The potentially-confusing mixture of Caroline John reprising her Doctor Who role with other recognisable Who stars playing different characters worked against the series, as did the way that Liz Shaw often seemed to be herself a different character from the Doctor Who original. The PROBE series ran for an additional three stories all four were written by Mark Gatiss, who found more widespread fame as a member of the League of Gentlemen, later going on to write episodes for the revived series. Although stuffed to the gills with ex- Doctor Who guest stars, only one of them was actually playing the same character: the story was built around Caroline John's Liz Shaw, the Doctor's companion in the seventh season of Doctor Who, now depicted as an investigator for PROBE (the 'Preternatural Research Bureau'). The Zero Imperative (1994) marked a new departure for BBV. Successor Sylvester McCoy and predecessors Peter Davison and Jon Pertwee also appeared as members of a small group joined against a sinister conspiracy. Released in 1993, Doctor Who's thirtieth anniversary year, it involved four out of five surviving ex-Doctors. (For more information, see The Stranger (video series).)īBV's next effort was The AirZone Solution?, an ecologically themed thriller about a near-future conspiracy. The adventures of The Stranger ran to six videos (and two audio dramas, the second remade as the sixth video). Nicola Bryant co-starred as 'Miss Brown'. Partly as a homage to Doctor Who, which Baggs was a fan of, and partly in a pragmatic attempt to take advantage of a pre-existing audience, Summoned by Shadows was a Who-style tale of strange doings on a distant planet starring Colin Baker as the nameless protagonist (listed in the credits as 'The Stranger'). Marian Baggs, the mother of Bill Baggs, also operated a second distribution chain on behalf of BBV.īBV's first production was Summoned by Shadows (1991), co-produced with the BBC Film Club. The 'Ben' in the company name is the nickname of Bill Baggs's wife and fellow company co-founder, Helen. It was originally founded as 'Bill & Ben Video'.

The company has expanded to include publishing of novels and scripts associated with its productions.Ĭompany co-founder Bill Baggs is a longtime fan of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, and BBV productions often involve characters or actors from that series. JSTOR ( January 2017) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message)īBV Productions is a UK-based video and audio production company founded in 1991, specialising in science fiction drama.Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. This article needs additional citations for verification.

Doctor Who by Lawrence Miles