During Doctor Who’s hiatus in the 90s, an independent company called Reeltime Pictures created a bunch of made for home video spin-off movies and documentaries of the show. They received the license to make these films on the condition that The Doctor couldn’t make an appearance himself. Therefore the features focus on the The Doctor’s former companions instead.

While Sarah Jane makes an appearance, the film mainly focuses on The Brigadier and Victoria. Who, in an interesting turn of events, plays the antagonist. She’s not the main big bad, that’s the Great Intelligence, but it’s such an intriguing twist to see one of the Doctor’s companions go rogue without him around to guide them.

Especially Victoria, one of the series most innocent and naive characters. She’s now become this cold and distant figure, lost in a time that’s not her own. And tragically you see her younger self trying to get out. She still cares about people. She wants to help, but she inadvertently becomes just a pawn in the larger villain’s game as she slowly loses control.

This is the best Victoria has ever been written and Deborah Watling just sparkles on screen when finally given something meaty to play. I am so sad we never got more of this version of the character, especially since the film left her ending open.

That’s not to say that the other characters don’t get their share of development either. This story marks the first appearance of The Brigadier’s daughter, Kate Stewart. Kate herself will eventually go on to replace her dad as head of UNIT in the new series, but here they’re estranged and finally reconnecting after six years of not talking.

See the Brig never told his family what he did for a living, not fully. Most likely for their own safety and for legal reasons. However, it did put a strain on his relationships with them.

Downtime gives us a more personable look at The Brigadier and his life after UNIT. It’s a compelling bit of realism that helps to ground the film.

And boy does it need grounding! The plot makes more sense then say, Ghostlight, but only just. There’s a lot of strange editing choices and it feels like there are scenes missing from the final cut. The borderline mystic technobabble used in place of exposition doesn’t help matters. But most confusing of all is how the heck did Victoria get to Tibet?

Like, apparently she’s rich because her dad left her money invested in the bank, that quadrupled over the centuries. I get that she has the means to go there... but I don’t understand why. Last we saw her she was being adopted by a loving family, so why is she going through all this expense to find her dead dad.... who she knows is long gone.

Basically we’re missing some backstory. What happened to her foster parents? Why didn’t she keep in contact with Travers and Ann? Why didn’t she look for the Brigadier and get in touch with him before going to Tibet?

The film wants to isolate her as a means of motivating her to the dark side, but that requires explaining where her previous support group went. Which it never does.

Plot holes aside, I did find myself enjoying this outing of Doctor Who (minus the Doctor). Oh sure, it has a very cheap, fresh out of film school aesthetic, and less then stellar editing/plotting. But I went into this not expecting much and came away pleasantly surprised by the character work and strong acting.