Dreamland

Dreamland is a bit of an oddity. An animated story broadcast in six parts (originally) on various BBC website type things. It's actually quite hard to review because, in the end, it is mostly harmless.

The story drags in a handful of clichés from various bits 'n' bobs: there are Men in Black, there's Area 51, there's Native Americans protecting aliens from a rabid US military led by Colonel Stark (voiced by Stuart Milligan. Oh and then there's two types of alien (three if we exclude the good Doctor himself): the Viperox, led by Lord Azlok (voiced with his usual excellence by David Warner) who are militaristic bugs and the 'Greys' (who look like the aliens of abduction mythology).

It's basically Doctor Who does the X-Files but without Mulder and Scully. Even the Native Americans would slot right in to the X-Files Universe. The only problem would be Scully's nervous breakdown on the realization that Mulder was right and that there are aliens.

Instead of Mulder and Scully the Doctor gets assistance from Cassie Rice (Georgia Moffet sounding remarkably like Nicola Bryant doing Peri) and Jimmy Stalkingwolf (Tim Howar), a waitress and a Native American farmhand. I think.

Anyway the story for what it's worth rolls along rather nicely. There's good guys, bad guys and confusion. There's a bit of Red baiting from the Colonel, who does at least end up being less nasty than he began the story, which is nice.

The Greys were the last survivors of a race the Viperox had all but wiped out. Rivesh Mantilax (Nicholas Rowe) had developed a genetic weapon designed to wipe out the Viperox but was...oh look basically the Viperox are not very nice and the Doctor won't let Rivesh Mantilax wipe them out. No one has that right says the Doctor. In Fourth Doctor style.

Rivesh's wife, Saruba Velak (Lisa Bowerman), has been on Earth and in Area 51 since 1947. She's the Roswell Grey...see what I mean. It's like someone put a series of X-Files plotlines in a hat and drew them out to write this.

Look I'm beating it up a bit and that's unnecessary really. It's a mostly harmless, reasonably entertaining collection of clichés. It even has lots of Doctor Who running, which is a shame as the running is the weakest part of the animation.

That's it.

It's OK. You don't even have to watch it but you won't feel like you've made a terrible mistake if you have forty-five minutes or so to spare to watch it.

I really should learn to take these things less seriously.

Really.

Or get out more.

Anyway, after that, I fancy watching some X-Files.