Plot Details: This opinion reveals minor details about the movie's plot.

Hey, now there's a good idea! Take Doctor Who and turn it into a program for children. Someone should write that down!

. . .

Hey, wait a moment!

Seriously though - it's fair to say that since the program's return, the British public cant get enough Doctor Who. It's monstrously popular, with behemoth ratings on BBC1, toy sales through the roof, and awards left and right. So it's only natural that they'd spin of the property where they can, with seven* total series on the air or in production: Doctor Who, Doctor Who Confidential, Torchwood, Torchwood declassified, the Sarah Jane Adventures, a K-9 solo series that may or may not get off the ground, and Totally Doctor Who.

* Oh, and there's K9 and Company, but the less said about that one the better.

In the second season of Totally Doctor Who, one of the segments was a short thirteen part animated series called The Infinite Quest, featuring - wait a moment. Let me bring the new folks up to speed. . . .

From 1963 to 1989 (and a couple of false starts thereafter) the BBC ran an immensely popular family program called Doctor Who. The main character is called The Doctor, a Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey. He travels the universe in the TARDIS, a wondrous spaceship that can go anywhere in time and space - provided that the Doctor can steer it correctly. During his adventures, he and his companion (usually a young human female with weak ankles and good lungs) combat evil and injustice wherever they find it. Key to the longevity of the series - Doctor Who can do what the James Bond movies have done several times. When fatally injured, Time Lords have the ability to regenerate, totally changing their faces and personalities, allowing the ability to swap out the lead roll when the actor wants to leave the series. So there have been several Doctors with different faces (ten, so far), but all of them the same character.

Oh, and the name of the show is Doctor Who. The main character is simply called The Doctor.

Anyway, like I was saying, The Infinite Quest was a originally series of 3 minute animations done especially for Totally Doctor Who, much like the Clone Wars series for the Cartoon Network a couple of years back. This DVD is the compiled version all mashed up into one 45 minute film telling the whole story in one go.

The Story, you ask? Meet Baltazar, scourge of the galaxy. When the Doctor (the one with the pin stripe suit and converse) and Martha stop his plan to envelope Earth in a hyperaccelerated plasma field and compress its carbon based life forms into diamonds, he swears revenge - pretty much par for the course for a Doctor Who baddy.

Sometime later Baltazar's huge metallic bird, Caw, meets the Doctor and Martha on his home planet, telling the Time Lord that Baltazar seeks the Infinite, an ancient spaceship from the dawn of time that can grant people their heart's desire. He give the Doctor a Datachip, that can lead to the nest one and so on. After the four are gathered, they'll form a map to the lost starship.

Reluctant to take on the quest, the Doctor cant allow Baltazar to get limitless power on board. And so it's off to the planets Boukan, Myarr, and the ice prison world of Volag-Noc to recover the map. But can the Doctor beat Baltazar to the prize?

Coming back to their rolls are Freema Agyeman and of course the ever wonderful David Tennant. Also returning to the series is guest star Tony Head, playing the scourge of the universe Balthazar. You know, it's really a shame that they cant find a regular baddy roll for Tony - the man is just SO damned good, both here, as Mister Finch in School Reunion and the Big Finish productions Excelis Dawns, Excelis Rising, and Excelis Decays.

Being an animated feature chopped up into three minute segments, the flow can be kind of choppy - with a cliffhanger happening every time you turn around (although the segments have been edited together in one seamless whole). And since the target demographic is children, the plot has been scaled back (although as we see over in the Sarah Jane Adventures, this was unnecessary. The stories there, while simple, were never quite THIS simple).

The animation is fairly well done, although it does take some time to grow on you. The Doctor and Martha are instantly recognizable, the TARDIS looks like it should, and the new characters - being animated and all - are given a chance to be bigger and more outrageous that they could ever afford to do on the live action show. So we do get some interesting character designs that we never would have seen otherwise.

All in all, The Infinite Quest is a fun bit of distracting fluff, but ultimately forgettable. It's more children friendly than a more complex story, like say Blink, and free of gore or scares like the parent show might indulge in from time to time.

There is a problem, however. As I understand it, BBC World Wide (the international distribution arm of the BBC) is not interested in selling shows aimed at children overseas. That means no Sarah Jane and no Infinite Quest in region 1. So the only way to get your hands on a copy, you yanks, is import it from sendit.com or Amazon.

THE DVD -
As a flash based animation, presumably ported directly from a digital copy, The Infinite Quest looks pretty clean. There's plenty of space on the disc, so there's not much pixelization or grain and the like. The animation is pretty primitive, so if that's a personal bugaboo, you might want to consider carefully.

THE EXTRAS -
While not quite the bounty of extras that one finds on the Classic Who DVDs or the New Series Boxed Sets, we do get a fair number of bonus features. There's a series of short interviews with David, Freema, Tony and the director, the recording sessions for episode 1 and 9 (very fun stuff), some Animatic storyboards and deleted scenes, an animation test for the Doctor, some text character profiles, and a couple of trailers for Doctor Who series 3 and the Sarah Jane Adventures.

THE BOTTOM LINE -
The Infinite Quest is bubble gum - fun for a while, pretty flavorful, but ultimately empty and you forget about it shortly after you finish with it.

OTHER DOCTOR WHO EPISODES ON DVD:

DOCTOR ONE -
* The Beginning * Doctor Who and the Daleks * The Aztecs * The Dalek Invasion of Earth * Daleks: Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. * The Web Planet * The Lost in Time Collection *

DOCTOR TWO -
* Tomb of the Cybermen * The Seeds of Death * The Mind Robber * The Invasion *

DOCTOR THREE -
* Spearhead From Space * Doctor Who and the Silurians * The Sea Devils * The Three Doctors * Carnival of Monsters*

DOCTOR FOUR -
* The Ark in Space * Genesis of the Daleks * The Pyramids of Mars * The Robots of Death * The Talons of Weng-Chiang *
Destiny of the Daleks *

DOCTOR FIVE -
* Earthshock * Time-Flight * The Five Doctors * Warriors of the Deep * Resurrection of the Daleks * The Caves of Androzani*

DOCTOR SIX -
* Vengeance on Varos * Timelash * The Two Doctors * Revelation of the Daleks *

DOCTOR SEVEN -
* Rememberance of the Daleks * Ghost Light * The Curse of Fenric * Survival * The Television Movie*

THE NEW SERIES -
* Doctor Who - Series One * Doctor Who - Series Two * Torchwood - Series One * Doctor Who - Series Three * The Infinite Quest*


Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Better than Watching TV
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children up Ages 8