- 05/06/2025
How a Doctor Who movie got Lost in the Dark Dimension...
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00:00When Christopher Eccleston stated that multi-Doctor stories are cash grabs, he wasn't far wrong.
00:06While the show was off the air, BBC Enterprises, the corporation's marketing arm, went all in on
00:12video releases, books on tape, recorded soundtracks and novels to keep fans appeased during the
00:18wilderness years. Their biggest Doctor Who-related project, however, actually ended up unmade.
00:24Designed as a celebration of the show's 30th anniversary, Doctor Who The Dark Dimension
00:30was intended to be a feature-length straight-to-video movie. Now, The Dark Dimension, like Shada,
00:35is one of the Doctor Who fandom's great obsessions. Despite having never fully entered production,
00:41there have been many attempts by fans to realise the story as originally intended.
00:47So, with the 60th anniversary fast approaching and rumours of a multi-Doctor story back in the
00:54news once again, now seems like the perfect time to take a look at this abandoned special.
00:59So, with that in mind then, I'm Ellie with Who Culture, here with the true story behind
01:04Doctor Who's abandoned anniversary movie.
01:07Number 10. BBC Enterprises Plans an Anniversary Movie
01:12According to The Dark Dimension scriptwriter Adrian Rigglesford, the planned movie was at
01:18the behest of Tom Baker. Speaking to the Space Mountain Convention in Clacton-on-Sea in 1993,
01:24Rigglesford told fans that Tom Baker went to the BBC and said,
01:28I would like to be Doctor Who again, and that's the reason why it happened.
01:31Baker also apparently suggested that the script should be written by Douglas Adams.
01:36So, in light of this and the strong performance that Doctor Who was having in the home entertainment
01:41charts, BBC Enterprises started planning something special in September 1992.
01:47A brand new feature-length episode for exclusive home video release to celebrate Doctor Who's
01:5430th anniversary in 1993. Rigglesford's script was commissioned about a month later,
02:00specifically written with Tom Baker's requests in mind.
02:04The plot revolved around Hawkspur, a villainous alien who murders the 7th Doctor and alters
02:09the Doctor's personal timeline so that Tom Baker's incarnation never regenerated.
02:14This older fourth Doctor would team up with Ace and the Brigadier to put history back on
02:19course, with the other surviving Doctors making brief cameo performances throughout.
02:24Now, while this may have satisfied fans and some BBC high-ups who felt that the series had
02:30lost its way in the 1980s, it was a storyline that proved to be quite controversial further
02:35down the pre-production process.
02:39Number 9. Graham Harper comes on board to make Doctor Who scary again.
02:44Now, while BBC Enterprises wrangled over the project with the controller of BBC One, Jonathan
02:51Powell, who is one of Doctor Who's greatest enemies, Rigglesford had managed to bring a director
02:57on board. And he chose Graham Harper, a fan favourite director who was responsible for two of Doctor
03:03Who's most atmospheric and acclaimed stories of the 1980s, The Caves of Androzani and Revelation
03:09of the Daleks. Harper was reportedly very excited to make Doctor Who scary again, and was certainly
03:16a great choice for the darker, more grown-up tone that Rigglesford's script was aiming for.
03:21Now, at this stage, the film was planned for exclusive VHS release, which meant that the target
03:27audience were older fans, who had paid employment and disposable income. But that all changed in
03:34early 1993, when Jonathan Powell was replaced as controller of BBC One by Alan Yentob. Now, Alan Yentob
03:43was a supporter of Doctor Who and cult television in general, and had actually overseen some classic
03:49who repeats over on BBC Two throughout 1992 and into 1993. And with the support of Charles
03:57Denton, the new head of series and serials, he gave his blessing for The Dark Dimension to be aired
04:04on BBC One, with the VHS release then potentially including extra footage as an added selling point.
04:11Number eight, monster redesigns begin in earnest. Now that the project had the blessing of BBC One,
04:19the focus turned back to Rigglesford's script. As this was to be an anniversary special, there was a
04:24desire to include not just the surviving past Doctors, but several classic Monsters. The sixth Doctor was to
04:30meet the Ice Warriors, while the fourth Doctor would confront a Dalek in a Victorian graveyard,
04:35and the fifth Doctor would be thrown into the Cyber Wars. Now, in order to update some of these
04:42classic foes for a 90s audience, designers were brought in from a variety of sources, including
04:47Jim Henson's Creature Workshop. Henson's team were assigned the Cybermen, with Rigglesford giving an
04:54insight to some of the designs at the Space Mountain Convention, stating,
04:57The guy who designed it, Nigel Johns, was trained by alien designer H.R. Giger. So you can imagine that
05:04this particular Cyberman looked terrifying. It had holes in its knuckles, and there was a point where
05:10it held up its hand, made a fist, and six-inch blades shot out of its knuckles. It was like Wolverine
05:16out of the X-Men comics. Cyberene. Now, these new Cybermen are the overriding image of the abandoned
05:23project, and they really give an insight into the more horror-inducing adult tones that they were
05:29clearly aiming for. Number seven, Rick Mayall, David Bowie, and Brian Blessed were tipped to play the
05:35villain. There were a number of enticing star names linked to the role of the central villain Hawkspur.
05:42Rigglesford had previously written a book with Brian Blessed, so had suggested him for the role.
05:47Another name, David Bowie, was of course familiar to the team from Jim Henson's Creature Workshop,
05:52who had worked with him on Labyrinth. Now, it's not clear how advanced these discussions were past
05:58names on a list. And given how Enterprises approached the casting of the Doctors, but more on that later,
06:05it's highly likely that they didn't get very far. Now, one of the most enticing names for potential
06:10actors to play the villain was Rick Mayall. And Graham Harper had worked with Mayall on The New
06:15Statesman, where Mayall had played the role Alan Bastard. So given their working relationship,
06:21it's highly likely that Mayall was Harper's top choice for the role. But the prospect of Rick Mayall
06:28killing Sylvester McCoy and then facing off against Tom Baker in a Doctor Who story is one of the
06:34series' greatest what-ifs. And despite the clear flaws in the project, having Rick Mayall and Tom
06:41Baker involved would have at least ensured that it was nothing less than memorable.
06:45Number six, pre-production begins, casting does not. Establishing a production office in June 1993,
06:56BBC Enterprises won the bid to produce the project, with a tender of £75,000. But BBC TV were concerned
07:06that the budget was too low and the Enterprises had no experience in producing original drama.
07:12But despite this, design work continued on the monsters, updating the Daleks' extermination effects
07:19to 3D bolts. Test shoots began, costumes and sets were being designed for the special,
07:25the Pertwee-era variation of the theme tune was decided upon, and a new title sequence concept was
07:32being drawn up. Kevin Davies, who would later direct the fondly-remembered anniversary documentary
07:38more than 30 years in the TARDIS, was put in charge of realising the concept of incorporating
07:44all five Doctors' faces into the old-fashioned howl-around intro. The only problem was,
07:50no one had contacted the five Doctors. In an interview with TV Zone, fifth Doctor actor Peter
07:55Davieson said that,
07:57they never returned my agent's calls when this project was floating around. I was then sent a
08:01script later on saying, we hope you like the script, we look forward to working with you,
08:06and still, no one had contacted my agent. And it would only get worse from there.
08:11Number five, most of the Doctors aren't impressed.
08:15As news of the project started to filter around fan circles in June, it wasn't until July that the
08:23news of the project was broken in the 202nd issue of Doctor Who magazine. Now, fans were incredibly
08:29excited about the prospect of Doctor Who returning to BBC One after three years, but most of the
08:35Doctors were less excited. In the years following the project, John Pertwee, Peter Davieson, Colin
08:42Baker, and Sylvester McCoy have been vocal on the script's many problems, not least the fact that they
08:48were all overshadowed by Tom Baker. As Colin Baker remembered in an interview with TV Zone magazine,
08:54it's not a very sound strategy to present it in. The way it was presented, i.e. that one is much
09:00more important than the other four. John Pertwee, meanwhile, objected to how the script approached
09:05Doctor Who in general, telling Starburst magazine, it should have been given to a writer that knows
09:10something about what we're doing. Someone like Barry Letts. Sylvester McCoy later tapped into the
09:15inherent problem with the proposed story. He told TV Zone,
09:19I don't think it was even the kind of story fans would want to see for the 30th anniversary.
09:24They want to see all the Doctors together.
09:27Number four, budget miscalculations lead the project to be abandoned.
09:32Fan excitement over the project was short-lived. A BBC board meeting held on the 10th of July decided
09:39that the anniversary multi-Doctor story was just a hastily cobbled cash grab. Citing the upset the
09:46project caused for past Doctors and the unrealistic production schedule, the board decided to send
09:52BBC Enterprises a memo that cancelled the Dark Dimension for financial and logistical reasons.
09:59And rumour has it that those financial reasons related to the fact that the broadcasting costs
10:05hadn't been factored into BBC Enterprises' budget. Now this wasn't quite the end of the project
10:11however, and Rigglesford set about rewriting his script for a potential Christmas 1993 release.
10:18Meanwhile in America, Philip Siegel, working at Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment,
10:24had heard about the project and was concerned. In a DVD interview for 1996's Doctor Who TV movie,
10:31Siegel said,
10:32I read the script and it was awful. It was really embarrassing and it was silly and we were going to
10:38march out all of the old Doctors and it just felt wrong. It was going to muddy the waters and confuse
10:44people, especially as we were so close to delivering our bible and our script. Siegel requested that the
10:51BBC Enterprises' senior manager Tony Greenwood put a stop to the project and thus the final nail
10:58was put in the Dark Dimension's coffin.
11:02Number 3. Dimensions in Time replaces the Dark Dimension.
11:07Now if Siegel was concerned that the script for the Dark Dimension was silly, then who knows what
11:13he must have thought about the script for its replacement, the infamous Dimensions in Time.
11:20Fans were understandably disappointed that a dark and brooding 96 minute feature length movie
11:25special was replaced by a light and fluffy romp through Albert Square in 3D for 1993's Children
11:31in Need telethon.
11:32Viewed through the prism of an anniversary special, Dimensions in Time is unbelievably disappointing.
11:39It's a crossover with BBC soap Eastenders. The Doctors don't quite feel right, the companions
11:44are thumbnail sketches of how the characters are remembered by writers John Nathan Turner and
11:49David Roden. And worse than that, Tom Baker still doesn't share screen time with the other Doctors.
11:55But really, fans should have just lightened up. Dimensions in Time was just a bit of daft
12:00fun for a really good cause. And actually, funnily enough, Adrian Rigglesford's wish for Light
12:06Entertainment host Noel Edmonds to introduce the Dark Dimensions in Noel's Who Party actually
12:13came true. Edmonds announced the winner of the phone vote that would decide which EastEnders' character
12:18would save the Doctor from the Part 1 cliffhanger. He was then joined by John Pertwee in character
12:24as the Doctor, who instructed audiences to put on their 3D glasses. Look, it wasn't a feature-length
12:30movie, but it was still a good laugh.
12:33Number 2. Adrian Rigglesford unsuccessfully tries to publish the making of the Dark Dimension
12:39book.
12:40Now, before the Dark Dimension was abandoned, Virgin Publishing were interested in publishing
12:45a novelisation. But when Greenwood pulled the plug on the project, the publishers decided
12:51it wasn't really worth it anymore. After all, they had several Seventh Doctor stories
12:56to be working with and were starting to create new stories for the previous six incarnations.
13:01But undeterred, Rigglesford continued to seek publishing opportunities for his unmade Doctor
13:07Who story. He considered a script book with Titan Books, but then the BBC clamped down on making
13:14the script public. And it was this clampdown that also ensured that the unofficial making
13:20of book failed to surface on the three potential publishing dates between 1994 and 1995, despite
13:27a dust jacket featuring the new style Cyberman being designed.
13:31Eventually, details of the Dark Dimension appeared in Virgin's reference book The Nth Doctor by
13:37Jean-Marc Leffissier. The book contained various background notes and a full synopsis for the
13:43unmade adventure, which sparked the imagination of several creatively-minded fans.
13:50Number 1. The project is eventually realised by fans.
13:54Now, if we learned anything during the wilderness years of the 1990s, it's that if Doctor Who fans
14:00aren't satisfied with existing Doctor Who, then they make it themselves. Doctor Who DJ, missing
14:06episode hunter, and continuity advisor Ian Levine has funded many such projects for his own private
14:14collection. He finished work on his version of the Dark Dimension back in 2012, and he even managed
14:20to secure Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred to voice their respective characters. And there have been
14:26many other similar attempts to realise the potential of Rigglesford's script over the years. Now, the
14:32most high-profile and accessible of these is Faros Feature's audio adaptation of a leaked version of the
14:39Dark Dimension's script, featuring a cast of fans and realised by fan artists. The 2021 adaptation of
14:48The Abandoned Project was recorded during the pandemic. Script editor and fourth Doctor Matthew
14:54Toffolo told We Are Cold. It's been a great pleasure playing a weary 90s-era fourth Doctor and hearing
15:01the project come together with incredibly talented voice acting, editing, sound design, and an equally
15:07impressive soundtrack. Now, it is still available on YouTube, and it's likely the closest fans will ever
15:14get to the Dark Dimension. And there you have it, the true story behind the abandoned Doctor Who
15:20movie. Now, if we missed out any details, then do let us know in the comments below. And while you're
15:25there, don't forget to like and subscribe and tap that notification bell. Also, head over to Twitter
15:31and follow us there, at Who Culture, and I can be found across various social medias just by searching
15:36Ellie Littlechild. I've been Ellie with Who Culture, and in the words of River Song herself, goodbye, sweeties.
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