Although this episode was not part of the official season with Martha Jones as The Doctor's companion, it was released on DVD as a full length episode. And since the story was well conceived, I felt like it would be an injustice to the revived series not include this stand alone story before beginning the Series 4 reviews.
"The Infinite Quest" was originally divided into thirteen installment
s, with one episode being broadcast each week. This was the first animated adventure for Doctor Who.
Penned by Alan Barnes, it was clear throughout the duration of this episode that Russell T Davies had very little to do with its production, as the episode contained no soapy scenes, and from start to finish revolved solely around The Doctor and Martha's quest for The Infinite. As bad as it sounds, Barnes had written a story that would have been terrific as a live-action three part story. Since the episode was restricted to a total of 45 minutes, the pace of the episode was extremely rushed. However, this is could be in part due to the fact that this animated episode was aimed mainly at children, who would probably not be as fond of the slower paced live action stories that ring true to the rules of the original series.
My main reason for including this episode in my reviews of the new series is because this story was one of the most imaginative of the entire series. At no time during this episode are we even remotely close to Earth; all of the locales are other planets in the far reaches of the universe. None of the planets are inhabited by humans that look like they were just plucked off the street in front of the BBC and dropped into scenes to act as inhabitants of the future. The episode is full of aliens - some good, some bad - and some of them are not all what they appear to be.
It's a pity that Barnes wasn't able to contribute some scripts to the actual series, because if he had I think we would have been in for a real treat.
Besides the light-speed pacing required to cram Barnes' elaborate story into 45 minutes, my only complaint with the episode was the continous music that seemed to accompany every scene. I'm sure had the episode been done live action, it probably would have been scored differently, but the fact is the story was so well written that it was one of those that didn't need soundtracks of epic proportions to "prop up" the episode in order to keep from putting viewers to sleep.
There are remarkable similarities between this episode and "The Key to Time" series with the Fourth Doctor. Starting with "The Ribos Operation," The Doctor received a special locator which when inserted into the TARDIS console would provide coordinates of the next hidden segment to the Key to Time. That entire season was The Doctor's quest to locate the six segments to the Key to Time, which had been scattered all over space and time, and were disguised.
There has been tremendous controversy over whether or not this should be included with the list of Doctor Who serials. I can only speak for myself, but as you all know I am a long time fan of the series - both old and new - and my opinion is that with a story that was so well conceived, how could we even consider not including it? It's definitely a gem in book. Cheers, Barnes.
"The Infinite Quest" was originally divided into thirteen installment
s, with one episode being broadcast each week. This was the first animated adventure for Doctor Who.Penned by Alan Barnes, it was clear throughout the duration of this episode that Russell T Davies had very little to do with its production, as the episode contained no soapy scenes, and from start to finish revolved solely around The Doctor and Martha's quest for The Infinite. As bad as it sounds, Barnes had written a story that would have been terrific as a live-action three part story. Since the episode was restricted to a total of 45 minutes, the pace of the episode was extremely rushed. However, this is could be in part due to the fact that this animated episode was aimed mainly at children, who would probably not be as fond of the slower paced live action stories that ring true to the rules of the original series.
My main reason for including this episode in my reviews of the new series is because this story was one of the most imaginative of the entire series. At no time during this episode are we even remotely close to Earth; all of the locales are other planets in the far reaches of the universe. None of the planets are inhabited by humans that look like they were just plucked off the street in front of the BBC and dropped into scenes to act as inhabitants of the future. The episode is full of aliens - some good, some bad - and some of them are not all what they appear to be.
It's a pity that Barnes wasn't able to contribute some scripts to the actual series, because if he had I think we would have been in for a real treat.
Besides the light-speed pacing required to cram Barnes' elaborate story into 45 minutes, my only complaint with the episode was the continous music that seemed to accompany every scene. I'm sure had the episode been done live action, it probably would have been scored differently, but the fact is the story was so well written that it was one of those that didn't need soundtracks of epic proportions to "prop up" the episode in order to keep from putting viewers to sleep.
There are remarkable similarities between this episode and "The Key to Time" series with the Fourth Doctor. Starting with "The Ribos Operation," The Doctor received a special locator which when inserted into the TARDIS console would provide coordinates of the next hidden segment to the Key to Time. That entire season was The Doctor's quest to locate the six segments to the Key to Time, which had been scattered all over space and time, and were disguised.
There has been tremendous controversy over whether or not this should be included with the list of Doctor Who serials. I can only speak for myself, but as you all know I am a long time fan of the series - both old and new - and my opinion is that with a story that was so well conceived, how could we even consider not including it? It's definitely a gem in book. Cheers, Barnes.
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