'Doctor Who: The Infinite Quest' (2007)

Starring David Tennant, Freema Agyeman and Anthony Head
Written by Alan Barnes
Directed by Gary Russell

I didn't really look too hard at what this was when I added it to my Netflix Queue.  I thought perhaps it was a special that I had missed, but it is, in fact, an animated "Doctor Who" adventure set sometime during the show's third season.  It originally aired in short segments as part of a "Doctor Who" children's spin-off called "Totally Doctor Who" in the UK.

The Doctor (David Tennant) and Martha Jones (Freema Agyeman) run afoul of the evil despot Baltazar (Anthony Head) who plans to turn the entire population of Earth into living diamonds.  The foil his plan, and Baltazar is sentenced to rot in a prison planet.  Later, the Doctor and Martha are contacted by Caw, Baltazar's robotic servant, who informs them that Baltazar is free and is on his way toward finding the mythical wreckage of a ship called the Infinite, which has the power to grant people their heart's desires.  Determined not to let an evil madman gain so much power, the Doctor and Martha set off on a quest to find a series of ancient data chips that map out the way to the wreck.

Along the way they'll encounter space pirates, robotic oil refineries, alien prisons, a war between humans and insects and more.  Eventually they'll confront Baltazar and discover the truth about the Infinite and its powers.


"The Infinite Quest" was, as I said, originally aired in short segments.  Put together, it's enough material for about a standard episode of "Doctor Who."  The low-rent animation hurts things somewhat, as characters typically have limited movement.  The feature is a mixture of cel-shaded CG elements (such as the exterior of the TARDIS and the variety of other ships and robots) but human characters appear to be 2D vector animation.  The voice cast manages to overcome this, though, as Tenant and Agyeman have no problems switching their characters to a new medium.

If any reason exists to watch "The Infinite Quest," it's to get one more adventure out of Tennant and Agyeman.  They're the highlight of this whole adventure. Anthony Head, who had previously guest starred in an episode of "Doctor Who" back in Season One does a decent job as the menacing Baltazar, but only has a limited number of lines.

"Doctor Who: The Infinite Quest" is alright, but nothing special.  It doesn't add much to the franchise, other than a nice diversion to hear the great cast at work.  I don't mind having watched it, but it's hardly necessary in any fashion.