The Wilderness Years (1990 - 2004) - Part One: An Introduction

I am now one day away from reaching a large milestone in this journey, the completion of the original 26 season run of the show. The axe was swung in 1989 and it would be another 15 years before it would properly return. During this period there were various attempts made by various people to get the show running again but as far as I'm concerned only one of these can be considered strictly canonical with the history of the show, that being the 1996 TV Movie. This showed the seventh Doctor, Sylvester McCoy regenerating into the eight Doctor, Paul McGann.

I won't talk to much about the TV Movie now as I will be watching this as one of the days of my challenge but there are three other notable "episodes" that I do not consider to be in the true continuity of the show and therefore will not be taking up a day of the quest. These being Dimensions In Time, Downtime and Scream Of The Shalka. I intend to watch these at some point during the next few weeks and still intend to write a blog entry on each one in this four part review of "the wilderness years"

I won't go into too much detail about them now but I do just want to justify why they have been missed out of my 900 day quest.

Dimensions In Time: This was a Children In Need episode (about 12 minutes long) broadcast in 1993 and containing all surviving Doctors and a number of different companions. Whilst it was produced by the same producer of the original show, it also had Doctor Who crossing over with Eastenders and a plot that made such little sense that it really has no place in the shows continuity

Downtime: A fan produced project featuring the Brigadier, Sarah Jane Smith and Victoria Waterfield. Now I can't blame the lack of Doctor as a reason why I'm "skipping" this one as I do intend to cover the spin off shows of the Sarah Jane Adventures and Torchwood. However the fact that this was a fan produced, direct to video, story means I do not think it has a true place in continuity

Scream Of The Shalka: Right before the series was brought back in 2005, this cartoon web series of Doctor Who was produced starring Richard E Grant as the ninth Doctor. This is not part of the canon of the show as this Doctor has been replaced by the television version of the ninth Doctor, Christopher Eccleston.

So there we have it. Three adventures which will not be taking up a "day" in my challenge but which I intend to try to watch anyway and blog about. So coming soon in Part 2 of "The Wilderness Years" will be the 1993 mini episode "Dimensions In Time"...God help me!