The Doctor is getting closer to resuming house calls though our television sets next month and after a comedic two-part webisode for Red Nose Day in the U.K., the teasing of the upcoming season continues.
Doctor Who TV has announced that BBC will roll out a prequel webisode to the two-part season premiere "soon," which will introduce the audience to the menace the Doctor, Amy, and Rory will encounter in the first episode of the sixth season. Written by the shows current showrunner Steven Moffat, the prequel will set "the scene in scary and mysterious style," according to the BBC.
The network also warns viewers to pay attention to what could be a "new monster," but whether this monster will be a recurring monster, the Big Bad of the season, or just a one off character has yet to be reported. But we do know that these prequels, especially the first one, will be integral to the plot points for the upcoming series.
"The first prequel stars Stuart Milligan and introduces us to story strands that will bind the Doctor – and enthral his audience – throughout the weeks ahead. We’ll bring you more details soon, but be warned, it’s a scary one…" the BBC advised.
No word has been given if these prequels will also be available for American audiences since the BBC media player blocks some content from American viewers. We will keep you posted if we find out more about that little tidbit.
Prequel/spin-off webisodes have been used a lot lately for a couple of other British genre shows of late. Primeval aired a six-part prequel webisode series that properly introduced the new characters, bridged the gap between the third and fourth series, and also set in motion an integral plot point for series four. The original Being Human also did a webisode spin-off titled, Becoming Human, which followed a character named Adam, who was introduced in the third episode of the third series of Being Human. The full 8 webisodes were aired as a 50 minute special this past weekend on the BBC.
With both of those webisodes ending up being hits with viewers, it's a safe bet to assume that the Doctor Who webisodes will be equally as entertaining and popular with the shows fans. Now if we could only get webisodes leading up to this summer's Torchwood: Miracle Day event, then life would just be oh so grand.
Doctor Who Series/Season Six Premiere Airs April 23rd @9pm/8c on BBC America.
Source: Doctor Who TV
If the webisode is made available only on the BBC website, I'd say it's likely North American viewers won't be able to see it. However the BBC did release the Comic Relief Red Nose Day mini-episodes to its official YouTube channel, available worldwide, within hours of broadcast on Saturday, so if they do that with the webisodes we should be able to see them. (If not, someone will post them to YouTube anyway). Question is whether these prequels will be included on the DVD. In 2006 the BBC produced a series of 13 such mini-episodes for the second season, dubbed "TARDISodes", at least two of which actually filled in major plot points not covered in the episodes themselves, but for whatever reason they were never released on DVD.