Class, dismissed: Why the Doctor Who spin-off failed

After months of speculation, it’s official: Doctor Who spin-off Class won’t be back for season 2. But why did that happen?

It’s finally official. Doctor Who spinoff series Class won’t return for a second season.

We all sort of knew this was coming. We’ve been speculating about it for a while. After all, there’s really probably not a lot of hope left when your series creator jumps ship and then tweetstorms about his exit after the fact.

But official confirmation of that fact still stings.

Class followed the adventures of a group of four students and their teacher at Coal Hill Academy, a location familiar to all long-time Doctor Who fans. It’s the school the First Doctor’s granddaughter attended, as well as where original companions Ian and Barbara worked. And recent TARDIS resident Clara Oswald also taught there. Theoretically the premise of the series involved the kids protecting the school due to a tear in the universe located there.

Class‘ first season was dreadfully uneven, waffling between character episodes and strange mythology stories involving villainous aliens the Shadow Kin. It didn’t always make a ton of sense. But one thing Class was particularly great at writing its teenage characters honestly, and making them all multi-dimensional characters instead of stereotypes. And, of course, Katherine Kelly’s Miss Quill was great. But, alas, it is not to be.

And that’s a shame. Not because Class was a particularly great show. It wasn’t. But it had potential, and it’s possible that it would have improved if time to reassess the mistakes of its first season. Plus it’s always sad to see the Whoniverse get smaller. In theory, the world of Doctor Who provides endless opportunities for spin-offs, anthologies or connected series. But, for whatever reason, we can’t seem to make one stick these days. (I still miss you, first two seasons of Torchwood!)

What would work? I’m not sure, though I suspect something that’s more firmly attached to the existing Who brand might fare better. Are there people who wouldn’t watch a show about Missy’s adventures outside of the Doctor? Or tune in to see Madame Vastra and the Pater Noster Gang solve crimes? Wouldn’t we all love to know what Martha or Amy’s lives looked like after they left the TARDIS behind? Heck, Clara technically has her own TARDIS, we could even travel around with her for a bit. (Or, at least, we could if Jenna Coleman weren’t busy being Queen Victoria.) But, the larger point still stands.

Having Peter Capaldi (or whoever the current Doctor may be) pop up for ten minutes in the pilot just isn’t enough to draw firm connections between the franchises, it would appear. Perhaps Class might have fared better if we’d met Miss Quill, Charlie or one of the other students at some point prior to its debut, so we could have started the show invested in their stories. But it’s hard to be sure.

Additionally, the BBC scheduled the series so strangely that it’s hard to imagine anything could have found success with viewers. It originally premiered on online-only outlet BBC Three before being consigned to the graveyard shift on terrestrial channel BBC One. Of course no one saw it. The network made it difficult for even the most die-hard of Who fans to watch it. So there was little hope of it attracting new or casual viewers — i.e. those that weren’t already watching Doctor Who — that way. Even the strongest possible spin-off, creatively speaking, would have tanked with that little buzz and general audience interest.

Next: Mashing up Doctor Who and Mr. Men

So maybe Class’ fate was inevitable. But it’s a shame we’ll never what might have been in season 2.