Those Doctor Who video games, movies, and shows that the BBC probably wishes it could exterminate.
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00:00With Doctor Who having one of the largest, most enduring fanbases in pop culture,
00:04any project bearing that brand name is guaranteed to be given a great deal of attention.
00:09But what isn't guaranteed is that the projects themselves will be popular or high quality,
00:14or that the fanbase will respond to them in a positive manner.
00:18Indeed, with so many spin-off shows, video games, comics, movies, audio dramas,
00:22and animations having been produced throughout Doctor Who's long 60-year lifespan,
00:27it's inevitable that there are some the BBC probably wants you to forget.
00:31So, with that in mind then, I'm Ellie with WhoCulture,
00:34and here are 10 Doctor Who flops the BBC has buried.
00:3810. Destiny of the Doctors
00:40Doctor Who hasn't had the best of luck in the video game space.
00:44Though things are looking more positive lately,
00:46with Maze Theory's solid work on The Lonely Assassins and The Edge of Reality,
00:50the majority of previous titles, from old-school fare like The First Adventure,
00:55to the recent MMO Worlds in Time, have either reviewed poorly, flopped, or disappointed fans.
01:01Sometimes all three.
01:02But while we're singling out individual projects, one of the most notable failures
01:06in Doctor Who's gaming catalogue is the 1997 release Destiny of the Doctors,
01:11which initially showed a lot of promise due to the involvement of several actors from the show,
01:16including Tom Baker, Anthony Ainley, and Nicholas Courtney,
01:20alongside Terrence Dicks, one of Doctor Who's very best writers.
01:24Unfortunately though, the final product proved a big letdown.
01:28Bizarrely, the player didn't even control the Doctor,
01:30instead stepping into the shoes of a jellyfish-like alien called the Grak.
01:34And despite having a limitless universe to explore,
01:37the game also took place in dull, repetitive environments.
01:40But arguably its worst offence was its sleep-inducing gameplay,
01:44which didn't come anywhere close to capturing the excitement or wonder of the show.
01:49All you really need to know is that one of the game's more favourable reviews
01:52labelled it a piece of crap.
01:54So it really isn't surprising that this
01:55underwhelming title has essentially been discarded from Doctor Who memory.
02:009. The TV Movie
02:02The TV Movie was one of several unusual Doctor Who projects produced during the wilderness years,
02:07the period of time when the show was off the air between 1989 and 2005.
02:12Though the BBC was involved in making it,
02:14the TV Movie was mostly an American-led production,
02:17with the Fox network reportedly considering a full series,
02:20but only if this backdoor pilot proved a success.
02:24And because that series never did materialise,
02:26it's clear that the parties involved felt that the TV Movie
02:29didn't strike the chords they wanted it to,
02:31whether from a ratings, critical or fan-pleasing perspective.
02:34It's not terrible by any means.
02:36Paul McGann's Eighth Doctor is actually rather wonderful,
02:39and it's worth watching for him alone.
02:41But the TV Movie is widely considered the black sheep of Doctor Who's mainline television outings.
02:47What's more, the fact that the BBC decided to go in a new direction with Doctor Who
02:51in the years after the TV Movie aired,
02:53makes it clear that the corporation considered it something of a failed experiment.
02:578. Class
02:59Modern Doctor Who spin-offs Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures
03:02enjoyed a great deal of success during their lifetimes,
03:06so hopes were high that 2016's Class would be able to capture that same magic.
03:11And though the eight-episode series, which centres on a group of students
03:14battling aliens at the Whoniverse's iconic Coal Hill School,
03:18received positive reviews and a favourable fan response,
03:21it never felt like a core part of the Doctor Who world,
03:24in the same way that those aforementioned spin-offs did.
03:27And its initial broadcast on BBC3 almost made it feel like the BBC had zero confidence in it,
03:33like the broadcaster was sending it out to die.
03:36And that's exactly what it did.
03:37Class was cancelled after one series due to consistently poor ratings throughout its run,
03:42with the BBC giving it very little time in the spotlight since.
03:47Fans don't talk about it all that much either,
03:49probably because very few of them have seen it,
03:51and though Class did receive the Big Finish audio treatment in 2018,
03:55that did very little to revive interest in the property.
03:587. Scream of the Shulker
04:01Another project produced during the Wilderness years,
04:03animated webcast Scream of the Shulker aired six episodes
04:07as part of Doctor Who's 40th anniversary celebrations.
04:11Featuring the voices of Richard E. Grant as the Ninth Doctor and Sophie Okonedo
04:15as his companion Alison,
04:17Scream of the Shulker represented Doctor Who's big leap into the animated medium.
04:21And though certainly a decent effort considering its obvious budget restrictions,
04:25the miniseries had slowly but surely been swept under the rug as the years have ticked by.
04:30While fans generally appreciate Scream of the Shulker,
04:33it didn't exactly set the world on fire when it released in 2003.
04:37But even more damning is the fact that the BBC literally did bury it,
04:41when the company completely ignored its events come the 2005 revival.
04:46Richard E. Grant's Ninth Doctor was stricken from canon and recast,
04:50enter Christopher Eccleston,
04:51and the entire series is no longer considered a proper part of the Doctor Who timeline.
04:56It didn't help Shulker's case that revival mastermind Russell T. Davies
05:00apparently dislikes the series.
05:02He reportedly called Grant's Doctor terrible,
05:05dooming this animated effort to be remembered as a sidelined wilderness project forevermore.
05:10Number 6. The K-9 Spinoff Series
05:13When K-9 returned to Doctor Who in the second series of the revival,
05:16it was hoped that we'd continue to see more of the beloved Robo-Mutt.
05:20And we did.
05:21The very next year, K-9 appeared in a spinoff show that was adored by fans and was a ratings hit,
05:26cementing his position as one of the greatest Doctor Who companions ever.
05:30We're talking, of course, about the Sarah Jane Adventures,
05:33because the words adored and hit cannot be used to describe the
05:36other K-9 spinoff we're actually here to talk about.
05:39K-9, as it was titled, is the TV equivalent of a knockoff food brand.
05:43Sure, it did star K-9, and it was even developed by Bob Baker,
05:47the man who created the Cyberdog way back in the 1970s.
05:51But on the other hand, the show wasn't considered a part of Doctor Who canon.
05:55It was produced without any input from the BBC, and K-9's hideous redesign made him
06:00look like a discount wannabe version of our favourite talking pooch.
06:03That redesign was one of many sticking points fans had with the show,
06:07and a second series never materialised.
06:10It was a baffling decision to go ahead with this Elseworlds spinoff in the first place,
06:14because fans were already getting a K-9 fix on the Sarah Jane Adventures,
06:18you know, that proper official Doctor Who spinoff.
06:21And with no support from the BBC, this particular K-9 outing was doomed from the start.
06:26Number 5, The Infinite Quest and Dreamland
06:29Doctor Who hit its stride in the animated realm when it started
06:33reconstructing missing episodes for a whole new generation to enjoy.
06:37But it wasn't too long ago that the BBC churned out a pair of
06:40awful cartoons that are best left forgotten.
06:42Released in 2007 and 2009 respectively, The Infinite Quest and Dreamland starred
06:48David Tennant's Tenth Doctor on a pair of standalone adventures,
06:52separate from the storylines of the main show.
06:55Though the basic idea had promise, and Tennant acquits himself admirably,
06:59these animated escapades received heavy criticism for their lacklustre execution,
07:04mainly down to their stiff, janky, and painfully low-budget visuals,
07:08which makes them almost unbearable to sit through.
07:10At a time when Doctor Who was firing on all cylinders under showrunner Russell T Davies
07:15and leading man Tennant, The Infinite Quest and Dreamland were comparative misfires
07:20that failed to satisfy from a quality perspective,
07:23and also couldn't generate the level of buzz you'd expect from an official Tenth Doctor-led spinoff.
07:28It's telling that the BBC hasn't really tried anything like this since,
07:32and you'll be hard-pressed to find anyone
07:33who looks back on these outings with a great deal of fondness.
07:374. Doctor Who Return to Earth
07:39A Doctor Who game on the Nintendo Wii sounds like a great idea on paper,
07:43allowing players to wave around the Wii remote like a sonic screwdriver.
07:47And though we did actually get a Doctor Who game on the Wii back in 2010,
07:52the world would have been a better place if it never saw the light of day.
07:55Doctor Who Return to Earth features Matt Smith and Karen Gillan as the 11th Doctor and Amy Pond,
08:01telling an original story revolving around the Daleks,
08:04the Cybermen, and a dangerous device called the Time Axis.
08:07The potential was high, and with a reported £10 million contract in play,
08:12the devs at Asylum Entertainment had more than enough money to realise the game's ambition.
08:17Unfortunately, though, that's not how it went.
08:19With unimpressive sales figures and 1 out of 10 review scores galore,
08:23Return to Earth might be one of the worst games in the entire Wii library.
08:28With the BBC reportedly eager to make games for the Wii's large family audience,
08:32it tells you all you need to know about how embarrassing Return to Earth was for them,
08:37that it was Doctor Who's last outing on the beloved Nintendo system.
08:413. Dimensions in Time
08:43The BBC was clearly scrambling to keep Doctor Who relevant during the wilderness years,
08:48prompting them to do all sorts of weird and unexpected things.
08:51The pinnacle of that weirdness was the 1993 children-in-need special Dimensions in Time,
08:56which combined the pulpy, fantastical, timey-wimey world of Doctor Who
09:00with the chip shops, pubs, and laundrettes of EastEnders.
09:04Bringing back the first seven Doctors in a story that saw them join forces with the EastEnders
09:08crew in an effort to stop the Rani, the resulting project is a cringe-fest from start to finish.
09:14With frustratingly cheap production values, even by Doctor Who standards,
09:18a nonsensical plot, and the nightmarish floating heads of the first and second Doctors,
09:23which hilariously bounce around the screen like the old DVD logo,
09:27Dimensions in Time was a misguided effort on just about every level.
09:31Considering that Dimensions in Time is one of the most-watched Doctor Who stories
09:35ever, all it did was solidify the public perception of Doctor Who at the time,
09:39that the show was a joke. You won't find many fans who'll come to its defence,
09:43and the BBC unsurprisingly hasn't been eager to put it out on streaming.
09:472. Downtime and Deimos Rising
09:50Another weird Wilderness Years project, Downtime, like the K9 show,
09:54was produced without the BBC's input, so it was essentially buried from the start.
09:59Released in 1995, this unofficial Doctor Who movie angled itself as a sequel to the second
10:04Doctor stories, The Abominable Snowman and The Web of Fear, bringing back Nicholas Courtney
10:09and Elizabeth Sladen to reprise their roles from the show, and also introducing the Brigadier's
10:14daughter Kate Stewart. Downtime was followed by a sequel, Deimos Rising, in 2004, another
10:20unofficial project that did away with pretty much all recognisable Doctor Who connections,
10:24including Courtney and Sladen, and instead continued Kate's story.
10:28Unofficial productions rarely manage to overcome that barrier of feeling like cheap knock-offs,
10:33and that's exactly how Downtime and Deimos Rising come off. Though Downtime fares the best,
10:39it also feels the more official of the two, thanks to the involvement of Courtney and Sladen,
10:43Deimos Rising is absolutely terrible, and it's no surprise that most fans don't even know these
10:48direct-to-video oddities exist. Understandably, the BBC completely ignored these projects come
10:53the 2005 revival, and Kate was recast for her reintroduction in Series 7's The Power of Three.
11:001. Doctor in Distress
11:02The following quote from Ian Levine, music producer, Doctor Who superfan, and the guy
11:07who co-wrote Doctor in Distress, perfectly encapsulates the general feeling towards the
11:12ill-conceived 1985 charity single. He stated,
11:16It was an absolute balls-up fiasco. It was pathetic and bad and stupid.
11:21It tried to tell Doctor Who history in an awful, high-energy song. It almost ruined me.
11:26Don't hold back, Ian. Tell us how you really feel.
11:29For those unaware, Doctor Who in Distress was produced when the show was put on hiatus in the
11:33mid-1980s. The song was intended as a protest against that decision, with the hope being that
11:39the BBC would take note and bring Doctor Who back. And while Doctor Who did ultimately return,
11:44it's fair to say that Doctor in Distress was not one of the reasons why. The song was universally
11:49panned, it failed to chart in the UK, and incredibly, the BBC downright refused to
11:53play it on its radio stations. In short, the whole thing was an unmitigated disaster.
11:59The only good thing to come of it was that it served as a stepping stone in the career of
12:03legendary film composer Hans Zimmer, who played the music for the song. Not exactly his finest
12:08day at the office. And that concludes our list. If you can think of any other Doctor Who flops,
12:13then do let us know in the comments below. And while you're there, don't forget to like and
12:16subscribe and tap that notification bell. Also, head over to Twitter and follow us there, and I
12:21can be found across various social medias just by searching Ellie Littlechild. I've been Ellie
12:26with Who Culture, and in the words of River Song herself, goodbye, sweeties.