Doctor Who tie-in websites

Beginning with the launch of the first series of the 2005 revival of Doctor Who, the BBC began releasing tie-in websites to coincide with both Doctor Who and Torchwood, distinct from the primary Doctor Who website. These sites were also referred to as spin-off sites by official sources.^[1]

Nature

The websites can be sorted into three categories: those that are based upon websites seen within the television series itself; those that are created around a company or group but aren't shown in the television series; and completely out-of-universe websites.

The tie-in websites often directly linked to a concurrent series and/or story arc of the then-ongoing television series, such as the Who is Doctor Who? website depicting Mickey Smith's life during series one of Doctor Who and the Bad Wolf website providing an out-of-universe look on the Bad Wolf story arc, providung many false theories and explanations.

Not unlike alternate reality games, the tie-in websites employed "unfiction", a type of fiction that attempts to convince its readers that it is actually reality;^[2] this was so effective the real world United Nations began taking legal action against the U.N.I.T. tie-in website and its creators, ultimately resulting in the UNIT acronym being changed.^[3]^[4]^[5]^[6] The tie-in websites also featured certain production jokes that spurred much fan speculation.^[1]

Archiving and status

As the websites were launched in the mid-2000s, they commonly utilised software such as Adobe Flash and Windows Media Player and RealPlayer, which are all now defunct and/or incompatible with older content, which has resulted in much of the non-prose material to become lost media. Furthermore, the BBC failed to pursue retaining the website domains for the majority of the tie-in websites, allowing "domain snipers" to purchase the domain and either put them up for sale or to host potentially malicious content. This Wiki advises you only visit these websites through the Wayback Machine.

As of 23 January 2023 (2023 -01-23)^[update], one of the only websites still hosted by the BBC is Who is Doctor Who?, however the BBC's ownership of the domain is set to expire on 29 June 2023.^[7] The domain of the U.N.I.T. website is set to expire on 23 November 2023.^[8]

Doctor Who

Series 1

Production on the websites that coincided with series one seem to go as far back as 29 June 2004, with the registering of the domain "www.whoisdoctorwho.co.uk".^[7] The domain "www.unit.org.uk" was registered on 23 November 2004,^[8] incidentally the 51st anniversary of Doctor Who. Production wise, the website created to coincide with The Christmas Invasion was clearly created during the rest of the series one websites.

Wiki Link	External Link	Release Date	Notes
Who is Doctor Who?	`whoisdoctorwho.co.uk via the Wayback Machine`	25 March 2005	The site was launched alongside TV: Rose. Over the course of the next few weeks, it was updated in tandem with series one of Doctor Who, often narratively tying into the other websites.
U.N.I.T.	`unit.org.uk via the Wayback Machine`	?? April 2005	This site was launched alongside Aliens of London.
GEOCOMTEX	`geocomtex.net via the Wayback Machine`	6 May 2005	This site was launched alongside Dalek.
Bad Wolf	`badwolf.org.uk via the Wayback Machine`	5 June 2005	A wholly out-of-universe website based around discussion of the Bad Wolf arc.
British Rocket Group	`guinevere.org.uk via the Wayback Machine`	18 December 2005	This website was launched alongside The Christmas Invasion

Series 2

This section's awfully stubby.

Information from DWM 367 needs to be added.

In mid 2006, the BBC released a survey about Doctor Who, to which they received many positive responses regarding the spin-off sites with many "comments and suggestions" for the future of the sites. The official response to the survey announced that new websites were being developed.^[1]