Relative Time and the Long Tail of Doctor Who

I haven't had a chance to comment on some things recently.

First of all, on the Torchwood side of things, the torchwood archives is a great looking site filled with several images that are now a part of my ever-rotating desktop image selection. The images that I've seen from Torchwood look excellent. I'm really optimistic about the series.

In the Doctor Who in America side, it's really interesting that Sci Fi is listing the last eight episodes of the 2005 series on September 29th. Christmas could come a little early this year. It's quite interesting that they haven't listed what Doctor Who they will air that evening.

The news that Sarah Jane Investigates might be the long-rumored kid-friendly Doctor Who spin-off is interesting. I'd be interested to see how that's different from the poorly-remembered K9 & Company, But then, perhaps someone at Big Finish might have an idea.

In my non-Doctor Who reading I've been reading The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More (or see here), and perhaps it is only fitting that I'm seeing the same pattern in the world of Doctor Who. We've obviously got the main, modern television series sitting at the head, and then as you follow down the tail you have previous series and DVD releases, the various spin-off series like Torchwood and this Sarah Jane Investigates, and then also all of the other parts of the Doctor Who cottege industry. The Big Finish audios, primary and spin-offs; all of the huge varieties of Doctor Who novels that have been published over the last decade and a half. You've got spin-off lines from those books, like Faction Paradox and Bernice Summerfield.

It used to be possible for a Doctor Who fan to keep up with everything -- that's been impossible for several years, even before the new television series, but now it really is impossible.

And we're seeing a variety of different spin-offs from the main trunk for different audiences. Sarah Jane Investigates looks to be a true children's series. It might be interesting to see how they work it when Elisabeth Sladen is old enough to be the grandmother of the target audience, but I imagine that'll be addressed by other cast members.

And Torchwood is obviously the sexy adult spin-off. And that leaves the primary Doctor Who series as something that is the hit, designed for the entire British public. Of course, that means that it isn't designed for the entire American public -- it is off in a niche here, by being British.