10 Ways That Doctor Who Was Better In The 1990s
2. Anyone Could Get Involved
The team behind Devious weren't the only fans who decided to make their own Doctor Who during the dearth of TV adventures. Keith Barnfather, Nicholas Briggs and Bill Baggs, all produced their own Doctor Who adjacent straight-to-video movies in the 1990s. Among his many credits, Barnfather oversaw a Sergeant Benton spin-off, a Sontaran movie written by Terrance Dicks. Barnfather continues to make Doctor Who documentaries and movies today, including the brilliant Sil & The Devil Seeds of Arodor.
Baggs meanwhile would take some very creative approaches to copyright law by securing the rights for monsters or renaming the characters and creatures he couldn't secure the rights for. Alongside Baggs' Auton and Zygon films, released through BBV (Bill Baggs Video) there were Cyberons, Colin Baker as the The Stranger, Sylvester McCoy as the Professor and so on.
The best-known of these professional fan projects was 1995's Downtime, written by Marc Platt, directed by Christopher Barry, and starring Nicholas Courtney, Elisabeth Sladen, and Deborah Watling. It followed the Brigadier and Sarah Jane as they attempted to avert another invasion by the Great Intelligence and his Yeti servants. There are many other Doctor Who actors involved in the production too, as the stars of the show continued to professionally crossover with their grown-up fans.