The BBC has confirmed that Doctor Who spin-off The War Between The Land and the Sea will begin filming later this year. Here are the details.
When Russell T Davies came back to Doctor Who, one of the first things he mentioned was the idea of building a Whoniverse, where Doctor Who and associated spin-offs would all come under one banner.
The Whoniverse launched on iPlayer last year, and it included all surviving episodes of Classic Who and every episode of New Who, plus all the spin-offs like Torchwood, The Sarah Jane Adventures and even K-9 and Company. Every episode of Confidential is available to watch, along with a wealth of material from the BBC archive. Tales of the TARDIS was a lovely treat too.
But what Doctor Who fans have been wondering ever since Davies returned was when he would launch a new spin-off. Rumours have been rife for months, with speculation on titles and plot details – 73 Yards directly refers to “The war between the land and the sea” in dialogue – and now the BBC has finally confirmed that The War Between The Land And The Sea is indeed the name of the spin-off.
Plot details are thin on the ground, but we do know that the show will be written by Davies and long-time Doctor Who scribe Pete McTighe, who aside from writing Kerblam! and Praxeus during the Chris Chibnall era, has in recent years written and directed several of the wonderful trailers for the Doctor Who Blu-Ray sets that feature new scenes with classic companions like Ace, Nyssa and Tegan, Leela and Jo Grant. Dylan Holmes-Williams, who previously helmed 73 Yards and Dot and Bubble, will direct.
There is a brief synopsis:
When a fearsome and ancient species emerges from the ocean, dramatically revealing themselves to humanity, an international crisis is triggered. With the entire population at risk, UNIT step into action as the land and sea wage war.
Jemma Redgrave and Alexander Devrient will reprise their roles as Kate-Lethbridge-Stewart and Colonel Ibrahim, respectively. Russell Tovey and Gugu Mbatha-Raw are also in the cast, but it doesn’t mention if they are playing Alonso Frame, the character he played in 2007 Christmas special Voyage of the Damned and a cameo in The End of Time and Martha’s sister Tish, who Mbatha-Raw played in series 3.
Davies, Julie Gardner, Jane Tranter, Joel Collins and Phil Collinson executive produce the series for Bad Wolf.
Filming on The War Between the Land and the Sea will begin next month, it will be broadcast on BBC One and iPlayer in the UK.
The news about the spin-off was revealed at the Doctor Who panel at San Diego Comic Con, wherepts of other news was also confirmed.
According to Deadline, Jonah Hauer-King has joined the cast of series 16/season 2 to play a character ” that will be part of Ruby Sunday’s story”.
SFX Magazine, live tweeting from the audience at the panel, reports Varada Sethu’s companion will be called Belinda Chandra. The fact she shares a surname with Sarah Jane Adventures’ Rani Chandra, who was played by Anjli Mohindra, will no doubt get fans talking.
A clip of Steven Moffat’s Christmas special Joy To The World introduced by Nicola Coughlan was played to the crowd before being released on YouTube. Watch the clip below:
