Doctor Who/2009 AS Dreamland/Recap

A CGI animated miniseries, part of the Doctor Who canon.

The Doctor breezes into a Greasy Spoon in 1950s New Mexico, in search of some quality junk food. Behind the counter of this one is Georgia Moffett, sporting a surprisingly good American accent; in front of the counter is Jimmy Stalking Wolf, a Stereotypical Native American; and on the counter is a weird glowy thing, left over from a flying saucer crash a few years ago.

This should end well.

Within minutes, they've been spotted by a Viperox battle drone, nearly captured by a Man In Black, and then really captured by Colonel Stark and the rest of The Army, and taken to Area 51, a.k.a. Dreamland, a.k.a. the Secret Government Warehouse full of cool alien stuff.

Less cool and more horrible is an actual alien, a live one, being held prisoner in the Elaborate Underground Base ever since her spaceship crashed several years before. Our Heroes don't get a chance to do much more than wave at her before they're bustled off to have their memories wiped, but the Doctor makes a mental note on his to-do list.

So once they've escaped, Jimmy Stalking Wolf takes them to see his grandpa, Night Eagle, only to get captured by The Men in Black--actually Robots In Black--and get saved by Night Eagle and his buddies, who take out the robots using bows and arrows, of all things. Night Eagle and friends are keeping another alien, of the same race as the Army's, in hiding. He's the husband of the first one, the one being kept prisoner in Dreamland, and he knows that the cool glowy thing in Cassie's diner isn't benign: it's a genocide bomb.

Tropes

• Air Vent Passageway
• Always Chaotic Evil: The Viperox are your typical Scary Dogmatic Aliens intent on destroying all in their path... but the Doctor reveals they are still evolving, and by a future miracle will become more peaceful.
• Area 51: a.k.a. Dreamland
• Attack Drone: The Viperox
• Big Damn Heroes: Thanks to Night Eagle's Improbable Aiming Skills
• Cliff Hanger: Being broadcast in parts of 7-10ism minutes does that.
• The Big Board: Complete with the Soviet Union marked in red with a Hammer and Sickle (subtlety never really worked in Doctor Who)
• The Brigadier: Stark (after a spell as Colonel Ripper).
• Bug War
• Captured Super Entity
• Continuity Nod: The Sarah Jane Adventures has made a few references to this episode, Androvax has a ship based on blueprints from the Roswell crash, and the Alliance of Shades themselves appear in the season four episode "The Vault Of Secrets."
• Eagle Land: America (especially the military) is painted in a negative light.
• Elaborate Underground Base
• ET Gave Us Wi Fi: The amnesia gas is extraterrestrial.
• Evil Brit: David Warner.
• The Fifties
• Flying Saucer
• General Ripper
• Genetic Engineering Is the New Nuke: Weaponised version.
• Giant Flyer: The Viperox have wings and can fly.
• Greasy Spoon
• The Greys: the captured alien and her husband.
• Idiot Ball: The soldiers never confiscate the sonic screwdriver even after the Doctor uses it to escape multiple times.
• Immune to Bullets: The Viperox continue this great Doctor Who tradition.
• Improbable Aiming Skills
• Ink Suit Actor: David Tennant and Georgia Moffett.
• Magical Native American: Borderline example in practice but definitely in spirit.
• The Men in Black: Robot Men in Black with Sinister Shades (It is even Lampshaded that their organisation is the Alliance Of The Shades).
• Power Glows
• Red Scare
• Roswell That Ends Well
• Secret Government Warehouse
• Shout-Out: Or possibly Captain Ersatz if your are feeling less charitable, but either way the Viperox Queen and her chamber are Strangely Familiar...
  • And the warehouse might seem familiar to fans of Indiana Jones.
  • When the Doctor and female alien are hiding in a box, she asks if his plan is to escape like a snake
• Strapped to An Operating Table
• Wasteland Elder: Night Eagle, Jimmy Stalking Wolf's grandfather.
• Window Love