Begun, the Whoniverse has… [again].
Yes, we’ve known for a while now that returning Doctor Who showrunner Russell T Davies has big plans for Doctor Who and the massive universe it exists in with spinoffs all being teased for the near future after the show’s 60th Anniversary event later this year sees the return of David Tennant and introduces the fourteenth Doctor, Ncuti Gatwa; and now we know what the first of these will be.
Actress Jemma Redgrave, who fans of Doctor Who are well familiar with already, will be returning as UNIT (United Nations Intelligence Taskforce) Chief Scientific Officer Kate Stewart in a new standalone UNIT series that will be overseen by Davies himself.
Doctor Who’s future looks very, very bright indeed
Of course, this isn’t the first Doctor Who spinoff with Torchwood, Class, K-9 and THe Sarah Jane Adventures all hitting screens in recent memory but it’s the first for this exciting new era for Doctor Who as Davies, the man who brought it back in 2005, steps in to create a fully realised Doctor Who expanded universe.
Davies previously hinted at his plan for Doctor Who, saying: “There should be a Doctor Who channel now. You look at those Disney announcements, of all those new Star Wars and Marvel shows, you think, we should be sitting here announcing The Nyssa Adventures or The Return of Donna Noble, and you should have the Tenth and Eleventh Doctors together in a 10-part series. Genuinely.” And now it seems he’s going to make it happen.
Ncuti Gatwa looking sharp in his new Doctor Who costume
Speaking recently about Doctor Who’s new future, Davies called it the next stage and with the bigger budget, helped by the show now being part of Disney+, he hopes it’ll be the next big shared universe, something that wasn’t possible when he left the series in 2008: “So I thought – with no criticism whatsoever towards the people who were running it at the time, because they were running it within the BBC’s measures – it was time for the next stage for Doctor Who.
“I thought the streaming platforms are ready, the spin-offs are ready; I always believed in spin-offs when I was there. I did Torchwood as a spin-off, The Sarah Jane Adventures as a spin-off.
“Those spin-offs declined when I left, and I can see why. And I very much left after 2008, when the money became scarce. I think that’s fair enough for the public service broadcaster that the money is spent on other things.”
No word about who – ahem – else will appear in the show but we wouldn’t be surprised if we saw classic companions Sophie Aldred and Janet Fielding return as Ace and Tegan and we hope – hope! – we see Ingrid Oliver return as Petronella Osgood, above left, as she remains one of our favourite additions to the world of Doctor Who in recent memory.
No word on when we’ll see UNIT but needless to say, with Davies at the helm, we’re already excited!
Source: Deadline
Marc
Marc is a self-confessed nerd. Ever since seeing Star Wars for the first time around 1979 he’s been an unapologetic fan of the Wars and still believes, with Clone Wars and now Underworld, we are yet to see the best Star Wars. He’s a dad of two who now doesn’t have the time (or money) to collect the amount of toys, comics, movies and books he once did, much to the relief of his long-suffering wife. In the real world he’s a graphic designer. He started Following the Nerd because he was tired of searching a million sites every day for all the best news that he loves and decided to create one place where you can go to get the whole lot. Secretly he longs to be sitting in the cockpit of his YT-1300 Corellian Transport ship with his co-pilot Chewie, roaming the universe, waiting for his next big adventure, but feels just at home watching cartoons with his kids….
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