Original URL: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/08/21/rose_tyler_canned/
BBC cans Rose Tyler Doctor Who spin-off
'A spin-off too far'
Posted in Bootnotes, 21st August 2006 15:10 GMT
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The Beeb has canned the planned Rose Tyler Doctor Who spin-off after series producer Russell T Davies "got cold feet" over the project.
Ms Tyler, played by Billie Piper, exited the Tardis earlier this year and has been replaced by Freema Agyeman [1] for the next series.
The show - called Rose Tyler: Earth Defence - "was actually commissioned by the controller of BBC One and budgeted", Davies told Doctor Who Magazine. However, he eventually decided it was "a spin-off too far" and consigned it to the bin. Davies admitted the BBC "hadn't formally approached Billie, although we'd mentioned it to her".
Davies explained: "It was going to be fantastic. We'd have had a lovely budget and done brilliant things with it, maybe one Bank Holiday special a year." He also lamented that the decision to pull the plug had cost him "a fortune".
Meanwhile, the other Who spin-off, Torchwood, will indeed hit the small screen in the autumn. The 13-part series features John Barrowman as Captain Jack and "focuses on a squad of secret agents facing human and alien enemies".
And that's not all. The doctor's former robotic companion K9 has been resurrected for the kids' market and will appear in a 26-part series for children's TV channel Jetix Europe. K9 Adventures, a mix of live action and animation, is described by the channel's Michael Lekes as "an excellent space fantasy-adventure series that we are sure will be immensely popular".
Maybe so, but not as popular as a rumoured Sarah Jane Smith [2] come-back. Smith - played by Elisabeth Sladen who was recently reunited with the Doctor in School Reunion [3] - may yet delight adolescent males in a possible "Sarah Jane Investigates" pilot. We shall see. ®