The Mirror claims that villainous spinoffs are in the works for Doctor Who courtesy of their Disney deal.

Fans can expect to see Sontarans, Weeping Angels and Sea Devils in separate series showing what they get up to when the Doctor isn’t there to stop them, along with Daleks and Cybermen.

Possibly an idea so dumb that merely suggesting the possibility will diminish confidence in the franchise.

Doctor Who is not in a place of strength right now.

With Russell T. Davies and other old guard back in charge the future does look brighter but the focus should be on the Doctor.

Additionally, villain spinoffs sound stupid from just about every imaginable angle.

They're mostly miserable bastards who in the absence of the Doctor would have annihilated Earth and more many times over.

So either we see them masterfully spreading misery - which would only be interesting to sadists and or masochists - or successfully opposed by others.

Doctor Who isn't the only viable protagonist in the franchise but if these enemies can be routinely beaten, that would only make them appear weaker.

And victories against them by the Doctor and companions as less remarkable.

Family Jests

On the topic of hero worship, in April at the Wales Comic Con Peter Davison who played the 5th Doctor protested with a sign reading:

He's not that special!

while standing in the extremely long queue for David Tennant who played the 10th and later also 14th Doctors.

The pair are related not just through having played the same character, but also Peter's daughter Georgia who played the 10th Doctor's clone / child, Jenny.

And went on to marry David.

At the recent London Film and Comic Con, David revisited the joke with son Ty who plays Prince Aegon Targaryen in House of the Dragon.

He's not that special!

The "He" is more heavily underlined and makes sense to underline.

We're going to guess that Tennant goofed underlining "special".

Obviously we recognised Matt Smith who played the 11th Doctor as Prince Daemon Targaryen, Aemon's great uncle, but hadn't recognised this other member of the Doctor family.

Which courtesy of this is now even more tightly knit than before.

Circling back to potential spinoffs, characters like Jenny would be far better candidates than Daleks in our view.

Busting Records

Doctor Who has added another Guinness World Record to its collection - the longest gap between TV appearances (57 years and 120 days) - for William Russell who played Ian Chesterton, science teacher and companion of the first Doctor.

Reprising the role in The Power of the Doctor which screened last month.

The record was previously held by Philip Lowrie in the role of Dennis Tanner in Coronation Street (43 years).

Doctor Who will return in 2023 on Disney+.

[ Main Image: Ty and David Tennant at London Film and Comic Con. Credit: Georgia Tennant via Twitter. ]

References

Marcus (November 27, 2022). New Guinness World Record for Doctor Who. Doctor Who News.

Methven (November 25, 2022). Doctor Who villains Cybermen and Daleks to get spin-off series in huge Disney deal. The Mirror.

Pilastro, Eleonora (November 23, 2022). Doctor Who character breaks record for longest gap between TV appearances. Guinness World Records.

Tennant, Georgia [@georgiaEtennant] (April 3, 2022). Here I am protesting in front of the half mile queue for your husband. Twitter.

Tennant, Georgia [@georgiaEtennant] (November 21, 2022). [image only]. Twitter.