'Doctor Who' Preschool Animated Series Looking To Whir Into Production

The Whoniverse is expanding again to unexpected places

As we await the future of Doctor Who’s main series following the completion of its part of the franchise’s distribution with Disney via Disney+ for international audiences, a concurrent path has been unexpectedly revealed by the BBC. If you thought the preschool animation space wasn’t blue enough with Blue, Bluey, and the general teaching of colors, get ready because the TARDIS is making its landing. The next Doctor Who spinoff is indeed a preschool animated series on CBeebies.

It truly is just an animated version of Doctor Who, with the Doctor traveling through time and space, solving mysteries and problems alongside their companions and other friends, facing whatever challenges along the way. No cast or crew has been announced, in fact the BBC is looking for a production company with the passion to properly create and produce the series. Of course, this is far from the first time the Doctor has been animated. Chronologically the first animated story is 2003’s Scream of the Shalka, which was a 40th anniversary production starring Richard E. Grant as the Ninth Doctor, intended to be canon during production but by release was supplanted by the show’s revival. The first animated reconstruction of First and Second Doctor stories was released in 2006, where the latter’s 1968 8-part serial The Invasion had its first and fourth parts given the treatment. More than 20 stories have been rescued the same way, some wholly, with the two most recent being First Doctor stories The Celestial Toymaker and The Savages. That wasn’t all, as Tenth Doctor David Tennant had two animated serials: The Infinite Quest with series 3 companion Martha Jones on Totally Doctor Who, and Dreamland, released in the 2009 specials year on the Red Button service. There’s also the Eleventh Doctor-era Adventure Games and the Doctor’s presence in Lego Dimensions, which featured up to the Twelfth Doctor and included the War Doctor. This season’s “Lux” featured animated character Mr. Ring-a-Ding, voiced by Alan Cumming, the embodiment of Lux Imperator, God of Light in the Pantheon of Discord, who briefly brought Fifteenth Doctor Ncuti Gatwa and companion Belinda Chandra, played by Varada Sethu, into an animated world.

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Patricia Hidalgo, Director of Children’s and Education said: “Everyone is welcome at CBeebies, including the Doctor! This much-loved franchise entertains millions around the world, so it is only right that our younger audience get to experience the wonder and the magic of the Doctor in a brand new format. This is an extremely exciting opportunity, and we are looking forward to welcoming companies to pitch for this new project, as we continue our commitment and investment in the UK’s animation industry.”

The main show just completed a two-season run with Gatwa’s Fifteenth Doctor, regenerating at the end of “The Reality War” into someone played by Billie Piper who has yet to be identified as a proper incarnation of the character. What remains of the Disney+ deal is the five-episode spinoff miniseries The War Between the Land and the Sea, whose dramatic tension is probably a far cry and a big swing away from any potential preschool series. It’s also the potentially longest-running scripted/narrative spinoff of this era, with a low bar to clear, as Doctor Who: Unleashed is a behind the scenes companion series to the main show, and Tales of the TARDIS’s only new material are bookend segments to the classic stories.

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Source: BBC Press