Unofficial Spinoffs (TV and Video)

[Sindatur]

So, I gt on Youtube and watched, Return of the Sontarans, Airzone Solution, The Zero Imperative and the 3 P.R.O.B.E. episodes, and I have the 6 The Stranger episodes bookmarked, to watch at some point. Are there others I should be checking out as well, or is that the lot of them? I've quite enjoyed what I've watchd so far, it's been great fun seeing so many Doctor Who (And in the case of Return of the Sontarans, also Blake's 7) actors in different parts, and it was great fun seein an older Liz Shaw heading up her own U.N.I.T.-type organization. Though, it was a little creepy seeing Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant as a couple in The Airzone Soluton.

I know there's also Downtime, which I believe is either Audio or Book form, but, for now, I was just wondering about Video/TV

[Andrew_Kearley]

Actually, Downtime was a video spin-off originally. The book came later.

The first one ever was Wartime, about Sergeant Benton on a mission when he meets the ghost of his father or something. (It's been a while.)

Auton was a trilogy of stories with UNIT fighting the Autons.

Mindgame and its follow-up, Mindgame Trilogy are about a human soldier, a Sontaran and a Draconian who get imprisoned together during a space war. The soldier is Sophie Aldred, so you're obviously supposed to think she's Ace.

Then there's a thing called Cyberon, which isn't really related to Doctor Who, but has a sequel called Zygon which clearly is.

There's also a comedy thing with Sylvester McCoy not quite playing the Doctor - called "Do You Have a Licence to Save this Planet?"

Daemos Rising is a sort of sequel to Downtime, as well as featuring the Daemons, and also ties in to the Time Hunter books.

I think that's all of them.

[diankra]

If you ever get to see Downtime, you can keep an eye open for my 10 second cameo... ;-)

[OmahaStar]

No idea if this list is complete, but here is what Wiki has to say on the subject ...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_Who_spin-offs

Quoting only the video part. There are also audio spin-offs, not just Big Finish. One of those is The Rani Reaps the Whirlwind, written by Pip and Jane Baker and featuring Kate O'Mara as The Rani again.

Video
The hunger for more Doctor Who on television, especially between the show's cancellation in 1989 and its return in 2005, was partly answered by direct-to-video productions by various companies. The BBC has never authorised any Doctor Who video productions but production companies have been able to license individual characters and alien races from the show directly from the writers who created them, and feature them in adventures of their own.
Companies who have released videos of this kind include Reeltime Pictures (also known for the long-running Myth Makers series of documentaries) and BBV (who have also released a number of Doctor Who-related audio adventures on the same basis). The first spinoff of this nature was Wartime, a half-hour film produced by Reeltime in the late 1980s and starring John Levene as Benton, a UNIT soldier who appeared on Doctor Who in the early to mid-1970s. In the 1990s, Reeltime distributed P.R.O.B.E., a series of four made-for-video movies featuring Caroline John as her Pertwee-era character, Dr. Elizabeth Shaw. BBV, on their part, produced and released a trilogy of movies, Auton, Auton 2: Sentinel and Auton 3 that featured UNIT battling the Nestene Consciousness. Author Terrance Dicks also wrote and produced Shakedown: Return of the Sontarans in 1994, which not only featured the reappearance of one of the series' most famous monsters, but also starred series alums Carole Ann Ford, Sophie Aldred, and Michael Wisher. Jan Chappell played Lisa Deranne, captain of the solar racing yacht Tiger Moth, whose shakedown cruise is interrupted by a Sontaran attack squad furiously searching for a Rutan infiltrator. Another spinoff, Downtime, featured the return of Nicholas Courtney as Brigadier (Ret.) Lethbridge-Stewart and Elisabeth Sladen as Sarah Jane Smith, along with Deborah Watling as Troughton-era companion Victoria Waterfield. More of a nostalgia trip for fans than anything, Downtime provided a more detailed look at Lethbridge-Stewart's family and legacy than had ever been seen before. Reeltime Pictures also produced two other Doctor Who-universe related videos, Mindgame and Mindgame Trilogy.
In 1998 a video was released called Lust in Space in which the "Time Assizes" (Time Lords) put Doctor Who on trial for sexism. If it is found to be sexist, then it will be removed from history. None of the actors who had played the part of the Doctor took part. The "evidence" for the trial consists of short clips of interviews of some of the Doctor's female companions. Katy Manning (Jo Grant) and Sophie Aldred (Ace) are brought through time and space to testify in court. Former writers and producers such as Terrance Dicks and John Nathan-Turner are cross examined through video interviews on their part in making the show "sexist". There are no clips from Doctor Who in the video.
BBV is also known for a number of productions that, while not using any elements from the show itself, tell a similar style of story and feature ex-Doctor Who stars in roles similar to those they played in the series; these include a direct-to-video series starring Colin Baker as "The Stranger", and a separate series of audio dramas starring Sylvester McCoy as "The Dominie". In later episodes of The Stranger, it was made clear that not only was the Stranger not the Doctor but that their backgrounds were not even remotely analogous. Some of this clarification appears to have been the result of BBC pressure.
Some contributors to these independent productions in the 1990s later contributed to the television series after its return. They include writer/performers Mark Gatiss and Nicholas Briggs and novelist/modelmaker Mike Tucker.

[Iamnotspock]

Andrew_Kearley wrote:

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Then there's a thing called Cyberon, which isn't really related to Doctor Who, but has a sequel called Zygon which clearly is.

Interesting though that Cyberon is more in keeping with the spirit of Who, while Zygon is soft porn and closer in tone to Torchwood (Series 1).

[Sindatur]

Well, due to the Christmas Special introducing The Great Intelligence, and finding out he was a Troughton enemy, I'm currently watching all of Troughton (Reconstructions for Missing Episodes) and I ran across the information today, that The Great Intelligence is the enemy in Downtime, so, now I definitely gotta get ahold of it too

[Green Lantern]

I'd really like to see Zygon.

All these are by BBV, although The Stranger is not meant to be a spin off of dr who, just basicly a rip off. But BBV are basicly big dr who fans, and it has pretey much inspired everything they've done. Their latest thing was Zygon, but after that with the series returned and all, I doubt we'll be seeing much more BBV spin offs anytime soon. Shame my net connection is so slow here and making you tube not work properly, I'd love to see these spin offs sometime.

[Ar-Pharazon]

The first few of The Stranger series were similar to DW, but then they did a 180 and tried to explain his origins.

Almost like they had no idea to begin with. Still worth watching though.

And Airzone Solution is a good excuse to see 4 Doctors, even if it too is fairly confusing.

[Sindatur]

Oh, and Diankra, since Downtime is now on my "Must Obtain" list, how might I recognize your Cameo?

[Guy Gardener]

There are 4 P.R.O.B.E. episodes.

It took me a while to recognize Louise Jameson because of her horrible hairdo that was probably quite stylish at the time.

[Sindatur]

Guy Gardener wrote:

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There are 4 P.R.O.B.E. episodes.

It took me a while to recognize Louise Jameson because of her horrible hairdo that was probably quite stylish at the time.

Zero Imperative, features Liz Shaw from P.R.O.B.E., but, it doesn't carry the P.R.O.B.E. Opening.

Then you have Devil Of Winterbourne, Ghosts Of Winterbourne, and Unnatural Selection

Is there one more? I believe Devil Of Winterbourne is longer than the other 2, so may have been a 2 parter?

Yea, Louise Jameson was tough to spot, the makeup isn't Leela-like either, and I've only seen her as Leela

[diankra]

Sindatur wrote:

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Zero Imperative, features Liz Shaw from P.R.O.B.E., but, it doesn't carry the P.R.O.B.E. Opening.

Then you have Devil Of Winterbourne, Ghosts Of Winterbourne, and Unnatural Selection

Is there one more? I believe Devil Of Winterbourne is longer than the other 2, so may have been a 2 parter?

Yea, Louise Jameson was tough to spot, the makeup isn't Leela-like either, and I've only seen her as Leela

Zero Imperative was reissued in PROBE packaging a few years after its initial release (which makes it the fourth one... or rather, PROBE #0, as it were).

Louise Jameson has roughly the same frizzy poodle hairdo she had during her stints in Bergerac and (more recently at the time) Eastenders. Though for rather too many of us the time, the big problem with the PROBE vids was looking at Liz's other sidekick without making the giveaway comment of "Oh, is that Linda Lusardi? I didn't recognise her with her clothes on..."

[Steve Mollmann]

Downtime is on YouTube, but I could only last about ten minutes. On the plus side, you get to see the first appearance of Kate Lethbridge-Stewart, long before "The Power of Three." Lis Sladen is in it, and you wonder who she pissed off and how she so effortlessly makes everyone look awful.

[diankra]

Sindatur wrote:

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Oh, and Diankra, since Downtime is now on my "Must Obtain" list, how might I recognize your Cameo?

Trying to avoid spoilers... there are three people who get turned into monsters at one point. I'm the one on the left.

I'd suggested some possible locations to the producer, and headed along to do a set report when it was shot. Hence I was hanging around when director Chris Barry realised that if he used any of the 'proper' extras for this scene, they'd be inexplicably resurrected in the big finale crowd scenes he'd shot the previous day. So he looked around and 'volunteered' three of us... "You, you, you, into costume, now..."

[Iamnotspock]

Green Lantern wrote:

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I'd really like to see Zygon.

Here. I discovered it only a few days ago, oddly enough.