Animated Doctor Who

After all the recent excitement over a possible new Star Trek animated show, the BBC is reporting that David Tennant and Freema Agyeman will carry their roles as The Doctor and Martha over to The Infinite Quest, a 13 week animated serial written by former Marvel UK staffer Alan Barnes and directed by former Doctor Who Magazine editor Gary Russell

The animated series that will be a weekly segment during the second series of CBBC's Totally Doctor Who, with Anthony Head (who played Giles on Buffy The Vampire Slayer and the Headmaster in the Doctor Who School Reunion episode) will star as Baltazar, Scourge of the Galaxy.

Although Cosgrove Hall have recreated lost episodes of Doctor Who and the BBC website has webcast several animated Doctor Who stories (notably Paul Cornell's Scream of the Shalka starring Richard E. Grant as the Doctor), this is the first time that a Doctor Who animated story has been made for TV, which is pretty exciting.

Back when I was editor of Doctor Who Magazine, myself, Reeltime Pictures Keith Barnfather and Kevin Davies (and, I think, Nick Briggs) worked up a pitch for a Daleks series which I showed Terry Nation at a Doctor Who convention in Chicago. Nation liked the idea but his agent then stepped in and told us we couldn't talk to the Daleks' creator direct without his say so and, I assume, some money changing hands, which was a shame as Terry enthusiastically threw in several ideas before that - and his unexpected death soon afterward - pretty much kiboshed the project. But I've always felt Doctor Who would - and has - made for some brilliant animation opportunities so it will be interesting to see what the BBC does with this project.

Totally Doctor Who is likely to air on BBC One with repeats on CBBC during the same weeks as new episodes of Doctor Who.