Doctor Who has been on a downward trajectory for a while now, but its fate wasn’t sealed until the BBC decided to put it out to pasture. There officially won’t be new Doctor Who episodes for the foreseeable future. At least, not any new live-action episodes.
While the main show is on hiatus, an interesting spinoff is just gearing up. And while it’s targeting a completely different audience, there could still be some interesting elements for hardcore fans.
Last year, the BBC announced that an animated Doctor Who spinoff would air on CBeebies, the preschool-aged BBC channel. Today, we got our first look at this new series, which raises some interesting canon questions.
Doctor Who: TARDIS Crew will premiere on CBeebies in late 2027 or early 2028.
BBC Studios
The series, Doctor Who: TARDIS Crew, 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,” the show’s official synopsis reads. “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.”
This synopsis confirms that the main character of this series is, in fact, the Doctor, but it’s probably not the next in the still-growing list of regenerations. Because this character is described as a “young Doctor,” we’ll probably see a Doctor fresh from stealing the TARDIS from Gallifrey. Then again, “young” Doctor might just mean that this regeneration is young, as we’ve seen the Doctor fluctuate in age over the years.
The Doctor has appeared in animated form before, but never in a preschool show.
BBC Studios
We also know the name of the new companion, Hannah, and two sidekicks, Beastie and Toast-IE, who are presumably the cute little critter in Hannah’s hands and the anxious robot following them. Toast-IE is likely an Easter Egg for fans, as a popular meme comparing aliens in Star Trek, Star Wars, and Doctor Who described the typical Doctor Who alien as a “household appliance that is a black hole with a Lancashire accent.”
With this series premiering in late 2027 or early 2028, the TARDIS Crew will premiere before Doctor Who returns. So will this animated Doctor be considered the “current” Doctor until a new one is announced, or is TARDIS Crew considered non-canon, like the previous Unbound universe during the last hiatus? There are a lot of questions that need answers, but at least a new generation will get the chance to fall in love with Doctor Who, canon or not.
