in 2010.

It was a nominal "celebration" of the thirtieth anniversary of Doctor Who, made primarily due to the cancellation of the BBC's original idea for a thirtieth anniversary story, The Dark Dimension. Since the BBC had already obtained, at least in principle, agreement from most of the ex-Doctors to do some sort of anniversary programme, they went ahead with a charity sketch. (DOC: The Seven Year Hitch) Dimensions raised over £101,000 for Children in Need according to presenter, Noel Edmonds.

A major narrative feature of the piece was that it featured a crossover between the EastEnders and Doctor Who universes; that is, the characters were narratively implied to be a part of the same universe. As the years have gone by, this narrative choice has caused the piece to be disregarded by many fans. Largely ignored by both Doctor Who and EastEnders writers, Dimensions became widely irrelevant to both series. However, there have been several prose stories in the DWU which have referenced Dimensions. Steven Moffat's Doctor Who National Television Awards Sketch is the only televised narrative to come close to acknowledging the story, implying that Dot Cotton had met the Doctor before.

Dimensions was a milestone production in many ways. It was the first and only time that John Nathan-Turner received a writing credit on a televised story, and it attracted the biggest audience of anything he had produced. It was also the final BBC1 appearance for most of the Doctor Who characters involved, the first time in Doctor Who history that 3D technology had been used in the recording and broadcast of a television story and the first time that the televised audience were able to affect the outcome of a Doctor Who story by telephone vote.

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