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.

Downtime has to be one of the better Wilderness Years productions that I've watched so far. It has an intriguing premise and a hint of a serviceable plot. However, I think it suffers from the same problem as many other Wilderness Years productions, that being a lack of exposition. This is admittedly better then some, but it's still quite confusing and I still have several questions towards the end. It seems to me that there is a decent plot here, but it's obscured by this lack of exposition. I don't think this confusion was intentional, but maybe it was and I'm just missing something.

In other areas, this has some really solid characters, helped out by some really solid acting (there is also some very shoddy acting - a brief bit of child acting at the end might be the worst line delivery I've ever heard). I really like that the Doctor Who actors are mostly all playing the characters they're known for. I wish Sarah Jane had a bit more screentime, as I felt she was very well written. The brief exploration of Kate and the Brigadier's relationship was also interesting and I would have happily watched more of it.

I also apprciated the use of more than one filming location. In particular, the University of East Anglia campus was a great choice and instantly recongisable (I've only visited it once, and really not for very long, but the bridges and strange accomodation blocks feel very distinct). The number of extras included in this production is also genuinely quite impressive. Overall, it seems like this may have had a slightly higher budget than many other Wilderness Years productions.

Overall, this is fine, but I can't quite bring myself to call it good, and there are a great many other things I'd rather watch, read or listen to.

I came into this with extremely low expectations off the back of Wartime, but this second effort from Reeltime Productions is a great leap forward in terms of quality. More importantly it *feels* like Doctor Who and builds on characters we love with care. If you think about how uselessly Sarah-Jane, the Brigadier and Victoria Waterfield were used in Dimensions in Time - you can't even compare what they managed to achieve here.

Marc Platt and Christopher Barry lend a professional touch to the production. It’s exciting to see what the classic series would have looked like in 1995. Very different from the revival the world would discover the following year. The only thing that really dates Downtime (given that 90s clothes are back in fashion) is the alien fascination with "personal computers" and the "internet". Hilarious.

As a fan of The Abominable Snowman and The Web of Fear it is rewarding to see this long overdue sequel. The Yetis could look better, but sensibly most of the action is kept to the humans (possessed or otherwise) and the invisible Great Intelligence. The plot serves the characters well and the drama builds nicely. I'm not a huge fan of the "mysterious" black and white scenes, but they make sense. Kate Lethbridge-Stewart works a charm and getting a sense of how this down and out Brigadier is fairing is exciting. It feels both true to the character and like their pushing the envelope.

We are so lucky that fans worked so hard for us to have this gem, even if it is a bit rough around the edges.

i ended up watching this on a rainy day wouldnt watch this on a sunny day

finally, a doctor who story that dares to ask the question "what if the brigadier went to norwich?"