New Doctor Who: Dreamland

[Broomstick]

Dreamland
(I've never seen this show so animated before...)

While perusing my local library's collection of Doctor Who I came across Dreamland. Huh, an animated Who adventure with Ten. Interesting...

As a little bit of background - this was originally released (I am told) as a six-part animated thingy on the BBC website, but was not available to folks outside the UK for at least a year afterward. It was never broadcast in the US, but is, obviously, on DVD over here. The original web release was in one 12 minute and 5 six minute episodes, but on the DVD it has been edited into one continuous story. In others, it's about the same length as a live-action NuWho. The story was decent, and I gather it was part of the 2009 "season" which was composed entirely of "specials" so it was in keeping with all that.

Anyhow, a quick synopsis is this concerns alien spaceships crashing in New Mexico in the 1940's and 50's, the US military, the Doctor, two new one-off companions, Greys, bug aliens called "Viperox", and of course the Doctor saves the day, more or less. Oh, and Area 51, one of my favorite weird things that actually exist. I would say I have a map of Area 51, but it's really an old copy of an air navigational sectional chart with a big-ass blank spot where Groom Lake is supposed to be. Which is sort of how Area 51 has always been portrayed - as nonexistent. Personally, I think any super-secret shit that might have been there at one time (and it's pretty certain that things like the U-2 spyplane and the SR-71 underwent some testing there prior to official unveiling) have been moved elsewhere, and the government is currently quite happy to encourage the conspiracy buffs to sweat over it. In other words, these days I think it's a giant decoy and all the Spooky Shit is hidden somewhere else. But I digress...

The spouse and I enjoyed it, not the least because to us it's a new episode neither of us have seen before, but also, as noted the story is pretty good. We differed on the animation. He didn't mind it. The art critic in me was bothered by the disproportionate hands and the odd way of all the bipeds walking and running. I suppose it could be explained as a stylistic choice, but if so, it wasn't a style I particuarly cared for. On the other hand, it did not seriously impair my overall enjoyment. The accents were surprisingly good - I don't know who they got for Jimmy, but Georgia Moffet did a good American accent. Better than David Tennant, but then, I think he was supposed to ham it up a bit for the "Hoooowdy!" parts. I haven't researched the voice actors, but if they were all British I'm happy to say they (except for Tennant) did decent US accents that didn't waver and fade in and out.

Of course, part of the fun is picking out the oopsies made by a British team creating a story set in the US. It wasn't just geographical errors but also those involving time, which is sort of ironic if you stop and think about it.

The ones I picked out:

- The opening sequence is dated as 1947, but shows a Interstate highway sign. The interstate highway system did not exist until the 1950's, and I think it was the mid-1950's at that. Oops.

- Two US flags flanking a doorway are shown as the current 50-star US flag... but the setting is 1958. The US flat had 48 stars in 1958. It didn't have 50 until 1960. Oops.

- The door of Lab 51 says ""Authorised Personnel Only". That is the British spelling. In the US, we spell it "authorized", with a zee (which we say as "zee" and not "zed)". Oops.

It would not surprise me if there were others, but really, those three might well slide by Americans so I'll give 'em a pass on that.

I would say, particularly in this dry desert of early 2012 with it's paucity of New NuWho, that fans should watch this one at least once.

[Iroscato]

Oh yeah, I'd forgotten about that episode; I saw it a couple of years ago and found it fairly entertaining. It was definitely geared more towards a younger audience than the show, however, and I remember becoming slightly annoyed at how much the Doctor was over-using the sonic to get out of scrapes, even more so than the main show .
As a companion piece to the show, however, it was passable.

[Broomstick]

Definitely the sonic was overused.

This does make me want to see the other animated Doctor adventures which, I am told, exist out there in the universe somewhere. This afternoon's foray into the library's collection did not yield any fresh discoveries, but Who disks are in constant circulation so it's a bit hit-or-miss finding a specific one.

[Bedlam]

The main one I can think of recently was the infinity quest which came out in much the same way as dreamland during new season three.

The DVD release of the invasion (Patrick Trouton, Cybermen story) had the missing footage replaced with animation and there was partial animation done for some of the audio stories that used to be on the website, Real time and Shada.

[Big Orange]

I haven't researched the voice actors,

David Warner (General Sark in Tron and Billy Zane's heavy in Titanic) voiced the military leader of the Viperox and he also provided voice work for Big Finish (such as an alternate Third Doctor). The CGI was a bit basic and jerky, however I liked the locations featured in Dreamland and those robotic MIBs who also featured in The Sarah Jane Adventures back in late 2010.