BW Vs WhoCulture’s 10 Show’s Doctor Who Fans Want

Doctor Who is a show with spinoff potential. Between fan works (including a few ideas I’ve come up with, one of which I actually made a story for back in my younger years), Big Finish productions, novels, comic back-up stories, and even the relaunch we have seen proof that the places that the Doctor travels can be as interesting as the adventures he has while he’s there. Not every spinoff worked, but it could be execution to blame rather than the idea itself, or maybe it only worked one time.

I need something to discuss tonight, so coming upon this video by WhatCulture’s “WhoCulture” YouTube channel was good timing. In it, presenter Elle Littlechild (for some reason I love that name) brought us a list of “10 Doctor Who Spinoffs Fans Want In The Whoniverse”, Russell T. Davies’ project to bring the shared universe idea to Doctor Who more than he did with Torchwood (which has fans but I’m not among them) and The Sarah Jane Adventures , which I wish I got to see more than one episode and a bunch of clips for.

The title may be misleading, and I hope it’s accidental. Fans don’t always agree on everything. While the louder and possibly more plentiful voices are against the Timeless Child nonsense, it does have its supporters. I like the Daleks! miniseries they did a few years ago, but not everyone else was on board. It would probably more accurate to say that this is what the people at WhatCulture in general or the WhoCulture contributors specifically would like to see get their own story. I do not speak for the fans. I speak for me. So what I’d like to see may or may not line up with them. Let’s see their countdown and I’ll review it.

• The Master Adventures: Credit it where it’s due, and it’s rare Chibnall earns any. Sacha Dhawan is my favorite of the New Who Masters, though Anthony Ainley is still my favorite overall. (Like with the Doctor, my favorite tends to be the next guy after the usual favorites, in this case “Missy” and original Master Roger Delgado–if you don’t count the crispy Master being in-between the two classics.) That said, I don’t want to follow him any more than I would the Joker. He’s the villain. Each story would have to be him losing against the heroes or maybe coming across someone…no, he’s the Master. It would have to be Davros and the Daleks to be more evil. Big Finish has done some stories with him set during the Time War but as a lead I just don’t care.
• Adventures with UNIT: Well that’s a no-brainer. Big Finish and fan productions like Auton have shown that UNIT can be competent without the Doctor being available, and it would be nice to see what they can do. I’d take it over Torchwood provided they didn’t make the mistake of Torchwood by making the characters primarily unlikable jackasses I want to root against.
• Animated Villains Anthology: Dalek!, as mentioned earlier, is an example of what this could be, a “Master’s Adventures” done well because it was one story that had the Daleks getting their hoverskirts kicked in most of the time and an idea of how they operate. The various magazines did one-shot back-up stories featuring various Who villains and what they got up to without the Doctor around, forcing others to stop them on their own, or even having villains fighting other villains. As an anthology this could work. I wouldn’t watch a regular Dalek show but that miniseries involving the Daleks dealing with an otheruniversal entity and running to the Mechanoids for help was rather good.
• Tales Of The TARDIS NuWho: Tales From The TARDIS was a fun framing device to revisit old episodes not from the actors’ perspective but the characters. However, even for Who rules the “Memory TARDIS” makes no sense to me and why it’s canon according to Davies is because it’s Davies. He’s kind of lost his mind. This is the guy who thinks Davros makes people believe wheelchair people are evil.
• The Fugitive Doctor: No. Big Finish already does this, but acknowledging the Fugitive Doctor (aka the first Doctor is a black woman now because screw you, William Hartnell’s legacy–you’re just the first one we meet now) means acknowledging the Timeless Child. I do not want to acknowledge the Timeless Child so long as it’s the Doctor. If the Fugitive turned out to be the Timeless Child but not the Doctor, I could get behind that. Stealing regeneration from a marooned space child is certainly something I expect from Time Lords. She should not be the Doctor…though at least her TARDIS isn’t the butt ugly death trap they shoved Jodie Whitaker in.
• Sarah Jane Adventures Follow-Up: I’m surprised Big Finish hasn’t done this. While they’ve done the kids, it’s not like they haven’t replaced actors, even Sarah Jane herself in Third Doctor stories along with a different Third Doctor, in other audio shows. Doing a spin-off with the kids this far out isn’t a bad idea. Even bring K9 back to help them whether or not Mr. Smith is back online. Then again, I would have liked more of the K9 series they did in Australia. Maybe a crossover with both kids, which would be difficult as K9 and his friends were in a fascist London of the future and the Bannerman Road gang are in the present, but there are ways it could be done. Seeing K9 Mark IV meet the regenerated Mark I would be fun, and a lot of extra work for John Leeson to make them distinct but have the same voice.
• The Shadow Proclamation: I wonder if these numbers are actually WhoCulture ranking their ideas, because this should not rank higher than the Bannerman Road crew or UNIT getting their own spinoff. This one? I’m torn. It could work, it could end up being Space Precinct or Star Cops. I’m trying to remember which one I even saw. I wonder why this was on the list, but not one with the Time Agency? Maybe we can learn why they pushed out Captain Jack. Probably for the same reason John Barrowman was kicked out of Torchwood.
• The River Song Adventures: I’m betting Elle pushed for that to be higher on the list, given her love of the character. We have to seriously disagree here as I hate her as a character. Great actress, though. The more River Song appeared the more obnoxious she got, and she didn’t exactly impress me on her first appearance. Hey River, you’re friends are being eaten by bugs who thrive in darkness and you want to waste your time needling the Doctor about the parts of their relationship you can’t tell him about because “spoilers”? She would have fit in perfect in “Tooth & Claw”. That’s where the Doctor and Rose were insufferable twats, too.
• The Time War: Yes. It wouldn’t even have to be Doctor centered. Have stories with him in it and the events that both led to his attempts to escape the war, failing to do so, and eventually considering the Final Solution (which would be difficult with John Hurt gone but Hartnell was replaced in “The Five Doctors” and that went okay). However, what about president Romana (as heard in Big Finish, which does Time War tales with her, the War Doctor, and even the War Master), the civilians, how Rassilon was convinced to stop torturing seekers of immortality long enough to become the scumbag we saw in post Time War stories, and how other races responded to the War…the ones that survived and remembered or at least were lost during it. It would be a more interesting anthology than the villains one.
• At Home With The Nobles: Nope, don’t care. Donna was fun with the Doctor but they ruined that family when they ruined “The Star Beast” and I don’t need a whole series that’s half “men suck” and half “you will think Rose 2 Tomorrow is the most beautiful creature ever you bigot”. Let them have their happy ending as a family and not get involved anymore. Donna’s earned it especially. It would be as big an “I don’t care” if they went with the MetaCrisis Doctor and Rose 1: A Time Lord’s Story. I know you love David Tennant but let him do Big Finish and find other roles. It works for other old Doctors. Even Matt Smith finally started doing them, and there have been stories with others playing his Doctor.

As to what I’d like to see that’s not on the list? I already told you, more with K9, my favorite Companion. I had a few ideas years ago. One I’d rather keep a story in my own head because while I won’t do it among all the other projects it’s still fun for me personally to visit, but it does involved Time War fallout. Having K9 II traveling on a starship searching for the Doctor was another pre-war idea I had, but I don’t know if that would work, and Mark III was rebuilt into Mark IV. I also had an odd one where a Dalek experiment escapes, in a bipedal Dalek body, and being a Thall prior now pulls an Abslom Daak by hunting Daleks. Actually, why not an adaptation of Abslom Daak? Davies has already swiped novel and comic stories, sticking his Doctor in place of the one from the tale in there.