Doctor Who Expanded Universe

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Name: Doctor Who Expanded Universe
Doctor Who Extended Universe
Doctor Who Tie-Ins
Doctor Who Spin-Offs
Abbreviation(s): DWEU
Creator: Various
Date(s): 1963-Present
Medium: Various
Country of Origin:
External Links:
Click here for related articles on Fanlore.
Typical Doctor Who Iceberg featuring many references to the DWEU

The Doctor Who Expanded Universe, abbreviated to DWEU, is a term used to refer to the vast expanded universe of the show Doctor Who. It encompasses a wide variety of different media: TV, film, books, comics, audio dramas, and video games, amongst others.

The universe frequently contradicts itself due to the sheer scale of the DWEU, something the parent show notoriously isn't immune to either with its three different versions of Atlantis, and UNIT dating controversy. It is frequently said by many fans that Doctor Who has no canon as a result, or doesn't have one it holds especially true to anyway, often explained away by time travel, parallel universe, or creative license. In some cases the contradictory canon is embraced by the EU, as in the case of Faction Paradox or Iris Wildthyme.

Some parts of the DWEU even get adapted to the parent show, such as Paul Cornell's VNA Human Nature, or Doctor Who and the Star Beast in DWM.

Many authors of DWEU material also participated in fandom prior to, or even alongside, writing professional and official works. The line in the Doctor Who fandom between fan and professional is incredibly blurred, especially inregards to the obscure works.

Torchwood

Torchwood is a mature TV spinoff beginning in 2006 centred around the titular group of alien hunters comprising of Doctor Who character Captain Jack Harkness, as well as Gwen Cooper, Ianto Jones, Toshiko Sato, and Owen Harper.

The fandom is of a fairly decent size, and shares much of it with that of its parent show, though not every fan of Torchwood is also a fan of the latter show. Jack/Ianto is a big ship in the fandom, and though the third series, Children of Earth, is frequently cited as one of the best pieces of Doctor Who related media out there, amongst both fans and critics, the events at the end of the series lead to the fan campaign Save Ianto Jones and the memorial Ianto's Shrine.

The Sarah Jane Adventures

The Sarah Jane Adventures is a children's TV spinoff beginning in 2007 centred around the character of Sarah Jane Smith, the Fourth Doctor's companion who reappeared in the revival series in 2006. The show features Sarah Jane's encounters with aliens on Earth with her son Luke Smith, as well as Clyde Langer, Maria Jackson, and Rani Chandra.

The show is nostalgic for many people watching it as kids at the time, many of whom weren't fans of the parent show.

Class

Class is a short-lived Young Adult TV spinoff released in 2016 centred around a group of students at Coal Hill School, a location well known to Whovians for its appearances in the main show.

The show made a much smaller impact than the other full season TV spinoffs, partly due to poor marketing, and has a much smaller fandom as a result. Despite this, it still has over 550 works tagged with it on Ao3 as of 2nd June 2023.

Big Finish

Big Finish is a company primarily known in the Doctor Who fandom for their audio dramas, though they also released a few anthology short story collections known as Short Trips. Audios have taken place throughout the Whoniverse, and both Torchwood and Class have also continued in the form of Big Finish audios.

Early Big Finish audios are known for including darker and weirder concepts than the TV series allowed, akin to the books of the Wilderness Years. Their first Doctor Who audio story was The Sirens of Time in 1999, after the Virgin published books, and during the time of the BBC published series'. The audios frequently contradict aspects of the novels, whilst also using characters originating from them.

Key companions introduced in the BF audios include:

The Doctor has been shipped with several of these, including Eight/Charley and Eight/Lucie. Helen/Liv is a popular femslash ship.

Big Finish are infamous within fandom for creating content for characters whether the fans wanted it or not, as well as filling in gaps and explanations from the main series fans didn't know they wanted answering, and probably still didn't after. Alongside popular characters like River Song, other, more obscure and less understandable characters such as Lady Christina de Souza, and Winston Churchill, have their own boxset(s).

Certain audios were adapted from fan written stories:

Gallifrey

The Gallifrey audios are a series of audio dramas focused on Romana and Leela on the titular planet Gallifrey. The series introduced a third incarnation of the former in 2013, the second attempt at such after the EDAs, and also featured Irving Braxiatel, The Doctor's brother.

These audios have a decent fandom.

Memes

[johannesviii]
List of Big Finish Doctor Who memes
  • Subscribers get [thing] at Big Finish Dot Com
  • Big Finish took all my cash
  • GOD F█CKING DAMMIT ANOTHER BIG FINISH SALE
  • Zagreus does something else and then eats bread
  • Christmas wouldn’t be christmas without Mrs Baddeley’s plum pudding
  • ♫ JO IS MAKING A THING ♫
  • This is the voice of Light City welcome to your new work day today is high productivity day your state loves you happiness through acceptance
  • Rrrrrrrrrred
  • IIIIIIIIIII… am the very model of a Gallifreyan Buccaneer ♫
  • Briggs is going to kill everything you love
  • TORCHWOOD CONFIRMED
  • Susan, queen of memes
  • ALL HAIL FROBISHER ALL HAIL THE BIG TALKING BIRD
  • ISH… ISH…ISH
  • [very white picture] “Is this Scherzo”
  • [body horror involving fusion] “Is this Scherzo”
  • Pass the salt
  • Basically Scherzo itself is a meme
  • heLp mE[1]

Books

Main article: Doctor Who Tie-in Novels

Doctor Who has many tie-in novels. There are five main ones referenced most frequently, produced by two companies:

  • Virgin
    • Virgin New Adventures (VNAs)
    • Virgin Missing Adventures (VMAs)
  • BBC
    • Eighth Doctor Adventures (EDAs)
    • Past Doctor Adventures (PDAs)
    • New Series Adventures (NSAs)

In addition, other books have been released outside of these five, including Virgin's standalone Who Killed Kennedy and several Decalog anthologies, the Telos novellas, and Big Finish's Short Trips.

Virgin

Virgin New Adventures (VNAs)

The VNAs have a decent fanbase, especially when compared to some of the other novel series.

  • Includes the notorious Lungbarrow
    • Introduces the concept of looms
    • Introduces The Other, a potential version of The Doctor also implied to be companion Leela and Andred's child.
  • The book Theatre of War introduces Irving Braxiatel, The Doctor's brother.

Key companions introduced include:

Virgin Missing Adventures (VMAs)

Nothing especially infamous that broke containment into the wider fandom, but plenty of weird and wonderful content nonetheless for any fan who's read them.

Other

Who Killed Kennedy is fairly notorious in the fandom for giving companion Dodo Chaplet a less than stellar sendoff.

BBC

Eighth Doctor Adventures (EDAs)

The EDAs have probably the biggest fanbase of the novels, likely due to the otherwise lack of onscreen stories for the Eighth Doctor. Fans of him often have a preference towards either his novel self in the EDAs, or his audio self, as both portray him slightly differently.

  • The book Alien Bodies introduces the group Faction Paradox, who make several further appearances in the series.
  • The book The Blue Angel features what some fans have described as resembling Star Trek fanfic with canon Spirk:
yeah lol there’s a Star Trek pastiche subplot and the obvious Kirk and Spock analogues are gay and in love it’s incredibly silly and incredibly earnest[2]

How the hell did that weird Star Trek fanfic get into The Blue Angel? It was just THERE but they never bothered to explain why and it's kind of a power move, especially with the Spirk bit at the end.[3]

Key companions introduced include:

Past Doctor Adventures (PDAs)

  • The book Corpse Marker explores a city first mentioned in the Classic Who serial The Robots of Death, and introduces several concepts further explored in the audio play series Kaldor City. The novel features the character of Carnell, who appeared in the Blake's 7 episode Weapons, thus confirming, at least as far as this book is concerned, the fan theory that the two shows inhabit the same universe.

New Series Adventures (NSAs)

Comics

DWM

Titan

Other

  • Doctor Who Adventures
  • IDW - The IDW comics are probably most well known for including a Star Trek crossover.

Independant Films

Over the years, several independantly produced films have been released based on the worlds of Doctor Who. The canonicity of these films is ambiguous, compounded by their relative obscurity by the mainstream fandom. As they aren't BBC official, they usually only feature select characters and aliens due to licensing issues, thus often focusing on secondary or obscure aspects of the Whoniverse.

The inclusion of content from these films in fanworks is sparing, though they do exist. Their fannish influence is vastly more focused on discussions, memes, and the reactions when introducing new fans to the bizarre vastness of the Whoniverse.

Reeltime

Reeltime Pictures is a company founded by Keith Barnfather, also a founder of the Doctor Who Appreciation Society, known for releasing several independant films based on the worlds of Doctor Who.

  • Downtime is probably the most impactful, as it introduces the character of Kate Stewart, who would later appear officially in the revival. Her son, Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart, has yet to appear in the show, though he'll occasionally show up in fics focused on Kate. The Doctor Who focused Disqus channel, used by former DoctorWhoTV commenters, was also named Downtime, as was the the blog DoWntime.
  • Mindgame and its sequel Mindgame Trilogy feature a human played by Sophie Aldred, the actress who played Ace McShane. Fanon largely dictates this is in fact Ace, even if the films can't outrightly say so due to rights reasons.
  • Sil and the Devil Seeds of Arodor is probably the most meme-worthy of the lot.

Other productions include Wartime, Daemos Rising, and White Witch of Devil's End. They also released Dreamwatch Media's Shakedown: Return of the Sontarans.

[c-c-top]
Everyone will tell you the best release was Downtime but 2 stories that i think were pretty underrated were Wartime and Sil and the Devil Seeds of Arodor. Idk what other people think of their redesign for the Sontarans but personally i like it a lot[4]

BBV

BBV Productions is a company founded by fan Bill Baggs, producer of several of the fan made Audio Visuals audios.

Licensed Doctor Who Elements

  • The P.R.O.B.E series is probably one of the more impactful of BBV's films, partially due to confirming that Liz Shaw is a lesbian.
  • Zygon: When Being You Just Isn't Enough is a softcore porn film, being one of the only pieces of Doctor Who media to be rated an 18, and is probably the most infamous BBV film as a result. The film lead to the TARDIS Wiki Penis Saga incident.
  • Auton Trilogy

Without DW Licence(s)

  • The Stranger
  • The Airzone Solution

Bernice Summerfield

Faction Paradox

Iris Wildthyme

Scream of the Shalka

Other

Films

Shows

  • K9 & Company was a proposed series consisting of a single 1981 pilot, titled A Girl's Best Friend.

K9

The second attempt at a K9 focused show was an Australian production simply titled K9.

Books

  • Time Hunter
  • The Stranger - An unlicensed smutty Virgin novel, featuring a character heavily implied to be the Eighth Doctor as the focus of the erotic fantasy. Unrelated to the BBV Productions series of the same name.

Audios

BBC

  • Nest Cottage Chronicles

Other

  • Kaldor City - Spinoff based on the titular city first mentioned in the Classic Who serial The Robots of Death, and explored further in the PDA Corpse Marker.

Webcasts

  • Death Comes to Time

Plays

Interactive Media

Multimedia

  • The Minister of Chance - Spinoff of the previously mentioned Death Comes to Time

Time Lord Victorious

[lesbiaudrey]
Nobody can follow TLV
[scribblesscript]
Nobody should follow TLV
[ReddiShadow]
Nobody bothered following TLV[5]

Resources & External Links

References

  1. ^ [1]
  2. ^ post with quote in comments from op
  3. ^ [2]
  4. ^ [3]
  5. ^ [4]
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