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. 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; 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. The tie-in websites also featured certain production jokes that spurred much fan speculation.

However, as the websites were launched in the mid-2000s, utilising software such as Adobe Flash and Windows Media Player and RealPlayer, which are all now defunct or incompatible with older content, has resulted in much of the non-prose material to become lost media.

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".^[2]