N.B. there might (or might not) be spoilers in this article!

There’s no onscreen title for this mini-episode: Children in Need Special is what’s used on the DVD release, so I’ve gone with that, but it’s also been referred to as “The New Doctor”, “Born Again” and, perhaps most amusingly in its own geeky way, “Pudsey Cutaway” by Russell T Davies.

It starts with a recap of events from The Parting of the Ways — longer on the DVD version and including the cheesy “I think you need a Doctor” line — and segues into the regeneration and David Tennant’s first lines as the Doctor. From there we get a nice little scene with the Doctor and Rose, where she offers the suggestions that this new Doctor may have teleported into the place of the old one, or that he might even have been a Slitheen!

“The regeneration’s going wrong. I can’t stop myself.”

Doctor, Children in Need Special

It’s the not the first time Doctor Who has been involved in BBC charity events. The Five Doctors and Dimensions in Time were tied in with Children in Need back in 1983 and 1993 respectively and The Curse of Fatal Death was a big part of Comic Relief in 1999. Nor would it be the last such involvement, but, as our first look at the Tenth Doctor, it might actually be the most important in terms of continuity.

It’s done in such as a way so as to slot seamlessly between the The Parting of the Ways and The Christmas Invasion, almost as if it were a deleted scene from the Christmas episode that had perhaps been cut for timing reasons. As it shows us the start of the Doctor’s regeneration going awry, the Doctor Who universe is all the better for having it.