'Doctor Who' Carves Its Whoniverse Hub On iPlayer, Announces 'Tales Of The TARDIS' Series
'Doctor Who' Carves Its Whoniverse Hub On iPlayer, Announces 'Tales Of The TARDIS' Series
A new first spinoff approaches! Find out what episodes are bringing reunions!
The Doctor Who franchise is officially welcoming its fans to the Whoniverse, and christening it with a new miniseries that will help kick off November’s 60th anniversary celebrations right.
The Whoniverse is the official name of the franchise’s hub on BBC iPlayer, where as previously reported, starting Wednesday November 1, the over 800 episodes of the back catalogue across the main show and it’s spinoffs will be together for the first time. From what it sounds like, it’s no different from the Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars and National Geographic hubs on Disney+, or the Brand Spotlights on Max, which include the portfolio of Warner Bros. Discovery networks, the streamer’s originals, DC, the Wizarding World, Studio Ghibli and Sesame Workshop. Also being introduced in these file versions is a brand new ident. Like the Marvel Studios logo or more closely, what the Star Trek shows have had since last year and Star Wars since The Mandalorian.
The logo for the Whoniverse could very well be the one featured on the mural on a wall at Bad Wolf, the production company now making this imminent era of Doctor Who, founded by Julie Gardner and Jane Tranter, former BBC employees who during their time there were instrumental to the show’s resurrection in 2005. Imminent Fifteenth Doctor Ncuti Gatwa took photos in front of the mural in January.
It’s also been announced that on the same day as its BBC iPlayer home is made, a new six-episode series entitled Tales of the TARDIS will debut. Duos from across the classic era and one surprising friend board a very special TARDIS on a nostalgic journey through the series’s world and history. However, these aren’t normal out-of-character retrospectives. These episodes have new scripted in-character scenes by written by returning showrunner Russell T Davies, and previous series writers Phil Ford, who wrote “The Waters of Mars” with Davies and “Into the Dalek” himself and served as head writer of spin-off The Sarah Jane Adventures, and Pete McTighe, writer of series 11’s “Kerblam!” and co-writer of series 12’s “Praxeus” with then-showrunner Chris Chibnall. Davies, Tranter, and Gardner executive produce with Phil Collinson and Joel Collins. It is produced by Scott Handcock, directed by Joshua M. G. Thomas, and composed by Sam Watts. These scenes seem to be interspersed rather than solely to introduce, like the talking heads parts of The Doctors Revisited was, creating what’s called a feature-length omnibus episode, which especially makes sense as the stories were serials that could be as much as 4 to 5 parts.
So who’s coming back? Who’s paired? We have Maureen O’Brien as Vicki and Peter Purves as Steven Taylor, Frazer Hines as Jamie McCrimmon and Wendy Padbury as Zoe Heriot, Peter Davison as the Fifth Doctor and Janet Fielding as Tegan Jovanka, Colin Baker as the Sixth Doctor and Nicola Bryant as Peri Brown, Sylvester McCoy as the Seventh Doctor and Sophie Aldred as Ace, and Katy Manning as Jo Grant and Daniel Anthony as Clyde Langer, one of Luke’s friends in the main group of kids on The Sarah Jane Adventures. Aldred, Fielding, Davison, Baker, McCoy, and Manning all appeared in the BBC centenary special “The Power of the Doctor”.
We also know the episodes being revisited, thanks to listings on the BBC website. First up, we have Earthshock, the four part serial from 1982. The Fifth Doctor and Tegan meet again and remember their terrifying adventure against the Cybermen to save the Earth… and the friend they lost along the way. Next, The Mind Robber, a five-parter from 1968. Jamie and Zoe reunite and reminisce on their encounter with robots, clockwork soldiers and Medusa in a Land of Fiction governed by a mysterious master. For Vengeance on Varos, a two-parter with running times matching NuWho episode length from the only classic series to boast such, the Sixth Doctor and Peri recall their conflict on the mining planet Varos: a world that entertains its people with sadistic TV broadcasts. The tale of The Three Doctors is what Jo tells Clyde, of when the Time Lords summoned three Doctors to fight Omega. Steven and Vicki reminisce on their first adventure battling The Time Meddler a time-travelling Monk in 1066. And finally, Seven and Ace recall the classic era's penultimate onscreen adventure, The Curse of Fenric a Viking curse is bringing the dead back to life in World War II.
Davies had this to say about these developments: “The word Whoniverse was invented by fans, so it’s time to give it official status. And Tales Of The TARDIS is one of the greatest delights of my career - to see old Doctors and companions reunited, still fighting the good fight, is a perfect way to celebrate the Doctor’s 60th birthday!” On Instagram, he apologizes that he doesn't have the answer to whether these will ever be available abroad, whether on the franchise’s new international home, Disney+, or since it's classics related material, repurposed classic serials, that it end up in the season 27 section of the Britbox listing with a whole bunch of other specials. So far that makes two new Doctor Who series with uncertain international release, the other being Doctor Who: Unleashed, a behind-the-scenes companion series airing in its UK home country on BBC Three.
Sources: Doctor Who, BBC