The Stranger (film series)

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The Stranger is a series of direct-to-video (and audio CD) science-fiction dramas produced by BBV and starring Colin Baker.^[1] 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 is a Who-style tale of strange doings in an unspecified time period on Earth featuring three actors known for their roles in Doctor Who and playing similar characters. The unnamed protagonist (listed in the credits as "The Stranger") is 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) 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 often were) taken as Doctor Who by another name, the departure of the Miss Brown character (for which Nicola Bryant does not speak with Peri Brown's 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 clarify The Stranger's status as separate work of fiction and developed an identity of its own.

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).