This short reformation of the Blackadder gang came ten years after the final series, and was put together to run in the ill-fated Millennium Dome, that Greenwich white elephant opened to celebrate the arrival of the 21st century.
Blackadder has built a 'time machine' which he has put together to impress his appalling dinner guests. Taking Baldrick with him he plans to bring back an array of disgusting items to prove he's been away - of course, it is initially a scam, but ...
Through their time travel, our heroes manage to change the course of history in more than one epoch - Edmund steals Maid Marian from Robin Hood (an OTT Rik Mayall with more than a whiff of Flashheart about him); he convinces Shakespeare - a morose Colin Firth - not to be a writer (and punches him for all the boring plays he wrote); he causes Napoleon to have slightly different fortunes than history dictated (Napoleon played by the stage actor Simon Russell Beale); and so on.
All the usual cast are back - alongside Rowan Atkinson and Tony Robinson there's Miranda Richardson, Stephen Fry, Tim McInnerny, and Hugh Laurie. There are in-jokes, too - Jennie Bond appears in her guise as Royal Reporter, but in a different era (just as Vincent Hanna did election reporting for Baldrick v William Pitt the Even Younger in Blackadder the Third).
Overall, though, this short episode is a bit sparse on ideas, and feels strained. After the long wait, and the long build-up, it was just disappointing when it finally appeared.
Blackadder has built a 'time machine' which he has put together to impress his appalling dinner guests. Taking Baldrick with him he plans to bring back an array of disgusting items to prove he's been away - of course, it is initially a scam, but ...
Through their time travel, our heroes manage to change the course of history in more than one epoch - Edmund steals Maid Marian from Robin Hood (an OTT Rik Mayall with more than a whiff of Flashheart about him); he convinces Shakespeare - a morose Colin Firth - not to be a writer (and punches him for all the boring plays he wrote); he causes Napoleon to have slightly different fortunes than history dictated (Napoleon played by the stage actor Simon Russell Beale); and so on.
All the usual cast are back - alongside Rowan Atkinson and Tony Robinson there's Miranda Richardson, Stephen Fry, Tim McInnerny, and Hugh Laurie. There are in-jokes, too - Jennie Bond appears in her guise as Royal Reporter, but in a different era (just as Vincent Hanna did election reporting for Baldrick v William Pitt the Even Younger in Blackadder the Third).
Overall, though, this short episode is a bit sparse on ideas, and feels strained. After the long wait, and the long build-up, it was just disappointing when it finally appeared.