Doctor Who: The Infinite Quest

The Infinite Quest is an animated episode of Doctor Who, with David Tennant and Freema Agyeman reprising their roles as the Tenth Doctor and Martha Jones.

As of this writing, Tennant's stint as the Doctor is coming to an end, with his final episode set to air any day now. I honestly think Tennant is the best actor to have played the role of the Doctor since Tom Baker. I really wish Tennant was staying longer. But four years is a good run. And a bonus episode such as The Infinite Quest gives us one more outing by Tennant, a much appreciated extra. It also showcases just how amazing David Tennant is as the Doctor. The way he casually rattles of all manner of technobabble and nonsense in a charmingly humorous manner carries over perfectly into the animated medium.

I enjoyed the chemistry between Tennant and Agyeman during the third and forth seasons of Doctor Who's revival. So it's nice to have Agyeman return to play Martha.

The villain of the story is Baltazar, a ruthless gas-mask clad intergalactic plunderer. Baltazar is voiced by Anthony Stewart Head, best known here in the States for his portrayal of Rupert Giles on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. This isn't Head's first work on Doctor Who. He had a recurring role as the warlord Grayvorn in the audio adventures produced by Big Finish. And he also portrayed the icy Mr. Finch on the television episode "School Reunion."

Head's vocal performance of Baltazar is pitch-perfect. Head embues the character with a maniacal ruthlessness. I'd enjoy seeing the villain return. Perhaps the BBC can bring him back in another animated story, either with Tennant, or the new Doctor, Matt Smith.

The plot concerns the search for "The Infinite," a mysterious cosmic source of power from the dawn of time. The Infinite is a classic MacGuffin, as it sets off a journey across the galaxy, with the Doctor and Martha racing to beat Baltazar to the prize.

Why do The Infinite Quest as an animated story? Well, simply put, this is an incredibly ambitious story. The story contains four different planets, three spaceships, several alien lifeforms, a bunch of space pirates, a giant talking metal bird, and lots of robots. Even with the big budget and CGI technology now available for the revived Doctor Who series, this would probably have been difficult to pull off as a live-action production.

At a mere 45 minutes, The Infinite Quest rushes along at a breathtaking pace. I wish that it could have been a little bit longer, say a full hour. But at least the short length means that there is absolutely zero padding. If a story along these lines had been made during the show's original run, it would probably have consisted of four to six 25 minute long episodes, with lots of running up & down corridors punctuated by scenes of the characters standing around engaging in plot exposition. Better to have a more brisk speed. After all, brevity is the soul of wit.

The animation is done via computer, but in a matter reminiscent of hand-drawn work. The style looks very close to the work done to re-create the two missing episodes from the 1969 serial The Invasion for that DVD release, utilizing the original audio tracks (the original episodes are long missing from the BBC archives, and in all probability no longer even exist). Anyway, I'm curious if the same animators worked on The Infinite Quest.

There are a few bonuses on the DVD, including brief interviews with the main cast, and some animation test footage. I would have preferred a slightly more extensive behind-the-scenes look, but that's a minor point.

Doctor Who: The Infinite Quest is an enjoyable adventure story. I highly recommend it.