BBV
Encyclopedia
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
drama, known for its links with the British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
science fiction television series Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
(founder Bill Baggs is a fan, and BBV productions often feature characters and/or actors from the series). The name of the company is short for Bill & Ben Video, "Ben" being the nickname of Bill Baggs's wife, Helen.
Video
BBV's first production was Summoned by Shadows, co-produced with the BBC Film Club. Partly as a homage to Doctor Who, of which Baggs was a fan, and partly in a pragmatic attempt to take advantage of a pre-existing audience, Summoned by Shadows was a Who-style tale of strange doings on a distant planet featuring Colin BakerColin Baker
Colin Baker is a British actor who is known for playing Paul Merroney in The Brothers from 1974 to 1976 and as the sixth incarnation of the Doctor in the long-running science fiction television series Doctor Who, from 1984 to 1986.- Background:Colin Baker was born in London, but moved north to...
as the nameless protagonist (listed in the credits as "The Stranger"). Nicola Bryant
Nicola Bryant
-External links:** at shillpages.com/dw *...
co-starred as "Miss Brown". The adventures of The Stranger ran to six videos (and two audio dramas, the second, confusingly, remade as the sixth video). (For more information, see The Stranger (video series)
The Stranger (video series)
The Stranger is a series of direct-to-video science-fiction dramas produced by BBV and starring Colin Baker. They are now available on DVD.The series began in 1991 with Summoned by Shadows, co-produced with the BBC Film Club...
.)
BBV's next effort was The AirZone Solution?
The Airzone Solution
The Airzone Solution is a 1993 British science-fiction film, produced and released direct-to-video by BBV...
, an ecologically-themed thriller about a near future conspiracy. Released in 1993, Doctor Who
Sylvester McCoy
Sylvester McCoy is a Scottish actor. As a comic act and busker he appeared regularly on stage and on BBC Children's television in the 1970s and 80s, but is best known for playing the seventh incarnation of the Doctor in the long-running science fiction television series Doctor Who from 1987 to...
and predecessors Peter Davison
Peter Davison
Peter Davison is a British actor, best known for his roles as Tristan Farnon in the television version of James Herriot's All Creatures Great and Small and the fifth incarnation of the Doctor in Doctor Who, which he played from 1982 to 1984.-Early life:Davison was born Peter Moffett in Streatham,...
and Jon Pertwee
Jon Pertwee
John Devon Roland Pertwee , was an English actor. Pertwee is best known for his role in the BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who, in which he played the third incarnation of the Doctor from 1970 to 1974, and as the title character in the series Worzel Gummidge...
also appeared as members of a small group joined against a sinister conspiracy.
The Zero Imperative (1994) marked a new departure for BBV. Although stuffed to the gills with ex-Doctor Who guest stars, only one of them was actually playing the same character: the story was built around Caroline John
Caroline John
Caroline John is an English actress best known for her role as Liz Shaw in the BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who, as well as several other television roles....
's Dr Elizabeth Shaw
Liz Shaw (Doctor Who)
Dr. Elizabeth "Liz" Shaw is a fictional character played by Caroline John in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who and its spin-offs...
, the Doctor's companion in the seventh season of Doctor Who, now depicted as an investigator for PROBE (the "Preternatural Research Bureau"). The PROBE series ran for an additional three stories; all four were written by Mark Gatiss
Mark Gatiss
Mark Gatiss is an English actor, screenwriter and novelist. He is best known as a member of the comedy team The League of Gentlemen, and has both written for and acted in the TV series Doctor Who and Sherlock....
, who later found more widespread fame as a member of the League of Gentlemen
The League of Gentlemen
The League of Gentlemen are a group of British comedians formed in 1995, best known for their radio and television series.The League of Gentlemen may also refer to:* The League of Gentlemen ,...
. The potentially-confusing mixture of Caroline John reprising her Doctor Who role with other recognisable Who stars playing different characters worked against the series, as did the way that Liz Shaw often seemed to be herself a different character from the Doctor Who original. (The latter problem may have been exacerbated by the fact that, although BBV had obtained permission to use Liz Shaw, they had no rights relating to Doctor Who itself - which meant that no explicit reference could be made to any other aspect of Doctor Who, including the events of the stories in which Liz had appeared.)
BBV's next series was a spin-off from two Doctor Who stories in the 1970s in which the Doctor assisted the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce
United Nations Intelligence Taskforce
UNIT is a fictional military organisation from the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures...
(UNIT) in defeating the Auton
Auton
The Autons are an artificial life form from the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, and adversaries of the Doctor. First appearing in Jon Pertwee's first serial as the Doctor, Spearhead from Space in 1970, they were the first monsters on the show to be presented in colour.Autons...
s, robotic invaders sent to conquer Earth on behalf of the alien Nestenes. The trilogy, beginning with Auton in 1997, recounted UNIT's battle against another Auton invasion, this time without the Doctor's aid (since BBV had obtained permission to use UNIT and the Autons, but permission to use the Doctor himself was as always unavailable). Auton was also the first BBV production to have no Doctor Who guest stars at all, after Nicholas Courtney
Nicholas Courtney
William Nicholas Stone Courtney was an English television actor, most famous for playing Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who.-Early life:...
(who would have reprised his Doctor Who role as UNIT commander Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart
Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart
Brigadier Sir Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart, generally referred to simply as the Brigadier, is a fictional character in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, played by Nicholas Courtney...
) was forced by ill health to withdraw from the project. With Courtney out, the focus of the series was the original character of Lockwood, an enigmatic UNIT agent played by Michael Wade
Michael Wade
Michael Wade was a Canadian actor. Born in Avondale, Newfoundland, Wade was best known for playing Lockwood in Nicholas Briggs's critically acclaimed Reeltime Pictures production of the Auton trilogy...
.
After the success of the Auton trilogy
Auton trilogy
The Auton trilogy is a series of direct-to-video spin-off productions based on the long running BBC science fiction series Doctor Who. The three films in the series are Auton , Auton 2: Sentinel and Auton 3...
, BBV produced Cyberon (featuring a race of alien cyborg
Cyborg
A cyborg is a being with both biological and artificial parts. The term was coined in 1960 when Manfred Clynes and Nathan S. Kline used it in an article about the advantages of self-regulating human-machine systems in outer space. D. S...
s reminiscent of the Cybermen
Cyberman
The Cybermen are a fictional race of cyborgs who are amongst the most persistent enemies of the Doctor in the British science fiction television series, Doctor Who. Cybermen were originally a wholly organic species of humanoids originating on Earth's twin planet Mondas that began to implant more...
). 2001's "Do you Have a Licence to Save this Planet?" was a comedy featuring Sylvester McCoy
Sylvester McCoy
Sylvester McCoy is a Scottish actor. As a comic act and busker he appeared regularly on stage and on BBC Children's television in the 1970s and 80s, but is best known for playing the seventh incarnation of the Doctor in the long-running science fiction television series Doctor Who from 1987 to...
as the Chiropodist, meaning Foot Doctor. This spoof not only referenced previous BBV productions- but also Doctor Who itself.
BBV's latest production is Zygon: When being you just isn't enough (previously titled Zygon: When Being Me Is Not Enough). In which Mike Kirkwood dreams of being a monster, he is in fact a Zygon
Zygon
The Zygons are a fictional extraterrestrial race in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. They first appeared in the Fourth Doctor serial Terror of the Zygons, where it was revealed that centuries ago, the Zygon homeworld was destroyed in a stellar explosion. A...
, believing himself to be human. This story also features Jo Castleton's character of Doctor Lauren Anderson from Cyberon.
Audio
After a few earlier experiments, BBV began regularly releasing audio dramas on CD in 1998, under the umbrella title Audio Adventures in Time & Space. The mainstay of the CD line to begin with was a series starring Sylvester McCoySylvester McCoy
Sylvester McCoy is a Scottish actor. As a comic act and busker he appeared regularly on stage and on BBC Children's television in the 1970s and 80s, but is best known for playing the seventh incarnation of the Doctor in the long-running science fiction television series Doctor Who from 1987 to...
and Sophie Aldred
Sophie Aldred
Sophie Aldred is an English actress and television presenter, best known for her portrayal of The Doctor's companion Ace in the television series Doctor Who during the late 1980s.-Early life:...
(the Doctor/companion team from the 1987, 1988 and 1989 seasons of Doctor Who) as a pair of wanderers in time and space named "The Professor" (McCoy) and "Ace" (Aldred) who so closely resembled the characters McCoy and Aldred had played on Doctor Who - even addressing each other by the same nicknames - that the BBC stepped in and their seventh outing, Ghosts, consequently introduced a number of changes to the characters that made the resemblance somewhat less close, the main one being that the adventures now featured "The Dominie" (McCoy) and "Alice" (Aldred).
The first of the Audio Adventures in Time & Space not to feature the McCoy/Aldred double act was Cyber-Hunt, the first BBV production to feature the Cyberons. A further Who-ish note was added by the introduction of an amnesic space traveler played by Nicholas Briggs
Nicholas Briggs
Nicholas Briggs is a British actor and writer, predominantly associated with the BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who and its various spin-offs, particularly as the voice of the Daleks. Briggs sometimes uses the pseudonym Arthur Wallis...
, who some years earlier had played the Doctor in the Audio Visuals
Audio Visuals
The Audio Visuals were an unlicensed series of Doctor Who audio dramas made by British fans in the 1980s.Featuring Nicholas Briggs as the Doctor, twenty-six audio plays were recorded and distributed on audio cassette between 1985 and 1991 .The first three seasons were produced by...
series of unlicensed fan audios. (He was dubbed "Fred" by one of the other characters after her pet goldfish
Goldfish
The goldfish is a freshwater fish in the family Cyprinidae of order Cypriniformes. It was one of the earliest fish to be domesticated, and is one of the most commonly kept aquarium fish....
).
BBV moved away from characters-who-might-be-the-Doctor (a field that, in any case, lost some of its appeal for fan audiences once Big Finish Productions
Big Finish Productions
Big Finish Productions is a British company that produces books and audio plays based, primarily, on cult British science fiction properties...
began producing officially licensed Doctor Who audio dramas featuring the original actors reprising their incarnation of the character) and, following the success of the Auton trilogy, focussed more on stand-alone dramas featuring various Doctor Who alien races, licensed directly from the writers who created them. For some of those writers, the BBV audios have offered a chance to revisit their creations: for instance, the range includes a story by Pip & Jane Baker explaining what happened to the Rani
Rani (Doctor Who)
The Rani is a fictional character in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. She was played by Kate O'Mara. The word "Rani" means "queen" in the Urdu and Hindi languages and "The Rani" follows the naming convention for other renegade timelords, "The Doctor," "The Monk," "The War...
(last seen in Doctor Who being abducted by a group of aliens that were also created by the writing pair), and a series of stories by Lawrence Miles
Lawrence Miles
Lawrence Miles is a science fiction author known for his work on original Doctor Who novels and the subsequent spin-off Faction Paradox...
about his history-spanning terrorist organisation Faction Paradox
Faction Paradox
Faction Paradox is a fictional time travelling cult/rebel group/organized crime syndicate, originally created by the author Lawrence Miles. The Faction's belief-system as portrayed has some similarities to voodoo, and is sometimes described as such...
.
In 2002 BBV announced that they would not produce any more audio CDs, but would instead concentrate on their new DVD releases.
Video
- The StrangerThe Stranger (video series)The Stranger is a series of direct-to-video science-fiction dramas produced by BBV and starring Colin Baker. They are now available on DVD.The series began in 1991 with Summoned by Shadows, co-produced with the BBC Film Club...
- Summoned by Shadows by Christian Darkin
- More Than A Messiah by Nigel FairsNigel FairsNigel Fairs is a British actor, writer and producer.He trained at Bretton Hall College and has appeared in a number of theatre productions, most notably as Christopher Wren in the long-running London stage production of The Mousetrap. On television, he has appeared in EastEnders and as a Dalek on...
- In Memory Alone by Nicholas Briggs
- The Terror Game by Nicholas Briggs
- Breach of the Peace by Nicholas Briggs
- Eye of the Beholder by Nicholas Briggs
- P.R.O.B.E.P.R.O.B.E.P.R.O.B.E. is a series of four videos written by Mark Gatiss and produced by BBV Productions. It predates Torchwood as the first ongoing spin-off of the Doctor Who universe....
- The Zero Imperative by Mark Gatiss
- The Devil of Winterborne by Mark Gatiss
- Unnatural Selection by Mark Gatiss
- Ghosts of Winterborne by Mark Gatiss
- The Auton trilogyAuton trilogyThe Auton trilogy is a series of direct-to-video spin-off productions based on the long running BBC science fiction series Doctor Who. The three films in the series are Auton , Auton 2: Sentinel and Auton 3...
- Auton by Nicholas Briggs
- Auton 2: Sentinel by Nicholas Briggs
- Auton 3: Awakening by Arthur Wallis (Nicholas Briggs) and Paul Ebbs
- Standalone
- The Airzone SolutionThe Airzone SolutionThe Airzone Solution is a 1993 British science-fiction film, produced and released direct-to-video by BBV...
by Nicholas Briggs - Souls' Ark by Nik Harding (Co-Produced Between BBV & Western Union)
- Cyberon by Lance Parkin
- "Do You Have A Licence To Save This Planet?" by Paul Ebbs and Gareth Preston
- "ZygonZygonThe Zygons are a fictional extraterrestrial race in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. They first appeared in the Fourth Doctor serial Terror of the Zygons, where it was revealed that centuries ago, the Zygon homeworld was destroyed in a stellar explosion. A...
: When Being You Just Isn't Enough" by Jonathan Blum & Lance Parkin
- The Airzone Solution
- Documentary
- Stranger Than Fiction
- Stranger Than Fiction 2: From Script To Screen
- Bidding Adieu
Licensed Doctor Who spin-offs
- K-9K-9 (Doctor Who)K-9, or K9, is the name of several fictional robotic canines in the long-running British science fiction television series, Doctor Who, first appearing in 1977...
and his MistressRomanaRomana, short for Romanadvoratrelundar, is a fictional character in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who...
- The Choice by Nigel Fairs
- The Search by Mark Duncan
- ZygonZygonThe Zygons are a fictional extraterrestrial race in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. They first appeared in the Fourth Doctor serial Terror of the Zygons, where it was revealed that centuries ago, the Zygon homeworld was destroyed in a stellar explosion. A...
s- Homeland by Paul Dearing
- Absolution by Paul Ebbs
- The Barnacled Baby by Anthony Keetch
- KrynoidsThe Seeds of DoomThe Seeds of Doom is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from 31 January to 6 March 1976...
- The Root of All Evil by Lance Parkin
- The Green Man by Zoltán Déry
- SontaranSontaranThe Sontarans are a fictional extraterrestrial race of humanoids from the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, and also seen in spin-off series The Sarah Jane Adventures. They were created by writer Robert Holmes.-Culture:...
s- Silent Warrior by Peter Grehan
- Old Soldiers by Simon J Gerard and Colin Hill
- Conduct Unbecoming by Gareth Preston
- RutansRutan HostRutans are a fictional extraterrestrial race from the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. They have been at war with the Sontaran Empire for more than 50,000 years, and this war dominates both cultures to the exclusion of all else...
- In 2 Minds by Iain Hepburn
- The "I"Seeing ISeeing I is an original novel written by Jonathan Blum and Kate Orman and based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who...
- I Scream by Lance Parkin
- Guy de Carnac
- A Quality of Mercy by Dave McIntee
- The RaniRani (Doctor Who)The Rani is a fictional character in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. She was played by Kate O'Mara. The word "Rani" means "queen" in the Urdu and Hindi languages and "The Rani" follows the naming convention for other renegade timelords, "The Doctor," "The Monk," "The War...
- The Rani Reaps The Whirlwind by Pip & Jane Baker
- The Wirrn
- Race Memory by Paul Ebbs
- Faction ParadoxFaction ParadoxFaction Paradox is a fictional time travelling cult/rebel group/organized crime syndicate, originally created by the author Lawrence Miles. The Faction's belief-system as portrayed has some similarities to voodoo, and is sometimes described as such...
- The Eleven Day Empire by Lawrence Miles
- The Shadow Play by Lawrence Miles
- Sabbath Dei by Lawrence Miles
- The Year of the Cat by Lawrence Miles
- Movers by Lawrence Miles
- A Labyrinth of Histories by Lawrence Miles
Unofficial/Apocryphal Doctor Who spin-offs
- The Dominie and Alice ("The Professor" and "Ace" until Guests for the Night)
- Republica by Mark Gatiss
- Island of Lost Souls by Mark Gatiss
- Prosperity Island by Tim Saward
- The Left Hand of Darkness by Mark Duncan
- The Other Side by Mark Duncan
- Guests for the Night by Nigel Fairs
- Ghosts by Nigel Fairs
- Only Human by Mark J. Thompson
- Blood Sports by Nigel Fairs
- Punchline by Jeremy Leadbetter (Robert ShearmanRob ShearmanRobert Shearman is currently best known as a writer for Doctor Who and for his ongoing association with Jarvis & Ayres Productions which has resulted in six plays for BBC Radio 4 broadcast in the station's regular weekday Afternoon Play slot, and one classic...
)
- Fred
- Cyber-Hunt by Martin Peterson - featuring the Cyberons
- Vital Signs by Tim Saward
- Cyberons
- Cyber-Hunt by Martin Peterson - featuring Fred
- Cybergeddon by Paul Ebbs
- The StrangerThe Stranger (video series)The Stranger is a series of direct-to-video science-fiction dramas produced by BBV and starring Colin Baker. They are now available on DVD.The series began in 1991 with Summoned by Shadows, co-produced with the BBC Film Club...
- The Last Mission by Nicholas Briggs
- Eye of the Storm by Arthur Wallis (Nicholas Briggs)
- Stand-Alone
- Infidel's Comet by Colin Hill and Simon J Gerard
- The Pattern by Mark Duncan
External links
- The TARDIS Library — Full guide to Doctor Who books, videos and audios. Includes an expanded listing of BBV's Doctor Who releases, with cover images & user ratings/reviews.