Doctor Who - Dreamland

This is the second animated adventure for the David Tennant version of Doctor Who, the first being The Infinite Quest. Both of these have been directed by Gary Russell although the animation styles are significantly different. Once you have got over the style of the animation there is quite a nice little Doctor Who plot here.

Set 11 years after the supposed alien crash landing in Roswell The Doctor finds strange things going on. Things that lead him deep into the heart of a plot to seize control of earth by the Viperox.

Anyone familiar with the good Doctor will know that this is exactly the sort of thing that he likes to deal with. This was initially shown as 6 seperate episodes with some cliffhangers this one works well as a whole story. David Tennant of course provides the main voice, but interestingly it is Georgia Moffet who provides the secondary vocal skills. Georgia is the daughter of former Doctor Who actor Peter Davison and also played "The Doctor's Daughter" in the episode of the same name. Here she plays Cassie the owner of a Diner and a useful one-off sidekick through the adventure.

It's strange watching this kind of animation after seeing the live-action version of the same series. This story could fit nicely mid-season on a series of the show, but it probably isn't really big enough for a Doctor Who story. I don't think it needs animation, it's nothing spectacular. It's a solid and dependable plot which could have been brought to life by the Mill (the CGI company that BBC uses for Doctor Who SFX) but it doesn't play to the strengths of animation.

The animation itself is done by Cosgrove Hall. They have brought some classic pieces to life including the Discworld novels Wyrd Sisters and Soul Music, and of course a whole host of classic characters like Dangermouse! So why doesn't this seem quite right? Well the animation doesn't really fit the voices, although the character models are pretty good. The motion is a bit to stiff throughout and exactly how long are the arms of this animated version of David Tennant? This could have been a huge explosive episode but it seems they chose the stable and steady, perhaps so this didn't overshadow the final episodes of David Tennants stint as the Time Lord!