Doctor Who spin-offs: Difference between revisions
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Revision as of 22:16, 20 June 2024
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Since its beginning in 1963, Doctor Who has spawned a number of spin-offs that do not feature the Doctor as the main character, or, indeed at all.
These can be separated into two distinct categories: productions officially licensed by the BBC, whose lack of use of the Doctor or their TARDIS are a stylistic choice; and ones created without BBC involvement, grown around an element of the DWU owned by another party.
While some series spin off directly from a Doctor Who-branded work, spinoffs can themselves engender spinoffs. The sum total of Doctor Who's licensed "descendance", provided they pass our four little rules of validity, comprise the DWU as we define it.
Pete McTighe stated in DWM 571 that he viewed each of his minisodes packaged with trailers for The Collection as "the opportunity for a brand-new Doctor Who spin-off (…) albeit on a budget of 59p", although these minisodes were still released under the Doctor Who name rather than having their own series names.
Officially licensed by the BBC
Television
K9 and Company
- Main article: K9 and Company (TV series)
Torchwood
- Main article: Torchwood (TV series)
The Sarah Jane Adventures
- Main article: The Sarah Jane Adventures
Class
- Main article: Class (TV series)
Prose
Souvenir Press Ltd
World Distributors Ltd
Target Books
BBC Books
- The Legends of Ashildr
- The Legends of River Song
- The Missy Chronicles
- I Am The Master: Legends of the Renegade Time Lord
Panini Comics
Audio
Silver Fist/Who Dares
Big Finish
- Main article: Big Finish Doctor Who audio spin-offs
BBC Audio
Comics
Marvel UK
- Main article: DWM backup comic stories
Multi-media
Home video
Officially licensed from individual copyright holders
Beginning in 1987 with the release of Wartime by Reeltime Pictures, a number of professionally produced spin-off films and audio dramas have been produced. As noted above, these differ from BBC and Big Finish productions in that they usually only feature characters or monsters not owned by the BBC, but rather licensed from their creators. Some spin-offs are original works using original character strongly suggested by characters in Doctor Who (such as The Stranger). In many cases, original cast members from Doctor Who reprised their TV roles for these films and several involved behind-the-scenes veterans of the series (for example, Christopher Barry, who co-directed the very first Daleks story in 1963-64, directed Downtime).
A number of writers and actors involved in these productions later went on to work with BBC licensed Doctor Who spinoffs such as the Big Finish Productions audio dramas, and even on the revived Doctor Who series itself when it returned to TV in 2005 (most notably Nicholas Briggs and Mark Gatiss). By way of comparison, these spin-off productions, often classified as fan films, are in spirit similar to the professionally made fan films based upon the Star Trek franchise that began to emerge in the early 2000s when the rights holders for Star Trek relaxed their restrictions. However, unlike the Star Trek fan films, all of the productions listed below were fully licensed.
On this table, singular instalments are shown in quotation marks, whilst series are italicised.
Non-fiction spin-offs
Since the revival of the Doctor Who franchise in 2005, several ongoing non-fiction series have been commissioned to supplement the main programmes. All primarily featured behind-the-scenes documentary coverage of production, but some also served as the venue for the release of some new licensed Doctor Who fiction: Totally Doctor Who included a serialised form of the animated serial The Infinite Quest, and The Fan Show frequently included more-or-less developed humorous skits.
- Doctor Who Confidential (2005-11)
- Totally Doctor Who (2006-07)
- Torchwood Declassified (2006-11)
- Doctor Who Extra (2014-15)
- The Fan Show (2015-18)
- Inside Look (2017)
- Closer Look (2018)
- Access All Areas (2018-19)
Reeltime Pictures
- Myth Makers (1985-2016)
Mad Norwegian Press
- AHistory (2006-present)
- About Time (2006-present)
Obverse Books
- The Black Archive (2016-present)
Other
Devious
Devious is an incomplete privately made fan film notable for featuring Jon Pertwee as the Third Doctor in his final known performance in the role. Audio of Pertwee was reused by Big Finish Productions for the audio drama Zagreus. In 2009, a 12-minute excerpt/trailer from the production, featuring the extant footage of Pertwee, and which cannot really be deemed a complete narrative in its own right, was released by BBC Video with the DVD release of The War Games.
Notwithstanding a few Reeltime-produced comedy skits included in previous DVD sets, this makes Devious to date the only fan/unofficial spin-off to actually be released by the BBC. It is not, however, by far, the only unlicensed spin-off project to have featured a DWU actor returning to their original part in an unauthorised context.
Non-valid and non-covered spin-offs
Some series feature characters and/or elements that originated in a Doctor Who universe story but do not pass this wiki's four little rules and as such are not considered valid; in some cases, their connection to Doctor Who is even so tenuous that they are not even covered on the Wiki at all.
BBV
- Do You Have a Licence to Save this Planet? (video; featuring Autons, a Krynoid and a Sontaran)
Big Finish
- The Confessions of Dorian Gray (audio; featuring a version of Dorian Gray)
Epic Comics
- The Sleeze Brothers (comics; featuring the Sleeze Brothers)
Snowbooks Ltd
Bafflegab Productions
Footnotes
- ↑ The BBC allowed for several characters, such as Sarah Jane Smith and Victoria Waterfield, to appear in the film.
- ↑ The BBC authorised the use of Liz Shaw in the P.R.O.B.E. home video releases so long as they received an acknowledgement, but had no direct involvement with the production of the films. (REF: DWM 219) This license does not extend P.R.O.B.E. releases in other media, such as audio and prose, which have avoided using the character, and have only referenced her indirectly, for example through her BBV-owned married name of "Director Haggard".
