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

A tricky one to place is The Infinite Quest.

In broadcast terms, its first episode was transmitted as part of Totally Doctor Who between Smith and Jones and The Shakespeare Code, whereas its final segment (and the compilation of all thirteen episodes) was shown the same day as series 3 finale Last of the Time Lords.

Martha appears to be travelling with the Doctor as if it were the latter half of the season, but she’s wearing her clothes from the first half of the season. The character profile on the DVD suggests she with the Doctor for “one more trip”.

As she’s arguably been on “one more trip” with the Doctor since Smith and Jones, I concluded, as others also have done, that perhaps the best place to watch it is before she goes home in The Lazarus Experiment.

“He promised me all the gold I could eat.”

Caw, The Infinite Quest

The Infinite Quest adopts a similar style of animation to that which worked so well with Scream of the Shalka and the missing episodes of The Invasion. (Not especially surprising since Firestep Animation was founded by two former Cosgrove Hallers.) It also looks lovely in HD on the German Blu-ray disc — once I’d realised I had the wrong soundtrack on and my rudimentary German simply wasn’t up to following the action!

Given its original 13×3-ish minute episode structure format, the quest plotline works well, and with regular cliffhangers, the compilation edition fair cracks along. Caw’s nod to Brian’s mother is a nice touch and I’ve always liked the bit where the Doctor advises Martha not to talk like a pirate, much as he’d told her not to go all cod-Shakespeare a few episodes back!

More than anything though, The Infinite Quest shows that Doctor Who is eminently suited to having an animated series running alongside the main show. (Much like Marvel’s What If…? series showed there’s an appetite for it among MCU fans.) Let’s hope the idea gets revived now that RTD has assumed the mantle again.