Category: Torchwood
Last article published: 27 May 2021
This is the 63rd post under this label
Recapturing Old Glories?
RTD's previous spin-offs were Torchwood and Sarah Jane Adventures, and both were successful at the time. We might think Torchwood's time has waned - its star at the center of controversy, the American season having destroyed all the good will it had accumulated in Children of Earth - but RTD did lay in the seeds of a possible TW show in the very first episode. Jack mentions a Torchwood Two in Scotland, run by a "very strange man", but better yet, there's a Torchwood Four that "disappeared". The most explanation we ever got was in a Big Finish audio where it was "destroyed" by an alien artifact, but if Jack's contention in "Everything Changes" is that it could be found again, well, what if it were? Or what if it wasn't, but there are stories to tell where they've been sent? Personally, I'd make it an interdimensional travel show that plays with various What Ifs from the Whoniverse, but that's just a first draft idea. In reality, the existence of a UNIT show means we are probably not going back to Torchwood in any form. We won't have two similar organizations with separate television shows on at the same time.
With the Sarah Jane Adventures, the idea is pretty simple: Take a beloved companion, and center a show around them. When Lis Sladen died, I at first wondered if the show would still continue, but with Jo Grant working with the kids of Bannerman Road (and her own grandson). She had been set up "in this world". It didn't happen (Katy Manning still lives in Australia, right?), but recent appearances by Ace and Tegan could perhaps be indicators that one of them could by made a centerpiece. Ace is most heavily favored in this context as 1) the youngest possible actor from Classic Who, 2) has always been action-based, and 3) was actually set to show up in the last season of SJA before the back half became impossible. What I REALLY think might happen is that the UNIT show will make use of past companions as (even seasonal) guest-stars, "consulting experts" like Ace and Tegan were in "The Power of the Doctor". But does that preclude them from spinning out into their own shows?
In the past, Davies' set-ups for his spin-off shows occurred in Doctor Who episodes themselves - which is usually how spin-offs work - with Sarah Jane appearing in "School Reunion" (which got fandom excited and the rest is history) and Torchwood made a very mysterious organization through Season 2, but materializing as something completely other, using various elements from past shows (the Rift from "The Unquiet Dead", Jack from "The Empty Child"). So he's more likely to seed the ideas in this newest run than go to other showrunners' for material (like the Paternoster Gang, or River Song). I'm not saying Mel is set to star in her own show, but her appearance in the new series would track with what we're talking about and it's why I think most companion-related ideas will converge on UNIT. RTD's Rose Tyler: Earth Defense also fits this profile, even if the project was abandoned before it could make it to our screens (some would say mercifully, but RTD called it a "spin-off too far", so he was aware that he could saturate the market and depreciate the Doctor Who brand.
We live in a different world where series can just be MINI-series and all sorts of tales could be told in the Whoniverse, even without using companions we know to be "out there". I'm sure some viewers would love to see their favorite companions continue the fight without the Doctor, or see some of the Big Finish audio series make it to live action (before you mix it, I'll remind you they had a UNIT series AND a Sarah Jane Smith series, so it's not impossible). And there is certainly a danger to divorcing the spin-off from the show too much. Class, for example, was a solid YA show, but the name of the school + the Doctor showing up in the first episode, was too weak a connection. It failed for other reasons (it was produced for a channel that stopped existing and was dumped online where most people didn't know it could be found), but it was nevertheless a spin-off too FAR, as opposed to too MANY.
So where COULD we go that we haven't been before? If we ditch companion ideas, and already have our "agency" show, what's left? How about Doctor side-quests? One particular area of interest is further adventures of the "Fugitive Doctor", opening up a whole new era in Gallifreyan history, with the Doctor doing missions for Division and becoming more and more conflicted. Except the way Chibnall tried to bury the Timeless Child stuff upon his departure points to RTD likely to ignore it. What we COULD get instead, and this would make sense considering RTD's past use of spin-offs to target different demographics (Torchwood for "mature" viewers, SJA for younger ones, though this was an artifact of what channels they were supposed to go to), is a Time Lord Academy series. Think RIverdale or Smallville (or Starfleet Academy, which has been announced), with a young Doctor, Master, Rani, etc. in sci-fi soap opera stories, probably discovering dark Time Lord conspiracies (so a strain of Dear White People) and annoying old Borusa. This one wouldn't surprise me at all, and the on-budget sets and costuming would drive fans crazy, just like Trek's design retcons did.
The other avenue to explore is animation. Star Wars, Star Trek and even the MCU have all crafted shows in this medium and for good reason. Cast members can be of any age and not show it (so returning companions and Doctors could be more easily integrated) and there are fewer budget or practical concerns to make something come to life. Big Finish has proven that it can be done, but add visuals to that. If skewed younger, you could have a Prodigy set-up like kids who find an abandoned TARDIS and get lost in space-time. RTD could produce new serials (in the mini-series format) starring past Doctors either voicing themselves or being impersonated. If D+ actually streams Classic Who as part of this deal, nostalgia could fuel such projects (though I don't necessarily believe they would happen). Does K9 still have enough clout to get an animated series? What if it were in the Wallace & Gromit style (Bob Baker having [co]created both)?
I dunno. What do YOU think would make a cool Doctor Who spin-off, or perhaps more saliently, would be LIKELY as a Doctor Who spin-off in our era?
Comments
I'm ultimately of the opinion that I'd rather RTD introduce as many new things as possible, and give me a spin-off that I don't know I want. Not only has the show gotten dangerously navel-gazey in the past few years (to it's detriment, IMO), I can't imagine anything worse than the actual TV stuff just becoming another strain of fanwank like BF or Titan comics.
I personally don't like the idea of a Time Lord Academy series and have never been happy with the notion that the Doctor was at school with practically every other Time Lord renegade - an idea introduced by Gary Russell in the novels, I think. It just makes Gallifrey seem much smaller.
Would RTD write a series set in the Time War? Not sure he'd want to. But how about some other war against the Daleks, or a series set on Earth during a Dalek occupation (whether the 22nd Century or some more distant future)?
Bringing back Tennant for the 60th specials seems to replicate the 7th Doctor fiasco popping up at the start of The Movie and its groanworthy related infodump. I'd have been far happier for Rose V2 with combustible, charismatic Ncuti centre stage - Year Zero it. Thankfully, people won't have wait too long for the new series to arrive after the specials air.
It felt like Sophie and Fielding's reappearance in Whittaker's finale seemingly signalled the now confirmed UNIT agency show given RTDs prior spin-offs obsession. I'd suggest a new companion YA show will be seeded forthwith within the show itself if successful.
I'm assuming Disney executives wouldn't be too happy to have an aged Classic Era companion fronting either show, and so, they definitely need a Nu-Hu era companion on board. They are all rather busy, but perhaps Donna's meta-crisis inspired amnesia will be resolved in the upcoming specials creating the opportunity for Tate to become that lead actor.
I'm really not a fan of the current genre TV spin-off culture, it seems less about creativity than commerce and has the capacity to dilute the impact of the main show. The only spin-off I do see merit in is a spin-off Lost Episodes animated series, this time with proper broadcast quality animation standard. As the story of the show is essentially incomplete in its current form, box-set culture being what it is.
As a proper wunza TV series, these two pipe-smoking Gallifreyan private eyes should be called Holmes & Dicks. One has great and bold ideas and a somewhat morbid sense of humour, the other is disarmingly cuddly and keeps the plot together.
(Or has Big Finish already done this? Who can keep track these days – I can't.)