TV

Doctor Who
32x00a Space [2nd watch]
32x00b Time [2nd watch]
32x11a Bad Night
32x11b Good Night
32x11c First Night
32x11d Last Night
32x11e Up All Night
33x00a Good as Gold
33x00b Pond Life [2nd watch]
33x13b Clarence and the Whispermen
33x14a The Inforarium
33x14b Clara and the TARDIS
33x14c Rain Gods

One of the reasons I raced on to the Tenth Doctor part of my Doctor Who 60th anniversary celebratory marathon yesterday (even though I’d only just finished the Ninth Doctor section and it might’ve been nice to have a gap to keep them distinct) was because I knew what was coming for the Eleventh Doctor. It’s a bit of a fiddly one, so I wanted to make sure it fell on a Saturday so I comfortably had the time to sort it out (normally a Sunday would be fine too, but I’ve got plans tomorrow).

So, what is all this I've chosen? Well, as I've written before, it's been something of a challenge working out what to include for nuWho Doctors, which has led to some of my more unusual choices. And yet in many ways these are an obvious choice: actual, real episodes of Doctor Who that I’d never seen… albeit only mini episodes, most of them released exclusively with home media purchases (be it on disc or digital) of entire seasons. But they’re a rarity, because the Matt Smith / Steven Moffat years are the only era where that really happened (series two did have the TARDISodes, although they were a bit pointless; and nowadays each season of Classic Who gets a new minisode to promote its Blu-ray release. But I digress). Still, even though they’re only mini-eps, they were made as part of Who’s official production, featuring the primary stars of the show — they may only be short, but that fact arguably make them more “real” than any tie-in book or retrospectively-recorded audio drama can ever be. And, as that, I really should’ve watched them a long time ago. But I didn’t, so here we are.

So, there are 13 of the blighters. All produced for one series on DVD? No, of course not — there's really multiple different things going on here, from different times and places, so I'll explain. The first seven "episodes" are from nuWho series 6. Of those, the first two (Space and Time) were a two-part sketch for Comic Relief 2011 (I watched it at the time, but as that time was 12 years ago, I thought it merited going back to). The next five were a series of connected shorts included on the series 6 home media release; although, really, only the first four are connected and the fifth is a prequel to Closing Time (they made a lot of other prequels in that era (five during series 6, eight during series 7, one for series 8, and two set before series 9), but most were released online so I watched them at the time).

The next six "episodes" bring us into the series 7 era. Good as Gold was a short written by kids (you can tell) and shown on Blue Peter in May 2012, between the 2011 Christmas special and series 7 in September 2012. Pond Life was a series of five shorts webcast in the immediate run-up to series 7, edited together into one piece for the home media release (well, stuck together — it would be better if they'd edited into one piece instead of literally just bunging them back to back, credits 'n' all). Next is Clarence and the Whispermen, which is actually an episode prequel (to The Name of the Doctor; its second), but it didn't get the usual online release (hence I hadn't seen it), only debuting on the Series 7 Part 1 DVD. The final three are all random short scenes that debuted on the complete series 7 home media release. Their order varies depending which listing you look at. I watched them in the order they appear on the Blu-ray menu; and as that was their first point of release, I’d argue that’s the most definitive (as much as it matters, which it doesn’t). They’re a bizarre trio — even shorter and less consequential, and certainly less connected to anything, than the ones from series 5 and 6. Their very existence feels… weird.

And for all that faffing, the total runtime of material I've never seen here is... 27 minutes. Throw in the rewatches and it gets up to 40 minutes. Almost one regular episode's worth! Wow.

Talking of regular episodes, the numbering I've used is... arguable. It's a mix of when these shorts were released and when they're set. For example, the five scenes that make up Night and the Doctor debuted on the series 6 home media release, so could be argued to be 32x13a-e; but, as I mentioned, the final one is set before Closing Time, aka 32x12, so I've chosen to number them 32x11a-e. Of course, the first four are a sort of miniseries, while Up All Night is an unconnected TV prequel that just has a similar title, so perhaps only the last one belongs as 32x11a and the other four sit somewhere else. But we could be here forever with those kinds of arguments. Point is, I'm not claiming the numbering is definitive, but it's something.

Oh, and there's also...


Doctor Who Confidential
6x13a The Nights' Tale
Technically, the last-ever episode of Confidential (so, not this one) — a 15-minute one-off, included on the series 6 home media releases, covering the production of two of the Night of the Doctor shorts and the Space and Time Comic Relief skit. The way they're discussed here makes me think they were all destined for DVD/Blu-ray exclusivity before being repurposed for Comic Relief. And there's no mention at all of the second two Night scenes — another "two parter", this time with just the Doctor and River — which is... mildly odd. All in all, rather than enlightening me about production, it's made me more curious about the circumstances of the shorts' production.