User:Epsilon the Eternal/Doctor Who tie-in websites

Beginning with the launch of the first series of the 2005 revival of Doctor Who, the BBC began releasing tie-in websites to coincide with both Doctor Who and Torchwood, distinct from the primary Doctor Who website. These sites were also referred to as spin-off sites and fictional sites by official sources.

Nature
The websites can be sorted into three categories: websites that are based upon counterparts within the television series; websites that have no counterpart from the television series but their respective company or group is; and those that are wholly out-of-universe websites.

In the 1990s, promotion for Doctor Who was either broadcast or in print, with the Doctor Who website not being concieved of in the days of the early internet. Eventually, the BBC Cult website was made home to the online streaming of Death Comes to Time, Real Time, Shada, and Scream of the Shalka. By the time Rose came to be first broadcast, unlike in 1996, the BBC had a wealth of web content to supplement their revival of Doctor Who. And so, going a step further, the BBC made "the web [... become] part of the programme", producing real life websites based upon organisations seen in the programme; these websites also narratively linked to the ongoing storyline and story arc of series one, with Who is Doctor Who?, based upon Clive Finch's conspiracy website Doctor Who?, becoming Mickey Smith's personal blog in his determination to bring Rose Tyler safely back to Earth and away from the Doctor, whom Mickey thought would get Rose killed. While not part of the tie-in websites proper, the Bad Wolf website provided an out-of-universe look on the Bad Wolf story arc, providing many false theories and explanations.

Not unlike alternate reality games, the tie-in websites employed "unfiction", a type of fiction that attempts to convince its readers that it is actually reality; this was so effective the real world United Nations began taking legal action against the U.N.I.T. tie-in website and its creators, ultimately resulting in the UNIT acronym being changed, and the Leamington Spa Lifeboat Museum caused much confusion to the, who posted about it on Facebook. The tie-in websites also featured certain production jokes that spurred much fan speculation.

Archiving and status in the 2020s
As the websites were launched in the mid-2000s, they commonly utilised software such as Adobe Flash, and, which are all now defunct and/or incompatible with older content, which has resulted in much of the non-prose material to become lost media. Furthermore, the BBC failed to pursue retaining the website domains for the majority of the tie-in websites, allowing "" to purchase the domain and either put them up for sale or to host potentially malicious content. This Wiki advises you only visit these websites through the or the Ghost Archive.

The exact date many of these sites were launched is unclear. The dates for the series one websites can be worked out accurately by seeing when the website was first linked to on the home page of the Doctor Who website, which had been archived daily on the Wayback Machine; however this practise was abandoned during series two, thus leaving the only evidence of when the websites were launched by accessing the first archive on the Wayback Machine; however, the sites were evidently archived days after they launched, and in the case of Deffry Vale, around a whole year later.

, one of the only websites still hosted by the BBC is Who is Doctor Who?, however the BBC's ownership of the domain is set to expire on 29 June 2023. The domain of the U.N.I.T. website is set to expire on 23 November 2023. There also hasn't been a new tie-in website since 2007, leaving them a relic of the past.

Series 1
Production on the websites that coincided with series one seem to go as far back as 29 June 2004, with the registering of the domain "www.whoisdoctorwho.co.uk". The domain "www.unit.org.uk" was registered on 23 November 2004, incidentally the 51st anniversary of Doctor Who. Production wise, the website created to coincide with The Christmas Invasion was clearly created during the rest of the series one websites.

According to James Goss, the website editor four fictional websites were created in 2005, evidently not counting Bad Wolf, which contained no original fiction.

Series 2
In mid-2006, the BBC released a survey about Doctor Who, to which they received many positive responses regarding the spin-off sites with many "comments and suggestions" for the future of the sites. The official response to the survey announced that new websites were being developed. One of the most positive responses about the Doctor Who website were the "games and those fictional sites", so it was decided that for 2006, the BBC would be combining the two. James Goss, the website editor, announced in Doctor Who Magazine that each week, readers would have a mission, being sent to "a vast online world of secret organisations, [...] hidden footage, and ice cream parlours", to help Mickey Smith. Goss billed Joseph Lidster as the writer and Rob Francis as the producer, who were working in association with the games company Sequence to develop series two's tie-in websites.

Series 3
When series three began broadcasting, the BBC continued to release tie-in websites, but not to the same frequency.

Cancelled or unproduced websites
The existence of many of these websites can only be determined from the domains that were registered.

Fan-made websites
The following websites are fan made and thus cannot be covered on this Wiki. They are listed here so no errors in their coverage can be made.
 * Flydale North Constituency was a website released in 2005 styled to look like the Flydale North Constituency Party for Harriet Jones.
 * Powell Estate Tenants and Residents Association (T&RA) Site was a website styled to look like the official website for the Powell Estate.
 * Cybus Industries was a website launched in 2022 as part of pastiche on Doctor Who and English/American politics. "Cybus Industries" was run by CEO Elon Magpie. This parody was initally believed to be an official BBC marketing campaign, but this was proven false, especially as the Twitter account associated with the parody marked itself as such.