BBV Productions: Difference between revisions

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|non dwu        = {{il|''[[Bidding Adieu: A Video Diary]]''|''[[The Doctors: 30 Years of Time Travel and Beyond]]''}}

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'''BBV Productions''' (also known as '''Bill & Ben Video''') is a [[British]] video production company founded by [[Bill Baggs]] in [[1991 (releases)|1991]]. The company was named for Baggs himself and his then-wife Helen, whose nickname is "Ben."<ref>[http://web.archive.org/web/20090216172424/http://bbvonline.co.uk/about_us.html "About BBV"] - bbvonline.co.uk (archived)</ref> It was a commercial enterprise that served ''[[Doctor Who]]'' fans who were starved of content between the broadcasts of ''[[Survival (TV story)|Survival]]'' and ''[[Rose (TV story)|Rose]]''. Towards this end it heavily used ''Doctor Who'' actors and, when possible, characters. BBV therefore quickly gained the reputation for putting out content that was "almost official" or "nearly ''Doctor Who''". In truth, though, its output was a bit more varied than that. Most of it could safely be put into one of five categories:

Of these five types, this wiki is only interested in the first three. Because it's a little confusing, [[#Releases|a list of BBV releases]] appears below to demonstrate which are DWU stories and which are not.

BBV developed a repertory company of actors that appeared in many of their productions, often playing different roles. Many of these actors were previously known from their work in ''Doctor Who'', and included former [[The Doctor|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 achieve further notability, including [[Nicholas Briggs]], [[Mark Gatiss]], and [[Alan Cumming]]. A number of personnel behind-the-scenes and in front of the camera, including Briggs, Gatiss and Cumming, would go on to work on licenced ''Doctor Who'' spinoffs at [[Virgin Books]], [[BBC Books]], and [[Big Finish Productions]], as well as the [[2005]] television revival of ''Doctor Who.''

BBV's first production was the [[1992]] video release ''Summoned by Shadows'', which was co-produced by the [[BBC Film Club]] and starred Colin Baker playing an unnamed character only known as the Stranger and Nicola Bryant as Miss Brown. Although these characters were evidently reminiscent of the pair of the [[Sixth Doctor]] and [[Peri Brown]], Bryant did not use her American accent for the ''Stranger'' Miss Brown, setting her performance apart from Peri, and later installments of the series gave the Strange and Miss Brown a notably different backstory from "a Time Lord and his companion". Overall, the Stranger's adventures were chronicled on six videos and an audio adventure, many of which featured former ''Who'' cast members. The sixth video, ''Eye of the Beholder'', was later re-released as the audio story ''Eye of the Storm''.

In [[2015 (releases)|2015]], BBV released, ''[[When to Die (home video)|When to Die]]'', the long-awaited return of the ''[[P.R.O.B.E. (series)|P.R.O.B.E.]]'' series.

After experimenting with audio for a few years, BBV began regularly releasing audio dramas in [[1998]] under the umbrella title "[[Audio Adventures in Time and Space]]". One line of adventures was ''The Time Travellers'', starring Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred as "[[Seventh Doctor|the Professor]]" and "[[Ace]];" the two so closely resembled their ''Doctor Who'' characters that, by the seventh story, the BBC had stepped in and demanded changes to not infringe copyrights – the main change was that the main characters were now called "the Dominie" and "Alice."

In [[September]] [[2003]] BBV announced that it would be no longer producing audio stories, with the exception of ''Faction Paradox,'' and instead would focus on video releases. By [[December]] [[2005]], past audio releases were being deleted from their catalogue. <ref>[http://web.archive.org/web/20090225210522/http://www.bbvonline.co.uk/news/script.cgi?&page=1 News] - bbvonline.co.uk (archived)</ref> However, the full ''Audio Adventures in Time & Space'' library became available once more in [[2021 (releases)|2021]] as paid downloads from a revamped BBV Productions website, and a first new BBV audio release ultimately saw the light of day in the form of a reading of ''[[The Door We Forgot (short story)|The Door We Forgot]]'' by [[Bill Baggs]] himself.

In [[2021 (releases)|2021]] BBV released a series of short ''[[P.R.O.B.E. (series)|P.R.O.B.E.]]'' webcasts on their [[YouTube]] channel under the title of ''P.R.O.B.E. Online''. After being released weekly, they were taken off the Internet (but for two) and collected as a paying release available through the BBV Website as ''P.R.O.B.E. Case Files''.

The original BBV Productions website, BBVOnline.co.uk, became inaccessible in late 2009. In January 2011, BBV's registration of the domain had expired leaving it to be taken up by a new registrant for an unrelated site. Though this left BBV with no official online presence, in 2012 a number of BBV releases were reissued on DVD through retail channels; the ''[[P.R.O.B.E. (series)|P.R.O.B.E.]]'' series was rereleased in March 2012, followed by ''Do You Have a License to Save This Planet?'', ''Cyberon'' and ''Bidding Adieu'' in August of that year.

This preceded the revival of the BBV website at new domain BBVProductions.co.uk in the first half of 2021, which made all of the company's back catalogue (both DWU and otherwise) available as paid downloads as well as permitting the order or preorder of home media releases. A new season of ''[[Audio Adventures in Time & Space]]'' was begun, including original ''P.R.O.B.E.'' stories featuring the "new team", as well as the reissuing of the hitherto-unrelated-to-BBV audio series ''The Minister of Chance'' as part of the label. Through partnerships with [[Thebes Publishing]] and [[Arcbeatle Press]], ''[[Erimem (series)|Erimem]]'', ''[[Cyberon (anthology)|Cyberon]]'' and ''[[Cwej: The Series]]'' ebooks were also sold through the BBV website, even as they remained available through their primary publishers.

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{{reflist|2|group=vid}}

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|''[[Ishmael's Star (home video)|Ishmael's Star]]''

|[[Mark Gatiss]]

|Home video

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|''[[Drome (audio story)|Drome]]''

|[[Dave Stone]]

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|''[[Kill or Cure (audio story)|Kill or Cure]]''

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|''[[Precis (audio story)|Precis]]''

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|''[[Untitled Zygon film (home video)|Untitled Zygon film]]''

|[[David A. McIntee]]

|Home video

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* [https://bbvproductions.co.uk/ Official site]

* [http://web.archive.org/web/20090531071201/http://www.bbvonline.co.uk/script.cgi Former BBV Homepage] (defunct; mirrored at the Internet Archive)

{{dwrefguide|bbvaudio.htm|BBV - CD and DVD Releases}}