Dimensions in Time
Happy Endings
Nostalgia runs rampant and sillyness abounds in these two anniversary specials -- one a celebration of 30 years of Televised Doctor Who, and the other of fifty New Adventure Novels. [DiT: 6/10, Happy Endings 7.5/10]
Doctor Who has a tradition of patting itself on the back with campy recollections, and these two examples, which I coincidently got a hold of on the same weekend, both celebrate Doctor Who in a camp, silly way. Harmless fun, I suppose.
Dimensions in Time gets a bum rap -- but the simple fact is that it isn't a real Doctor Who story, but more in the style of "In a Fix with the Sontarans", or one of the other in character off-show appearances. With every appearance a cameo, and a nonsensical plot, this is a way to get as many [much older] but familiar faces a chance to say "hello" to the audience, but with even more old characters than "Five Doctors" in 16 minutes, this isn't a story, but a "where are they now?" file...
And I have to admit that I was touched that they finally had one scene with Nick Courtney and Colin Baker in character -- while I'd love to see a proper Sixth Doctor/Brigidier MA at some point -- I couldn't help but cheering a bit when I saw the two of them together.
Taking Dimensions in Time for what it was -- a nostalgic send up of an dead series for a charity show -- the only real offensive part was the way that the first two Doctors were worked in, especially with plastic looking fake heads. It felt far more insulting to the memories of William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton than recasting like in Five Doctors...it's also as much the style that they were done, not the explanation for why the two Doctor's weren't really present.
Happy Endings is also a light, entertaining celebration, with the fifty New Adventures all coming back. The one chapter, where Paul called up previous New Adventure authors to write a short scene that recalls their own NAs is exactly on the same page as Dimensions in Time -- nostalgic and silly, recalling and celebrating the past.
Since I've only read a third of the NAs, some of the backwards references weren't always obvious -- but I was more confused by the cricket match in the middle of the book, actually.
The most enjoyable part about Happy Endings is, as with all of Paul Cornell's books, the lyrical style of his writing -- "I've found someone who continually reminds me of who I'd like to be." It isn't Paul's best work, for much the reason that Five Doctors wasn't Terrance Dicks' best work, and it's an ultrafrock story, celebrating what's really the end of an era.
As such, there is an irony that Happy Endings is, in a way, the last real seventh Doctor "New Adventure" -- all of the ones up to next year's Lungburrow take place before Enemy Within. It would almost have worked for this to have led into the movie, with only a very few subplots left over.
Neither Dimensions in Time or Happy Endings would get my recommendation for a neophile, as both require just too much knowledge of the series they represent. Both works are drunk nights with old friends, living in the past, celebrating the old times. And we all need that from time to time.