Doctor Who tie-in websites
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The 2005 series revival of the long-running British science fiction television programme Doctor Who features several tie-in websites produced by the BBC website team that viewers can access on the Internet. Whilst none of the material in the websites is necessary to understand the broadcast episodes, they are examples of viral marketing, a means of promoting the programme as well as supplementary material for the entertainment of fans of the series. The network of tie-in websites uses elements reminiscent of (although not as elaborate as) alternate reality games. With the exception of Deffry Vale, International Electromatics and Cybus Fitness, these websites have disclaimers indicating their fictional nature.
In Doctor Who Magazine #367, James Goss, producer of bbc.co.uk's cult television websites, announced that Series 2 would feature "dozens" of inter-related sites featuring interactive games, to create "the most ambitious online fictional world ever".
[edit] Websites
[edit] Series One
[edit] Who is Doctor Who?
In the premiere episode of the 2005 series, Rose, the character of Rose Tyler searched the Internet for information about the mysterious Doctor. Rose used a fictitious search engine called search-wise.net which was set up to provide television programmes with a search website that could be shown on screen. While search-wise.net does not actually work as a search engine, the website that she found, http://www.whoisdoctorwho.co.uk, can be accessed.
At the time the episode was transmitted, the search term used by Rose, "doctor blue box", if typed into Google in the real world, produced http://www.whoisdoctorwho.co.uk as the first search result. It is not known if this is the result of collusion between the BBC and Google or simply a clever use of search engine optimization.
The website "Who is Doctor Who?" turned out to be run by a conspiracy theorist named Clive, who had been tracking the appearances of the Ninth Doctor through history, and was under the impression that the Doctor was an immortal alien. Clive was killed by an Auton during the course of the episode, but when Rose disappeared to travel with the Doctor, the website continued to be updated, with video clips from the Auton invasion and an invitation to readers to send their own stories of encounters with the Doctor. Later updates of the site tied in to new episodes as they were broadcast.
The "guest book" section of the site featured several entries apparently signed by former companions or supporting characters, including Sarah Jane Smith, Peri Brown and Mike Yates. It is not clear which of these were written by the BBC website team and which messages were by fans writing in, since all messages are screened by the website team before they are posted. It also features comments from the fictional characters Arthur Dent and Marty McFly.
After Aliens of London was first broadcast on April 16, 2005, it became apparent from a note on the website that the person who had taken over Clive's website was Mickey Smith, Rose's boyfriend. Interestingly, as Aliens of London took place in 2006 and the updates were contemporaneous with the series as it progresses, it meant that the website was at least one year in the relative future of the reader.
Following the events of Boom Town, the site featured a bitter message from Mickey ("World saved. Who cares?"), who has realised that Rose no longer loves him. After this episode, the website remained static for many months before it was updated with references to the Guinevere One probe in time for the 2005 Christmas special.
On March 30, 2006, the website underwent a redesign and was renamed "Defending the Earth!", two weeks before the start of Series 2.
[edit] UNIT
Aliens of London also featured the return of the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce, an international organisation dedicated to defending the Earth from extraterrestrial and paranormal threats. In the week leading up to the broadcast, http://www.unit.org.uk went "live". The site showcased press releases and pages referencing UNIT's history in the old series. A portion of the website was blocked by a password, "bison", but that was easily obtained by looking at the HTML source code. The password (later changed to "badwolf") allowed access to "classified" reports, one of which described the events of Rose. The "Conferences" section of the website shows that UNIT has a facility at Maidstone Barracks.
In the second part of the story, World War Three, the website was shown on screen, and the Doctor used the password "buffalo" to access it. Using that password on the "live" website activates a simple Flash animation simulating the missile control website featured in the episode. The UNIT site was updated with reports detailing the aftermath of the story, putting it in the same position as Mickey's website of being a year in the future. The website also named the unnamed-on-screen UNIT officer that died in the episode as a "Major Frost", who may have been the Doctor Who Magazine comic strip character Muriel Frost. Other reports reference the episodes Rose and Dalek.
In his regular column in Doctor Who Magazine #360 (August 2005), new series executive producer Russell T. Davies explained that the United Nations were no longer happy to be associated with the organisation, and its full name could not now be used. However, the "UNIT" and "UN" abbreviations can be used, as long as it is not explained what the letters stand for.
Following The Christmas Invasion, a press release confirming the existence of alien life was added to the site, and the "secure portion" of the website was updated with reports on Guinevere One and "Project Rooftop", referring to the events of that episode.
[edit] Geocomtex
The third fictional website to be featured was http://www.geocomtex.net, the corporate website for Henry van Statten's company, whose logo was seen in the background in the episode Dalek. The site is more sparse compared to the others, with a "products" page, an uneditable "support" page and a "recruitment" page aside from the usual disclaimer.
The GeoComTex website, like the others, has numerous in-jokes and references to the old series. Products that GeoComtex manufactures include "IE core chip transistors" (International Electromatics in The Invasion), "bubble memory" (Logopolis), "Ether beam sensing technology" (Genesis of the Daleks) and "bonded polycarbon" (Remembrance of the Daleks). The support page has a question that asks whether a "MX-TBL plug-in" is needed for the "WTFLD Generator" — a reference to the characters of Maxtible and Waterfield in The Evil of the Daleks — and refers to a "finklegruber", a Gallifreyan tool mentioned in The Invasion of Time and the Virgin Missing Adventures novel The Well-Mannered War by Gareth Roberts. Another support entry answers the question, "My Tubbs just doesn't work like it used to. How do I reset it?" with "Enter code 12-T", a reference to The League of Gentlemen (an earlier project of Doctor Who writer Mark Gatiss). The support page also contains the word BADWOLF written in Morse Code (although for the first few days, the Morse actually read "twats"), and on an unrelated note, the words "VOTE LIB DEM" scrambled and backwards. This references a joke started on the Outpost Gallifrey forum after transmission of World War Three claiming that a flashing light at the end of this episode signals this sentence in Morse Code. The support number for GeoComTex is 555-236-801.
The site was redesigned late in the 2006 series.
[edit] Bad Wolf
The phrase "Bad Wolf" was a recurring theme throughout the 2005 series, beginning from The End of the World (although some fans argue that the Nestene Consciousness mouths "Bad Wolf" in Rose). What "Bad Wolf" refers to was not revealed until the final episode of the series, and was the subject of intense fan speculation, especially since the penultimate episode of the series is titled Bad Wolf.
The BBC registered the domain name http://www.badwolf.org.uk in November 2004, and the website went live in the week before the episode Boom Town. The Bad Wolf site consisted of a listing of every explicit Bad Wolf reference in the 2005 series, along with speculation and theories, some culled from fan discussions on forums such as Outpost Gallifrey, as to what the phrase might mean. The site differed from the other websites, however, as it discussed the television series from a non-fictional perspective. The website had a distorted reading of The Sick Rose by William Blake at the end of an included audio clip.
The website's disclaimer noted that its contents were merely to speculate on what "Bad Wolf" meant, but did not propose to provide a definitive answer. It also stated that the Internet was "used by kind permission of GeoComtex" (In Dalek, Henry van Statten claimed to own the Internet) and referred to "an enormous experiment in neuro-linguistic programming". There was also a hidden message that was visible only when the text beneath the disclaimer was highlighted.
In the series finalé, The Parting of the Ways, it was revealed that Rose (or the TARDIS, through her, after she had looked into its "heart") had distributed the words Bad Wolf throughout time as a reminder, so that she would know she could go back to the future and save the Doctor. The website has since been updated to include the conclusion.
[edit] Series Two
[edit] Guinevere One
In the lead-up to The Christmas Invasion, the BBC launched the http://www.guinevere.org.uk/ website. This is apparently the website of a project by the British Rocket Group to land a probe on Mars, like the Beagle 2 project in reality, on Christmas Day. It includes an introduction by Prime Minister Harriet Jones and an interview with the project director, Professor Danny Llewellyn. The British Rocket Group is a reference to the BBC Quatermass science fiction serials of the 1950s.
Other elements of the site include a history of the British Rocket Group, a Mars FAQ, a "live tracker" for the probe, a game to pilot Guinevere One through a narrow "launch window", and the opportunity to add a message of peace to the probe.
Previous British manned missions to Mars (The Ambassadors of Death, 1970) are not referred to on the site. The British Rocket Group was previously mentioned in the series in Remembrance of the Daleks (1988).
Following The Christmas Invasion, the website's front page has been changed to memorialise project manager Daniel Llewellyn, who was killed during the events of that episode.
[edit] Defending the Earth!
This is Mickey's new website, although the URL is still at http://www.whoisdoctorwho.co.uk. The previous pages are still available as links, but it has undergone a radical redesign. The week before the 2006 series began, a video message from Mickey (played, as in the series, by Noel Clarke) was available, where he asked the reader for help and led them to the Leamington Spa Lifeboat Museum website which included an interactive game. This was the first of several "mini-missions" that will become available through the various tie-in websites over the course of Series 2.
The name of the site may be a reference to the Doctor's declaration to the Sycorax in The Christmas Invasion that when they talk of the Earth, to "make sure you tell them this. It is defended!" Mickey repeats this declaration as the Sycorax ship leaves the Earth's atmosphere. In Army of Ghosts Mickey states that he is "Defending the Earth!"
In the text version of the Tooth and Claw update, Mickey mentioned that someone has repeatedly e-mailed him with the message "They're coming". This message is also visible on the Millingdale Organic Ice Cream site.
Mickey has continued to update the site with new missions relating to each week's episode, up to The Girl in the Fireplace. How this is possible, since he joined the TARDIS crew at the end of School Reunion, is unclear. However, the text version of the update was signed "Mickey the Time Traveler".
The update for The Girl in the Fireplace was the first time a mission had been on Mickey's own site. The game involves taking control of a clockwork robot to collect seven crystals from different rooms in Versailles in various time periods.
During Rise of the Cybermen and The Age of Steel, the design of the site was changed to reflect the parallel Earth on which the story took place, with initially the parallel Mickey (Ricky) giving the video message then Mickey himself the following week.
After the events of The Idiot's Lantern, the website design was reverted back to its original layout, but instead of using video messages, the new site owner, who refers to himself as "A Friend", now corresponds by text version only. It is possible that this is "David Roberts", The Voice of Deffry Vale's Youth.
The Take the test game was added after Love & Monsters. The game asks questions, which have optional answers (apart from in the final round). In order to complete the test, the player must use information from previous Doctor Who tie-in websites.
The Art Attack game was added after Fear Her. The game involves three levels of guiding the Tenth Doctor through a maze to join dots in numerical order. The game has the appearance of a child's drawing, and when each level is complete, the player saves what is trapped in the picture: a cat, a boy, and finally the TARDIS.
[edit] MediaPlay
MediaPlay is a fake instant messaging and internet radio web application which allows the user to communicate with an associate of Ricky Smith, to find first the product support for a broken radio from International Electromatics, then the frequency to set the radio from Cybus Fitness, followed by a secret code from Millingdale Organic Ice Cream, a clue from a John Lumic book at Henrik's Online, and then finally the code to the enter the Cybus Industries intranet.
When the radio is set to channel 657, a voice repeats "What's the secret of Henrik's surprise?" over the song "The Lion Sleeps Tonight", which was played in Rise of the Cybermen to disguise the screams of those being transformed into Cybermen.
[edit] Magpie Online Archive
The Magpie Online Archive is a "file sharing application" in which the player must search through various clips of BBC television history to look for messages left behind by the Wire from The Idiot's Lantern.
By moving a cursor up and down, the player is able to select clips and hear a brief audio segment from that broadcast. Some clips contain a word or words that end up showing a message created by the Wire; others are just audio and some delete the words the player has already found, forcing them to start over.
Notable clips in the game include catchphrases from personalities such as Dick and Dom and Larry Grayson; classic scenes from comedies such as Fawlty Towers, Red Dwarf and Hancock; quotes from cult programmes including two from Blakes 7; Marvin from the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, children's television clips from shows such as The Flowerpot Men and Muffin the Mule (the last of which was shown in The Idiot's Lantern). There are also excerpts from pop songs, including "Never Too Late" by Kylie Minogue, which the Doctor also quotes in the episode. Upon completion of the game, players view the traditional ending of The Two Ronnies sketch show.
[edit] Leamington Spa Lifeboat Museum
http://www.leamingtonspalifeboatmuseum.co.uk/, apparently the website of the Leamington Spa Lifeboat Museum (oddly, Leamington Spa is around 60 miles from the nearest saltwater, the Severn Estuary).
This website tells the tale of the Leamington Spa Lifeboat Society, which saved hundreds of lives all over the Leamington Spa area, including Carlisle, Manchesterford and Cardiff (if the map on the website is to be believed). It tells of a family who were killed by a "mad wolf", and various small hints are dropped throughout the history pages. Although the disclaimer admits freely that this website is fictional, it does recommend the viewer to visit the website of the real Royal National Lifeboat Institution website and to donate if possible.
There is an interactive game where the player, on Mickey's behalf, controls a robot through the museum in search of a Sycorax sword, trying to avoid security robots and finding other alien artefacts (most related to past stories) in the process. One of these, a large alien firearm recovered in 1938 from the Brooklyn Bridge, may be a reference to the Big Finish Productions audio play Invaders from Mars. A Cyberman helmet's label claims that the artefact was found in Deffry Vale Underground Station.
Which 2006 series episode the site specifically relates to, if any, is not known, but the mention of Queen Victoria opening the museum and the picture of a werewolf in the history pages point to the episode Tooth and Claw.
[edit] Millingdale Organic Ice Cream
http://www.millingdaleicecream.co.uk/, the website for the Millingdale Organic Ice Cream company, is linked to from the Leamington Spa Lifeboat Museum, Torchwood House, Henrik's Online and Deffry Vale websites. The background music for the site is a bells-only, jingle-like version of "Flavia's Theme" from Series 1, a theme that is used by the production team when things get (in their words) "Time Lord-y". As the logo fades in, the repeated text "they're coming" is visible.
This website claims that Millingdale's is a family company established in 1860, although they only went public in 1980. Since 1981, they have had parlours the length and breadth of the UK, and are internationally renowned for their unique taste and the enigma of their "secret formula" (compare to Coca-Cola). They state that their first parlour opened on June 23, 1981 (in the British calendar, 23/6/81).
A list of flavours is given on this website whose names reference various episodes, both past and upcoming, including "Silver Giant" , "Magpie Mayhem", "Red Pit of Delight" and "Madame du Popadom".
Since the Rise of the Cybermen episode the ingredients also contain another secret formula which is part of one of the mini games.
After Army of Ghosts, a "Restricted Section" can be accessed, containing video files of the Torchwood computer system displays used during Army of Ghosts. The section can be accessed through the Flavours page by clicking the flavour "Ghost Glace".
[edit] Torchwood House
http://www.visittorchwood.co.uk, the Torchwood House website, is linked to from Defending the Earth and contains a link to Millingdale Organic Ice Cream. The site is for the Torchwood Estate from Tooth and Claw. There is an interactive game on the site, accessed by entering the password "Victoria" on the "Scan for Heavenly Bodies" bell of the Observatory page.
The Observatory page also contains a reference to the Butler Institute, an organisation featured in several of the Virgin New Adventures novels.
[edit] Deffry Vale School
http://www.deffryvaleschool.org.uk is the website of Deffry Vale High School, seen in School Reunion. The site contains a concealed link to Deffry Vale, as well as a game based on the Skasis Paradigm Code seen in the episode, involving continuing visual patterns and memory tests. The website also refers to unlocking the secrets of the universe "with the eyes of a child", foreshadowing events in the show. The game can be played by clicking on the "Are You Smart Enough?" link.
The website is based on the colour green, and all the logos are in tones of green, rather than the red and blue seen in the episode. However, there is a link to the welcome poster seen at the main entrance, and the archive shows the "proper" logo as well. The eat more chips poster seen in the episode is available for download. The "Grounds" section of the site shows a plan of the school with alien-looking notations, taken from the lockdown scene in School Reunion. The "Archive" link displays a screenshot of the school's "original website" with red and blue colours.
The archive claims that the school is twinned with one in Gorselbaten, Germany and that they recently put on a "highly commended" performance of Romeo and Juliet.
[edit] Deffry Vale
http://www.deffryvale.co.uk, the website of the borough in which Deffry Vale School is located. It includes a link to Millingdale Organic Ice Cream and Deffry Vale School, as well as two personal pages, hosted on a fictional web provider known as "Cheapserve".
The website also includes images of both a bus stop and a playground which include the numbers 23, 6 and 801, and a short video of a rotating green cube, used within the episode, is hidden at http://www.cheapserve.co.uk/members/236801/, a further reference to the numbers. From London Transport iconography on the website it can be assumed that Deffry Vale is a London borough or nearby, although Deffry is a Welsh word meaning "Awaken". There is a section of the site devoted to Queen Victoria.
[edit] Cheapserve
http://www.cheapserve.co.uk is a fictional web host, first used for the Jamie Kane alternate reality game, a play on the Internet service provider Freeserve.
The site includes several subpages Parsons Family Project, run by Mr Parsons, a history teacher in School Reunion, and The Voice of Deffry Vale's Youth, run by a mysterious "David R.", which claims to have been merged with Defending the Earth! The photographs of "weird orange lights in the sky" were taken by a David Roberts.
After Love & Monsters, a Sycoraxic translator was added to the site, to tie in with a quiz on Defending the Earth!
The Torchwood Interface includes screengrabs from Eugene Jones' homepage, which show it as a Cheapserve site, although it does not exist on the tie-in site.
[edit] International Electromatics
http://www.internationalelectromatics.co.uk/ is the website of the fictional "International Electromatics", a front organization for Cybus Industries of a parallel Earth. The International Electromatics of the Doctor's own universe first appeared in the Second Doctor serial The Invasion (1968).
The site includes very little content, but has a small interactive Flash system, which responds only to the codes IE2306801, available from the MediaPlay site, and also IE555055/3, which is mentioned on the corporate history page of the site as a product that must be recalled, and 44044/01, mentioned on the homepage as a trial product. (Although neither code listed on the site has the IE prefix, the former only works if it is added, and the latter only works without it.)
[edit] Cybus Fitness
http://www.cybusfitness.co.uk/ is the website for the personal fitness arm of Cybus Industries. It contains very little content, except for the frequency to tune the radio to. Cybus Fitness has the slogans "Strength is not a weakness", and "We can give you a perfect body", implying the Cyberman influence.
[edit] Cybus Industries
http://www.cybusindustries.net/ is the main website of Cybus Industries. It includes a subscription service for ear-pod downloads, which are seen in Rise of the Cybermen, and has a microsite devoted to Vitex drinks, marketed by Pete Tyler, and has products such as "Water Lite" which claim to "melt fat", "reduce wrinkles" and even "reduce hair loss".
The site also has a password-protected intranet, which, when entered with the password "Gemini12", completes the minigame relating the episode Rise of the Cybermen, and triggers a message from Ricky along with the code "Binary9". If typed into the chatbot, Ricky's associate will comment that this code will be needed again next week. Once logged in, clicking on the "© Cybus Industries" link in the bottom right of the screen links to a hidden page which includes many of the posters and videos seen in Rise of the Cybermen.
The site also mentions a music festival, "The Pod", taking place on July 15, a week after the final episode of Series 2 ends. The significance of this is unclear.
Following The Age of Steel, two extra pages were added to the site. One is an interview with John Lumic by Tom MacRae (who wrote the television story) and the other a game based on the end of the episode, where the user must use a zeppelin to save Paris from the Cybermen. Initially, a code, mentioned on the show as 6879760, was needed to unlock it. However, the game can now be accessed freely through the "Airship" tab on the home page.
[edit] Henrik's Online
http://www.henriksonline.co.uk/ is the website of the Henrik and Son department store of a parallel Earth (Rose Tyler worked for Henrik's in her own universe in Rose). The site contains an excerpt of John Lumic's biography Man of Steel. It also has Jackie's autobiography The Strong Survive, and The Light of the Moon, a reference to the events of Tooth and Claw. The site links to Millingdale Organic Ice Cream, who, the site claims, makes their special ice cream, known as "Henrik's Surprise".
[edit] Ghostwatch
http://www.bbc.co.uk/entertainment/ghostwatch is the website for the fictional television programme Ghostwatch featured in the episode Army of Ghosts. The tie-in website for the programme is presented as if the programme were real and features several sections, including a game, a "Ghost report" and sightings from "viewers". The front page also tells people that the programme is shown on "BBC One 12pm, 7pm daily. GHOSTWATCH UPDATE - BBC Three 23.15." A ghost sighting has been filed by the mysterious David Roberts, who wants proof of the ghosts' existence (and whose name is also attached to a text message within the tie-in game, warning not to trust the ghosts).
The tie-in game contains several references to other episodes in the accompanying text messages, and the instrumental version of "Song for Ten" (as heard in School Reunion). The game involves directing the on-screen investigator to various locations and controlling remote cameras to collect data on the "ghosts".
[edit] Torchwood
[edit] Torchwood Institute System Interface
www.torchwood.org.uk is the Torchwood Institute System Interface, a simulated operating system for the Torchwood Institute presented in Flash (a non-flash version is also available). It contains files and information from Torchwood episodes being broadcast.
Following the episode Ghost Machine a file on "Ghosts" was added, including a link to the Ghostwatch site. Similarly, after Cyberwoman, information on The Fall of Torchwood One was added, explaining what might otherwise be construed as as continuity errors. Additional files have been added with each new episode.
[edit] Canonicity
Although they are produced by the BBC, the canonicity of the material on these websites is unclear. While parts of "Who is Doctor Who?" and the UNIT website are consistent with the events of the episodes as broadcast, other parts are not. For example, the UNIT website dates the climactic events of Rose to March 26, 2005 (the date of broadcast). However, a poster clearly seen in Aliens of London states that Rose Tyler had gone missing on the night of March 6.
The "History" section of the website claims that UNIT was formed in 1968 following the "London Underground" incident, a reference to the events of The Web of Fear. This seems to establish the events of the serial as happening in that year, although the dating of the UNIT serials is a long-standing controversy in Doctor Who fandom. See UNIT dating controversy for more details.
In addition, despite the implication that at the end of Father's Day the attack of the Reapers did not happen due to changes in history, "Who is Doctor Who" featured photographs that showed the attack. The UNIT website also referred to a report about the incident, although the Doctor claimed no one would remember it.
[edit] Registered domains
The BBC has registered the following domain names, but none of them have active websites at this time:
- sarahjanesmith.org.uk
- deffryvale.com
- cybusindustries.com
- cybusindustries.co.uk
- cybusfinance.com
- cybusfinance.co.uk (holding page)
- cybusproperty.com
- cybusproperty.co.uk (holding page)
- torchwood.net
[edit] Non-BBC websites
Patterned after the fictional websites set up by the BBC, some fans have set up their own websites tying into the series. These sites are not featured or referred to in the programme and are not sanctioned by the BBC. These include:
[edit] Flydale North
http://www.flydale-north.org.uk/ - the website for Flydale North, the fictional constituency of MP Harriet Jones from Aliens of London and World War Three, and who is Prime Minister in The Christmas Invasion.
[edit] Cybus Corporation
http://www.cybuscorporation.com/ - the website for the Cybus Corporation. The corporation plays a major role in the 2006 series' two-part story featuring the Cybermen. The password for the "restricted files" area is "delete" (the old password was "nemesis"). The home page currently has a notice stating that upgrading and updating to Cybus Corporation.2 is in progress. The old site can still be accessed.
[edit] Powell Estate Tenants and Residents Association
http://www.powellestate.org.uk/ - the website for the Powell Estate Tenants and Residents Association. Rose Tyler, her mother Jackie and Mickey live on the Powell Estate and several scenes and episodes have been set there. The site includes photos of a BBC film crew at work filming Doctor Who, however in the fiction of the site, they are said to be filming scenes for a new BBC series entitled Time War starring Paul McGann (who played the Eighth Doctor), set in the "fictional Brandon Estate" (the real location of the Powell Estate).
