"What a strange... man."
IN THIS ONE... A Doctor Who/Fantastic Beasts crossover.
REVIEW: You sort of need to know a couple things going into this one. First, that Pudsey is a toy bear associated with the Children in Need annual telethon/charity. Second (and this is more common knowledge, just not very palatable these days), that Fantastic Beasts is a series of books/films that take place in the Harry Potter universe, and that Eddie Redmayne plays the main character, Newt Scamander. These mash-ups are sometimes difficult to fit into continuity, but there are enough of them to get a pass, usually be invoking the Land of Fiction. Fantastic Beasts is in a world of magic, and Doctor Who a world of science (at least, while Moffat is at the helm), so we need that invocation (the short's own contention is that Newt's call has been patched through an interdimensional whatzit). The idea behind the combination is perhaps natural, since Redmayne was styled to look a lot like a Doctor (as if 11 and 4 had a Time Tot), but J.K. Rowling has tainted everything she's touched with her rampant prejudice, and that's going to affect our score here.
Not that it was going to score high. It's a slim joke (laugh track not withstanding) with no credited writer: Capaldi's Doctor gets a call from Newt who is looking for "fantastic beast" Pudsey - two actors on separate phones - and the annoyed Doctor rattles off monstrous details about a creature that isn't Pudsey until he hangs up. The bit is saved for me by the appearance of phone operators, one of them played by the charming Mel Giedroyc, wondering how the call was patched through in the first place.
VERSIONS: Pudsey does have another connection to Doctor Who. That same year's BBC Digital exclusive Doctor Who Game Maker (2018) made Pudsey a Doctor Who companion.
REWATCHABILITY: Low - It's really Medium-Low, just a brief piece of fluff, but I did say I'd take points off for promoting Rowling's IPs.
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