For anyone who doesn't know, Doctor Who Unbound was a series of Big Finish audios based upon "What if..." scenarios and alternate, non-canon Doctors. For example, Geoffrey Bayldon played a Doctor who never left Gallifrey in the Type 40. Arabella Weir played a female regeneration. David Warner played a version of the Doctor in a couple of them. And Michael Jayston reprised the Valeyard in a story set after the defeat of the Doctor in The Trial of a Time Lord...
The other day I read something interesting. Paul Cornell, creator of the Scream of the Shalka webcast, which featured Richard E. Grant's version of the Ninth Doctor, is quoted somewhere as saying it is his version of "Unbound". And, of course, he's right. There's really little difference between the Grant Doctor and some of these alternates.
And I got to thinking that the whole Unbound concept can be extended further to include "Doctor Who", the character who travelled with John and Gillian in the 1960s comic strips, as well as "Dr. Who", the Peter Cushing movie version (what if the Doctor was human?). Trevor Martin's stage version from Seven Keys to Doomsday can be included here. So can the Nicholas Briggs version of the Doctor from the unofficial Audio Visuals series (which later evolved into Big Finish).
But there's more. In the 1990s Colin Baker played "The Stranger", an arms-length version of the Doctor who appeared in several independent films (along with Nicola Bryant as "Miss Brown") before I think the BBC rattled a chain and "The Stranger" became "Soloman" and a new backstory was created for him. But especially in the first 3 films of the series (Summoned By Shadows, More Than a Messiah, In Memory Alone) he's very much an "Unbound" Doctor.
Similarly, Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred appeared in a series of stories called "The Professor and Ace" which became "The Dominie and Dorothy" after another likely chain rattle.
And then there's the Airzone Solution, a non-Doctor Who film featuring Pertwee, Davison, Colin Baker, McCoy, and Nicola Bryant that could become an "Unbound" scenario too - what if the Sixth Doctor married Peri and became a TV weatherman in England?
OK, that last one maybe not. But the whole Unbound concept is one way to pull some pretty divergent versions of the Doctor together.
But I bet we can move beyond the Who franchise to include other shows who have Doctor-like characters. Could they be, perhaps, Unbound Doctors?
Ducky Mallard from NCIS?
Dr. Helen Magnus from Sanctuary?
Dr. Walter Bishop from Fringe?
Gil Grissom?
Rupert Giles from Buffy? (that's one way to get Tony Head as the Doctor!)
Detective Columbo?
Have fun with this one - what Doctor-like characters in other TV shows (SF or otherwise) do you think could be "Doctor Who Unbound" material? (Darrin from Bewitched regenerated, but he doesn't count! )
Alex
The other day I read something interesting. Paul Cornell, creator of the Scream of the Shalka webcast, which featured Richard E. Grant's version of the Ninth Doctor, is quoted somewhere as saying it is his version of "Unbound". And, of course, he's right. There's really little difference between the Grant Doctor and some of these alternates.
And I got to thinking that the whole Unbound concept can be extended further to include "Doctor Who", the character who travelled with John and Gillian in the 1960s comic strips, as well as "Dr. Who", the Peter Cushing movie version (what if the Doctor was human?). Trevor Martin's stage version from Seven Keys to Doomsday can be included here. So can the Nicholas Briggs version of the Doctor from the unofficial Audio Visuals series (which later evolved into Big Finish).
But there's more. In the 1990s Colin Baker played "The Stranger", an arms-length version of the Doctor who appeared in several independent films (along with Nicola Bryant as "Miss Brown") before I think the BBC rattled a chain and "The Stranger" became "Soloman" and a new backstory was created for him. But especially in the first 3 films of the series (Summoned By Shadows, More Than a Messiah, In Memory Alone) he's very much an "Unbound" Doctor.
Similarly, Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred appeared in a series of stories called "The Professor and Ace" which became "The Dominie and Dorothy" after another likely chain rattle.
And then there's the Airzone Solution, a non-Doctor Who film featuring Pertwee, Davison, Colin Baker, McCoy, and Nicola Bryant that could become an "Unbound" scenario too - what if the Sixth Doctor married Peri and became a TV weatherman in England?
OK, that last one maybe not. But the whole Unbound concept is one way to pull some pretty divergent versions of the Doctor together.
But I bet we can move beyond the Who franchise to include other shows who have Doctor-like characters. Could they be, perhaps, Unbound Doctors?
Ducky Mallard from NCIS?
Dr. Helen Magnus from Sanctuary?
Dr. Walter Bishop from Fringe?
Gil Grissom?
Rupert Giles from Buffy? (that's one way to get Tony Head as the Doctor!)
Detective Columbo?
Have fun with this one - what Doctor-like characters in other TV shows (SF or otherwise) do you think could be "Doctor Who Unbound" material? (Darrin from Bewitched regenerated, but he doesn't count!
)Alex
