It was the recent random appearance on my YouTube feed of "Downtime", starring Nicholas Courtney and Elizabeth Sladen, that triggered my current interest in "The Wilderness Years"
The Wilderness Years are a fascinating era to me. A time when, as with Star Trek, the fans kept the dream alive so much that the IP owner could not help but take notice and bring it back to life.
Star Trek fans kept the dream alive through fanzines, fanfictions and fan films. Doctor Who fans however, had options that were unavailable to Star Trek fans-- besides the officially licensed Big Finish audios, there were officially licensed straight to video movies based on the Doctor Who universe. They were unable to use, or even mention, the Doctor in these stories, but some of these productions used some very clever, borderline illegal, workarounds on this restriction.
There were two independent Studios developing the majority of these productions. Reeltime and BBV. Several of the Reeltime projects are available online, these include "Downtime", "Wartime" and "Shakedown: Return of the Sontarans".
I was able to find trailers for Downtime and Wartime on YouTube.
"Wartime" (1988) was the first produced, and was actually made while Doctor Who was still on the air and featured UNIT regular Sergeant John Benton. This was apparently the first time the name John was ever spoken out loud in a live action production featuring the character. John Levine puts in a strong performance and we learn more about Benton in this little movie than we ever did on Doctor Who proper.
"Shakedown: Return of the Sontarans" (1994) came next. Honestly, I was iffy on this one at first, even though it features Carol Ann Ford and Sophie Aldred playing new characters (apparently they both had great fun playing against character type in this production). Elizabeth Sladen was originally intended to play the lead role but had to bow out. The character was instead played by Jan Chappell of Blake's 7. Written by Terrance Dicks, he apparently made most of the human characters rich and unlikable so no one would care if they were killed. (My brain: "'Alien' meets 'Dot and Bubble'. I'm in.") There is a moment when one of the characters mentions that he once learned about the Sontarans from someone called "The Physician" or "The Dentist" or something. Sneaky.
But, for me, Downtime (1995) is the crown jewel of the three I've managed to see. The story is nothing much, but the character moments make it worthwhile. When they made this movie they had no idea of its future importance as "the origin of Kate Lethbridge-Stewart", but even without that it's a story with tremendous heart and importance for the characters involved.
Reeltime also produced a sequel to "Downtime" featuring a returning Beverly Cressman as Kate Lethbridge Stewart called "Daemos Rising", sequel to The Third Doctor story "The Daemons". This one is not available on YouTube and reviewers say it is not as good as the first.
They also did a series of stories under the title "Mindgame" featuring the Sontarans. Sophie Aldred plays an unnamed human who apparently at one point reverses the polarity of the neutron flow because that's what "The Professor" would have done. Sneaky.
Reeltime produced a couple more after that, but they were post wilderness years. They featured elements of "The Daemons" and "Mindscape"
The stuff produced by BBV is where it gets very strange.
They produced a series called "The Stranger" starring Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant as "The Stranger and Miss Brown", a barely disguised, serial numbers filed off knock off of the Sixth Doctor and Peri stories, as well as a number of likewise barely disguised audio stories under "The Time Travelers" banner featuring "The Professor and Ace" portrayed by Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred.
tardis.fandom.com
Continued on next post.
The Wilderness Years are a fascinating era to me. A time when, as with Star Trek, the fans kept the dream alive so much that the IP owner could not help but take notice and bring it back to life.
Star Trek fans kept the dream alive through fanzines, fanfictions and fan films. Doctor Who fans however, had options that were unavailable to Star Trek fans-- besides the officially licensed Big Finish audios, there were officially licensed straight to video movies based on the Doctor Who universe. They were unable to use, or even mention, the Doctor in these stories, but some of these productions used some very clever, borderline illegal, workarounds on this restriction.
There were two independent Studios developing the majority of these productions. Reeltime and BBV. Several of the Reeltime projects are available online, these include "Downtime", "Wartime" and "Shakedown: Return of the Sontarans".
I was able to find trailers for Downtime and Wartime on YouTube.
"Wartime" (1988) was the first produced, and was actually made while Doctor Who was still on the air and featured UNIT regular Sergeant John Benton. This was apparently the first time the name John was ever spoken out loud in a live action production featuring the character. John Levine puts in a strong performance and we learn more about Benton in this little movie than we ever did on Doctor Who proper.
"Shakedown: Return of the Sontarans" (1994) came next. Honestly, I was iffy on this one at first, even though it features Carol Ann Ford and Sophie Aldred playing new characters (apparently they both had great fun playing against character type in this production). Elizabeth Sladen was originally intended to play the lead role but had to bow out. The character was instead played by Jan Chappell of Blake's 7. Written by Terrance Dicks, he apparently made most of the human characters rich and unlikable so no one would care if they were killed. (My brain: "'Alien' meets 'Dot and Bubble'. I'm in.") There is a moment when one of the characters mentions that he once learned about the Sontarans from someone called "The Physician" or "The Dentist" or something. Sneaky.
But, for me, Downtime (1995) is the crown jewel of the three I've managed to see. The story is nothing much, but the character moments make it worthwhile. When they made this movie they had no idea of its future importance as "the origin of Kate Lethbridge-Stewart", but even without that it's a story with tremendous heart and importance for the characters involved.
Reeltime also produced a sequel to "Downtime" featuring a returning Beverly Cressman as Kate Lethbridge Stewart called "Daemos Rising", sequel to The Third Doctor story "The Daemons". This one is not available on YouTube and reviewers say it is not as good as the first.
They also did a series of stories under the title "Mindgame" featuring the Sontarans. Sophie Aldred plays an unnamed human who apparently at one point reverses the polarity of the neutron flow because that's what "The Professor" would have done. Sneaky.
Reeltime produced a couple more after that, but they were post wilderness years. They featured elements of "The Daemons" and "Mindscape"
The stuff produced by BBV is where it gets very strange.
They produced a series called "The Stranger" starring Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant as "The Stranger and Miss Brown", a barely disguised, serial numbers filed off knock off of the Sixth Doctor and Peri stories, as well as a number of likewise barely disguised audio stories under "The Time Travelers" banner featuring "The Professor and Ace" portrayed by Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred.
The Time Travellers (series)
The Time Travellers was an audio series featuring Sylvester McCoy as the Professor and Sophie Aldred as Ace. It was released by BBV Productions between 1998 and 2000. The series was originally unnamed, with The Time Travellers branding only being introduced in the seventh instalment. The tenth...
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Continued on next post.
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