America’s going to get taken to school after all. Back in October, we told you that there would be a spinoff of the science fiction favorite Doctor Who called Class aimed at young adults. The series is going to premiere on BBC Three, which is a pretty low-tier channel in Britain, and many (including me) were left speculating whether the show would be available in the U.S. at all. Friday at the Television Critics Association hoopla, it was announced the show will indeed come to BBC America.
BBC America’s president, Sarah Barnett, announced the news along with a couple of other series coming to the network in 2016. Class will be an eight-part series and is being co-produced by BBC America. It marks the first television screenwriting credit for Patrick Ness, an acclaimed YA author of such books as the award-winning A Monster Calls. The series is set in Coal Hill School, the same place where Clara Oswalt was a teacher, and is being executive produced by Doctor Who‘s Steven Moffat and Brian Minchin.
Of the new gig, Ness said, “I’m astounded and thrilled to be entering the Doctor Who universe, which is as vast as time and space itself.” He later joked, “I can’t wait for people to meet the heroes of Class, to meet the all-new villains and aliens, to remember that the horrors of the darkest corners of existence are just about on par with having to pass your exams.”
Class is the first Doctor Who spinoff series of the Steven Moffat era, following in the timey-wimey footsteps of post-watershed Torchwood and kid-centric The Sarah Jane Adventures, both created by Russell T. Davies. Class does not seem to be including any characters that have appeared on Doctor Who, though whether any show up in the eight-week run will surely be something to watch.
Class will premiere sometime in 2016.
Are you looking forward to non-Doctor adventures in the Doctor Who universe? Let us know in the comments below!
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Image: BBC
Kyle Anderson is the Weekend Editor, a film and TV critic, and the resident Whovian for Nerdist.com. Follow him on Twitter!
And while we’re talking Doctor Who, find out who we’d like to see take over for showrunner Steven Moffat when he eventually leaves the series!
