‘Doctor Who’ spin-offs ranked: From K-9 and Daleks! to ‘Class’, ‘The Sarah Jane Adventures’ and ‘Torchwood’

It’s famously bigger on the inside, but a single TARDIS was never going to be enough to accommodate a vast and expanding Whoniverse. New Sea Devil drama “The War Between the Land and the Sea” is just the latest in a long line of “Doctor Who” spin-offs, exploring different corners of time and space.

In order to keep things manageable, we’ve steered clear of the vast collection of Gallifrey-adjacent books, comics, and audio dramas because, well, even a Time Lord would struggle to get through them in their lifetime. We’ve got an honorable mentions section at the bottom of the list to acknowledge some of the best of these, though.

Instead, this ranked list concentrates on TV shows, whether their target audience is kids, grown-ups, or somewhere in between. So, grab your sonic screwdrivers and let’s take a journey across time and space as we look at the ‘Doctor Who’ spin-offs, ranked from worst to best.

‘Doctor Who’ spin-offs ranked

9. K-9

Tin dog K-9 became a superstar during Tom Baker’s TARDIS tenure, and an earlier spin-off — “K-9 and Company”, co-starring Elisabeth Sladen as Sarah Jane Smith — even made it to pilot in 1981. (You can check out the very ’80s opening titles on YouTube.)

But beyond John Leeson’s characteristic voice, this short-lived 2009 show shares little DNA with “Doctor Who” because, unlike every other show on this list, “K-9” is not a BBC production.

Having co-created the eponymous pooch, writer Bob Baker retained some of the rights to the character, but crucially not to the design or his connections to a certain Time Lord — hence the extensive makeover and the lack of references to the metal mutt’s adventures in space and time. The result is a generic, pretty forgettable kids’ show, in which the robotic hero helps a bunch of children fight off the alien Jixen in a futuristic London.

Where to watch: Currently unavailable in the UK; Roku (US)

8. Daleks!

Even bad guys can be the heroes in their own stories… In “Daleks!”, “Doctor Who”‘s most famous villains get busy eye(stalk)ing up the Archive of Islos, a futuristic library boasting vast quantities of knowledge and its very own visitor center. But even without the usual Time Lord interference, the pepperpots’ usual plans for taking over the universe aren’t quite going according to plan.

Part of the multi-platform, multi-Doctor Time Lord Victorious “event”, this is one for Dalek completists rather than casual fans. While it’s always fun to watch Davros’s progeny scheming and exterminating (“Doctor Who” regular Nicholas Briggs is back on voice duties), the story is undeniably slight. The CG animation is also disappointingly rudimentary.

Where to watch: Doctor Who YouTube channel

7. The Curse of Fatal Death

1999 was a dark time to be a “Doctor Who” fan — the TV series had been off-air for a decade, the 1996 TV movie had failed to resurrect the franchise, and Russell T Davies’s reboot was still another six years away. Luckily, charity telethon Comic Relief came to the rescue with this one-off skit, a broad, 20-minute comedy that plays a bit like “Carry On Doctor (Who)”.

Rowan Atkinson plays a Ninth Doctor ready to hang up his TARDIS keys and marry his companion (Julia Sawalha), when the Master (a scenery-chewing Jonathan Pryce) and the Daleks throw a spanner in the works.

The script (from future showrunner Steven Moffat) has plenty of laughs at “Who” clichés — at one point the Doctor complains about “all those endless gravel quarries” — while sidestepping the need for exposition with its recurring “I’ll explain later…” catchphrase. It’s an innuendo-filled, hit-and-miss affair, but it does rattle through four regenerations — including Hugh Grant, and Joanna Lumley as the first-ever female Doctor.

Where to watch: Comic Relief YouTube channel

6. Tales of the TARDIS

Retired Time Lords have been returning to the TARDIS ever since 1973’s “The Three Doctors”, but the passage of time in the real world can limit a former “Who” actor’s window of opportunity. This fun series — released for the show’s 60th anniversary — gets around that problem by reuniting Doctors and companions of the past in the Memory TARDIS, a plot device that would later turn up in the Fifteenth Doctor episode “Empire of Death“.

In truth, the reminiscences are little more than bookends for truncated versions of classic “Who” tales like “Earthshock”, “The Mind Robber”, and “The Curse of Fenric”. Even so, fans of the classic series will get the warm-and-fuzzies seeing the Fifth Doctor (Peter Davison) getting nostalgic with Tegan (Janet Fielding) and the Seventh Doctor (Sylvester McCoy) with Ace (Sophie Aldred). Most importantly of all, the Sixth Doctor (Colin Baker) is — at long last — given a stylish alternative to his abomination of an outfit.

Where to watch: BBC iPlayer (UK); Available to buy on Apple (US)

5. Class

The Whoniverse got smaller after “Torchwood” and “The Sarah Jane Adventures” ended, as “Doctor Who” showrunner Steven Moffat opted to focus on the main show. There was one notable companion piece, however, as the franchise opened the doors to the school where everything started in 1963.

Coal Hill first appeared in the very first “Doctor Who” story, “An Unearthly Child”, when a pair of teachers took an interest in the Doctor’s gifted granddaughter, Susan. YA series “Class” (co-created by Patrick Ness) brings things right up to date, following the lives, loves, and close encounters of the school’s students and teachers — think “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” or “Roswell” in London.

The show’s bold tone and progressive storytelling marked new territory for the franchise, and — much like “Firefly” — “Class” could have become something great if it hadn’t been cancelled after a single season.

Where to watch: BBC iPlayer (UK); Available to buy on Apple and Amazon (US)

4. An Adventure in Space and Time

This one-off, made for the show’s 50th birthday, proves that the origins of “Doctor Who” are just as noteworthy as those of its eponymous time-travelling hero. “An Adventure in Space and Time” dramatizes the show’s early days, when BBC drama boss Sydney Newman (“Succession” star Brian Cox) conceived a groundbreaking new sci-fi show for Saturday evenings.

The focal points of the story, however, are producer Verity Lambert (Jessica Raine), director Waris Hussein (future Master Sacha Dhawan), and leading man William Hartnell (David Bradley).

Regular “Who” writer Mark Gatiss turns real life into a poignant love letter to the show he adores, as Bradley (who’s since played the First Doctor in the parent show) taps into Hartnell’s delight at becoming a star in his late ’50s, before ill health prompts the powers-that-be to initiate the show’s first ever regeneration.

Where to watch: BBC iPlayer (UK); Britbox (US)

3. The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot

While Tom Baker had a scene-stealing cameo in official 50th anniversary episode “The Day of the Doctor”, the Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Doctors (Peter Davison, Colin Baker, and Sylvester McCoy) only appeared in archive footage. They took center stage, however, in this entertaining, unashamedly meta one-off birthday special, written and directed by Davison.

It’s a hilarious, self-aware celebration of the show, as the three leads play fictionalized versions of themselves angling for a role in the anniversary special — they’ll operate Daleks if they have to.

The impressive roster of guest stars includes ex-Doctors David Tennant and Paul McGann, numerous former “Doctor Who” companions, showrunners Steven Moffat and Russell T Davies, and even Peter Jackson — the “The Lord of the Rings” director and long-time Whovian has made no secret of his desire to direct an episode one day.

Where to watch: BBC.co.uk (UK); Currently unavailable in the US

2. Torchwood

The massive success of the 2005 “Doctor Who” reboot paved the way for executive producer Russell T Davies to craft a complex shared universe, years before the Marvel Cinematic Universe got in on the act. First out of the spin-off blocks was “Torchwood”, an adult-focused, monster-of-the-week drama series about the eponymous (but not-so-secret) organization, an alien-hunting agency given licence to operate outside the law. “Doctor Who” graduate John Barrowman was given star billing as the immortal Captain Jack Harkness, in a show that relished the opportunity to go to darker places than the parent show ever could.

“Torchwood” takes a while to find its feet, but look past the tonal inconsistency, and there are gems to be found in both of the first two seasons — nobody could ever fault “Torchwood” for a lack of ambition. But it’s the format-smashing third season, “Children of Earth”, that really earns the show its silver medal on this list of “Doctor Who” spin-offs — it’s arguably the best thing ever to come out of the Whoniverse.

Where to watch: BBC iPlayer (UK); Available to buy on Apple and Amazon (US)

1. The Sarah Jane Adventures

“Doctor Who” was originally conceived for children but, even in its early days, it rarely let that idea constrain its vision or ambition. ’00s spin-off “The Sarah Jane Adventures” was cut from similar cloth, a kid-friendly answer to “Torchwood” that also had plenty for the core audience’s parents (and other “Who” fans) to enjoy.

Davies’s decision to center the series on beloved former companion Sarah Jane Smith (the late Elisabeth Sladen) proves a genius move, as a character steeped in “Who” lore takes on a leadership role in the Doctor’s absence.

Armed with little more than a Sonic Lipstick and a supercomputer named Mr Smith (voiced by “Pointless” host Alexander Armstrong), she teams up with a bunch of teens (and occasionally K-9) to fight family-appropriate alien threats in London. Joyous and inventive while treating its audience with respect, this is the best “Doctor Who” spin-off of them all.

Where to watch: BBC iPlayer (UK); Available to buy on Apple and Amazon (US)

Honorable mentions

Television is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to “Doctor Who” spin-offs. Virgin Books’ “New Adventures” series told all-new Time Lord stories in the ’90s, and was widely credited with keeping the TARDIS flame alive during the show’s decade-and-a-half away from TV. It eventually spawned a series of novels headlined by companion Bernice Summerfield.

Summerfield has since gone on to star in numerous audio dramas produced by Big Finish. Alongside numerous Doctor-centric stories, the company has also produced spin-offs centered on — among others — UNIT, the Paternoster Gang (led by the Silurian Madame Vastra), and Jago & Litefoot, a pair of Victorian investigators who first appeared in Fourth Doctor story “The Talons of Weng-Chiang”.

It could also be argued that the two Peter Cushing “Dr Who” movies from the 1960s are spin-offs, seeing as they exist in their own continuity — Cushing’s Doctor may not even be an alien.

We chose not to include David Tennant-starring animated serials “The Infinite Quest” (2007) and “Dreamland” (2009), as they’re effectively episodes of the main TV show that just happen to be in a different medium. The thirtieth anniversary cartoon “Scream of the Shalka” (2003) has undeniably become more notable in recent years, however, after the Doctor played by Richard E Grant became canon in 2024’s “Rogue“.