Doctor Who Spin-Offs

Doctor Who Spin-offs

When Russell T.Davies brought Doctor Who back from it’s hiatus in 2005 with Christopher Eccleston, Children’s BBC expressed interest in the idea of a series revolving around a young Doctor during his childhood on Gallifrey. Davies turned down the idea, stating that it would take away the mystery and intrigue of the character.

Davies instead suggested a series revolving around former companion Sarah Jane Smith, who had been voted the Doctor’s most popular companion numerous times from her debut in 1973, up until her reappearance in 2006.

The Sun speculated on the possibility of a Sarah Jane spin-off shortly before the airing of the episode ‘School Reunion’ in 2006, during which Smith reappeared.

Production of the series began in April 2007, with writers Gareth Roberts, Phil Ford and Phil Gladwin all scripting different episodes.

The spin-off ran for five series until the death of actress Elizabeth Sladen in 2011.

On the day of Sladen’s death, the children’s entertainment channel CBBC ran all episodes of the series from its New Year special as a tribute to Sladen.

Torchwood, created by Doctor Who writer and director Russell T.Davies, is a spin-off of Doctor Who that first aired on BBC Three in 2006. The show revolves around a small team which form the Cardiff branch of Torchwood, a fictional institution that exists within the world of Doctor Who. Torchwood was first mentioned when it was seeded in several Doctor Who episodes after the show’s revival, over the course of 2005 and 2006.

Torchwood is seen by some audiences as a more ‘grown up’ version of Doctor Who, as the fact it is shown after the watershed allows for more mature and adult content to be integrated into the show.

Because of the show’s huge popularity, the second series found Torchwood relocated to BBC Two at an earlier time. Because of this, many more mature scenes were edited out of second series episodes, and uncut versions were usually shown at a later time.

In 2009, Torchwood returned in a five-part mini series entitled ‘The Children of Earth’, which got mixed reviews from critics, some of whom thought the series was flawed without its original cast of characters.

Torchwood ran for four years, up until the ten-part fourth series ‘Miracle Day’, which Russell worked on with an American broadcasting company.

There are rumours of a fifth series, though nothing has yet been made concrete.