BBC Three announces Doctor Who Spin Off

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BBC Three announces Doctor Who Spin Off

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/doctorwho/en ... b6567260f1
BBC Three today announces Class - a new 8 x 45 minute Doctor Who spin off from the acclaimed YA author, Patrick Ness. Class is a YA series set in contemporary London. Incredible dangers are breaking through the walls of time and space, and with darkness coming, London is unprotected. With all the action, heart and adrenalin of the best YA fiction (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Hunger Games), this is Coal Hill School and Doctor Who like you’ve never seen them before.

Steven Moffat says, “No one has documented the dark and exhilarating world of the teenager like Patrick Ness, and now we're bringing his brilliant story-telling into Doctor Who. This is growing up in modern Britain - but with monsters!”

On his first television series, writer Patrick Ness says, "I'm astounded and thrilled to be entering the Doctor Who universe, which is as vast as time and space itself. There's so much room there for all kinds of amazing stories, and to work with Steven Moffat and Brian Minchin to find a place to tell one of my own has been an absolute joy. I can't wait for people to meet the heroes of Class, to meet the all-new villains and aliens, to remember that the horrors of the darkest corners of existence are just about on par with having to pass your A-Levels."

Damian Kavanagh, Controller BBC Three adds, “We’re excited to give Patrick Ness this opportunity to work with us at BBC Three and the Doctor Who family. Patrick understands young audiences and I’m delighted he will use his incredible skills as a storyteller to delight audiences on BBC Three. BBC Three will always innovate and offer opportunities for brilliant new talent."

Polly Hill, Controller BBC Drama Commissioning, adds, “I am thrilled that Patrick Ness is writing his first drama series for BBC Three. The combination of Patrick and Steven Moffat, is an exciting partnership that has created a brilliant Doctor Who spin off for our BBC Three audience.”

Class is executive produced by Steven Moffatt, Patrick Ness and Brian Minchin. It was commissioned by Damian Kavanagh, Controller BBC Three and Polly Hill, Controller BBC Drama Commissioning.

An 8 x 45 minute series produced by BBC Cymru Wales in association with BBC Worldwide for BBC Three.

The series will film in and around Wales from Spring, 2016 and be on air next year.
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Re: BBC Three announces Doctor Who Spin Off

Post by Mikey »

I don't want to experience the "dark and exhilirating world of the teenager."
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Re: BBC Three announces Doctor Who Spin Off

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I already did experience that world, twenty five years ago. It had its moments, but I've no desire to watch other people doing it even with aliens thrown in.
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Re: BBC Three announces Doctor Who Spin Off

Post by RK_Striker_JK_5 »

This sounds horrible. Maybe if Ian and Barbara were recurring characters... but how it is now? So pass go, so do not collect 200 dollars.
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Re: BBC Three announces Doctor Who Spin Off

Post by IanKennedy »

To be fair we're not exactly the target audience for this show. It's aimed at young adults. It's basically a replacement for "Sarah Jane Adventures", perhaps a little older than that. I can't see myself watching it, but, I could say the same about Harry Potter. A lot of adults like it but I couldn't get past the first three films. So long as they don't start mixing the two it could prevent episodes like "In the Forest of the Night", which was poor.
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Re: BBC Three announces Doctor Who Spin Off

Post by Mikey »

IIRC, the last DW spin-off was "Torchwood." If that's any indication, then this is what I say to such spin-offs:

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Re: BBC Three announces Doctor Who Spin Off

Post by Graham Kennedy »

I rather liked Torchwood.
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Re: BBC Three announces Doctor Who Spin Off

Post by Mikey »

Graham Kennedy wrote:I rather liked Torchwood.
It's odd, because I'd be hard-pressed to define clearly why I disliked it; but I just could never enjoy watching it. I didn't much care for Jack, even on DW, but I didn't actively dislike the character enough to sour the show for me. The production values were clearly the equivalent of DW at the time, so that wasn't it. I think that a great deal of the problem for me is that the appeal of DW isn't just the fact of overcoming great strange SF hurdles and threats - it's the fact of the Doctor specifically doing so, in that very distinguishable Doctor-esque way. Having the one without the other feels hollow, somewhat, as an entertainment.
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Re: BBC Three announces Doctor Who Spin Off

Post by Graham Kennedy »

I can see why that would bother you if you view it as "the part of Doctor Who that doesn't have the Doctor". I tend to think of it as it's own different and separate thing - notably, whilst the Torchwood folks did cross over into Doctor Who on occasion, I don't recall that it ever really went the other way outside of an occasional mention.

The three strands (at the time) of the TV franchise were meant to be Sarah Jane Adventures as "the one for kids", the main show as "the one for families" and Torchwood as "the one for adults". I liked that slightly more adult take on it, with some reservations. I didn't like how their version of making it for adults meant sticking a bunch of sex into the show - I don't mind it having sex as such, but rather the way they did it just seemed kind of awkward and so obviously shoved in there in an "ooo, look at how daring we are" kind of way. Kind of like how Enterprise treated sex, with idiotic Decontamination gel scenes.

But I did like that sometimes they faced problems without being able to count on a last minute spout of technobabble that resolved the issue handily. I liked that sometimes the good guys just flat out failed, or that they had to make horrible, shitty decisions in which innocent people suffered so that everyone else could live. My favourite episode (outside of Children of Earth) was Countrycide... where you keep expecting that they're up against some kind of horrific alien that's eating people, only to find that no, it's not an alien at all. Just people. Regular, ordinary, completely batshit insane people. Doctor Who is all about "Humans are just so amazingly FANTASTIC!" Torchwood stops to ask "...but are they really, though?"

I recognise that the show certainly had its problems, but the fact that they were going for that - and often succeeded - kept me liking it.
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Re: BBC Three announces Doctor Who Spin Off

Post by Mikey »

You certainly make valid points; as I said, what really kept me from liking the show is intangible. I normally do like a show with a bit of a reality check rather than rose-colored glasses. I never even consciously formed the thought that "this would be better with the Doctor in it." I didn't expect him, I didn't seek for him, the show wasn't ever meant to be an extra season of DW.

I do agree that the sex was sort of stuffed in (pun definitely intended) in order to say, "Hey, look at how adult we are!" That wasn't even my issue with the show, though - we all know how much fiat scriptorum was obviously and tritely used DW, and we all get around it pretty easily. Maybe it was the slightly less universal nature of the show: while DW was oddly biased heavily toward Earth, at least there was the backstory - the constant presence, if sometimes invisible - of the universe at large.
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Re: BBC Three announces Doctor Who Spin Off

Post by RK_Striker_JK_5 »

I never got into Torchwood, but I love the Sarah Jane Adventures. For me, 'for kids' isn't a deal-breaker per say.
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Re: BBC Three announces Doctor Who Spin Off

Post by sunnyside »

I rather liked where Torchwood went. I don't think it necessarily had the "legs" Dr. Who has in terms of just being able to make episode after episode. And was glad when it ended after saying what it had to say without the usual grinding into the ground.

Though, looking it up, it appears there are now third and fourth seasons that I didn't know of, so maybe it did try to keep going until it crashed and burned. Anybody watch those?

Thinking on Dr. Who though. I'm somewhat surprised that nobody else has seemed to try and capture some of that flavor. I can't really think of a different series that even tries to have a central Doctoresq character.

The closest I can think of is McGuyver.
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Re: BBC Three announces Doctor Who Spin Off

Post by Graham Kennedy »

Third and fourth seasons are oddities in that each is a single story spread over the whole season. Personally I really liked three. Four was a bit stretched out - they wanted more episodes to make more money off the show. And the ending is a bit anticlimactic.
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