Spin-Off City

Laura Roslin and Sarah Jane Smith: two fictional M.I.L.F.s separated at birth.



News broke this week that Doctor Who is to enter spin-off territory for the fifth time this year with The K-9 Adventures. It's an animated children's series with the cute canine robot computer companion from the Seventies - British pop culture's risible answer to R2-D2. I won't be watching. K-9 and Sarah Jane both guested on the new series tonight, as did Giles from Buffy. (There was a Buffy moment in a school corridor when the Doctor couldn't decide what to call his "Scooby Gang".)

The other spin-offs are K-9 And Company (pilot episode for a rejected 1981 series), Doctor Who Confidential (behind-the-scenes documentaries), Totally Doctor Who (touts the next episode of the main series to children every Friday) and Torchwood, the upcoming adult drama starring the omnisexual Captain Jack Harkness that's been described as This Life meets The X-Files. The beast cannot be stopped.

B.B.C. Wales have copied the Sci-Fi Channel by making podcast commentaries available not only online but also, for digital viewers, as an alternate audio track on the repeat showing. That's got to be a first.

Finally on Nerd Watch, N.B.C. in America this week announced the first science fiction "family saga", set on a thriving Caprica some fifty years before the story of the revamped Battlestar Galactica begins. If it keeps continuity, they're going to have to dust off those old Seventies Cylon suits! I will be watching.