{"id":158146,"date":"2025-11-28T14:52:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-28T14:52:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/158146\/"},"modified":"2025-11-28T14:52:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-28T14:52:10","slug":"doctor-who-boss-reveals-how-new-spin-off-is-linked-to-torchwood-children-of-earth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/158146\/","title":{"rendered":"Doctor Who boss reveals how new spin-off is linked to Torchwood: Children of Earth"},"content":{"rendered":"

As Doctor Who<\/a> fans prepare to dive head-first into a brand new spin-off with the forthcoming five-part series The War Between the Land and the Sea<\/a>, the show\u2019s creator and franchise stalwart \u2013 has opened up about any further Whoniverse connections.<\/p>\n

The mini series features UNIT (Unified Intelligence Taskforce) commander-in-chief Kate Lethbridge-Stewart (Jemma Redgrave)<\/a>, Colonel Christofer Ibrahim (Alexander Devrient) and newcomer Barclay (Russell Tovey<\/a>), as they attempt to halt the growing international crisis between mankind and the Doctor\u2019s old enemy, The Sea Devils.<\/p>\n

Along with spotlighting the iconic ancient foes \u2013 who first faced off against Jon Pertwee\u2019s<\/a> Third Doctor back in 1972 \u2013 the new chapter has direct links to early noughties spin-off Torchwood, particularly its third season, Children of Earth, most prominently, the return of Colin McFarlane’s General Austin Pierce.<\/p>\n

When asked about potential ties, showrunner and writer Russell T Davies exclusively told RadioTimes.com<\/a>: \u201cI think you\u2019ll have fun if you watch this and Children of Earth together, because they\u2019re both about alien species \u2013 or otherworldly species \u2013 encountering the human race in an ambassadorial context.\u201d <\/p>\n

Eagle-eyed Torchwood fans will undoubtedly want to move this to the top of their watchlist, as Davies confirmed: \u201cWe use a lot of the same sets as we used in Children of Earth\u2026 you\u2019ll see a lot of the same staircases appear, a lot of the same corridors\u2026 It\u2019s in the same world.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Colin<\/p>\n

Colin McFarlane as Austin Pearce in Torchwood: Children of Earth.\u00a0BBC<\/p>\n

In one of the spin-off show\u2019s darkest arcs, the hugely popular third instalment saw the alien race known as 456 return to Earth, demanding the British government hand over 10 per cent of the world’s children \u2013 or they would destroy the human race.<\/p>\n

As a result, the government ordered the assassination of all Torchwood members in an attempt to cover up their past involvement with the aliens dating back to 1965, with disastrous consequences for the covert team. <\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The War Between the Land and the Sea key art\u00a0BBC Studios\/Bad Wolf\/James Pardon<\/p>\n

The upcoming UNIT-centric spin-off features a similarly tense showdown between mankind and another species, with Davies noting: \u201cIt is how I think we would approach an alien species, as ambassadors, for formal talks, so [it\u2019s a] very different show, very different things happening, but I hope someone splices together the scenes that take place in the same corridors.\u201d<\/p>\n

We can\u2019t wait to see the inevitable fan edit of the crossover when The War Between the Land and the Sea splash-lands on our screens this December!<\/p>\n

Stay tuned for more about The War Between the Land and the Sea, including news, interviews, features, and more. The War Between the Land and the Sea is coming to BBC One and BBC iPlayer from 7th December.<\/p>\n

Add The War Between the Land and the Sea to your watchlist on the Radio Times: What to Watch app<\/a> \u2013 download now for daily TV recommendations, features and more.<\/p>\n

Check out more of our Sci-fi<\/a> coverage or visit our TV Guide<\/a> and Streaming Guide<\/a> to find out what’s on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As Doctor Who fans prepare to dive head-first into a brand new spin-off with the forthcoming five-part series…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":158147,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[156,409,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-158146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-movies","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=158146"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158146\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/158147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=158146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=158146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=158146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}