The Discontinuity Guide
The New Series

Children in Need Special

18th November 2005

Writer: Russell T Davies

Director: Euros Lyn

Roots: The Edge of Destruction (a story entirely inside the TARDIS), The Power of the Daleks, Castrovalva, The Twin Dilemma (regeneration gone bad, and Rose's reaction to the new Doctor)

Goofs: When Rose suggests going back for Captain Jack, the Doctor says that he's too busy rebuilding the Earth. However, in The Parting of the Ways, the Doctor must have realised that the Daleks exterminated Jack before they got to him and couldn't have known that Rose resurrected Jack. [Either he doesn't want to break the news to Rose that Jack is dead or he saw that Rose had resurrected Jack when he had absorbed the vortex energy.]

Continuity: The new Doctor has a slight weakness in the dorsal tubercle, says that his new stomach (or just the fact of being thinner) feels weird, and has a mole between his shoulderblades. He initially intends to take Rose to Barcelona at 6pm on a Tuesday in October 5006 but changes the controls to Rose's home, the Powell Estate, on the 24th of December.

Rose initially doesn't believe that this is the Doctor.

Links: This story/scene follows on from the end of The Parting of the Ways and leads into The Christmas Invasion. Rose mentions transmats (Bad Wolf/The Parting of the Ways), teleports (The End of the World, Boom Town), and mentions nanogenes (The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances), the Gelth (The Unquiet Dead), and the Slitheen (Aliens of London, World War Three, The Monsters Inside, and Boom Town). The Doctor recalls his first meeting with Rose, which he says was "such a long time ago" (Rose). He mentions having met Rose's mum (Rose, Aliens of London, World War Three, Winner Takes All, Father's Day). Rose mentions Captain Jack, and the Doctor says that he's busy rebuilding the Earth. We hear the Cloister Bell (Logopolis)

Location: The TARDIS

Unrecorded Adventures: The Doctor says that there was one time that he and Rose had to hop for their lives.

The Bottom Line: 'What do I look like?' Short and sweet, this serves as a brief but good introduction to Tennant's Doctor. Despite the length, the "episode" has a fair bit of substance to it, exploring Rose's reaction to the new Doctor and leaving a number of teasing hints about The Christmas Invasion.