Ideas for the Expanded Spin Off Book

[jennysfan]

For the record, this isn't the 'update checklist'. There will be no big checklist here. This is not offically part of the project. That will wait until the Extra-Cannonical Doctor books are done.

What this is, is a brainstorming thread. Yes, listing the various spin-offs/off-off cannon is a part of it but the idea of wheather or not we break it down further, such as a seperate 'book' for each franchise, who goes where etc, needs a place to be discussed.

I was also tired and bored with what I was doing at the time, so a semi-useful shout out seemed like a good idea.

To get us started, here are some of the things that I think are being pushed into this project:

• Torchwood
• Sarah Jane Smith Adventures (+ K9 & Company and audios)
• K9
• Faction Paradox
• Benny Summerfield Adventures
• Gallifrey
• Graceless
• UNIT
• Iris Wildthyme
• Jago and Litefoot
• Abslom Daak, Dalek Killer
• Dalek Empire
• Unbound

Ok, that's all I can do off the top of my head...each of those series will need a break down for each story, though some are largr than others. Otherwise it's like saying will do Hartnell, Trougton, Pertwee, T. Baker, Davidson, C. Baker, McCoy, McGahn, etc. rather than what Siskoid & co have done.

[Catsmate]

Potentially there are also:

• PROBE - Liz Shaw post UNIT
• The Stranger and the rest of the BBV audioplays
• The Time Travellers (The Professor and Ace) could be treated as an alternate Seventh Doctor
• The Cyberman series
• The films and stage plays
• Telos's Time Hunter series
• The Doctor Who Audio Dramas: another unofficial series of audioplays. That's 172 audios and a few unofficially unofficial novelisations of them.
  
  

How far beyond the official canon do you want to go? The Time Agent YouTube series? Doctor How? Inspector Space-Time? The Yankee Doctor?

I don't want to be discouraging but there is a vast array of material around. Will the Spin Off book deal with unlicensed stuff, or stick to Big Finish?

Catsmate

[misterharry]

May 17, 2015 17:30:04 GMT Catsmate said:

How far beyond the official canon do you want to go? The Time Agent YouTube series? Doctor How? Inspector Space-Time? The Yankee Doctor?

I don't want to be discouraging but there is a vast array of material around. Will the Spin Off book deal with unlicensed stuff, or stick to Big Finish?

Catsmate

The line is generally between professional, licensed materials and fan-made, unofficial materials. So The Doctor Who Audio Dramas are most likely out of scope - I'm not familiar with them, but I'm guessing their fan-made. Similarly with the Time Agent YouTube series, Doctor How, Inspector Space-Time and The Yankee Doctor. Things like the various video productions (P.R.O.B.E., Downtime, Shakedown, etc) and BBV audios are more of a grey area (they're semi-professional and licensed from the appropriate creators - just not from the BBC), but we're already including some of this stuff in the existing sourcebooks.

However, there is plenty of fully official stuff to keep us busy. Others to add to the list include:

Charlotte Pollard
Counter-Measures
I, Davros
Sarah Jane Smith (the Big Finish series)
Vienna
Kaldor City audios
The Minister of Chance podcast series
Dalek and K9 Annuals
TV Century 21 Daleks comics
Torchwood Magazine comic strips and text stories
The new Lethbridge-Stewart and Erimem novels series
The Doctor Who Weekly back-up comic-strips

And I'm sure there's more.

It's going to be several years before we get to this point though, but there is certainly plenty of stuff out there already.

[Catsmate]

May 17, 2015 17:43:23 GMT misterharry said:

May 17, 2015 17:30:04 GMT Catsmate said:

How far beyond the official canon do you want to go? The Time Agent YouTube series? Doctor How? Inspector Space-Time? The Yankee Doctor?

I don't want to be discouraging but there is a vast array of material around. Will the Spin Off book deal with unlicensed stuff, or stick to Big Finish?

Catsmate

The line is generally between professional, licensed materials and fan-made, unofficial materials.

Excellent, as long as there is a good criterion for choice.

May 17, 2015 17:43:23 GMT misterharry said:

So The Doctor Who Audio Dramas are most likely out of scope - I'm not familiar with them, but I'm guessing their fan-made.

They are. Not bad and they've been going for 30 years.

May 17, 2015 17:43:23 GMT misterharry said:

Similarly with the Time Agent YouTube series, Doctor How, Inspector Space-Time and The Yankee Doctor.

That makes sense.
Though I've been in communication with the author of the Yankee Doctor series about a sourcebook; we'll keep that one to ourselves for the moment.

May 17, 2015 17:43:23 GMT misterharry said:

Things like the various video productions (P.R.O.B.E., Downtime, Shakedown, etc) and BBV audios are more of a grey area (they're semi-professional and licensed from the appropriate creators - just not from the BBC), but we're already including some of this stuff in the existing sourcebooks.

OK.

May 17, 2015 17:43:23 GMT misterharry said:

However, there is plenty of fully official stuff to keep us busy.

Hell yes!

May 17, 2015 17:43:23 GMT misterharry said:

Others to add to the list include:

Charlotte Pollard
Counter-Measures
I, Davros
Sarah Jane Smith (the Big Finish series)
Vienna
Kaldor City audios
The Minister of Chance podcast series
Dalek and K9 Annuals
TV Century 21 Daleks comics
Torchwood Magazine comic strips and text stories
The new Lethbridge-Stewart and Erimem novels series
The Doctor Who Weekly back-up comic-strips

And I'm sure there's more.

It's going to be several years before we get to this point though, but there is certainly plenty of stuff out there already.

Oh yes. And I hadn't heard about the Erimen series.
The Telos Novellas should probably appear here too, the Time Hunter ones. IIRR the Doctor ones have been included in the EU sourcebooks.

[misterharry]

May 17, 2015 18:08:22 GMT Catsmate said:

Though I've been in communication with the author of the Yankee Doctor series about a sourcebook; we'll keep that one to ourselves for the moment.

Again, the Yankee Doctor isn't something I'm familiar with - I'll have to look it up. But I'd be very interested to see anything that adds to the resources available to GMs - so this sounds interesting!

The Telos Novellas should probably appear here too, the Time Hunter ones. IIRR the Doctor ones have been included in the EU sourcebooks.

I loved the Time Hunter novellas and I'm pretty sure they'll be included. As for the Telos Doctor Who novellas proper, you're right - we're including them in the appropriate Doctor sourcebook. There are a couple which will be left for the spin-offs sourcebooks though - The Cabinet of Light features a non-canonical Doctor, and The Dalek Factor isn't specific as to which Doctor it is (I've always thought he fits the 7th best, but I've recently seen people retconning him as the War Doctor - it's left open to interpretation).

[Catsmate]

May 17, 2015 18:44:03 GMT misterharry said:

May 17, 2015 18:08:22 GMT Catsmate said:

Though I've been in communication with the author of the Yankee Doctor series about a sourcebook; we'll keep that one to ourselves for the moment.

Again, the Yankee Doctor isn't something I'm familiar with - I'll have to look it up. But I'd be very interested to see anything that adds to the resources available to GMs - so this sounds interesting!

It's sort-of like the Evil Doctorverse, a retelling of the Whoniverse based on a US adaption of the series. It's got some excellent ideas and characters. It's over on AH.com.

May 17, 2015 18:44:03 GMT misterharry said:

The Telos Novellas should probably appear here too, the Time Hunter ones. IIRR the Doctor ones have been included in the EU sourcebooks.

I loved the Time Hunter novellas and I'm pretty sure they'll be included. As for the Telos Doctor Who novellas proper, you're right - we're including them in the appropriate Doctor sourcebook. There are a couple which will be left for the spin-offs sourcebooks though - The Cabinet of Light features a non-canonical Doctor, and The Dalek Factor isn't specific as to which Doctor it is (I've always thought he fits the 7th best, but I've recently seen people retconning him as the War Doctor - it's left open to interpretation).

Yes the Time Hunter series are favourites of mine. I must re-read them and help with the book.
The Dalek Factor is interesting; I'd assumes Seventh too but now that you mention it the War Doctor would fit too.

[jennysfan]

I think my list wasn't bad forsomething I whipped up at 4 AM.

[Catsmate]

May 18, 2015 0:21:19 GMT jennysfan said:

I think my list wasn't bad forsomething I whipped up at 4 AM.

Absolutely not and I apologise if I seemed abrupt. I'd really like this project to go well and I feel that taking on too much would be detrimental to it's success.

[Catsmate]

May 18, 2015 0:21:19 GMT jennysfan said:

I think my list wasn't bad forsomething I whipped up at 4 AM.

Absolutely not and I apologise if I seemed abrupt. I'd really like this project to go well and I feel that taking on too much would be detrimental to it's success.

[jennysfan]

I'll live Castmate.

There was a reason why I surgested we break it down. A seperate book for all Torchwood media for example; (the tv show including Children of Earth & Miracle Day, the books, the Big Finsh audio dramas that have been announced).But this project is a long way off, so we don't need to get all riled up about it.

[cigarman]

I'd like to see a Torchwood book.

I would also see the abandoned "Invasion" source book idea resurrected.

[Catsmate]

May 18, 2015 23:38:52 GMT cigarman said:

I'd like to see a Torchwood book.

Given that we'll probably never see an official one I'd like this too.

May 18, 2015 23:38:52 GMT cigarman said:

I would also see the abandoned "Invasion" source book idea resurrected.

What's that?

[misterharry]

May 19, 2015 10:48:55 GMT Catsmate said:

May 18, 2015 23:38:52 GMT cigarman said:

I would also see the abandoned "Invasion" source book idea resurrected.

What's that?

This is a sourcebook that a forum member was working on a couple of years back, centred around a campaign based on an Earth which had been invaded. It was to be called Resistance! and I seem to remember three alternate covers being produced, one featuring a Dalek, one with a Cyberman and one with an Auton. Sadly, it was put on the back burner when real life (TM) intervened - not sure if that's permanent or if it will be resurrected at some point.

It's mentioned in this thread:

Auton Invasion - What If?

But the link in the relevant post about it doesn't work - I think the thread must have been deleted at some point.

[Siskoid]

As far as "rules" go, when an alternate Doctor has only appeared once or twice, he's been put with the Doctor he's replacing. So there's already a stage play covered in Book 4, and the Cushing films were covered in Book 1. Similarly, expect the Scream of the Shalka to go in Book 9. The only real exception is Unbound.

It also seems that if a companion has appeared in a one-book spin-off - Harry and Turlough have done this - then that will be covered under "their" Doctor's book (Harry Sullivan's War is in Book 4 already). Similarly, Companion Chronicles aren't spin-offs even when the Doctor's not present.

Personally, I don't mind a fan-made spin-off here and there (I put Devious in Book 3), but no real effort will be made to cover them (just as there isn't a concerted effort to cover every short story or comic).

The largest sections will of course be Torchwood and Sarah Jane, with the rest bringing up the rear. Unlike the Doctor books which we've divided into categories (Allies, Enemies, Locations, etc.), each spin-off will get a section, with the premise covered as a campaign idea up front, and the various relevant entries following. At least, that's how I envision it.

[basalan]

What about the Trenchcoat series of fan fiction?

[Siskoid]

I think that if fan fiction is included at all, it'll be in small bites under an Off-Off Canon section at the back of the book.

[Catsmate]

May 22, 2015 1:45:41 GMT Siskoid said:

I think that if fan fiction is included at all, it'll be in small bites under an Off-Off Canon section at the back of the book.

Yes, I'd agree. There is just so much stuff. That said if some eager fan wanted to do a write up they could.

[Siskoid]

Right. It'll be big enough just doing the official stuff!

[misterharry]

May 22, 2015 15:19:22 GMT Siskoid said:

Right. It'll be big enough just doing the official stuff!

I know this is a loooooong way off yet, but... I wonder whether we'll need to split the spin-offs down into multiple volumes as it is (and bearing in mind we're likely to have several more years of releases to add by the time we get to this). Maybe something like:

Volume 1 - TV spin-offs (Torchwood, Sarah Jane Adventures, K9 and Co, K9)
Volume 2 - Big Finish (Bernice Summerfield, Dalek Empire, Unbound, etc)
Volume 3 - Everything else (Faction Paradox, Iris Wildthyme, Time Hunter, comic strips, etc)

I know there's a bit of an overlap between the latter two volumes for Benny and Iris, but I think the above is the best fit.

But as I say, this is a looooong way off at the moment.

[Siskoid]

I was thinking the same thing, though I might have split it differently, so that "popular" material is featured in each. Like one focused on teams, with Torchwood as the main feature (with Faction Paradox, UNIT, PROBE...), one on former TV companions//allies, headlined by Sarah Jane Adventures and K9 (with Jago & Litefoot, Gallifrey, etc.), and one that's more extracanonical, headed by Bernice Summertime (with Iris, Charlie, Graceless, Abslom Daak and so on).

[jennysfan]

May 22, 2015 16:46:31 GMT Siskoid said:

I was thinking the same thing, though I might have split it differently, so that "popular" material is featured in each. Like one focused on teams, with Torchwood as the main feature (with Faction Paradox, UNIT, PROBE...), one on former TV companions//allies, headlined by Sarah Jane Adventures and K9 (with Jago & Litefoot, Gallifrey, etc.), and one that's more extracanonical, headed by Bernice Summertime (with Iris, Charlie, Graceless, Abslom Daak and so on).

I was thinking of something simular. Trying to fit it all in one book seems rather nonsensical.

[Siskoid]

Not that any of these are actually limited by printing concerns like page count, but yeah.

[jennysfan]

True but it makes it a pain to navigate.

[Siskoid]

Thank the Adobe gods for pdf indexing.

[Catsmate]

May 22, 2015 16:46:31 GMT Siskoid said:

I was thinking the same thing, though I might have split it differently, so that "popular" material is featured in each. Like one focused on teams, with Torchwood as the main feature (with Faction Paradox, UNIT, PROBE...), one on former TV companions//allies, headlined by Sarah Jane Adventures and K9 (with Jago & Litefoot, Gallifrey, etc.), and one that's more extracanonical, headed by Bernice Summertime (with Iris, Charlie, Graceless, Abslom Daak and so on).

I'd start with these categories:
Earthbound - Government.     UNIT, Torchwood, ICMG and similar agencies.
Earthbound - Independents.   Jago & Litefoot, Time Hunter, Sarah Jane, K9
Alternate Doctors                 Unbound, Stranger, The Time Travellers, the stage plays. DWAD could fit here.
Independents                      Benny, Ace as Time's Vigilante, Iris Wildthyme, Daak
Antagonists                        Dalek Empire, Cybermen, Davros
Others                               Kaldor City

[Marnal]

That sounds like a good plan to me!

[jay042]

At this point the Coal Hill School/Academy could just about earn it's own supplement.

[Boneguard]

Nov 19, 2016 14:29:36 GMT jay042 said:

At this point the Coal Hill School/Academy could just about earn it's own supplement.

With this, you also have the BBC3 spin-off Class which is set in Coal Hill Academy and part of the Doctor Who Universe. 

[koloth]

I see Obverse is releasing two new interesting books, The Book of the Enemy and The Book of the Peace. Interesting stuff!

[Marnal]

Where did you hear this Koloth?