Doctor Who has recently found itself on an extended and uncertain hiatus. This is not the first time the show has taken a break from production, as long time fans will remember. The 17th season, starring Tom Baker and Lalla Ward, was shortened due to an industrial strike. Ultimately it led to the abandonment of the Douglas Adams’ story Shada, despite having started production. In the mid-1980s, during Colin Baker’s tenure, production of a new season was pushed back to the next financial year by the cash-strapped BBC. This lead to fan outrage, rumors of cancellation and the 1985 charity single “Doctor In Distress” (also can also be considered a fan outrage). The show would remain on hiatus for 18 months before returning. When production halted after the 1989 season it was originally thought Doctor Who would be coming back. Work even started on the 27th season but ultimately the show was cancelled. Still, many of us who were fans at the time can remember the rumors, the hopes and the letter writing efforts to bring the Doctor back.
It took some time, but the Doctor did return, briefly, in 1996 with an American produced television movie featuring Paul McGann as the Eighth Doctor and Eric Roberts as The Master. It unfortunately failed to get picked up as series, which may have been for the better as Fox did not seem sure of what to do with the property. Casting Eric Roberts as the Master was a bold move and featuring gritty gun violence was a shock. But the Doctor was not going to be forgotten and in 2005 the series re-launched with Christopher Eccleston as the Ninth Doctor. Apparently the last of the Time Lords and fresh off fighting the Time War against the Daleks this Doctor ushered in a more frenetic version of the program. In the 21 years since its revival, Doctor Who has only produced 15 seasons of regular episodes and 2009 only aired specials with a regular season of episodes. Recently, after the end of a production deal with Disney, the BBC has announced Doctor Who production is on hold while new partners are being sought for future production.
This might be bad news for Who fans, although it may actually be a blessing. It is possible a new production deal will bring in much needed fresh ideas and energy. Only time will tell what happens to the Doctor, but longtime fans know this probably will not be the end of the Doctor’s adventures. During the break between the original series and the 2005 revival many fans discovered the back catalog of Who novelizations. Home video really came into its own with Doctor Who first appearing on VHS, then DVD and Blu-Ray in both the UK and US. Big Finish Productions rose up and brought fans new adventures in audio form featuring many original cast members. David Tennant’s first role in Doctor Who was in a Big Finish audio story! Paul McGann was able to continue his version of the Doctor and other incarnations found new life. Colin Baker’s Sixth Doctor, for example, was given room to grow and evolve. Many famously unproduced stories finally found life as audio stories and every incarnation of the Doctor was able to have new adventures.
While we hope and wait for the return of the Tardis why not take the time to explore some alternative versions of Doctor Who? If you have always been a fan of the new series dive into the previous Doctors. The BBC has posted most classic episodes on the Classic Doctor Who YouTube page and they offer a dedicated streaming channel through many free platforms. In the United States Tubi also offers most classic Who episodes on demand. Dive into the Big Finish audios and the Target and Pinnacle novelizations. Or you could explore some similar shows while you are waiting for new Doctor Who. Some of these shows were actually created to run against various incarnations of the Doctor, others were created by Doctor Who alumni and some are merely shows from the same time as classic Doctor Who with a similar tone and feel.
Before there was even a Doctor, there was Professor Bernard Quatermass, the head of the British Experimental Rocket Group. Premiering in the 1953 BBC series The Quatermass Experiment, the professor dealt with the fallout from Britain’s first space missions. Unfortunately only two of the six original episodes starring Reginald Tate exist today. Quatermass, now played by John Robinson, returned in 1955’s Quatermass II, and again in 1958’s Quatermass and the Pit (this time played by Andre Morell). Although the original series is now basically lost, Brian Donlevy starred in a 1955 film adaptation of the original series called The Quatermass Xperiment in the UK (and the Creeping Unknown in the US). In 1957 he returned for Quatermass II, aka Enemy From Space, which was based on the second television series. A decade later in 1967 a third film, based on Quatermass and the Pit was produced. Andrew Keir took over as Quatermass for the film which kept the television title in the UK and adopted Five Million Years To Earth in the US. In 1979 Quatermass returned to television for Quatermass IV, now starring John Mills as the professor. The series was edited into a film released the same year under the title The Quatermass Conclusion. Quatermass jumped to radio for the first time in 1996 with Andrew Keir returning to the role in The Quatermass Memoirs. The original series was remade for also television in 2005. Starring Jason Flemyng the revival was performed live as a tribute to the earlier days of television.
The Quatermass series obviously pre-dates Doctor Who by about a decade. Bernard Quatermass, like the Doctor is brilliant, arguably eccentric, but he is undeniably human. Quatermass is an intellectual hero much like the Doctor, though, who avoids violence and much of the series has a flavor something like Doctor Who’s UNIT period. In fact, one time script editor Derrick Sherwin has suggested this was deliberate. Although Nigel Kneale, the creator of Bernard Quatermass, was not a fan of Doctor Who the opposite was not true. Several times over the years, in both the classic and new series, there have been references to Quatermass and the British Experimental Rocket Group. With television shows, movies and even a radio play, Quatermass also offers Doctor Who fans a good amount of material.
Adam Adamant Lives! stormed on to British television in 1966, lasting for only two series with 12 of the 29 episodes currently lost. Edwardian gentleman adventurer Adam Adamant (Gerald Harper) is betrayed by his beloved to his enemy, a masked criminal mastermind. Captured, Adamant is injected with a serum which induces a century long coma. Once revived, Adam Adamant resumes his crusade against injustice, despite be something at a loss in the mod, mod world of 1966. Juliet Harmer as Georgina Jones, a very mod girl whose grandfather filled her childhood with tales of Adam Adamant, and Jack May, playing valet/driver/Punch and Judy performer William E Simms, provide the hero with companions in his adventures.
In many ways, Adam Adamant is an anti-Doctor. He is a man of action, carrying a sword cane and proficient in boxing and judo. He is an educated, well traveled gentleman but his knowledge is a century out of date. However, as it was produced by the BBC at the same time as Second Doctor adventures, it would only be natural for Adam Adamant Lives! to have a similar feel to certain Doctor Who episodes. The similarities grow more pronounced, though, because Sydney Newman and Verity Lambert, fresh off of creating Who, were involved in the early production of the show. It was also co-created by veteran Doctor Who writer Donald Cotton. Adam Adamant Lives! shares a great deal of DNA with Doctor Who and feels very much like a blend between it and The Avengers.
Another show from a Doctor Who writer and script editor, The Champions aired for a single season of 30 episodes. Although produced in the UK by ITV it also aired in the United States and Canada during its run. Monty Berman and Dennis Spooner (who wrote Doctor Who episodes including The Reign of Terror, The Romans and half of The Dalek’s Master Plan) created this metaphysical adventure spy show about a trio of special agents given mystical powers after an adventure in the Himalayas. This is a hard show to describe in many ways since it mixes Cold War era spy stories with a mystic/supernatural ESP vibe.
The Avengers found contemporary success in the United States and enjoys a cult status to this day. On its surface the series was a spy drama, first featuring Ian Hendry and Patrick Macnee as a pair of English agents. Hendry left the show after the first season leaving Macnee’s John Stead with a series of female partners to provide the muscle. First assisted by Cathy Gale, that character was written out when actress Honor Blackman left the series to appear in Goldfinger, and Diana Rigg joined as the iconic Emma Peel. The Stead/Peel combination proved wildly popular worldwide. The show’s original 1961-1969 run ended with Linda Thorson’s Tara King replacing Emma Peel. The Avengers is much more a partnership than the Time Lord/companion dynamic found in Doctor Who. The Avengers leads are also much more likely to rely on violence. However, there are similarities to be found between the shows because The Avengers often relied on science fiction elements, including robots and mind control, and because it was created by Sydney Newman. Terrence Dicks, Malcolm Hulke, John Lucarotti, Dennis Spooner and Terry Nation all wrote for both series.
If there was an American analogue to Doctor Who one could make the argument it was Time Tunnel. Like other contemporary Irwin Allen productions, Time Tunnel is not the serious science fiction found in Star Trek or Doctor Who. However, in its single season 30 episode 1967-1968 season, Time Tunnel was contemporary with both Trek and Who. And like Doctor Who, Time Tunnel is a series built around time travel. Two scientists, James Darren and Robert Colbert, are lost in time after testing an experimental item machine. Honestly, Time Tunnel is probably best for time travel fans who like the lighter tone of Lost In Space.
For those who instead prefer some of the odder elements of 1960’s Doctor Who there is the surreal cold war spy series The Prisoner. An agent, who is never identified but is implied to be the lead from Secret Agent Man (as both were played by Patrick McGoohan) finds himself suddenly in a bizarre prison known as The Village. Referred to only as Number Six, the agent tries to escape from his retirement village meets rehab center prison and retain his secrets. An ever changing cast of overseers/administrators, each identified as Number Two, menaces Number Six. Mind control, hallucinogenics, bribery, women… no method is off the table and The Village also has a number of unexpected and inexplicable resources at their disposable (including an amorphous, balloon-like robot guard called Rover). Although there was only a 1967-1968 single season of 17 episodes, The Prisoner aired in both the UK and the United States during its run and established itself as a legendary cult series. There have been novels, comics and audio stories exploring and expanding the story. It was remade as a mini-series in 2009.
The Tomorrow People was created in 1973 by Roger Price for ITV specifically to be the network’s “answer” to Doctor Who. For eight series (and 68 episodes), a group of psychically empowered young people guarded the Earth from extraterrestrial threats. They were also tasked with shepherding humanity towards our next step in evolution and entry into the intergalactic community of psychic beings. Much like the Doctor, the young heroes of The Tomorrow People are dedicated pacifists. After the series’ British run, creator Roger Price was working in Canada, ended up connecting with the fledgling children’s cable network Nickelodeon (where he created you Can’t Do That On Television) and ended up bring the show to the US. Thanks to years of cable reruns The Tomorrow People grew a large fan base and was brought back twice in America, first as a new Nickelodeon series and later in a CW version.
Terry Nation, the creator of the Daleks, went on to have a long career in television. Eventually he moved to America and ended his career working on the original MacGyver. Before that, though, he created two British science fiction series which each showed a marked tone shift from the adventures of the Doctor. First came Survivors, which ran from 38 episodes over three seasons from 1975 -1977. After the release of a hyper-lethal pandemic a mixed group tries to negotiate the barren future in a kind of British, zombie-less precursor to The Walking Dead. After the global science fiction craze unleashed by Star Wars, Nation returned with Blake’s in 1978. Set in a distant future where man has spread among the stars, Earth rules the known galaxy with an iron fist. Idealistic (and disgraced) rebel leader Rog Blake and a small band of fellow escaped prisoners manage to gain control of a powerful alien battleship and start a single ship rebellion. The Earth government is brutal, violence is pervasive, Blake’s crew is made up of criminals not idealists and Blake’s 7 is, in many ways, a dark counterpart to Doctor Who. It ran for four seasons (52 episodes). A reboot is currently under development.
Sapphire and Steel was a strange show which ran for four series and 34 episodes from 1979 to 1982. Starring The Man From UNCLE’s David McCallum and The New Avengers’ Joanna Lumley, the pair were extra-worldly agents investigating and correcting time and dimensional anomalies on Earth. Without the fun of Doctor Who or the excitement of more action oriented science fiction, Sapphire and Steel is a low budget, high concept series with a very creepy overall feel. It is a unique show which people honestly seem to love or hate.
Finally, Jonathan Creek is the only television series on this list of Doctor Who alternatives which does not have any science fiction or fantasy elements. There is magic, in the stage variety, as the show follows a professional illusion designer who moonlights as an amateur detective. Starring Alan Davies, Jonathan Creek produced five series stretched out between 1997 and 2016. Several Doctor Who alumni appear in episodes, including Sheridan Smith (who portrayed the Eighth Doctor’s companion Lucy Miller in the Big Finish produced Doctor Who audio plays) in a recurring role. There are no world saving arcs or alien invasions in Jonathan Creek, but it definitely is a series which came about due to the cultural influences of hows such as Doctor Who and is highly recommended who are looking for something between the Doctor and their favorite cozy mysteries.
I am fairly confident Doctor Who will return to television. I know for a fact Big Finish is constantly producing new audio episodes. Doctor Who is not going away but while there is a break in new episodes take the time to explore some of the many other British shows which share some of the same themes and elements?
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