BBC Announces DOCTOR WHO Spinoff: CLASS
The BBC has announced that Doctor Who is getting a new spinoff.
Titled Class, the show will be set in contemporary London and will feature dangers coming into an unprotected city “breaking through the walls of time and space”. The show is being compared to Buffy the Vampire Slayer and The Hunger Games with “the action, heart and adrenaline of the best YA fiction, this is Coal Hill School and Doctor Who like you’ve never seen it before.”
YA author Patrick Ness (Chaos Walking trilogy, A Monster Calls) will act as show runner, and he says of his first producing gig: “I’m astounded and thrilled to be entering the Doctor Who universe, which is as vast as time and space itself. There’s so much room there for all kinds of amazing stories, and to work with Steven Moffat and Brian Minchin to find a place to tell one of my own has been an absolute joy. I can’t wait for people to meet the heroes of Class, to meet the all-new villains and aliens, to remember that the horrors of the darkest corners of existence are just about on par with having to pass your A-Levels.”
Doctor Who producer Steven Moffat: “No one has documented the dark and exhilarating world of the teenager like Patrick Ness, and now we’re bringing his brilliant storytelling into Doctor Who. This is growing up in modern Britain – but with monsters!”
Coal Hill School features in several episodes of Doctor Who, most recently as Clara’s place of employ — and it should be noted that in the 50th anniversary special, classic Who companion Ian Chesterton was listed as the school’s Headmaster (and note that as of this writing, William Russell is still alive, so…).
This would be the fourth spinoff of Doctor Who following K-9 and Company, The Sarah Jane Adventures, and Torchwood. Two animated projects, The Infinite Quest and Dreamland, have also featured David Tennant reprising his role as the 10th Doctor.
Class will film eight 45-minute episodes in and around Wales starting in the Spring of 2016, and will air on BBC Three. Doctor Who airs on BBC One in the U.K. and on BBC America in the U.S.
