Doctor Who spin off announced.

[The Romulan Republic]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/doctorwho/en ... b6567260f1

BBC Three announces Doctor Who Spin Off

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.

Looks like Moffat won't be the main writer, which gives me hope.

[Hillary]

Grange Hill with aliens. Hopefully the actors will be better than the ones we saw in the last season of Doctor Who.

[Iroscato]

I'm astonishingly disinterested by this. Torchwood or GTFO.

[DaveJB]

Both RTD and John Barrowman seem have been pretty clear that Torchwood as an actual TV series is dead, done, finished, and that any future will be in novels and/or Big Finish audios.

Either way, it's interesting that the BBC are picking now of all times to launch what looks somewhat like a belated replacement for The Sarah Jane Adventures. If nothing else, it proves that they still have some confidence in the show despite the awful viewing figures (or rather, overnight figures) for the last two episodes.

[Soontir C'boath]

Damn, with all these illegal aliens flooding London, it takes a teenager to bring them down? Sounds like it all could be solved if UNIT had the equivalent of a "Men in Black" customs checkpoint.

Anyway, it will still be produced by Moffat, so it doesn't seem the direction the story line will weave can be any different.

[Eternal_Freedom]

If this lets Ian and Barbara appear again, even as cameos, I'll be interested (Ian is apparently Chairman of the Board of Governors according to the sign, so it's possible.

[mr friendly guy]

The actress who played Barbara, Jacqueline Hill died in the 1990s. Her last DW appearance IIRC was in the Tom Baker story Meglos. So they would have to recast.

William Russell who played Ian is still around, although its most probably a good idea to recast as well given his age.

Now would a recast make fans happy. Well BBC did it before with Richard Hundell playing the First Doctor in the Five Doctors given William Hartnell had passed away years earlier, although they still used a sick and aging Hartnell in the Three Doctors.

[Eternal_Freedom]

I knew William Russell is still around, I think it would be a good excuse for a cameo, especially since Ian still exists and should be about the right age given the dates.

Hell, maybe have one of the teachers be Ian and/or Barbara's offspring, that woudl be interesting.

[Bedlam]

I'm a bit worried Clara will be in it, she is supposed to be teacher there at the moment, of course it depends how she's written out of Who itself.

On the series itself, well Sarah Jane Smith adventures were better than I expected them to be, so I'm somewhat positive about this.

[Eternal_Freedom]

I saw a post on Facebook earlier saying that Clara definitely isn't in the spin-off. So that's good.

[Iroscato]

Both RTD and John Barrowman seem have been pretty clear that Torchwood as an actual TV series is dead, done, finished, and that any future will be in novels and/or Big Finish audios.

I know, and that pisses me off. Most of Miracle Day aside, I felt the show was really starting to find its feet with series 2 and CoE and was a fascinating expansion of the DW universe that could play around with the darker, edgier concepts whilst still remaining fun.

It probably just didn't bring in enough merch to justify its continuation, though I admit I'm mostly in the dark as to what really killed the show.

[Parallax]

Eh. Torchwood lost me when we saw team members using alien-rape-drug-tech while supposedly being the good guys.
And a crack secret team going around in a neon lit vehicle and coming within a whisker of being killed off by the equivalent of hillbillies didn't help either.
Meanwhile, I don't think this spin-off could sound any less interesting if they tried. Children in film/TV shows rarely works (Looking at you, Jurassic World!) and unless UNIT guest stars a great deal, the story seems like it wouldn't make any sense given the setting.

OTOH, they just just make a UNIT series. That could work and work well.

[madd0ct0r]

It's basically a follow up to the Sarah Jane chronicles, and they were better then main stream who a lot of the time.

[Steve]

When I first heard this I figured it was the Paternoster Gang getting that long proposed spinoff.