Tales of the TARDIS

Tales of the TARDIS is a companion series to the television series Doctor Who which features re-releases of stories from the show's original run, enclosed by additional material featuring actors reprising their roles. The series is produced by Bad Wolf and BBC Studios, and executive produced by Russell T Davies, Jane Tranter, Julie Gardner, Phil Collinson, and Joel Collins. The series is set within a location known as the Memory TARDIS, which brings people from throughout time and space into itself in order for them to tell stories, which it uses to power itself.

The series was conceived of by Davies, who envisioned it as a way to help newer fans start watching the show's original 1963-1989 television run. Written by Davies, Pete McTighe, and Phil Ford, the first six episodes were released in November 2023. A further episode which recapped 1975 serial Pyramids of Mars, was released in June 2024, to tie into the airing of 2024 episode "Empire of Death", which featured the return of Pyramids of Mars' main antagonist, Sutekh.

The story of Tales of the TARDIS is set inside of a TARDIS, a time machine featured in Doctor Who. This version is dubbed the Memory TARDIS and is stated to have been created through memories. The Memory TARDIS uses stories as fuel and thus brings in people from throughout time and space to tell stories of their past.^[1] The episodes feature serials from the show's original 1963-1989 television run, which are bookended by new material filmed on the Memory TARDIS set with characters from the show's history. The serials, which were originally broadcast in multiple parts, are edited into an omnibus format for their airing in Tales of the TARDIS.^[2]

In addition to the cast members from the original Doctor Who stories featured, each episode is bookended by new material featuring several actors reprising their roles from Doctor Who and The Sarah Jane Adventures:^[3]

• Peter Davison as the Fifth Doctor
• Janet Fielding as Tegan Jovanka
• Frazer Hines as Jamie McCrimmon
• Wendy Padbury as Zoe Heriot
• Colin Baker as the Sixth Doctor
• Nicola Bryant as Peri Brown
• Daniel Anthony as Clyde Langer
• Katy Manning as Jo Jones
• Maureen O'Brien as Vicki
• Peter Purves as Steven Taylor
• Sylvester McCoy as the Seventh Doctor
• Sophie Aldred as Ace
• Ncuti Gatwa as the Fifteenth Doctor
• Millie Gibson as Ruby Sunday

Tales of the TARDIS was first announced on 30 October 2023.^[4][5] The series was conceived of by main series showrunner Russell T Davies to help newer fans access the large number of Doctor Who stories that aired from 1963-1989, as the selection of stories chosen would help fans find starting points with which to start watching the series.^[6] He also felt it would help celebrate the show's original run, as Tales of the TARDIS aired during the year of the show's sixtieth anniversary. Davies personally selected the stories that were chosen for a focus in the episodes.^[6]

Davies wrote the episode that covered the 1982 serial Earthshock, which focused on discussing the character Adric's death in the story, which was not as heavily addressed in the show's original run.^[6] Pete McTighe helped write several episodes, which were stated by Radio Times to be similar to shorts that he wrote for Blu-ray re-releases of old Doctor Who stories.^[6] Writer Phil Ford also wrote several episodes for the series.^[7] When asked in an interview, Davies clarified that the series was canon to the main Doctor Who television series.^[8]

New material for the first six episodes was filmed over six days at Bad Wolf Studios from 25 to 30 September 2023.^[9] The series is produced by Bad Wolf alongside BBC Studios Productions, with Davies, alongside Jane Tranter, Julie Gardner, Phil Collinson, and Joel Collins, acting as executive producers.^[10] The series was directed by Joshua M.G. Thomas^[7] and produced by Scott Handcock, who had hope the series could continue for more episodes in the future.^[6]

The Memory TARDIS set was originally created for the series 14 episode "Empire of Death", which featured a "remembered TARDIS" that the characters in the story used after antagonist Sutekh captured the main TARDIS. Davies originally intended on having the Memory TARDIS destroyed in the episode, though the idea was scrapped due to there not being enough room in the special effects budget to include this sequence. Davies eventually got the idea to re-use the set for Tales of the TARDIS as part of Doctor Who's sixtieth-anniversary celebrations.^[11] The Memory TARDIS set features a number of easter eggs and references to prior stories in the series, with many props from previous episodes being used throughout the set.^[12]

The first six episodes were released on 1 November 2023 exclusively on BBC iPlayer.^[13][14][15] A seventh episode which recapped the story Pyramids of Mars was released on iPlayer and broadcast on BBC Four on 20 June 2024, two days before the series 14 finale "Empire of Death", which featured the return of Pyramids of Mars' antagonist, Sutekh. This version had updated special effects compared to the original,^[16][17] and contained new material written by Davies, directed by Jamie Donoughue, and produced by Vicki Delow.^[18][19]

James Whitbrook, writing for Gizmodo, positively highlighted the show's emphasis on the series' past, which he felt allowed the show to feel bittersweet about the series' past while also having a hopeful, optimistic outlook for the future. He praised the focus on the returning characters, stating that "these stories can never end. Each of the Tales of the TARDIS shorts ends with that kind of hopeful reminder."^[20] Adi Tantimedh, writing for Bleeding Cool praised the episode focusing on Pyramids of Mars, which she felt allowed viewers to watch a popular story with a "fresh coat of paint".^[21]

The Memory TARDIS's design was analysed in the book Doctor Who and Gay Male Fandom: A Queer(ed) Transmedia Franchise, where it stated that the interior's usage of various elements from the series' past allowed the design to be comforting for viewers.^[22]

• Tales of the TARDIS at IMDb