Welcome to the Uptime Gate!

The thing I like most about Doctor Who is how much of it there is.  I read an interesting post on Twitter today that got me to thinking.  The context is unimportant (I think it had something to do with the recipient taking a shot at NuWho fanboys and fangirls) but the important thing is that the post ended with the accusation, “What’s wrong with you?  Did you like the wilderness years??”  That got me to thinking.

Hello.  My name is Peter McAlpine, and I liked the Wilderness Years.

For those of you who don’t know, the phrase “Wilderness Years” refers to the period, roughly between 1989 and 2005, where Doctor Who was off the air (barring a one-off television movie in 1996).  During that time, it was the fans that kept the show alive, through the creation of many different forms of alternative and spin-off media.  Much of this – such as the Virgin and BBC novels, and the Big Finish audios – was officially licenced by the Beeb, but others – such as a lot of BBV’s output – was not (although BBV did licence individual characters and monsters from their original creators).

Now don’t get me wrong.  I enjoy the current incarnation of Doctor Who (the show – not the Doctor – though I love him too) as much as anything.  Personally, I try not to distinguish between New and Old Who at all; I’ve always seen the “new series” as a direct continuation of the “original series”.  So of course I adore it.  I couldn’t be happier that the greatest show in the world returned to my television screen in 2005, and has taken the world by storm.

But to this day, I still love the spinoff media.  A huge amount of it came out during the Wilderness Years, while a lot of it is the direct product of groups founded during that much-maligned period.  There are many reasons I go to the spinoff media as much as I do.  In some cases, it’s simply because I love the medium involved; I adore audio as a storytelling vehicle, so of course my addiction to the audio companies has always been obvious: Big Finish, BBV, Magic Bullet, Bafflegab (formerly Cosmic Hobo) and Radio Static (not to mention the BBC itself – in the form of AudioGo).  I’ve also been impressed with the few companies that have been brave enough to attempt visual stories, such as Reeltime and BBV.

But some of the greatest spinoffs have appeared in print media instead.  Obverse, Mad Norwegian Press, Telos, Random Static and many others have produced Doctor Who spinoff media.

Many spinoffs have appeared in multiple mediums.  But whatever you consider to be a “spinoff”, the fact is that they are everywhere: Faction Paradox (my all-time favourite), Iris Wildthyme, Jago and Litefoot, The Forge, Bernice Summerfield, Torchwood, Kaldor City, Gallifrey, Dalek Empire, Sarah Jane Smith (both the Big Finish audio series and The Sarah Jane Adventures), Time Hunter, The Minister of Chance, Counter-measures, P.R.O.B.E., K9, Cybermen, Graceless, and yes, even Dorian Gray (who appeared in a Bernice Summerfield audio before starring in his own range).  Some ranges are more linked to Who through the actors and producers involved, such as The Scarifyers, Pisces, The Stranger and Soldiers of Love, while others, such as Blakes 7, The Hitch-hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Dark Shadows and Sapphire and Steel have no connection to our beloved series at all, other than the fact that they may share some writers and the occasional actor.

So that’s what’s this blog is – partly – going to focus on.  Now I can’t promise that I’m not going to review the latest TV episode or give my thoughts on Peter Capaldi as the Twelfth Doctor.  In fact, I’m sure I’m going to be doing a lot of that.  But I also want to give some healthy exposure to that other part of the Doctor Who universe:

The part without the Doctor.


Follow me on Twitter at @peterwmcalpine