8 Multi-Doctor Adventures Beyond The World Of Doctor Who

3. Pertwee, Baker and McCoy in The Zero Imperative

Selling Hitler Tom Baker Peter Capaldi
BBV Productions

After the success of The Airzone Solution, Baggs continued to produce more straight-to-video films that were Doctor Who adjacent. One of the more notable of these was The Zero Imperative. Written by Mark Gatiss, it's an unofficial spin-off to the series that focuses on 1970s companion, UNIT scientist Liz Shaw. Caroline John reprised her role as the character alongside Louise Jameson and Sophie Aldred in new roles.

Liz is now working for the Preternatural Research Bureau, an X-Files-style organisation. She's sent to investigate strange goings-on in an ailing psychiatric hospital that has recently been saved by a rich industrialist. The rich industrialist is played by Colin Baker while Jon Pertwee and Sylvester McCoy play the hospital's enigmatic doctors with relish. Peter Davison makes a small cameo at the end, but despite all this, the press were only really interested in Jon Pertwee and former Page 3 model Linda Lusardi who also starred.

The Zero Imperative is an intriguing oddity, an adult X-Files inflected Doctor Who spin-off, written by one of the revival's most prolific guest writers but released over a decade before Torchwood. Like The Airzone Solution, it's clearly cheaply made and occasionally awkwardly directed. Doctor Who's official adult, X-Files inflected spin-off was obviously much slicker.

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Contributor

Citizen of the Universe, Film Programmer, Writer, Podcaster, Doctor Who fan and a gentleman to boot. As passionate about Chinese social-realist epics as I am about dumb popcorn movies.