Monster Files

Monster Files was an ongoing webcast series of webisodes created by the BBC for its official Doctor Who website website beginning as a tie-in with series 4 in 2008. These short films profile various monsters and alien races featured on Doctor Who.

Captain Jack's Monster Files
Initially, the series was presented as Captain Jack's Monster Files, in which John Barrowman, as Jack Harkness, narrates a brief history of various creatures and races encountered by the Doctor. The clips and videos were often depicted as being information acquired by the Torchwood Institute over the years. Live-action footage of Barrowman as Harkness was incorporated into the clips.

Although Files instalments usually corresponded with the episode being shown that week, during some two-parters extra Files about old monsters were released for the first part. The Slitheen were used for the Files broadcast in conjunction with The Sontaran Stratagem, for example, and the Judoon were used for Silence in the Library. A Christmas-themed Files episode was also created, in which Jack talked about the Sycorax, the Titanic, the Empress of the Racnoss, the Roboforms, the Roboform Christmas trees, the Graske and the Changelings.

2009 Adventure Calendar
For the 2009 Doctor Who Adventure Calendar, a webisode focusing on the Weeping Angels entitled A Ghost Story for Christmas was produced. Unlike earlier instalments, it was not identified as being part of the Monster Files series, and also told a brief story as opposed to being a straight documentary. Barrowman returned to narrate the piece as Captain Jack, however.

River Song's Monster Files
The Monster Files series resumed during series 5. Narrated by Alex Kingston as River Song, and featuring specially shot introduction footage, the files now took the form of information taken from her diary. Like at the end of Harkness' videos, she has survival tips, in this case called "Useful Spoilers".

Credits
These films were directed and produced by Ian Smith in BBC Wales, and written by Justin Richards.

Availability
The videos are streamed via the BBC's official Doctor Who website. Virtually all videos on the site are "geofenced" due to licensing and are technically not allowed to be viewed outside of the UK, though they are widely circulated anyway. None of these clips have been released on DVD or as any other form of media.