BBV Productions

BBV Productions is a UK-based video and audio production company founded in 1991, specialising in science fiction drama. The company has expanded to include publishing of novels and scripts associated with its productions.

Origin

Company 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. It was originally founded as "Bill & Ben Video". The "Ben" in the company name is the nickname of Bill Baggs's wife and fellow company co-founder, Helen. Marian Baggs, the mother of Bill Baggs, also operated a second distribution chain on behalf of BBV.

Video

BBV's first production was Summoned by Shadows (1991), co-produced with the BBC Film Club. 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"). Nicola Bryant co-starred as "Miss Brown". The adventures of The Stranger ran to six videos (and two audio dramas, the second remade as the sixth video). (For more information, see The Stranger (video series).)

BBV's next effort was The AirZone Solution?, an ecologically themed thriller about a near-future conspiracy. Released in 1993, Doctor Who's thirtieth anniversary year, it involved four out of five surviving ex-Doctors. Baker and Bryant starred. Successor Sylvester McCoy and predecessors Peter Davison and Jon Pertwee also appeared as members of a small group joined against a sinister conspiracy.

The Zero Imperative (1994) marked a new departure for BBV. 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 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. 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 latter problem may have been exacerbated by the fact that, although BBV had obtained permission to use Liz Shaw, they had no rights relating to Doctor Who itself - which meant that no explicit reference could be made to any other aspect of Doctor Who, including the events of the stories in which Liz had appeared.)

BBV's next series was a spin-off from two Doctor Who stories in the 1970s in which the Doctor assisted the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce (UNIT) in defeating the Autons, robotic invaders sent to conquer Earth on behalf of the alien Nestenes. The trilogy, beginning with Auton in 1997, recounted UNIT's battle against another Auton invasion, this time without the Doctor's aid (since BBV had obtained permission to use UNIT and the Autons, but was never given permission to use the Doctor himself). Auton was also the first BBV production to have no Doctor Who guest stars at all, after Nicholas Courtney (who was to reprise his Doctor Who role as UNIT commander Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart) had to withdraw from the project, due to ill health. With Courtney out, the focus of the series was the original character of Lockwood, an enigmatic UNIT agent played by Michael Wade.

After the success of the Auton trilogy, BBV produced Cyberon (involving a race of alien cyborgs reminiscent of the Cybermen). 2001's "Do you Have a Licence to Save this Planet?" was a comedy starring Sylvester McCoy as the chiropodist. This spoof not only referenced previous BBV productions- but also Doctor Who itself.

BBV's Zygon: When Being You Just Isn't Enough (previously titled Zygon: When Being Me Is Not Enough). In which Mike Kirkwood dreams of being a monster, unaware that he is in fact a Zygon, believing himself to be human. This story also includes Jo Castleton's character of Doctor Lauren Anderson from Cyberon.

A new PROBE film was released 15 April 2015 with Hazel Burrows taking over from Caroline John as Liz Shaw.

Audio

After a few earlier experiments, BBV began regularly releasing audio dramas on CD in 1998, under the umbrella title Audio Adventures in Time & Space. The mainstay of the CD line to begin with was a series starring Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred (the Doctor/companion team from the 1987, 1988 and 1989 seasons of Doctor Who) as a pair of wanderers in time and space named "The Professor" (McCoy) and "Ace" (Aldred) who so closely resembled the characters McCoy and Aldred had played on Doctor Who - even addressing each other by the same nicknames - that the BBC stepped in and their seventh outing, Ghosts, consequently introduced a number of changes to the characters that made the resemblance somewhat less close, the main one being that the protagonists were now called "The Dominie" (McCoy) and "Alice" (Aldred).

The first of the Audio Adventures in Time & Space not to include the McCoy/Aldred double act was Cyber-Hunt, the first BBV production about the Cyberons. A further Who-ish note was added by the introduction of an amnesic space traveler played by Nicholas Briggs, who some years earlier had played the Doctor in the Audio Visuals series of unlicensed fan audios. (He was dubbed "Fred" by one of the other characters after her pet goldfish).

BBV moved away from characters-who-might-be-the-Doctor (a field that, in any case, lost some of its appeal for fan audiences once Big Finish Productions began producing officially licensed Doctor Who audio dramas with the original actors reprising their incarnation of the character) and, following the success of the Auton trilogy, focussed more on stand-alone dramas about various Doctor Who alien races, licensed directly from the writers who created them. For some of those writers, the BBV audios have offered a chance to revisit their creations: for instance, the range includes a story by Pip and Jane Baker explaining what happened to the Rani (last seen in Doctor Who being abducted by a group of aliens that were also created by the writing pair), and a series of stories by Lawrence Miles about his history-spanning terrorist organisation Faction Paradox.

In 2002, BBV announced that they would not produce any more audio CDs, but would instead concentrate on their new DVD releases.

In 2022 BBV announced physical collections of their audios would be produced.

Productions

Video

• The Stranger
  • Summoned by Shadows by Christian Darkin
  • More Than A Messiah by Nigel Fairs
  • In Memory Alone by Nicholas Briggs
  • The Terror Game by Nicholas Briggs
  • Breach of the Peace by Nicholas Briggs
  • Eye of the Beholder by Nicholas Briggs
• The Auton trilogy
  • Auton by Nicholas Briggs
  • Auton 2: Sentinel by Nicholas Briggs
  • Auton 3: Awakening by Arthur Wallis (Nicholas Briggs) & Paul Ebbs
• Faction Paradox
  • P.R.O.B.E. Case Files: "Daylight Savings" by James Hornby
  • Overture to Sabbath and the King by Aristide Twain (YouTube release)
• Erimem
  • My mate, Erimem by Iain McLaughlin (YouTube release)
• The Brigadier Adventures
  • P.R.O.B.E. Case Files: "Legend" by James Hornby
• Standalone
  • The Airzone Solution by Nicholas Briggs
  • Cyberon by Lance Parkin
  • Do You Have A Licence To Save This Planet? by Paul Ebbs & Gareth Preston
  • Zygon: When Being You Just Isn't Enough by Jonathan Blum & Lance Parkin
  • Sunrise: Love Again by William Baggs & Kristina Wilde
• Shorts
  • The Auton Diaries
  • The Last 28 by Pip & Jane Baker
• Documentary
  • Stranger Than Fiction
  • Stranger Than Fiction 2: From Script To Screen
  • Stranger than Fiction 3: Acting Up
  • The Doctors: 30 Years of Time Travel and Beyond
  • Bidding Adieu
• Interviews
  • JNT: Uncut!
  • Jon Pertwee: Uncut!
  • Philip Hinchcliffe: Uncut!
  • Nick & Caroline: Uncut!
  • Peter Davison: Uncut!
  • Louise Jameson: Uncut!
  • Sylvester McCoy: Uncut!
• P.R.O.B.E.
  • The Zero Imperative by Mark Gatiss
  • The Devil of Winterborne by Mark Gatiss
  • Unnatural Selection by Mark Gatiss
  • Ghosts of Winterborne by Mark Gatiss
  • When to Die by Bill Baggs
  • P.R.O.B.E. Case Files
    • Volume 1
      • "First Entry" by James Hornby
      • "Kelpie" by James Hornby
      • "Peckham Poltergeist" by James Hornby
      • "Manchester" by James Hornby
      • "Shadow People" by James Hornby
      • "Stacey Facade" by James Hornby
      • "Varunastra" by James Hornby
      • "Doctor X" by James Hornby
      • "Goo!" by Bill Baggs
      • "Sherwood Sorceress" by James Hornby
    • Volume 2
      • "A Message From Sir Andrew"
      • "Daylight Savings" by James Hornby (Crossover with Faction Paradox)
      • "Ichor" by Bill Baggs
      • "Out of the Shadows of Doubt" by James Hornby, Hunter O'Connell, James Wylder & Lucy Wood-Ives, from an initial concept by Aristide Twain
      • "Fog" By Bill Baggs
      • "Lauren Anderson" by James Hornby & Bill Baggs
      • "Living Fiction" by Warren Lewis
      • "The Only Cure" by James Hornby
      • "Ex-President" by James Hornby
      • "Legend" by James Hornby
    • Volume 3
      • "Maxie Masters" by Bill Baggs
      • "O'Kane" by Bill Baggs
      • "Mist Mystery" by Bill Baggs
      • "Stranger" by Bill Baggs
      • "Erlik" by Bill Baggs
      • "St. Swithun" by Bill Baggs
      • "Bridge" by Bill Baggs & Warren Lewis
      • "For The Hell Of It!" by Bill Baggs
    • Volume 4
      • "Portents of Doom" by Chris McAuley & Bill Baggs

Audio

Licensed Doctor Who spin-offs

• K-9 and his Mistress
  • The Choice by Nigel Fairs
  • The Search by Mark Duncan
• Zygons
  • Homeland by Paul Dearing
  • Absolution by Paul Ebbs
  • The Barnacled Baby by Anthony Keetch
• Krynoids
  • The Root of All Evil by Lance Parkin
  • The Green Man by Zoltán Déry
• Sontarans
  • Silent Warrior by Peter Grehan
  • Old Soldiers by Simon J Gerard and Colin Hill
  • Conduct Unbecoming by Gareth Preston
• Rutans
  • In 2 Minds by Iain Hepburn
• The "I"
  • I Scream by Lance Parkin
• Guy de Carnac
  • The Quality of Mercy by Dave McIntee
• The Rani
  • The Rani Reaps The Whirlwind by Pip & Jane Baker
• The Wirrn
  • Race Memory by Paul Ebbs
• Mike Yates
  • The Killing Stone by Richard Franklin
• Faction Paradox
  • The Eleven Day Empire by Lawrence Miles
  • The Shadow Play by Lawrence Miles
  • Sabbath Dei by Lawrence Miles
  • The Year of the Cat by Lawrence Miles
  • Movers by Lawrence Miles
  • A Labyrinth of Histories by Lawrence Miles
  • Eternal Escape by James Hornby
  • Dionus's War
    • Call Me Ishmael by J.T. Mulholland
    • The Healer's Sin by J.T. Mulholland
    • Me & My Ghost by Bill Baggs
  • Sabbath and the King by Aristide Twain
  • The Confession of Brother Signet by Michael Gilroy-Sinclair
  • Hellscape
    • Lucifer by Trevor Spencer
    • Lucifer's Sleep by Trevor Spencer
    • Babylon's Own Personal Hell by Trevor Spencer
    • Brother's Keeper by Trevor Spencer
    • Unwanted Guest by Trevor Spencer
    • Lilith Fades by Trevor Spencer
• Hellscape
  • The Lilium Saga - Acts I-III by Trevor Spencer
  • The Lilium Saga - Acts IV-VI by Trevor Spencer
• P.R.O.B.E.
  • The Door We Forgot by James Hornby and James Wylder
  • 9 to 5 by James Hornby
  • A Worthy Successor by James Hornby and James Wylder
  • She Came From Another World! by James Wylder
  • What Happened in Manchester by James Hornby
  • Broken Bonds by James Hornby
  • Silver-Tongued Liars by James Wylder
  • New Companions
    • Maxie by Bill Baggs
    • Sam Myers by Trevor Spencer
  • Giles: The Beginning by Bill Baggs
  • First Case by Bill Baggs
  • Bold by Bill Baggs
  • Guardian At The Gate by Chris McAuley
• The Brigadier Adventures
  • Memories of Tomorrow by John Peel
  • New Pastures by James Hornby
  • The Fall of Shield Sentai by Charles EP Murphy
  • The Man Inside by Bill Baggs
  • Necessary Force by Steve Lyons
  • Translation by John Peel
• Erimem
  • The Beast of Stalingrad by Iain McLaughlin
  • Prime Imperative by Iain McLaughlin
  • Churchill's Castle by Iain McLaughlin
• The Makers
  • Maker's Wish: After Dark
    • Slalvok by Trevor Spencer & Bill Baggs
  • Maker's Wish
    • Ticket To Ride by Trevor Spencer

Unofficial/Apocryphal Doctor Who spin-offs

• The Dominie and Alice ("The Professor" and "Ace" until Guests for the Night)
  • Republica by Mark Gatiss
  • Island of Lost Souls by Mark Gatiss
  • Prosperity Island by Tim Saward
  • The Left Hand of Darkness by Mark Duncan
  • The Other Side by Mark Duncan
  • Guests for the Night by Nigel Fairs
  • Ghosts by Nigel Fairs
  • Only Human by Mark J. Thompson
  • Blood Sports by Nigel Fairs
  • Punchline by Jeremy Leadbetter (Robert Shearman)
• Fred
  • Cyber-Hunt by Martin Peterson
  • Vital Signs by Tim Saward
• Cyberons
  • Cyber-Hunt by Martin Peterson
  • Cybergeddon by Paul Ebbs
  • Cyberon by James Hornby (unabridged audiobook of the novelisation of the film)
  • Silver-Tongued Liars by James Wylder
  • Curse of the Cyberons by Chris McAuley
  • The Weapon and the Warrior by John Peel
• The Stranger
  • The Last Mission by Nicholas Briggs
  • Eye of the Storm by Arthur Wallis (Nicholas Briggs)

Stand-Alone

• Infidel's Comet by Colin Hill & Simon J Gerard
• The Pattern by Mark Duncan
• The Boy Who Kicked Pigs by Tom Baker
• The Airzone Solution: Novelisation - Enhanced Audio by Charles EP Murphy
• BES Begins by James Mulholland
• The Time Detectives: The Vault by Bill Baggs
• StokerVerse
  • A Whisper in the Darkness by Chris McAuley & Dacre Stoker
  • The Forbidden Act by Chris McAuley
  • Dracula: Origins by Chris McAuley
  • The Sorceress of the Nile by Chris McAuley
  • Terror Under the Rue Morgue by Chris McAuley
• Claudia Christian's Dark Legacies:
  • First Contact by Chris McAuley
  • Heart of Steel by Chris McAuley
• Chaos Theory: Oblation by Grant Foxon
• The Frontiersman's End by Chris McAuley

Books

Novelisations

• Cyberon by James Hornby (distributed by Arcbeatle Press)
• Republica by Micah K. Spurling
• Cyber-Hunt by Callum Phillpott
• Cybergeddon by Lupan Evezan
• The Rani Reaps the Whirlwind by Micah K. Spurling
• The Airzone Solution by Charles EP Murphy
• Auton by David Black
• The Root of All Evil by Paul Mount
• The Choice by James Mulholland
• The Stranger: In a Strange Land by Jason Russell

Scripts

• Faction Paradox
  • Faction Paradox Protocols: The Scripts Vol. 1 by Lawrence Miles
  • Faction Paradox Protocols: The Scripts Vol. 2 by Lawrence Miles
  • Faction Paradox Protocols: The Scripts Vol. 3 by Lawrence Miles
• Erimem
  • Erimem: The Beast of Stalingrad - The Script by Iain McLaughlin

Comics

• Cyberon
  • Before The Storm by Leopold Agnew
• Musketeers vs. Cthulhu! by Chris McAuley & Claudia Christian

See also

• Big Finish Productions
• Reeltime Pictures

External links

• Bill & Ben Video (BBV) at IMDb
• BBV website
• The TARDIS Library — Full guide to Doctor Who books, videos and audios. Includes an expanded listing of BBV's Doctor Who releases, with cover images & user ratings/reviews.
• Downtime - The Lost Years of Doctor Who Dylan Rees, (Obverse Books, 2017)