Doctor Who spin-offs: Difference between revisions

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{{retitle|''Doctor Who'' spin-offs}}{{real world}}
{{retitle|''Doctor Who'' spin-offs}}{{real world}}{{inuse}}
{{first pic|Megabytes (anthology).jpg|Long after leaving televised ''[[Doctor Who]]'', [[K9]] was the subject of new stories unbound by the Doctor or the BBC — even on television!}}
{{first pic|Megabytes (anthology).jpg|Long after leaving televised ''[[Doctor Who]]'', [[K9]] was the subject of new stories unbound by the Doctor or the BBC — even on television!}}
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.
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.
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** ''[[Eldrad Must Live! (comic story)|Eldrad Must Live!]]''
** ''[[Eldrad Must Live! (comic story)|Eldrad Must Live!]]''


== Non-fiction spin-offs ==
<!--
=== BBC ===
On this table, singular instalments are shown in quotation marks, whilst series are italicised.
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 (TV story)|The Infinite Quest]]'', and ''[[The Fan Show]]'' frequently included more-or-less developed humorous skits.
{|class="wikitable sortable"
! class="unsortable" | Title
! Licensed connection <!--The concept legally closest to "An Unearthly Child"
! Medium
! Publisher
! data-sort-type="iso-date" | Date of first release
|-
|''[[K9 (TV series)|]]''
|[[K9]]
|Television
|[[Metal Mutt Productions]]
|[[31 October (releases)|]] [[2009 (releases)|]]
|-
|"[[Wartime (home video)|]]"
|[[John Benton]]
|Home video
|[[Reeltime Pictures]]
|[[20 January (releases)|]] [[1998 (releases)|]]
|-
|"[[Shakedown: Return of the Sontarans (home video)|]]"
|[[Sontaran]]s
|Home video
|[[Reeltime Pictures]] (produced by [[Dreamwatch Media]]
|[[1 December (releases)|]] [[1998 (releases)|]]
|-
|''
|"[[Downtime (home video)|]]"
|[[Sarah Jane Smith]]
|Home video
|[[Reeltime Pictures]]
|[[2 December (releases)|]] [[1995 (releases)|]]
|-
|''[[Mindgame Saga (series)|]]''
|[[Draconian]]s and [[Sontaran]]s
|Home video
|[[Reeltime Pictures]]
|[[1998 (releases)|]]
|-
|"[[Dæmos Rising (home video)|]]"
|[[Dæmon]]s
|Home video
|[[Reeltime Pictures]]
|[[2004 (releases)|]]
|-
|''[[The White Witch of Devil's End]]''
|[[Dæmon]]s
|Home video
|[[Reeltime Pictures]] (released by [[Koch Media]]
|[[13 November (releases)|]] [[2017 (releases)|]]
|-
|"[[Sil and the Devil Seeds of Arodor (home video)]]"
|[[Sil]]
|Home video
|[[Reeltime Pictures]]
|[[4 November (releases)|]] [[2019 (releases)|]]
|-
|''[[Auton Trilogy]]''
|[[Auton]]s
|Home video
|[[BBV Productions]]
|[[1997 (releases)]]
|-
|"[[Zygon: When Being You Just Isn't Enough (home video)|Zygon: When Being You Just Isn't Enough]]"
|[[Zygon]]s
|Home video
|[[BBV Productions]]
|[[27 February (releases)|]] [[2008 (releases)|]]
|-
|''[[The Time Travellers (series)]]''
|[[Alternate timeline (Republica)|]] first mentioned in {{cs|The Roundheads (novel)}}
|Audio
|[[BBV Productions]]
|[[May (releases)|]] [[1998 (releases)|]]
|-
|''[[Adventures in a Pocket Universe (series)|]]''
|[[K9]]
|Audio
|[[BBV Productions]]
|[[June (releases)|]] [[1999 (releases)|]]
|-
|[[Zygon (series)|BBV ''Zygon'' audios]]
|[[Zygon]]s
|Audio
|[[BBV Productions]]
|[[August (releases)|]] [[1999 (releases)|]]
|-
|''[[Krynoids (series)|]]''
|[[Krynoid]]s
|Audio
|[[BBV Productions]]
|[[October (releases)|]] [[1999 (releases)|]]
|-
|''[[Sontarans (audio series)|]]''
|[[Sontaran]]s
|Audio
|[[BBV Productions]]
|[[December (releases)|]] [[1999 (releases)|]]
|-
|'[[The I (series)|]]'' (sole instalment: "[[I Scream (audio story)|]]"
|[[I (Seeing I)|]]
|Audio
|[[BBV Productions]]
|[[August (releases)|]] [[2000 (releases)|]]
|-
|"[[The Rani Reaps the Whirlwind (audio story)|]]"
|[[The Rani]]
|Audio
|[[BBV Productions]]|
|[[November (releases)|]] [[2000 (releases)|]]
|-
|"[[Race Memory (audio story)|]]"
|[[Wirrn]]
|Audio
|[[BBV Productions]]
|[[February (releases)|]] [[2001 (releases)|]]
|-
|''[[The Faction Paradox Protocols]]''
|[[Faction Paradox]]
|Audio
|[[BBV Productions]]
|[[October (releases)|]] [[2001 (releases)|]]
|}<!--
'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 (TV story)|The Infinite Quest]]'', and ''[[The Fan Show]]'' frequently included more-or-less developed humorous skits.
* ''[[Doctor Who Confidential]]'' (2005-11)
* ''[[Doctor Who Confidential]]'' (2005-11)
* ''[[Totally Doctor Who]]'' (2006-07)
* ''[[Totally Doctor Who]]'' (2006-07)

Revision as of 12:21, 4 March 2024

RealWorld.png
Stand well clear, Jo!

This article is currently undergoing significant editing. Editors should not use this tag for more than 72 hours. Please do not edit it until you no longer see this message, or until 72 hours have passed from the time this message appeared in the edit history.

Long after leaving televised Doctor Who, K9 was the subject of new stories unbound by the Doctor or the BBC — even on television!

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

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.

Television

Metal Mutt Productions

Video

Reeltime Pictures

BBV Productions

Audio

BBV Productions

Big Finish Productions

Magic Bullet Productions

BBC Radio 4

Bafflegab Productions

Storytel

Radio Static

AUK Studios

Prose

Sparrow Books

Virgin Books

Mad Norwegian Press

Allison & Busby

Random Static

Telos Publishing

Big Finish Productions

Obverse Books

The Berkeley Publishing Group

Firefly Press

Candy Jar Books

Thebes Publishing

Meteoric Books

Arcbeatle Press

Snowbooks Ltd

Ce Acatl

Ryan Fogarty

BBV Productions

Oak Tree Books & Chinbeard Books

Comics

TV Century 21

Marvel UK

Image Comics

Graveyard Shift Comics

Comeuppance Comics

Meteoric Books

Lucky Comics

Telos Publishing

Cutaway Comics


  1. ↑ The BBC allowed for several characters, such as Sarah Jane Smith and Victoria Waterfield, to appear in the film.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 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".
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