New Doctor Who Spin-Off Announced

Doctor Who is an incredibly long running and very popular British sci-fi TV show.  It started in the ‘60s, running more or less consecutively till the late ‘80s when the show went on a decade long permanent hiatus.  There was a brief attempt to revive the series in the ‘90s that failed very hard.  Then, in 2005 the show returned to British television to massive success and, more recently, the show has found a major following in American audiences as the perfect confluence of 21^st centuries trends of globalism and increasing nerd culture dominance.  In that 50 year history Doctor Who has produced a number of spin-off materials, some of which I’ve already talked about at length.  Now, it’s been announced that a new spin-off is coming in 2016 called Class.

In case you’ve never heard of Doctor Who and were hoping this news post about a new spin-off would educate you as to what the show’s about, you’re in luck my gambling friend.  Doctor Who revolves around an alien with a stolen time machine named the Doctor.  With his police box ship known as the TARDIS the Doctor travels on various adventures through all of time and space, usually travelling with a female companion. 

The only other wrinkle you really need to be aware of in the mythology is that whenever the Doctor is close to death he “regenerates,” his body repairing itself in a way that causes him to drastically alter his appearance and mannerisms.  This is basically a sneaky way concept the producers cooked up as a way to swap out actors for the Doctor to keep the show going as long as it has.

 

It’s currently unclear how much Class will involve the Doctor himself but its origins are steeped in the lore of both the classic Doctor Who show and the newer series.  While details about the show are still sparse it has been revealed it will revolve around the Cole Hill School.  The Coal Hill School first appeared in the very first episode of Doctor Who entitled ‘An Unearthly Child.’  In that appearance the Doctor’s granddaughter, a fellow alien named Susan, was attending the school in the guise of a human.  Her amazing knowledge for her age prompted Susan’s teacher’s Ian and Barbara to follow their student home to converse with her guardian.  As you’d expect the two teachers bumble into the Doctor’s TARDIS and shenanigans in time and space ensue. 

It’s actually a very well directed first installment, a perfect blend of late ‘50s schlock sci-fi with the emerging trend of trip-out adventure sci-fi that would come to define the ‘60s.  Interestingly the reasoning behind having the Doctor travel with 2 schoolteachers was that initially Doctor Who was meant to be educational, with future stories teaching science principals while stories in the past would teach about history.  Obviously this concept was ditched pretty quickly and once Barbara and Ian left the show Coal Hill School was more or less forgotten by the series until 2013 during the 50^th anniversary.

At the time Coal Hill School was only given a brief cameo appearance in the 50^th anniversary special ‘The Day of The Doctor,’ along with the revelation that the Doctor’s current companion, Clara Oswald, was a teacher at the school.  Since then, however, the school has popped up a number of times on the series, mainly during the 12^th Doctor era of Peter Capaldi.  It’s appeared briefly around the edges of episodes like ‘Into the Dalek’ or ‘The Magician’s Apprentice,’ mainly acting as an opening place for Clara to be when adventures begin. 

The only time we’ve had a full adventure there was the 2014 episode ‘The Caretaker’ where the Doctor posed as a janitor at the school.  Despite existing as a pretty static location for over a season now the new series has yet to address the Doctor’s previous history with the school. 

Making the issue more complicated is the fact that Jenna Coleman, the actor playing Clara Oswald, is leaving the show at the conclusion of this season.  It’s currently unclear if she’ll be starring in the upcoming spin-off though it seems unlikely as her departure from Doctor Who is the result of time conflicts.  I’m certainly interested in the prospect of a new Doctor Who series free from the tyrannical mediocrity of show runner Steven Moffat though I’m skeptical about the setting. 

Despite the long history Coal Hill has with the show there’s a part of me that sees this as a bit of a transparent attempt to make Doctor Who meets Harry Potter.  Additionally while the school has been the sight of one adventure they isn’t really an inherent story engine there, it’s not like they’re a government agency for dealing with aliens like Torchwood or they have a history of being aware of the Doctor’s shenanigans like Sarah Jane Adventures.  Still, the modern era of Doctor Who has really shined with its spin-off shows so I remain hopeful if reticent.  Plus if this leads to the return of Barbara and Ian to the Doctor Who canon it will be eternally worth it. 


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