TDP 1007: BBV

Doctor Who: Tin Dog Podcast - A podcast by [email protected]

O3Q4AP5FKXJ1 5% DISCOUNT CODE     REPRINTED TATDIS WIKI   BBV Productions Founded: Main ranges: Notable non-DWU work:   You may be looking for . Contents   BBV Productions (also known as Bill & Ben Video) was a  video production company founded by  in . The company was named for Baggs himself and his then-wife Helen, whose nickname is "Ben." It was a commercial enterprise that served  fans who were starved of content between the broadcasts of  and . Towards this end it heavily used Doctor Who actors and, when possible, characters. BBV therefore quickly gained the reputation for putting out content that was "almost official" or "nearly Doctor Who". In truth, though, its output was a bit more varied than that. Most of it could safely be put into one of five categories: documentaries fiction using characters owned by individual Doctor Who writers fiction using characters owned by the BBC whom the BBC gave BBV permission to use what  has called "", or things that were very close to Doctor Who, but the names were changed to keep the BBC at bay some wholly original material using nothing that connected to the DWU, aside possibly from Doctor Who actors Of these five types, this wiki is only interested in the first three. Because it's a little confusing,  appears below to demonstrate which are DWU stories and which are not.   Personnel |  BBV developed a repertory company of actors that appeared in many of their productions, often playing different roles. Many of these actors were previously known from their work in Doctor Who, and included former  actors , , , and  and companion actors , , , and . Several actors appearing in these productions early in their careers went on to achieve further notability, including , , and . A number of personnel behind-the-scenes and in front of the camera, including Briggs, Gatiss and Cumming, would go on to work on licenced Doctor Who spinoffs at , , and , as well as the  television revival of Doctor Who. Productions |  Work in Video |  BBV's first production was the  video release Summoned by Shadows, which was co-produced by the  and starred Colin Baker playing an unnamed character only known as the Stranger and Nicola Bryant as Miss Brown. The Stranger's adventures were chronicled on six videos and an audio adventure, many of which featured former Who cast members. The sixth video, Eye of the Beholder, was later re-released as the audio story Eye of the Storm. BBV's next release was the ecologically-themed thriller The Airzone Solution, which was about a near-future conspiracy. The video was released in , coinciding with the 30th anniversary of Doctor Who and featured four actors previously cast as the Doctor. In , BBV released the first video in the  series, , which saw a departure for BBV as  was the only character from the Who universe to appear (although numerous Who actors made appearances as different characters). This proved problematic for the series, as Liz Shaw seemed very much changed following her leaving from UNIT; this was due to BBV only acquiring the rights to use the character and had no rights to the Doctor, meaning that the series could make no explicit reference to any other aspect of Who – including the stories where Liz was present. BBV's next series of spin-off videos focused on  and their battles with the . The first video of the series, , was originally to feature  as , however he had to withdraw due to ill health. The Brigadier was replaced by the original character of , an enigmatic UNIT agent played by . After the success of the Auton trilogy, BBV went on to produce Cyberon, which featured an alien race of cyborgs reminiscent of the  called the Cyberon. The Cyberon would later go on to appear in an audio story, Cybergeddon. In  BBV released the Doctor Who parody , in which Sylvester McCoy played a character called the Chiropodist (aka Foot Doctor) as he fought Cyberons, , and . In addition to references to past BBV productions, the film obliquely referenced various elements of Doctor Who and the unlicenced nature of BBV's body of work. BBV also ventured into non-fiction, producing documentaries such as  and . BBV's only release in  was the drama , which featured  as both protagonists and antagonists. The main character  had previously appeared in Cyberon. The film had actually been mostly shot by , but initially scrapped; only after additional shooting years later was the film completed and released. In , BBV released, , the long-awaited return of the  series. Work in Audio |  After experimenting with audio for a few years, BBV began regularly releasing audio dramas in  under the umbrella title "". One line of adventures was The Time Travellers, starring Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred as "" and ";" the two so closely resembled their Doctor Who characters that, by the seventh story, the BBC had stepped in and demanded changes to not infringe copyrights – the main change was that the main characters were now called "the Dominie" and "Alice." The first of the Audio Adventures that didn't feature McCoy and Aldred was a two-story series called The Wanderer, which featured  as an amnesiac space-traveller whom one of the other characters dubs "Fred". Briggs had previously played the Doctor for unlicenced fan audios made by ; the Wanderer stories were a deliberate continuation of that series in all but name.  was worried about getting sued by the BBC, so he wanted to further distance his 'Who Clone' products by casting someone who hadn't been the Doctor (officially)... Me! I was very reluctant, but Bill was relentless and persuasive. [...] He told me to write Doctor Who, but find some clever way of making it lawyer-proof! BBV moved away from audio stories about characters that could be the Doctor after the establishment of ' officially-licenced line of Doctor Who audio dramas, instead moving on to audios featuring other characters from the Who universe such as  (licenced from her creators ) as well as a thinly-veiled post-  (referred to only as "" to avoid infringement) and  (fully licenced from his creators  and .) As with their videos, BBV also produced audios featuring original characters battling invasions by licenced aliens (such as  and ) or close matches to Doctor Who monsters which were altered to avoid infringement (such as the -like "Cyberons.") BBV also released a series of stories by  about his history-spanning cult organisation, . In   BBV announced that it would be no longer producing audio stories, with the exception of Faction Paradox, and instead would focus on video releases. By  , past audio releases were being deleted from their catalogue.  However, the full Audio Adventures in Time & Space library became available once more in  as paid downloads from a revamped BBV Productions website, and a first new BBV audio release ultimately saw the light of day in the form of a reading of  by  himself. Work in Webcasts |  In  BBV released a series of short  webcasts on their  channel under the title of P.R.O.B.E. Online. After being released weekly, they were taken off the Internet (but for two) and collected as a paying release available through the BBV Website as P.R.O.B.E. Case Files. Current status |  The original BBV Productions website, bbvonline.co.uk, became inaccessible in late 2009. In January 2011, the domain was taken up by a new registrant and used for an unrelated site, a film blog. However the TARDIS Library website lists a number of BBV releases in 2012, beginning with DVD reissues of the PROBE series in March 2012, followed by August 2012 reissues of Do You Have a License to Save This Planet?, Cyberon and Bidding Adieu. Bill Baggs ultimately returned to DWU work with a new P.R.O.B.E. film, , in memory of , featuring Hazel Burrows taking over the role of Liz Shaw. It was released on  .  In 2018, BBV released Sunrise: Love Again, an independent feature film written and directed by Bill Baggs. In late  and continuing into , BBV Productions started uploading interviews of various vintages with Doctor Who cast and crew to their YouTube channel, as well as making Sunrise: Love Again available for free as a form of promotion on the same channel. They also revived the  series with a series of webcasts, "Case Files" starring a returning Bill Baggs as . These webcasts occasionally featured licensed appearances by, or references to, other DWU elements than P.R.O.B.E., including the  from . This preceded the revival of the BBV website in the first half of 2021, which made all of the company's back catalogue (both DWU and otherwise) available as paying downloads as well as permitting the order or preorder of home media releases. A new season of  was begun, including original P.R.O.B.E. stories featuring the "new team", as well as the reissuing of the hitherto-unrelated-to-BBV audio series The Minister of Chance as part of the label. Through partnerships with  and , ,  and  ebooks were also sold through the BBV website, even as they remained available through their primary publishers. Releases |  Video |  Story title Series Covered by this wiki? Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Summoned by Shadows The Stranger No More than a Messiah The Stranger No In Memory Alone The Stranger No The Terror Game The Stranger No Breach of the Peace The Stranger No Eye of the Beholder The Stranger No The Airzone Solution N/A No Cyberon No Soul's Ark N/A No N/A See footnote Yes Sunrise: Love Again N/A No documentary Yes documentary Yes documentary Yes documentary Yes  Because of the fact that BBV released both unlicensed and semi-licensed works, our community had to examine each release on a case-by-case basis. Basically the rule of thumb for fictional video releases is this: did BBV obtain a license from either the  or a writer who owned rights to a character in order to make the video? If they did, then we assert that the video is a  narrative, and we therefore cover it. On the other hand, if BBV simply made up new characters and cast them with Doctor Who actors, then the video is not a part of the DWU and we don't cover it.  Co-Produced Between BBV & Western Union.  As this story is a lawful parody of , featuring licensed use of the , and , it warrants some coverage on this Wiki. However, due to its parodical nature, it is not considered part of  as we define it. Thus, it, and all related pages, must be marked . Audio |  The following list is ordered roughly by release date. See  for more information. Story title Series Covered by this wiki? Republica The Time Travellers No Island of Lost Souls The Time Travellers No Prosperity Island The Time Travellers No The Left Hand of Darkness The Time Travellers No The Other Side The Time Travellers No Guest for the Night The Time Travellers No Cyber-Hunt The Wanderer No The Last Mission The Stranger No Eye of the Storm The Stranger No Ghosts The Time Travellers No Vital Signs The Wanderer No Only Human The Time Travellers No Yes Blood Sports The Time Travellers No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Cybergeddon No Punchline The Time Travellers No Yes Infidel's Comet N/A No The Pattern N/A No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes The Killing Stone N/A No The Boy Who Kicked Pigs none No Yes Yes The Minister of Chance No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes    Marketed as the "first part" of the  series, but it was the only audio ever produced in that "series".  Marketed as the "first part" of the Rani series, but it was the only audio ever produced in that "series".  Marketed as the "first part" of the  series, but it was the only audio ever produced in that "series".  Faction Paradox was marketed by BBV as both a part of season 4 of Audio Adventures in Time and Space, and as a wholly separate series.  Marketed as the "first part" of the Rutans series, but it was the only audio ever produced in that "series".  , author of The Killing Stone, guested on episode 297 of the podcast . While there, he revealed he was releasing the full version of The Killing Stone — which included 100% of the original script, plus more — later in . In doing so, he noted that the BBC were requiring him to change the names of all the characters involved, noting "the BBC copyright situation is rather tougher now than it was when I did The Killing Stone". In an interview published in , Baggs stated that he thought Franklin had cleared the publishing with the BBC, but that he mainly thought the publication was "fair" due to it featuring "his interpretations". Despite Bagg's claims, writer Dylan Rees still concludes that the publishing was and is "strictly speaking, illegal." Thus the original Killing Stone released by BBV is not currently considered a "licensed" work, and thus is no longer covered by this wiki. Webcast |  Starting in , BBV began releasing webcasts on their  channel. The following list is in release order. Story title Writer Series Ebooks |  Story title Writer Series Unproduced stories |  Title Author Featuring Type Home video Audio Audio Audio Home video External links |   (defunct; mirrored at the Internet Archive)  at the  Footnotes |    - bbvonline.co.uk (archived)   ↑      - bbvonline.co.uk (archived)   - www.galaxy4.co.uk  Originally released outside the Audio Adventures in Time & Space label but added to the line-up in the 2021 relaunch. ↑   Audiobook reading of a preexisting  short story.  Owned, and originally produced, by Radio Static; added to Audio Adventures line-up in May 2021 through  with BBV.  Audiobook reading of a preexisting short story featuring . [SHOW]  •  BBV PRODUCTIONS HOME VIDEOS [SHOW]  •  : + CAT Community content is available under  unless otherwise noted. Facts ... MORE ABOUT "" FILE:BBV LOGO 2021.JPG