'Doctor Who: Unleashed' Is Now Streaming On YouTube
The postings mark the end of a 16-month wait for everyone outside the UK to see the behind-the-scenes series
When showrunner Russell T. Davies properly took back the reins of the British sci-fi series Doctor Who in 2022, and by a point that Disney+ was already announced as the new international partner starting with the 60th anniversary specials in November and December 2023, he had said that spinoffs were back in play, six to what is now nine years after the single-season series Class. From this, it was believed that Disney was in on all spinoffs. And the first spinoff announced in this new era was Doctor Who: Unleashed in September, bringing back the behind-the-scenes companion show that hadn’t existed since Doctor Who Confidential was canceled after series 6 in 2011. Each episode would air on BBC Three after their corresponding episode of the main show. But Unleashed never showed up for Disney+ audiences, which is everyone outside the United Kingdom and that’s because they’re not involved in this part. So international audiences were left in the cold. However, that changed Monday, March 10 when the full Unleashed episodes for all three 60th anniversary specials, “The Star Beast”, “Wild Blue Yonder” and “The Giggle” were posted to the show’s main official YouTube channel, with subsequent uploads for those accompanying series 14/season 1 episodes starring Ncuti Gatwa as the Fifteenth Doctor happening daily as of writing.
When the series was announced, it was described as bringing “unmissable insight into the world of the long-running sci-fi series.” Host Steffan Powell takes viewers on a journey with exclusive on-set interviews with the cast and crew. The episodes on “The Church on Ruby Road”, “Space Babies” and “The Devil’s Chord” followed, which means all of them up to the 2024 Christmas special “Joy to the World” should be up by next Thursday, March 20. There is no indication of any sort of speed in giving the episodes of the upcoming season (starting April 12) the same treatment.
'Doctor Who: Unleashed' Behind-The-Scenes Companion Series Officially Announced
It’s official: After a dozen years and eight series gone by, Doctor Who will have its behind-the-scenes companion series back. Doctor Who: Unleashed will come to BBC Three and iPlayer accompanying each 60th anniversary special in November and every episode after.
In April 2023, David Tennant, whose return to Doctor Who as the new fourteenth main incarnation of The Doctor was seven months away, recalled at GalaxyCon his “absolutely thrilling" meeting with the franchise’s comic book writers, namely writer Pat Mills and artist Dave Gibbons during production of “The Star Beast”, directly adapting their comic story. "It was all filmed by all the various Doctor Who Confidential-style people, so you'll see all that. But it was very exciting for us, for them to visit us on set." While he was right, with it at least mostly coming from the same footage, the behind the scenes videos posted to YouTube after air for all of this era of Doctor Who are probably the same teams, it’s still presented in a different style to Unleashed and thus audiences who wanted to experience it as originally produced could not. A notable example of the common footage is the final interview for Bernard Cribbins, who returned one final time as Donna Noble’s grandfather Wilfred Mott in “Wild Blue Yonder”, but was too ill for “The Giggle” and died in July 2022. The first four episodes, collected as “Doctor Who Unleashed: The Specials” have been available on digital marketplaces, but everyone knows that’s just not the same and not what’s being asked for when calls to be added to streaming are made.
As for the show’s other YouTube endeavor, the Doctor Who Classic channel, over 60 more classic serials were uploaded since last report before stopping with the Second Doctor finale The War Games on February 10. In the month since, full season livestreams have been held weekly, for 17 (Fourth), 9 and 7 (Third), and 22 (Sixth), with 25 (Seventh) set for March 15. It is unclear why this shift was made. The first known Doctor Who spinoff Disney is co-producing is The War Between The Land and the Sea, starring Jemma Redgrave as Kate Lethbridge-Stewart and her UNIT team, along with Russell Tovey and Gugu Mbatha-Raw in new roles. Officially announced in July, it will apparently premiere in the latter part of the year, in the fall before Marvel’s Wonder Man.
'Doctor Who' Spinoff 'The War Between The Land And The Sea' Confirms Ruth Madeley And 'Torchwood' Reprisal
Oh this is going to be fun. Doctor Who has released the cast photo for its upcoming spinoff The War Between the Land and the Sea, following this week of read throughs and having been only partially revealed with headshots at the franchise’s San Diego Comic-Con
