Doctor X was a video diary webcast released by BBV Productions on their YouTube channel in 2021. It was later incorporated into the P.R.O.B.E. Case Files - Volume 1 DVD release.
Notwithstanding the narrative trailers for Volume 1 and Volume 2, it was also the last P.R.O.B.E. Case Files short released for free on the Internet, with all subsequent entries being paying home-video releases purchasable through the BBV website. This coincided with Doctor X being the last in an unbroken run scripted by James Hornby, as Goo! [+]Loading...["Goo! (home video)"], the next Case File, and the first of the paying ones, would be scripted by Bill Baggs
Summary
Giles recovers a lost episode of 1950s television series Doctor X in this new PROBE adventure from BBV Productions.
Plot
In addition to his duties as P.R.O.B.E. director, Giles runs a YouTube channel. Having succeeded in tracking down a copy of the Doctor X missing episode Doctor X and the Caverns of Andostar for "more than I should have paid" from the seller Magister1971, he impishly films the unboxing video with the work camera he habitually uses for his case files. Instead of the expected film reel, however, he finds that the package contains a DVD case. Odder still, when it opens, it knocks out all of P.R.O.B.E.'s technology, cutting off the recording.
When Giles adds to the video file two days later, the time it took for Maxie to get everything working again, he explains that in the meantime, they "someone very clever" had been monitoring his internet search history, tailoring the eBay listing for Androstar to make sure Giles would buy the cursed DVD. Magister1971's IP address is tracked to a caravan site in Bedfordshire, but this is itself a trap: while the P.R.O.B.E. team save for Maxie is busy tracking the site, Magister1971 raids P.R.O.B.E. HQ — locking Maxie in her office — and pilfers a Nolvox control node that controls "whole armies of battle drones" from the Dr Smith shelf. With no more leads on Magister1971 — or indeed a real copy of Caverns of Andostar — all that remains is for a puzzled Agamya to file the cursed DVD in the P.R.O.B.E. Archive.
Cast
Characters
Referenced only
Crew
- Writer - James Hornby
- Script editor - Lucy Wood-Ives
- Art - Warren Lewis
- Theme - Mark Ayres
- Logo - Lucas Kovacs
- Editing and Post-production - Callum Brown and Bill Baggs
- With special thanks to Hunter O'Connell and James Wylder at Arcbeatle Press
- Doctor X used with kind permission of Iain McLaughlin
Worldbuilding
- Giles bought Doctor X and the Caverns of Andostar on eBay.
- According to Giles, the numerous Doctor X missing episodes were lost because the company making Doctor X got so deep in debt that their film archive was repossessed, and subsequently demolished to make way for a landfill, with the only surviving episodes having been scavenged by enterprising fans.
- The Nolvox control node was left on the Dr Smith shelf by Liz for "safekeeping".
Story notes
- This story takes place on 23 November, famously Doctor Who itself's anniversary in the real world.
- Azacca Dixon and Tasha Williams are not referenced by name, but are implicitly present in the narrative, as Giles mentions taking the "whole team" save for Maxie to Bedfordshire.
Continuity
- Doctor X was introduced as a ‘lost’ equivalent of Doctor Who both Quatermass in the Erimem story PROSE: In Search of Doctor X [+]Loading...["In Search of Doctor X (short story)"]. Giles had previously been shown to own a VHS of the first season of Doctor X in WC: Varunastra [+]Loading...["Varunastra (webcast)"], which had been alluded to even earlier in WC: Shadow People [+]Loading...["Shadow People (webcast)"].
- Trying to crack Magister1971's identity, Giles finds records of a harmless-seeming vicar by that name, and dismisses the thought of any connection. This is an allusion Victor Magister, the Master's alias in TV: The Dæmons [+]Loading...["The Dæmons (TV story)"]; indeed, 1971 was the broadcast year of the Roger Delgado Master's debut story, TV: Terror of the Autons [+]Loading...["Terror of the Autons (TV story)"], possibly hinting at "Magister1971" and the Master being one and the same, although as BBV Productions lacked the license to the character, this is not made explicit.
- The Dr Smith shelf debuted in HOMEVID: When to Die [+]Loading...["When to Die (home video)"] and had appeared in the previous Case Files short, WC: Varunastra [+]Loading...["Varunastra (webcast)"].
- The title card for this short was seen in WC: P.R.O.B.E. CASE FILES - TRAILER [+]Loading...["P.R.O.B.E. CASE FILES - TRAILER (webcast)"].
- Sir Andrew Williams would later take Giles to task for his frivolous usage of a case file slot for a "DVD unboxing video" in HOMEVID: A Message From Sir Andrew [+]Loading...["A Message From Sir Andrew (home video)"].
External links
- Official Doctor X page at bbvproductions.co.uk