List of DWU concepts not owned by the BBC
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The following is a non-exhaustive list of recurring characters, species and concepts which have appeared in Doctor Who, or any of its licensed spin-offs, where the owner of the element is not the BBC.
When a freelance writer writes new Doctor Who stories, they have the option of retaining control of any new characters. Thus, the writer, not the BBC, holds legal rights to the character or concept.
This can result in officially licensed, non-BBC-affiliated stories, like the Dalek comic stories in TV Century 21, the television series K9, or the Faction Paradox series.
Alternatively, licensed publishers sometimes retained the rights to characters and concepts introduced in their Doctor Who stories, as opposed to either the BBC or the individual writers. According to John Dorney, for as long as Virgin Books were in business publishing Doctor Who books, they retained the rights to characters and monsters introduced in Virgin New Adventures and Virgin Missing Adventures novels, although those rights appeared to have reverted to the original writers after the company's demise.[1]
This rule is, however, not absolute. For example, Neil Gaiman claimed that he did not independently control the rights to the Corsair and would need the BBC's permission to write further stories with the character.[2]
Debuting in Doctor Who television stories[[edit] | [edit source]]
Debuting in other BBC-licensed media[[edit] | [edit source]]
Debuting in non-BBC-licensed media[[edit] | [edit source]]
Footnotes[[edit] | [edit source]]
Notes[[edit] | [edit source]]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Ownership split with the BBC; i.e. basic concept is creator-owned, but iconic design is not.
- ↑ Downtime – The Lost Years of Doctor Who
- ↑ At one time creator-owned, but rights have since been bought back by the BBC in full.[13]
- ↑ Greifer wrote the first draft of Pyramids of Mars, but Holmes completed the story. The final serial is credited to a pseudonym, Stephen Harris.
- ↑ Penswick owns the name of "the Yssgaroth" and the conception of them as an impersonal force of evil, but the rights to the original Great Vampires as seen in State of Decay continue to lie with the BBC.
- ↑ Conflicting statements exist as to whether ownership currently resides with Obverse Books or the original rights holders[22][23]
- ↑ McIntee owns the specific reimagining of the character as a morally-ambiguous time-traveller. However, the sorcerer Koschei the Deathless is a public-domain folkloric figure, including such trappings as having oncebeen chained at the bottom of a tower. The Iris Wildthyme short story PROSE: The Scarlet Shadow name-drops "Koschei" with no stated license from McIntee, presumably merely making use of the public-domain figure.[26]
- ↑ Originally appeared in the unlicensed production Time Rift before being introduced into the official DWU by Vampire Science; logically remains creator-owned.
Sources[[edit] | [edit source]]
- ↑ John Dorney in 2021
- ↑ I’d need the BBC’s permission.
- ↑ Counter-Measures vs the Great Intelligence - Big Finish
- ↑ Copyright Dispute over Lethbridge-Stewart
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 "Acknowledgements" in Origin Stories.
- ↑ [1]
- ↑ [2]
- ↑ [3]
- ↑ [4]
- ↑ A Cold Day in Hell IDW comics interview
- ↑ Foreword to the Past
- ↑ Dicks, Terrance, 2011, Doctor Who and the Auton Invasion, (copyright page), BBC Books
- ↑ Blue Box podcast Episode 247 (51 minute mark)
- ↑ End credits of The Legend of Ruby Sunday and Empire of Death
- ↑ Inferred from "Sutekh originally created by Lewis Greifer" credit in The Legend of Ruby Sunday and Empire of Death
- ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 16.3 16.4 16.5 16.6 Copyright page of The Bloodletters.
- ↑ Type 40 Interview with Bob Baker
- ↑ Build High for Happiness.
- ↑ 19.0 19.1 19.2 Copyright blurb of Dead Romance.
- ↑ 20.0 20.1 20.2 20.3 20.4 20.5 20.6 2021, Out of the Shadows, (copyright page), Arcbeatle Press
- ↑ REF: Bernice Summerfield: The Inside Story
- ↑ Philip Marsh Tweet
- ↑ Dale Smith on Spinning Jenny
- ↑ Status of FP rights
- ↑ Credits of WC: Varunastra.
- ↑ 26.0 26.1 2020, Down the Middle, (copyright page), Arcbeatle Press
- ↑ 27.0 27.1 Copyright page of Wringing Off.
- ↑ "Classic British Comics: Who Owns What?", at downthetubes.net
- ↑ Haisman Estate licensing
- ↑ Philip Purser-Hallard's twitter
- ↑ Lawrence Burton: Golden Age
