Doctor Who: Adventures was the third revival of a former Doctor to the screen in just a year and a half, with the Twelfth Doctor returning to the big screen in 2018 and the Eleventh Doctor getting his own adult oriented spinoff series. Jane Espenson, the Franchise Executive, in the wake of a lot of brand uncertainty, was looking to double-down on, what had initially just been a result of studio hostility, different doctors leading each show. She’d already had CBBC onto her office, several times over the past few years, about providing some sort of Doctor Who content for them.
On top of this, Espenson was well aware that over the past few years, lots of Doctor Who’s child audience had dropped off, with the programme going into some darker themes and places. With children being Doctor Who’s foundation audience, Espenson knew there was something she needed to do about this.
A cartoon featuring a former TARDIS team, who they’d easily be able to get the actors back to step into a recording studio, seemed the logical step. Espenson did consider inventing a new Doctor and companions just for the children to have, but believed they’d be more likely to get fans to also watch it, if they brought back an old TARDIS team. They considered a few different teams, but settled on 14, Erin and Kyle, especially as Samantha Bond was enthusiastic to come back and do more, especially as she only had to read from a script, unlike the high-intensity work on the actual show.
Espenson appointed Phil Ford as the showrunner of the show, and left it to him, from that point on, to create the show and decide just what it was going to be. Ford immediately instigated several rules for writers of the show, to set the boundaries of what Doctor Who especially for kids was: 1. No people dying on screen, 2. No sex references, 3. No realistic guns firing, only fantasy laser beams can fire, and they mustn’t hit anyone, 4. Must have moral message 5. Monsters in Every Story, 6. Short, snappy and most of all Fun!
The show would only be 25 minutes in length, so the stories happened at a much faster pace than the show was used to. In addition, due to the fact that the show was animated, Espenson managed to fulfil one of her biggest pet peeves about the Samantha Bond era – which was the fact that it was set mainly in the 1970s, but every time they needed to do a proper alien invasion story, they had to go to the present day, as using 1970s UNIT would have meant using those characters. Now, they could set all those stories in the 1970s and have a few vocal cameos from some of the 1970s Doctor Who cast (which while it wouldn’t matter to kids, as they’d be just another character), it’d be a bit of a treat for Doctor Who fans watching along.
The animation style was a hybrid of 2D and 3D animation. The backgrounds and exterior space shots were all done with 3D animation; however all the character animation was 2D inserted over the 3D sets.
For the title sequence, it’s about 20 seconds long and sees the TARDIS whizzing past loads of different alien planets, with the Doctor, Erin and Kyle sticking their heads out of the door, looking around. The theme tune is a new short and lighter arrangement of the 14th Doctor’s theme (by Bear McCreary), with the main Doctor Who ‘ooo-wee-ooo’ riff playing at the end over the title card.
THE DALEK INVASION OF SUSSEX
Series 1, Episode 1
Written by PHIL FORD
Directed by BARRY J. KELLY
TX Date – 6 April 2020
The TARDIS flies through space, and its doors open wide, as the Doctor, Erin and Kyle stand in the doorway looking out into space. Inside the TARDIS, the Doctor walks back towards the console and says that while the universe is so vast and brillaint, it might be nice for the two of them to check back home. Erin shuts the door and walks up to the console, with Kyle, whereby they agree. The Doctor sets the TARDIS into flight, and it flies off again towards the Earth.
In East Grinstead, Danielle, and Roger sit having a cup of tea. They discuss Erin and Kyle and how they better not get married in outer space, without them. Roger says that maybe it’ll be blessing, not having to see the two of them tie-the-not. Danielle gives Roger a little hit, but they are soon interrupted by the sound of a loud spaceship entering the atmosphere. The two of them rush outside to see a saucer comes into the sky.
The TARDIS lands outside the house, and Erin and Kyle greet the two of them, but they pay little attention to it. Then the Doctor looks up into the sky and she sees the saucer, before the other two follows. The Doctor simply states that this won’t be good and says that they have some work to do. Kyle asks what sort of spaceship it is, and the Doctor simply replies: Dalek! Erin shudders as she says they are the most ruthless killing machines in existence.
The saucer lands and a platoon of Daleks roll down the ramp and begin firing their lasers. People scream and run away. At the end of the road, the smoke clears as The Doctor, Erin and Kyle stand before the Daleks. The Daleks tell the Doctor that she will be exterminated, but the Doctor says that’s very hasty and begins talking a load of nonsense to the Daleks.
Meanwhile, Danielle and Roger sneak onboard the Dalek saucer. When inside, they point out that the Doctor instructed them to set off the self-destruct on the saucer, but first they have to go to the trouble of finding the control. Danielle laughs and says that she hasn’t seen him having so much fun in years. Roger reiterates that he is not having fun and is trying to save the planet. Danielle laughs again, finding the whole thing hilarious.
The Doctor, Erin and Kyle continue to fight off the Daleks, outside the saucer, preventing any from going any further. However, they soon ignore the Doctor’s distractions, and continue on, shooting as they go. The Doctor, Erin and Kyle run after them. The Doctor tells her companions that if the Dalek saucer is destroyed then, most of the Daleks will be too, and they’ll just have to deal with the ones on the ground (which is around 6).
Danielle and Roger find the self-destruct button, but note that if they blow it up now, half of Sussex will be blown up with it. Roger says they’ll just have to get the saucer into the air then. Danielle again laughs, and says they’d be lucky to move the saucer an inch, let alone fly it!
The Doctor goes to a telephone box and calls in UNIT, who shortly arrive, led by Sergeant Benton, and fight off the Daleks, eventually destroying all six. Erin and Kyle help UNIT, during this. The Doctor thanks Benton afterwards, and he says no worries, and that he was in the area.
The three of them get to the TARDIS and materialise it onboard the saucer. They join Danielle and Roger who are fiddling with the controls. Erin asks whether they found how to blow it up, and Roger points to a big red button. Kyle jokes saying, “that was easy”. Roger throws Kyle a look. The Doctor says they need to get the saucer up into the air, to which Roger says he already thought of that. The Doctor patronisingly tells him “well done”. He then tells Danielle and Roger to stay and look out at the door for any Daleks.
The Doctor, Erin and Kyle manage to get the saucer engines going and pilot it up into the sky. Once in the sky, the Doctor presses the big red button and a thirty second countdown starts. At the moment, some Daleks come up to the control room, and Danielle and Roger begin shouting. The Daleks begin shooting at everyone, but just in time, the Doctor manages to get everyone aboard the TARDIS, as it dematerialises, before the Dalek saucer explodes.
Outside, Danielle and Roger’s house, the TARDIS rematerializes, as the five of them step out and watch the explosion. The Doctor congratulates everyone for saving the world, or at least Sussex, and then tells Danielle and Roger they better get on their way now. Danielle asks about the wedding and Erin says she’ll make sure they have it there on Earth, and that the two of them will be invited. Roger grunts, but Danielle gives Erin a massive hug.
The three of them then step back inside the TARDIS, as it flies off back into time and space, and Danielle and Roger wave them off.
THE BLACK DEATH
Series 1, Episode 2
Written by TONI GRAPHIA
Directed by Austen Atkinson
TX Date – 13 April 2020
This episode brings us the first of three historicals in the season, and this time we visit the village of Eyam in 1665. The episode begins with exploration, before the Doctor works out where and when they are. They arrive just before Eyam, very famously, became the only village to decide to impose quarantine in order to stop the spread of the disease – and they watch these events unfold, as families are told they won’t be allowed to leave the village for, as it turns out, 14 months.
However, during all of this, a time-travelling group of Kroaket merchants are hiding out in the village, trying to get samples of the Black Death in order to sell it on the black market in the far future. The Doctor, Erin and Kyle find the Kroakets, and as well as keeping history on track in Eyam, while teaching the audience about the Black Death, and stop the Kroakets, trapping them in a nearby swamp.
This story was entirely written and recorded before anyone on the production team have even heard the name COVID-19, however when the UK did go into lockdown, Espenson considered pulling this episode as she thought it could be problematic. However, CBBC themselves vouched for the episode, and asked for it to be aired, as they believed it would help children understand why lockdown and quarantine is important. As such, to help deliver this message, the episode was moved from its original position of Episode 6 to Episode 2, when it was broadcast on 13th April, only 3 weeks into the UK lockdown.
STARSHIP HARMONY
Series 1, Episode 3
Written by SASHA HAILS
Directed by Chris Chatterton
TX Date – 20 April 2020
We have our first sci-fi episode here, as the TARDIS lands on a seemingly perfectly running starliner, called the Starship Harmony, however it’s completely empty. It’s all working and running like normal, yet no one’s there. But the ship isn’t just automated, as it is being controlled and run, like any normal ship… just no one is there. The episode works as a good mystery plot, a bit like the tale of the Marie Celeste, but done in a sci-fi way with more going on.
It turns out that the entire crew have been caught in a temporal flux, causing their actions to take effect, but them themselves caught in between one second and the next. The Doctor, Erin and Kyle help them out, and restore them all. But not before having to fight a monster, called the Temorturian, which feeds upon temporal instability.
DREAMLAND
Series 1, Episode 4
Written by PHIL FORD
Directed by Austen Atkinson
TX Date – 27 April 2020
This episode sees the Doctor, Erin, and Kyle land in Nevada in 1958, around the perimeter of Area 51. It gives an explanation for the Roswell Incident, and sees the Doctor, Erin and Kyle have a fun adventure in 1950s America, with the American Military as more of the main threat, alongside the main villains, the Viperox, as the plot hinges around a rescue mission for an individual alien.
SOMETHING BORROWED
Series 1, Episode 5
Written by PHIL FORD
Directed by BARRY J. KELLY
TX Date – 4 May 2020
This episode sees the TARDIS crew return to 1978 for Erin and Kyle’s wedding. It’s one of the silliest episodes of the season. The trio arrive the day before the wedding, Kyle goes back home, and the Doctor and Erin spend the night with Danielle and Roger. Erin wakes up in the morning to find herself heavily pregnant. Erin discusses this with the Doctor. The Doctor explains that she thinks an alien implanted eggs within her, on a previous adventure – to which Erin is grossed out. Erin says she wants the wedding to go ahead, as all she wants to do is marry Kyle. The Doctor advises against it but gives in and let’s Erin borrow the perception device, to hide the pregnancy.
Erin and the Doctor (dressed as Erin’s Maid of Honour) get into the wedding car, as it sets off. The Doctor is preoccupied the entire journey scanning her belly, and discovering that Erin’s got a Nostrovite inside her, and that they should head back and remove it. Erin says no, and that she needs to get married, but the Doctor says that the mate of the one that planted it inside her, might be looking for it. Erin says that’s a risk they’ll have to take.
They get to the wedding, and Roger is waiting outside the door of the church, ready to take Erin and give her away. They walk into the church, to walk down the aisle, Erin hand-in-hand with her dad, the Doctor trailing behind them with flowers – as the church door opens however, they see all the guests running and screaming as Kyle is fighting off an alien monster – which the Doctor calls a Nostrovite. The vicar and a few others are dead. Kyle is looking after most of the guests, fighting off the monster. The Doctor takes over and tries to reason with it. The Doctor also mentions that they need to keep their eyes on it at all times, as it can change its shape. But at that moment the Nostrovite, flees out of the window. The Doctor tells everyone to stay in the church, but Kyle, Erin and Roger all run after her as she goes to confront the monster… but all they find outside is Danielle looking dazed and confused.
Trying to explain to Roger what’s happened, Erin disables the perception device, to which Kyle says, “I’m going to be a dad!” and Roger disappointedly says “I’m going to be a grandad…” Erin says neither are true, and that that monsters mate planted eggs inside of her. Roger says that isn’t a monster, but his wife – but then Danielle face and teeth resemble that of the monster, and Roger changes his mind.
Kyle and Roger get split up from the other too, and they come across another Danielle. Not knowing if this is the right one, as Danielle pleads for her life, Roger has a sniff of her perfume and says that ‘horrible smell’ can’t be faked. Meanwhile, the Doctor and Erin fight off against the Danielle monster, and manage to get it to back down and reason with it. The Nostrovite says that it wants its child but says that it must be ripped out of Erin – as it reaches it’s claws out. Erin says they’ll talk when it takes its original form and not that of her mother. The monster transforms into its true form. The Doctor reasons with it and says that she can speed up the birth process, with her technology and Erin can give birth to it naturally. The monster cautiously agrees.
We cut to Danielle, Roger and Kyle talking, as they try and explain everything to her, and she just says they didn’t have to see the vicar get murdered, so they are lucky. However, when they get back, they see Erin giving birth to a monster, with the Doctor pointing a device at her, and a monster crying tears of joy. The three of them look on in absolute confusion. Roger says at least they are in the right place to give it a christening, but Danielle reminds him the Vicar is dead. Kyle remarks that they’ll have to rearrange the wedding, as we cut to end credits.
THE CORONATION
Series 1, Episode 6
Written by TONI GRAPHIA
Directed by Austen Atkinson
TX Date – 11 May 2020
This episode brings us the last of historicals in the season, and it certainly follows the formula of being educational, but also Doctor Who-y, to its maximum. It sees the Doctor, Erin and Kyle going to the coronation of Queen Victoria… but the twist is, half of the people there are Slitheen (making their first appearance since their introduction in Leftover, as Phil Ford liked them and thought they’d be good for kids), and they are trying to get the British army (at its furthest reach) to basically kill everyone, so the planet is empty enough for the Slitheen to sell – it’s a dumb plan, but it’s the Slitheen in a cartoon for kids.
The episode is a lot of fun, with the Doctor, Erin and Kyle running around in the past with a young Queen Victoria and a load of farting monsters.
ORPHAN 55
Series 1, Episode 7
Written by ED HIME
Directed by Chris Chatterton
TX Date – 18 May 2020
This episode begins with the Doctor, Erin and Kyle arriving on a luxury pleasure planet, but in typical Doctor Who-y fashion, something isn’t right. It turns out that the pleasure planet, is actually just a virtualised dome on an extremely dangerous Orphan planet, which is home to some very scary indigenous people. The Doctor, Erin, Kyle as well as three others from the pleasure dome, including an engineer and his son, as well as the manager of the dome, set out in a buggy onto the surface, whereby they are attacked by the creatures out there, known as the Dregs. Eventually they make it back into a tunnel, whereby the Doctor notices Russian writing and concurs that they are in fact on Earth in the far future – and insert kids’ show moral message about saving the planet. With the help of the whole team, as well as a hopper virus, they manage to all get the teleport working, whereby all six of them escape to safety in the TARDIS, stranding the Dregs. The episode ends with the Doctor monologuing to Erin and Kyle about how they need to do something and save the planet – or the Earth will end up like Orphan 55.
MONA LISA’S REVENGE
Series 1, Episode 8
Written by PHIL FORD
Directed by BARRY J. KELLY
TX Date – 25 May 2020
The TARDIS trio arrive back home in 1978, whereby Danielle and Roger invite them along to visit the National Gallery, where the Mona Lisa is visiting for the week. The Doctor says they can just go back in time to see it just after it was finished, but Erin tells the Doctor to shut up and accept the invite, as the five of them go along to the Gallery.
They are toured around the Gallery in a group, but when they come to the Mona Lisa – the painting looks exactly the same as expected, apart from one crucial detail, a completely different woman is in the painting, not the Mona Lisa. The tour guide, Lionel, screams out in horror saying that the woman in the painting is someone called ‘Phyliss’. However, they’re attention is soon drawn to a woman, who looks and is dressed just like the Mona Lisa standing behind them, aiming a gun at them.
Lionel manages to reason with Mona Lisa, and gets her to back down, but it becomes very obvious she wants something in return. In the ensuing chaos, the group gets split up, with the Doctor, Roger, and Danielle together while Erin and Kyle are together. As Erin and Kyle walk through the gallery, they begin to see various different tourists and staff they recognised from earlier on, trapped inside the paintings too.
The Doctor, Danielle and Roger go back to the original painting, to examine it, but Lionel and Mona Lisa sneak up behind them. The Mona Lisa tells the Doctor she really needs to stop interfering and imprisons the three of them inside three different paintings, pulling the original figures out and bringing them to life, as her army.
With just Erin and Kyle left, the Mona Lisa begins trying to find them, as she also tells Lionel they need to locate ‘her brother’. Erin and Kyle come across a highway man on a horse, with pistols aimed at the two of them – Erin concludes that this must have been taken out of a painting.
Meanwhile, Mona Lisa and Lionel locate ‘The Abomination’ a painting hidden behind lock and key, so dangerous it makes audible groans and grunts – Mona Lisa proclaims this is her brother. Mona Lisa realises that something is missing from the lock, however.
Upon being captured by the Highwayman, Erin and Kyle are taken to the Abomination. Mona Lisa, at gunpoint, gets Kyle to draw the key to the lock to open it, which she will then turn into matter – however instead, Kyle draws a bomb to destroy the Abomination. The Mona Lisa brings this to life and the Abomination is destroyed, which also puts everything back to normal as the paintings are trapped there again and the real people are restored.
At the end, as the Doctor tries to explain everything, she says that she believes that some sort of sentient rock that fell to earth, was mixed into paint, and used by Leonardo Di Vinci to paint both the Mona Lisa and the Abomination. Roger quips that he’s gone off art, all of a sudden.
HALLEY: 2062
Series 1, Episode 9
Written by SASHA HAILS
Directed by Chris Chatterton
TX Date – 1 June 2020
The Doctor, Erin and Kyle arrive in the year 2062 at the next appearance of Halley’s comet. This episode acts as a sci-fi education one, teaching children about Halley’s comet. A new monster, called the Isovours are attempting to use the comet to wipe out all life on Earth, so they can make the planet their breeding ground. The episode becomes a fun romp about stopping them and letting the comet pass without humanity being completely destroyed.
THE GREEN TERROR
Series 1, Episode 10
Written by PHIL FORD
Directed by BARRY J. KELLY
TX Date – 8 June 2020
As you have probably guessed from the title, this episode is a sequel to the Green Death, as Phil Ford thought Giant Maggots and kids’ television = a hit with children. We also see the return of Jo and Cliff, but a younger version than we knew on Leftover, as the episode is set in 1978, and features a cast of The Doctor, Erin, Kyle, Danielle, Roger, Jo, and Cliff, all working together to save the day. Essentially the story, Jo and Cliff are back up in Wales and they come across the giant maggots at large again, they call in the Doctor for help, ending up calling 14 because she’s currently in 1978, with Erin and Kyle visiting Erin’s parents. They all come along in the TARDIS to Wales, where they all get involved.
It turns out that the person behind it all is the Rani (in Michael Hogan’s final appearance in the role, recorded just before his accident). The team all come together to save the day and another green eco message is emphasised during the back-half of this story.
And there we have it Doctor Who: Adventures Series 1! Doctor Who’s first proper foray into the world of television made especially for kids. The series was a ratings high on CBBC, however, engagement was lower than that expected on CBS All Access, and some did criticise putting a children’s show behind a pay-wall of a failing streaming service. However, a 2nd season was ordered just before the broadcast of Episode 8, especially as with the ongoing pandemic, the BBC knew it was something that could be produced without much problem from home.
WIDWWA 