Doctor Who Semi-Spin-off - The Stranger 1-6 + Extras

Contains all 6 "The Stranger" movies and some extra material.

The Stranger is a series of direct-to-video (and audio CD) science-fiction dramas produced by BBV and starring Colin Baker. They are now available on DVD.

The series began in 1991 with Summoned by Shadows, co-produced with the BBC Film Club as a knowing homage to the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who (of which BBV founder Bill Baggs was a fan) and in a pragmatic attempt to take advantage of the consequent pre-existing audience. Summoned by Shadows was a Who-style tale of strange doings on a distant planet featuring three actors known for their roles in Doctor Who and playing similar characters.

The unnamed protagonist (listed in the credits as "The Stranger") was played by Colin Baker, his assistant Miss Brown by Nicola Bryant, who had played the Doctor's assistant Peri Brown opposite Colin Baker for two years, and the villain of the piece by Michael Wisher, who had been the first actor to play Davros.

The second story, More than a Messiah, adapted the Doctor Who Audio Visuals story of the same name, but with the Stranger and Miss Brown substituted for the Doctor and companion Ria (who was modelled after Peri). In a further connection, it co-starred Sophie Aldred, better known as Ace from Doctor Who, and Peter Miles, who had co-starred (opposite Wisher) in the TV serial Genesis of the Daleks – both in completely different roles.

In Memory Alone, the third film, found the Stranger and Miss Brown stranded without their mysterious transport (never seen or referred to as the TARDIS) in a desolate train station with amnesia, and battling a robot and a mysterious man played by Nicholas Briggs (who also wrote the film along with others in the Stranger series). Most releases of this film (including VHS) include a behind-the-scenes featurette and a blooper reel.

While the first three may be (and usually were) taken as Doctor Who by another name, the departure here of the Miss Brown character (for which Nicola Bryant had not used her Peri Brown American accent) and the Stranger himself being likewise "returned to his proper time and place" at the story's conclusion allowed for a move to divorce the series from any such notions. The adventures of the Stranger ran in all to six videos (and four audio dramas, although the second audio drama was much the same as the sixth video), in the later half of which the series established its own style and distinct back story, abandoning any pretence of being the further adventures of the Sixth Doctor under another name (or lack thereof). The Stranger was thus eventually given an identity as the series' continuity was tied up.