The First In The New Age Of 'Doctor Who' Spinoffs Will Be UNIT-Focused

Thank you, 'Star Trek', for allowing 'Doctor Who' to regrow

In November, mere weeks after it was announced that Doctor Who would be moving to Disney+, returning showrunner Russell T. Davies revealed that spinoffs were back in play, allowing for more content year to year. It builds the franchise back to a state where it was during his first term, for what he calls “an expanded 'Whoniverse'”.

First up, it’s a spinoff centered on UNIT, the military research organization introduced at the start of the Third Doctor era following his exile to Earth, the 1970 serial Spearhead from Space. It’ll be starring Jemma Redgrave, reprising her role as Kate Stewart, who runs UNIT and has appeared since the 2012 episode “The Power of Three” during the era of Matt Smith’s Eleventh Doctor. Following appearances in “Day of the Doctor” she would make eight subsequent episodes, being absent from the Thirteenth Doctor’s first two series entirely, but which would be explained by her last, Flux. The character is the daughter of Brigadier Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart, played by Nicholas Courtney, who debuted in Spearhead and whose death was written into the end of the series/season preceding Kate’s debut. She is also set to appear in series 14, starring Fifteenth Doctor Ncuti Gatwa, and possibly the Christmas special preceding it.

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Regarding Doctor Who and television spinoffs, Davies created two during his initial reign as showrunner: The Sarah Jane Adventures, focused on Elisabeth Sladen’s Sarah Jane Smith, her adopted son, and his friends as they fight alien foes and Torchwood, focused on John Barrowman’s Captain Jack Harkness and his team dealing with extraterrestrials. The three series connected very well, but neither lasted that long into the Eleventh Doctor era, each due to very different circumstances. The Twelfth Doctor era did have one television spinoff, Class. It took place at the Coal Hill School that Barbara and Clara taught at, and had a cameo from the Twelfth Doctor but aired for a single season in the mothership’s 2016 gap year. It only lasted a single season.

Davies has essentially claimed that spinoffs could flourish again due to the streaming landscape and the private funding from a company like Disney. The BBC has partnered with Disney to make Disney+ the series’s international home for new episodes starting with this year’s 60th-anniversary specials with Tenth Doctor David Tennant as the Fourteenth Doctor. The specials begin airing this November, and series 14 airs early next year. More spinoffs are expected to be announced.

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Source: The Mirror