Yeah, I wouldn't mind that... except I couldn't stand Rex as a character. I don't care about him or his immortality. Except it means he can't die. Which is the sux.
Why no spinoffs under moffat?
- Thread starter Candlelight
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Yeah, I wouldn't mind that... except I couldn't stand Rex as a character. I don't care about him or his immortality. Except it means he can't die. Which is the sux.
The problem with a UNIT series, at this point, is that that concept is already being used by Agents of SHIELD. In fact SHIELD already feels like a watered down version of Torchwood.
A better alternative would be for the BBC to do what it excels at…a period piece. A retro quasi steam punk Torchwood would have been cool. Set it around 1899-1910. Call it Torchwood: Century.
Personally what I would LOVE for them to do is a series of miniseries following the adventures of the 8th Doctor. McGann showed that he could still do an effective Doctor, so why not use him?
A better alternative would be for the BBC to do what it excels at…a period piece. A retro quasi steam punk Torchwood would have been cool. Set it around 1899-1910. Call it Torchwood: Century.
Personally what I would LOVE for them to do is a series of miniseries following the adventures of the 8th Doctor. McGann showed that he could still do an effective Doctor, so why not use him?
^ Ooh, I like the idea of a Steampunk style Torchwood, maybe set in some sort of alternative Victorian period. It could even be used as an excuse to do a complete relaunch of the concept from scratch.
For those of you who are interested, the Official Doctor Who Magazine did an article maybe ten years ago or so detailing all the occasions when Doctor Who actually had spin-offs proposed ('Jago And Litefoot' being the memorable one), as well as doing their own theorizing about other occasions where the possibility would exist to potentially spin a situation off into it's own concept ('Mel and Glitz on Iceworld'). It was an excellent article, well worth seeking out.
For those of you who are interested, the Official Doctor Who Magazine did an article maybe ten years ago or so detailing all the occasions when Doctor Who actually had spin-offs proposed ('Jago And Litefoot' being the memorable one), as well as doing their own theorizing about other occasions where the possibility would exist to potentially spin a situation off into it's own concept ('Mel and Glitz on Iceworld'). It was an excellent article, well worth seeking out.
For what it's worth, Big Finish has done some great spin-offs in their audio range, most notably Jago and Litefoot, Gallifrey (Romana, Leela, both K-9's and The Inquisitor), and I, Davros (I, Claudius-style telling of Davros' life pre-Genesis). There are other successful spin-offs that work off of other audio stories and novels, but those are the most notable directly concerning the TV series.
Maybe with Capaldi on board they can explore that strange Scottish branch of Torchwood.
Why? The show gives the impression that they settled down and had a quiet life. What's to watch?
Other than possibly a Jack/River time traveling spinoff, I'm just not interested enough in any of the recent companions to want to follow them more. I liked them enough but don't need more.
Instead of a spinoff, I'd love it if they did the occassional special that featured different characters. Eight Doctor, a past companion, etc. Basically do stories that they're inspired to write with characters they'll able to bring in for a special.
Mr Awe
Instead of a spinoff, I'd love it if they did the occassional special that featured different characters. Eight Doctor, a past companion, etc. Basically do stories that they're inspired to write with characters they'll able to bring in for a special.
Mr Awe
If there needs to be another Doctor Who spin-off, I'd rather see the BBC take the Star Trek approach -- develop the series first, then plant the plot seeds and characters for the new series in the parent series -- than to take a pre-existing character, who wasn't even designed for independent action, and try to build a series around the character.
Personally, if I were doing that, I'd option Poul Anderson's The High Crusade and make that into a Doctor Who spin-off -- three English knights from the Middle Ages capture a Sontaran warship and accidentally set off for adventures in deep space. Develop that as a series first, then do an episode of Doctor Who that sets that up. Maybe Strax knows about it. Or, position it as a sequel to "The Time Warrior."
Personally, if I were doing that, I'd option Poul Anderson's The High Crusade and make that into a Doctor Who spin-off -- three English knights from the Middle Ages capture a Sontaran warship and accidentally set off for adventures in deep space. Develop that as a series first, then do an episode of Doctor Who that sets that up. Maybe Strax knows about it. Or, position it as a sequel to "The Time Warrior."
Both has happened in the Whoniverse.
Torchwood was a designed spin-off seeded throughout the parent show before it was launched.
And then there is Sarah Jane Adventures, taking a long established character brought back for her own show.
Torchwood was a designed spin-off seeded throughout the parent show before it was launched.
And then there is Sarah Jane Adventures, taking a long established character brought back for her own show.
Sarah Jane Adventures started life as a prequel set on Gallifrey during the Doctor's academy years, an idea suggested by the higher-ups at the BBC. The conception being a sort of Harry Potter... with Time Lords. It was intended for a preteen audience, after all.
Thankfully, Russell T Davies felt that 'Doctor Who High' was a trite and completely pointless idea, so he suggested a spin-off based around Elisabeth Sladen's character instead. Thank God it was accepted!
Thankfully, Russell T Davies felt that 'Doctor Who High' was a trite and completely pointless idea, so he suggested a spin-off based around Elisabeth Sladen's character instead. Thank God it was accepted!
I never really saw the appeal in the previous DW spinoffs, to be honest. The writing would have to be really good for me to take interest in a DW-related show that didn't feature the Doctor, and neither Torchwood or SJA were able to pull that off in my opinion.
If the highlight of any episode is when they make a fleeting reference to the Doctor or TARDIS, you know there's a problem.
If the highlight of any episode is when they make a fleeting reference to the Doctor or TARDIS, you know there's a problem.
Yes, please!
Also, while I am definitely looking forward to Capaldi's run, it would have been cool if the Doctor had "revisited an old favourite" by using Eight's appearance. Or perhaps after Capaldi. It technically wouldn't be Eight, but it kinda would.
The thing about Doctor Who is that there's not really a compelling reason to set up spin-offs. Star Trek needs them to continue-- you couldn't have eighteen seasons of The Next Generation, so you need Deep Space Nine and Voyager and Enterprise to keep the series going, but with different actors and approaches. But Doctor Who's premise means the series can go infinitely because the actor can always be replaced and approaches tweaked. So why have a spin-off?
I don't think they should just take any old concept and slap a Doctor Who label on it.
That's how Torchwood started. It was a spec script that RTD had in his drawer ("Excalibur"), and he reworked it as a Doctor Who concept.
That's what Doctor Who does, week after week. It's an anthology series, albeit one with continuing characters. It takes a story format or concept and drops the Doctor into it.
That's a game a friend of mine and I used to play. Take a book or movie, and drop the Doctor into it. (Or, for a variant, take a character from film or literature and make that character a companion.) Event Horizon would work tremendously well. Planet of the Apes.
One story I have never been able to figure out what the Doctor would do within it is The Great Gatsby. (It does, however, work amazingly as a Wolverine story -- Jay Gatz is actually Jamie Howlett.) I mean, the Doctor could turn up at one of Gatsby's massive parties, but there's nothing the Doctor could materially do within the story.
The High Crusade is one of those things that I looked at and said, "Yeah, I can see how this works in a Doctor Who setting." You probably wouldn't take the story wholesale (especially not the part about the knights converting all of space to Catholicism), but the core concept would work pretty well, and you might get six or thirteen episodes out of it.
It's never going to happen, I know.
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