How a Doctor Who movie got Lost in the Dark Dimension...
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00:00 When Christopher Eccleston stated that multi-Doctor stories are cash grabs,
00:04 he wasn't far wrong.
00:05 While the show was off the air, BBC Enterprises,
00:08 the corporation's marketing arm,
00:10 went all in on video releases, books on tape,
00:14 recorded soundtracks and novels
00:16 to keep fans appeased during the wilderness years.
00:19 Their biggest Doctor Who-related project, however,
00:22 actually ended up unmade.
00:24 Designed as a celebration of the show's 30th anniversary,
00:27 Doctor Who The Dark Dimension was intended to be
00:31 a feature-length straight-to-video movie.
00:33 Now, The Dark Dimension, like Sharda,
00:35 is one of the Doctor Who fandom's great obsessions.
00:38 Despite having never fully entered production,
00:41 there have been many attempts by fans
00:44 to realise the story as originally intended.
00:47 So, with the 60th anniversary fast approaching
00:50 and rumours of a multi-Doctor story back in the news once again,
00:55 now seems like the perfect time to take a look at this abandoned special.
00:59 So, with that in mind, then, I'm Ellie with Who Culture,
01:02 here with the true story behind Doctor Who's abandoned anniversary movie.
01:07 Number 10, BBC Enterprises plans an anniversary movie.
01:12 According to The Dark Dimension's scriptwriter, Adrian Rigglesford,
01:16 the planned movie was at the behest of Tom Baker.
01:19 Speaking to the Space Mountain Convention in Clacton-on-Sea in 1993,
01:24 Rigglesford told fans that...
01:25 "Tom Baker went to the BBC and said, 'I would like to be Doctor Who again.'
01:29 And that's the reason why it happened."
01:31 Baker also apparently suggested
01:33 that the script should be written by Douglas Adams.
01:36 So, in light of this and the strong performance
01:38 that Doctor Who was having in the home entertainment charts,
01:41 BBC Enterprises started planning something special in September 1992,
01:47 a brand-new feature-length episode for exclusive home video release
01:52 to celebrate Doctor Who's 30th anniversary in 1993.
01:56 Rigglesford's script was commissioned about a month later,
02:00 specifically written with Tom Baker's requests in mind.
02:03 The plot revolved around Hawkspur,
02:06 a villainous alien who murders the Seventh Doctor
02:09 and alters the Doctor's personal timeline
02:11 so that Tom Baker's incarnation never regenerated.
02:14 This older Fourth Doctor would team up with Ace and the Brigadier
02:18 to put history back on course,
02:20 with the other surviving Doctors making brief cameo performances throughout.
02:24 Now, while this may have satisfied fans and some BBC high-ups
02:28 who felt that the series had lost its way in the 1980s,
02:32 it was a storyline that proved to be quite controversial
02:35 further down the pre-production process.
02:37 Number nine, Graham Harper comes on board to make Doctor Who scary again.
02:44 Now, while BBC Enterprises wrangled over the project
02:48 with the controller of BBC One, Jonathan Powell,
02:51 who is one of Doctor Who's greatest enemies,
02:54 Rigglesford had managed to bring a director on board.
02:57 And he chose Graham Harper, a fan-favourite director
03:01 who was responsible for two of Doctor Who's most atmospheric
03:04 and acclaimed stories of the 1980s,
03:07 "The Caves of Androzani" and "Revelation of the Daleks".
03:10 Harper was reportedly very excited to make Doctor Who scary again,
03:15 and was certainly a great choice for the darker, more grown-up tone
03:18 that Rigglesford's script was aiming for.
03:20 Now, at this stage, the film was planned for exclusive VHS release,
03:25 which meant that the target audience were older fans
03:28 who had paid employment and disposable income.
03:32 But that all changed in early 1993,
03:36 when Jonathan Powell was replaced as controller of BBC One by Alan Yentob.
03:41 Now, Alan Yentob was a supporter of Doctor Who,
03:45 and cult television in general,
03:47 and had actually overseen some classic Who repeats over on BBC Two
03:51 throughout 1992 and into 1993.
03:55 And with the support of Charles Denton,
03:57 the new head of series and serials,
04:00 he gave his blessing for "The Dark Dimension"
04:03 to be aired on BBC One,
04:05 with the VHS release then potentially including extra footage
04:09 as an added selling point.
04:11 Number eight, monster redesigns begin in earnest.
04:15 Now that the project had the blessing of BBC One,
04:18 the focus turned back to Rigglesford's script.
04:21 As this was to be an anniversary special,
04:23 there was a desire to include not just the surviving past Doctors,
04:27 but several classic monsters.
04:29 The sixth Doctor was to meet the Ice Warriors,
04:31 while the fourth Doctor would confront a Dalek in a Victorian graveyard,
04:35 and the fifth Doctor would be thrown into the Cyber Wars.
04:39 Now, in order to update some of these classic foes for a '90s audience,
04:44 designers were brought in from a variety of sources,
04:46 including Jim Henson's Creature Workshop.
04:49 Henson's team were assigned the Cybermen,
04:52 with Rigglesford giving an insight to some of the designs
04:55 at the Space Mountain Convention, stating...
04:57 "The guy who designed it, Nigel Johns,
05:00 was trained by alien designer H.R. Giger.
05:03 So you can imagine that this particular Cyberman looked terrifying.
05:07 It had holes in its knuckles, and there was a point where it held up its hand,
05:11 made a fist, and six-inch blades shot out of its knuckles.
05:14 It was like Wolverine out of the X-Men comics.
05:17 Cyber-een."
05:18 Now, these new Cybermen are the overriding image of the abandoned project,
05:23 and they really give an insight
05:25 into the more horror-inducing adult tones that they were clearly aiming for.
05:31 Number seven, Rick Mayall, David Bowie and Brian Blessed
05:34 were tipped to play the villain.
05:37 There were a number of enticing star names
05:39 linked to the role of the central villain Hawkspur.
05:42 Rigglesford had previously written a book with Brian Blessed,
05:45 so had suggested him for the role.
05:47 Another name, David Bowie, was of course familiar to the team
05:50 from Jim Henson's Creature Workshop, who had worked with him on Labyrinth.
05:54 Now, it's not clear how advanced these discussions were past names on a list.
05:59 And given how Enterprises approached the casting of The Doctors,
06:03 but more on that later,
06:04 it's highly likely that they didn't get very far.
06:07 Now, one of the most enticing names for potential actors to play the villain
06:11 was Rick Mayall.
06:12 And Graham Harper had worked with Mayall on The New Statesman,
06:16 where Mayall had played the role Alan Bastard.
06:19 So, given their working relationship,
06:21 it's highly likely that Mayall was Harper's top choice for the role.
06:25 But the prospect of Rick Mayall killing Sylvester McCoy
06:29 and then facing off against Tom Baker in a Doctor Who story
06:33 is one of the series' greatest what-ifs.
06:36 And despite the clear flaws in the project,
06:39 having Rick Mayall and Tom Baker involved
06:42 would have at least ensured that it was nothing less than memorable.
06:46 Number six, pre-production begins, casting does not.
06:51 Establishing a production office in June 1993,
06:55 BBC Enterprises won the bid to produce the project
06:59 with a tender of £75,000.
07:03 But BBC TV were concerned that the budget was too low
07:07 and that Enterprises had no experience in producing original drama.
07:12 But despite this, design work continued on the monsters,
07:16 updating the Daleks' extermination effects to 3D bolts.
07:20 Test shoots began, costumes and sets were being designed for the special.
07:25 The Pertwee-era variation of the theme tune was decided upon
07:29 and a new title sequence concept was being drawn up.
07:33 Kevin Davies, who would later direct the fondly remembered
07:36 anniversary documentary "More Than 30 Years in the TARDIS",
07:40 was put in charge of realising the concept of incorporating
07:44 all five Doctors' faces into the old-fashioned howl-around intro.
07:48 The only problem was, no one had contacted the five Doctors.
07:52 In an interview with TV Zone,
07:54 fifth Doctor actor Peter Davison said that
07:57 "They never returned my agent's calls when this project was floating around.
08:00 I was then sent a script later on saying,
08:02 'We hope you like the script, we look forward to working with you.'
08:05 And still, no one had contacted my agent."
08:08 And it would only get worse from there.
08:11 Number five, most of the Doctors aren't impressed.
08:15 As news of the project started to filter around fan circles in June,
08:20 it wasn't until July that the news of the project
08:23 was broken in the 202nd issue of Doctor Who magazine.
08:28 Now, fans were incredibly excited about the prospect of Doctor Who
08:31 returning to BBC One after three years,
08:34 but most of the Doctors were less excited.
08:38 In the years following the project,
08:39 John Pertwee, Peter Davison, Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy
08:43 have been vocal on the script's many problems,
08:46 not least the fact that they were all overshadowed by Tom Baker.
08:50 As Colin Baker remembered in an interview with TV Zone magazine,
08:54 "It's not a very sound strategy to present it in.
08:57 The way it was presented, i.e. that one is much more important than the other four."
09:01 John Pertwee, meanwhile, objected to how the script approached Doctor Who in general,
09:06 telling Starburst magazine,
09:07 "It should have been given to a writer that knows something about what we're doing,
09:11 someone like Barry Letts."
09:13 Sylvester McCoy later tapped into the inherent problem with the proposed story.
09:17 He told TV Zone,
09:19 "I don't think it was even the kind of story fans would want to see
09:22 for the 30th anniversary.
09:24 They want to see all the Doctors together."
09:26 Number four, budget miscalculations lead the project to be abandoned.
09:32 Fan excitement over the project was short-lived.
09:35 A BBC board meeting held on the 10th of July
09:38 decided that the anniversary multi-Doctor story
09:41 was just a hastily cobbled cash grab.
09:45 Citing the upset the project caused for past Doctors
09:48 and the unrealistic production schedule,
09:51 the board decided to send BBC Enterprises a memo
09:54 that cancelled "The Dark Dimension" for financial and logistical reasons.
09:59 And rumour has it that those financial reasons
10:02 related to the fact that the broadcasting costs
10:05 hadn't been factored into BBC Enterprises' budget.
10:09 Now, this wasn't quite the end of the project, however,
10:12 and Rigglesford set about rewriting his script
10:14 for a potential Christmas 1993 release.
10:18 Meanwhile, in America, Philip Siegel,
10:21 working at Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment,
10:24 had heard about the project and was concerned.
10:26 In a DVD interview for 1996's Doctor Who TV movie,
10:31 Siegel said, "I read the script and it was awful.
10:34 It was really embarrassing and it was silly
10:37 and we were going to march out all of the old Doctors
10:40 and it just felt wrong.
10:41 It was going to muddy the waters and confuse people,
10:44 especially as we were so close to delivering our Bible and our script."
10:49 Siegel requested that the BBC Enterprises' senior manager, Tony Greenwood,
10:54 put a stop to the project,
10:56 and thus the final nail was put in "The Dark Dimension's" coffin.
11:01 Number three, "Dimensions in Time" replaces "The Dark Dimension".
11:06 Now, if Siegel was concerned
11:09 that the script for "The Dark Dimension" was silly,
11:12 then who knows what he must have thought about the script for its replacement,
11:16 the infamous "Dimensions in Time".
11:19 Fans were understandably disappointed
11:21 that a dark and brooding 96-minute feature-length movie special
11:25 was replaced by a light and fluffy romp through Albert Square
11:28 in 3D for 1993's "Children in Need" telethon.
11:32 Viewed through the prism of an anniversary special,
11:35 "Dimensions in Time" is unbelievably disappointing.
11:38 It's a crossover with BBC soap EastEnders,
11:41 the Doctors don't quite feel right,
11:43 the companions are thumbnail sketches of how the characters are remembered
11:46 by writers John Nathan-Turner and David Roden,
11:49 and worse than that,
11:51 Tom Baker still doesn't share screen time with the other Doctors.
11:55 But really, fans should have just lightened up.
11:57 "Dimensions in Time" was just a bit of daft fun for a really good cause.
12:02 And actually, funnily enough,
12:03 Adrian Rigglesford's wish for light entertainment host Noel Edmonds
12:08 to introduce the Dark Dimensions in Noel's Who Party actually came true.
12:13 Edmonds announced the winner of the phone vote
12:16 that would decide which EastEnders character
12:18 would save the Doctor from the Part 1 cliffhanger.
12:21 He was then joined by John Pertwee in character as the Doctor,
12:25 who instructed audiences to put on their 3D glasses.
12:28 Look, it wasn't a feature-length movie, but it was still a good laugh.
12:32 Number two, Adrian Rigglesford unsuccessfully tries to publish
12:37 the making of the Dark Dimension book.
12:40 Now, before the Dark Dimension was abandoned,
12:42 Virgin Publishing were interested in publishing a novelisation.
12:47 But when Greenwood pulled the plug on the project,
12:49 the publishers decided it wasn't really worth it anymore.
12:52 After all, they had several seventh Doctor stories to be working with
12:56 and were starting to create new stories for the previous six incarnations.
13:01 But undeterred, Rigglesford continued to seek publishing opportunities
13:05 for his unmade Doctor Who story.
13:08 He considered a script book with Titan Books,
13:11 but then the BBC clamped down on making the script public.
13:15 And it was this clampdown that also ensured
13:17 that the unofficial making of book failed to surface
13:21 on the three potential publishing dates between 1994 and 1995,
13:27 despite a dust jacket featuring the new-style Cyberman being designed.
13:31 Eventually, details of the Dark Dimension appeared
13:34 in Virgin's reference book, The Nth Doctor, by Jean-Marc Le Fessier.
13:39 The book contained various background notes
13:41 and a full synopsis for the unmade adventure,
13:44 which sparked the imagination of several creatively-minded fans.
13:49 Number one, the project is eventually realised by fans.
13:54 Now, if we learned anything during the wilderness years of the 1990s,
13:58 it's that if Doctor Who fans aren't satisfied with existing Doctor Who,
14:02 then they make it themselves.
14:04 Doctor Who DJ, missing episode hunter and continuity advisor Ian Levine
14:10 has funded many such projects for his own private collection.
14:14 He finished work on his version of the Dark Dimension back in 2012,
14:18 and he even managed to secure Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred
14:22 to voice their respective characters.
14:25 And there have been many other similar attempts
14:27 to realise the potential of Rigglesford's script over the years.
14:32 Now, the most high-profile and accessible of these
14:35 is Farros's feature audio adaptation
14:37 of a leaked version of the Dark Dimension script.
14:40 Featuring a cast of fans and realised by fan artists,
14:46 the 2021 adaptation of the abandoned project
14:49 was recorded during the pandemic.
14:52 Script editor and Fourth Doctor Matthew Toffolo told We Are Cold,
14:56 "It's been a great pleasure playing a weary '90s-era Fourth Doctor
15:00 "and hearing the project come together with incredibly talented voice acting,
15:05 "editing, sound design and an equally impressive soundtrack."
15:08 Now, it is still available on YouTube
15:11 and it's likely the closest fans will ever get to the Dark Dimension.
15:16 And there you have it, the true story behind the abandoned Doctor Who movie.
15:20 Now, if we missed out any details, then do let us know in the comments below.
15:24 And while you're there, don't forget to like and subscribe
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15:29 Also, head over to Twitter and follow us there @whoculture
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15:35 just by searching Ellie Littlechild.
15:37 I've been Ellie with Who Culture and in the words of River Song herself,
15:40 "Goodbye, sweeties."