User:WaltK/Sonic the Hedgehog (franchise): Difference between revisions

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'''''Sonic the Hedgehog''''' was a series consisting primarily of video games released by the Japanese entertainment company SEGA, and a vast variety of spinoff media such as comic books, television series, theatrical films, and other merchandise.

The series follows the adventures of the titular character, an anthropomorphic blue hedgehog who is capable of running at supersonic speeds, who battles alongside his friends and allies against the evil plots of Doctor Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik, who is intent on conquering the world with his robotic minions.

Sonic's universe has had one official crossover with the ''Doctor Who'' universe via the mass crossover toys-to-life video game ''[[LEGO Dimensions (video game)|LEGO Dimensions]]''. The ''Sonic'' franchise was added to the game via its second wave of figurines and adventure packs on [[18 November (releases)|18 November]] [[2016 (releases)|2016]], joining ''Doctor Who'' and the other existing franchise elements that were built into the game upon its original release.

 

 

Perhaps fittingly for a franchise introduced to the world only two years into ''Doctor Who''{{'}}s [[Wilderness Years]], references within the series to Sonic have occurred most primarily within novels published during that time.

The [[1997 (releases)|1997]] novel ''[[Business Unusual (novel)|Business Unusual]]'' contained a reference that appeared to partially conflict with Sonic's real world history. In the story, [[the Brigadier]] made reference to Sonic, being aware that he was a blue hedgehog. As the story is set in [[1989]], this would appear to suggest that Sonic made his first appearance in the DWU at least two years ahead of his real world counterpart.

[[Mickey Smith]] claimed to own a copy of the original game on either his [[Playstation]] or [[Xbox]] in the [[2005 (releases)|2005]] novel ''[[Winner Takes All (novel)|Winner Takes All]]'' (the game could, indeed, be played on those platforms by that time, via such titles as {{wi|Sonic Mega Collection Plus}}).

The beloved UK-based series published by Fleetway, {{wi|Sonic the Comic}}, which ran from [[1993 (releases)|1993]] to [[2002 (releases)|2002]], offered an inherently British style of story and characterisation to Sonic's world, including a, perhaps, very unintentional nod to the [[Dalek]]s. Among the game's extensive rogues gallery was a group called the Brotherhood of Metallix, in which the comic took Robotnik's singular robotic Sonic-Doppelgänger from the games, and turned it into a fearsome, very Dalek-like, warmongering species led by an "[[Dalek Emperor|Emperor Metallix]]". Nigel Kitching, one of the comics most prolific writers, and creator of the group, acknowledged the similarity after older readers began to pick up on it. Kitching explained that he did not initially set out to "rip off" the Daleks, but chose to run with the idea as the group were developed. He further stated that, since ''Doctor Who'' was off the air at the time, he believed the similarity was unlikely to jar the series' readership.<ref>http://sonicthecomic.proboards.com/thread/9482?page=8#355593</ref>

 

On the other side of the pond was perhaps Sonic's most prolific comic book run: the American Archie Comics series that ran continuously for a record-breaking twenty-four years, from [[1993 (releases)|1993]] to [[2017 (releases)|2017]]. A subtle ''Doctor Who'' nod occurred toward the end of ''World's Unite'', a massive crossover between Sonic and Archie's ''Mega Man'' comic book (based on the CAPCOM game series of the same name). At the end of a multiverse spanning plot that was ultimately undone by a time travel paradox, ''Sonic'' character Sticks the Badger finished off by explaining her own theory about time and space, during which she used the first half of the (in)famous phrase first coined by the [[Tenth Doctor]] and popularised by the [[Eleventh Doctor|Eleventh]]: "[[Wibbly wobbly, timey wimey|wibbly wobbly]]".

After the aforementioned comic's unceremonious cancellation, the American Sonic comic license was picked up by former [[American comic book|American ''Doctor Who'' comic publisher]], [[IDW Publishing]], during which ''Doctor Who'' has, so far, been referenced twice.

For the UK-based developer [[TT Games]], ''[[LEGO Dimensions (video game)|LEGO Dimensions]]'' was far from being the first ''Sonic''-related game title that they had a hand in. In the late 1990s, when they were still known as "Traveller's Tales", they developed the franchises first two three-dimensional titles: {{wi|Sonic 3D: Flickies' Island}} (3D Blast in the US), and {{wi|Sonic R}}.

[[Sumo Digital]], developer of ''[[The Adventure Games]]'' developed the SEGA crossover videos games {{wi|Sega Superstars Tennis}}, {{wi|Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing}}, and {{wi|Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed}}, which all featured characters and elements from the ''Sonic'' universe. They later went on to develop the purely ''Sonic''-centred title, {{wi|Team Sonic Racing}}.

Being a British series, Fleetway's ''Sonic the Conic'' had a particularly extensive list of individuals also associated with ''Doctor Who'' in some form or another.

Apart from Nigel Kitching, mentioned above, the series' other most prolific writer was ''[[The Daft Dimension]]'' creator, [[Lew Stringer]]. Stringer had contributed a number of stories significant to the comic's run, and even became the primary head writer for a period in the late 1990s when Kitching briefly left. He also created two of the comics' biggest breakout characters: Tekno the Canary, and Shortfuse the Cybernik.

[[Richard Elson]], the illustrator of the [[Untitled (DWM 171 short story)|untitled]] ''[[Brief Encounter]]'' short story in [[DWM 171]], was the series' longest-serving artist, and one of the most prolific, having illustrated some of series' most narratively-significant stories and various covers.