BBV Productions: Difference between revisions

{{real world}}

'''BBV Productions''' (also known as ('''Bill & Ben Video''' and sometimes, erroneously, as '''Bill Baggs Video''') is a [[British]] video production company known for its many unofficial video and audio ''Doctor Who'' spin-offs. A number of personnel behind-the-scenes and in front of the camera would go on to work on the revival of ''Doctor Who'' after 2005, most notably [[Nicholas Briggs]], who acted in, wrote and directed a number of BBV productions, and author/actor [[Mark Gatiss]]. BBV developed a repertory company of actors that appeared in many of these productions, often playing different roles. Many of these actors were well-known from their work in ''Doctor Who'' and included former Doctor actors [[Jon Pertwee]], [[Peter Davison]], [[Colin Baker]] and [[Sylvester McCoy]], and companion actors [[Caroline John]], [[Louise Jameson]], [[Nicola Bryant]] and [[Sophie Aldred]]. Several actors appearing in these productions early in their careers went on to some notability, including Mark Gatiss and [[Alan Cumming]].

BBV's first production was the [[1991]] video release of [[Summoned by Shadows]] which was co-produced by the [[BBC Film Club]] and stared Colin Baker playing an unnamed character only known as the stranger and Nicola Bryant as Miss Brown. The stranger's adventures were chronicled on six videos and an audio adventure many of which featured former cast members of Doctor Who. The sixth video [[Eye of the Beholder]] was later re-released as the audio story [[Eye of the Storm]].  

BBV's latest video production is called [[Zygon: When being you just isn't enough]] though previously titled ''Zygon: When Being Me Is Not Enough'' In which Mike Kirkwood dreams of being a monster, he is in fact a Zygon, believeing himself to be human. This story also features Jo Castletons character of Doctor Lauren Anderson from Cyberon.

After experimenting with audio for a few years BBV released their first audio drama in [[1998]] under the umbrella title [[Audio Adventures in Time & Space]] after which BBV began  regularly releasing audios beginning  with a line of adventures called [[The Time Travellers (series)|The Time Travellers]] staring Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred as [[Seventh Doctor|The Professor]] and [[Ace]] which closely resembled the characters they portrayed in the Doctor Who series even using the same companion name and the nickname for McCoy's incarnation of [[The Doctor]]. The resemblance was so close to that of the Doctor Who characters that the BBC eventually stepped in and by the time of the seventh audio drama a number of changes had been made. The main one being the change of the main characters to The Dominie and Alice.

BBV moved away from audio stories about characters that could be the doctor after the establishment of [[Big Finish]]'s officially licensed line of Doctor Who audio dramas and instead moved on to audios featuring characters from the Doctor Who universe such as Romana and K-9. Following the success of the Autons trilogy stand alone audios featuring alien races from doctor who licensed directly from the writers that created them and in some instances allowing the writers to author new stories featuring their characters for the audio drama's such as a story by [[Pip & Jane Baker]] explaining what happened to the [[Rani]] who was last seen in Doctor Who being abducted by a group of aliens. Also the series of stories by [[Lawrence Miles]] about his history-spanning terrorist organisation the [[Faction Paradox]].

==Published Works==

===Videos===