Russell T Davies hints at "bigger plans" for Doctor Who spin-off Tales of the TARDIS

Peter Davison and Janet Fielding in Doctor Who: Tales of the TARDIS
(Image credit: BBC)

Doctor Who spin-off Tales of the TARDIS launches today on BBC iPlayer, but as showrunner Russell T Davies tells SFX magazine in the new issue published today, there are already "bigger plans" in place for the show.

"There are bigger plans behind this that we can't talk about yet. Eventually TOTT [Tales of the TARDIS] will begin to make more sense as the series next year unfolds, you will see," Davies said. "But it's really a lovely thing to do for the 60th."

The six-episode series was filmed over the course of six days in September 2023. "It's very last-minute," Davies admitted. "I thought of it about two months ago... I did think we hadn't done enough for the 60th and we made this."

Sylvester McCoy on Sophie Aldred on the set of Tales of the TARDIS

(Image credit: BBC)

Davies also described the process of making the series as a happy one. "I've had one of the greatest weeks of my entire career taking the cast members out for dinner every night and talking to them and every single night, we’ve been sitting there saying how we wish that [former Doctor Who producer] John Nathan-Turner was still alive."

Doctor Who: Tales of the TARDIS is available now on BBC iPlayer.

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The above is just a snippet from our interview with Russell T Davies, which you can see more of in the latest issue of SFX Magazine, which features Doctor Who on the cover and is available on newsstands from Wednesday, November 1. Keep up to date with all things SFX by signing up to the newsletter, which sends all the latest exclusives straight to your inbox.

Doctor Who: Tales of the TARDIS is available on BBC iPlayer now.

I'm the Editor of SFX, the world's number one sci-fi, fantasy and horror magazine – available digitally and in print every four weeks since 1995. I've been editing magazines, and writing for numerous publications since before the Time War. Obviously SFX is the best one. I knew being a geek would work out fine.

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