Doctor Who may be on hiatus, but the BBC has just unveiled a new spinoff series for younger viewers: Doctor Who: TARDIS Crew.
This animated series will feature a “young” version of the Doctor who is shown in official artwork to sport blue spiky hair. Clearly, this is not an incarnation of the Time Lord we have met previously — unless William Hartnell was really into hair dye in his youth.
Today’s reveal for the series includes a confirmation of the production company behind the show, the London-based Alphablocks and Numberblocks creator Blue Zoo Animation Studio, and a projected launch in late 2027 or early 2028 — around a year before the BBC is aiming to bring the main Doctor Who back to U.K. TV screens.
“Created for CBeebies viewers, the series follows the Doctor, a young Time Lord, and his friends Hannah, Beastie and Toast-IE as they embark on extraordinary adventures through time and space,” reads a blurb for the show. “Travelling aboard the iconic TARDIS, they encounter incredible creatures, discover amazing new worlds and come face-to-face with legendary Doctor Who foes, including the Daleks.”
While this isn’t the first we’ve heard of a new Doctor Who spinoff for younger viewers, this is the first time we’ve seen anything of its characters or aesthetic. The BBC has now also commissioned 52 episodes, each 11 minutes in length, with “preschool-friendly stories.”
Artwork for the series shows the young Doctor wielding his trusty sonic screwdriver, his pink-hatted companion Hannah holding a cute pink alien pet, and a robot toaster sidekick (how very Red Dwarf!). The Daleks are present too, of course, albeit sporting a rather cutesy redesign. One of them even has a wooden spoon as an appendage, which I enjoy.
Putting on my nerd hat for a moment, it’s worth considering when this series might be set in Doctor Who canon (if indeed it is to be considered canon). The description of the Doctor as young suggests we could be seeing a pre-Hartnell incarnation of the Time Lord — one of the many forgotten variants the franchise now seems happy to explore following its controversial Timeless Child revelation that the 16 main Doctors to date are just the latest in a much longer lineage.
Not setting this new spinoff in the era of any other Doctor allows the series freedom to explore the Whoniverse without relying on certain actors or fitting into specific timelines. Still, as a time-travel show, we’d be shocked if David Tennant didn’t put in an appearance at some point.
One person who won’t be involved in Doctor Who: TARDIS Crew is the franchise’s former showrunner Russell T Davies, who this week discussed his exit and said he wasn’t bothered about leaving his Billie Piper cliffhanger unresolved.
Image credit: BBC.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at [email protected] or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
