Watch: First look at the Doctor Who ‘spin-off’ filming in Cardiff

An intriguing new Doctor Who spin-off is being filmed in Cardiff.

Called ‘A Time Odyssey’ it’s described as ‘an unique new twist’ on the celebrated Timelord tale.

The fan series is being created by Doctor Who obsessives Windsor Holden (the writer), Callum Parfitt (the director) and Lewis Parfitt (who plays the film’s lead Winston and who is also the producer).

Lewis described ‘Time Odyssey as ‘the story of someone who encounters the doctor, as we often see, but who gets left behind’.

This unique take on the chance encounter leads to the series’ main story arc.

“We’re exploring the impact that would have on someone and how their curiosity might grow from having such an encounter.

“The man in our story, Winston, is a unique character, as he tries to find his place in the world he also starts to notice strange things going on around him, invoking extra terrestrial and links this to potentially having something to do with the doctor.

“So he begins to do research and as the story progresses through the series, the more confusing it gets for him in his own personal journey through life.”

Here the film’s creators talk us through the project…

What is the back story to the project and how did it come about?

Windsor: The production has had a fairly lengthy gestation period, rather like a Terry Gilliam project – maybe not as long as The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, but to put it into perspective, when the stories were conceived and written, Theresa May was Prime Minister and perhaps more pertinently, Peter Capaldi was still The Doctor.

I’ve known Lewis and Callum’s Dad for nearly fifty years, and we’d both grown up with a lot of sci-fi – Star Trek and Star Wars as well as Doctor Who – and he pretty much inculcated this love into them: you’d go round the house and it was full of these fantastic models and replicas. Then one day in 2017, Lewis emailed me this story idea for a Doctor Who spin-off and asked, would I like to write a script around it? Now, many moons ago, I’d sent some plot outlines, and in one case – in 1987 – a full script, to the Doctor Who office, all of which they politely declined. So you can tell I was probably up for this, and I duly took the scene outlines which Lewis had sent over and worked them up into a script, which became the first episode of Time Odyssey.

Lewis then sent over some outlines for a two-part story, which I also developed, along with a couple of episodes which I came up with. So far so good. But then from a production side it was a case of: when are people available? Because they’re off going to university and getting jobs, as people do, and then there was this COVID business which stopped the world in its tracks, let alone a fan fiction production. But finally, the stars have aligned and we’re away.

I take it The Odyssey is not a straight Doctor Who style movie?
Lewis: A Time Odyssey isn’t the usual fan film you typically find on YouTube. A lot of the current fan films usually take the direction of some kind of lost regeneration that The Doctor forgot about or a future regeneration. With our fan film, we thought we’d go more in the direction of creating a spin-off style story that takes place in the same universe as Doctor Who. Everyone on the production team are huge fans of the show, which was really important to us as we wanted people who would understand the lore in Doctor Who, what made it so successful, the familiarity people have of Doctor Who and what made Doctor Who great and well loved in the first place.

Our aim is to make something for fans by fans and with the crews experience in the industry already, we know the importance of telling a good story and the production quality. With storytelling being the main priority and us respecting the lore in the main show. Something else we’re going to try and appeal is bridge the divide between classic fans and nuwho fans, we plan on having some stories be the classic format of 4×20 minutes and the modern 40 minutes versions too. But that’s still being discussed with the production of future episodes, and really capturing stories that will be reminiscent of classic and nuwho. Something else we’re taking into consideration is the fact that we don’t have an amazing budget, everything we’re paying for is out of our own pockets. Which is why we’re going in the direction of low-budget horror, episodes like Blink, Midnight, Heaven Sent are the inspiration, all very basic, but those episodes are also often regarded as some of the greatest the show has ever produced.

What is the plotline of your Doctor Who movie?
Lewis: With this story, we’re exploring the everyday people who meet The Doctor and discover how that would affect them going forward beyond the interaction they have. The series revolves around Winston, a troubled, arrogant, highly intelligent former child prodigy and his attempts to reconnect with the Doctor, while all around him an ancient alien species from another universe are seeking to use the power from Cardiff’s space/time rift, aswel as their artefact which without they can’t compete, to create a new reality. The overriding arc of the series revolves around an encounter which Winston had as a small child, when his parents were murdered by aliens.

It transpires that Winston’s life was saved by the Doctor. Winston, becomes almost obsessed with learning more about The Doctor, who he is and where he comes from and his obsession leads him down roads that will change him forever. He also loves the pub. Alice, who takes the role of a kind of companion to Winston, graduated in economics from the University of Swansea, works for an insurance firm in Cardiff. Was having a relationship with Rod, but has recently discovered that he’s been seeing someone else. Met WINSTON by chance in a pub, is intrigued by him; finds him exasperating, but quite attractive.

 

 

 

 

 

Doctor Who fan film A Time Odyssey

 

Poster for A Time Odyssey

 

 

Tell us about the costumes and set design – what era have you gone for?
Lewis: We’re being pretty open when it comes to costumes. Having the actors have their own ideas and letting them bring what they think would work for their characters and then just checking over what ideas they have and making sure that it works for what we are going for. For me, I’ve taken inspiration from a mix of the BBC’s Sherlock and actually something I saw someone on TikTok wearing. Initially I thought about having a bright overcoat and gone with the Colin Baker type of costume, looking back now I think it was a good idea to move away from that. The sets for the first episode have been fairy easy, as it’s mainly been exterior gardens and old abandoned houses. We’ve only really had to do a bit of dressing really just to give it the aesthetic that we want it to be.

What have been the biggest challenges in making the film?
Callum: One of the biggest challenges we’ve faced so far is managing time effectively. Both of us leading the production are balancing full-time jobs alongside this project, which has made scheduling and progress particularly demanding. Additionally, with a large cast—many of whom also have full-time commitments—coordinating availability and bringing the right people together for filming has been a complex logistical challenge.

Where did you recruit the cast and crew?
Lewis: We’re quite lucky really to have people who are in the arts in our close circles, people we’ve met through college and university doing respective courses. It was simply just a case of giving them a message, telling them our idea and asking if they’d like to be involved. There are also a few people who are mega Doctor Who fans who heard about what we are doing and reached out to us.

What stage are you at with the film?
Lewis: We’re currently multitasking post production and production at the same time, we might film a scene one day then not do another one for 2 weeks but that’s mainly because it’s all volunteer so it’s whenever people are available that we film. I’d say definitely more than halfway through filming the first one but there’s also a few scenes where we need to add a shot or two just to make it line up seamlessly with the rest of the scene.

When are you ideally hoping to release the film?
Lewis: We don’t have an exact date yet, but we’re looking at a late summer release if things continue to go at the pace it’s currently at.