Before the MCU, Doctor Who built the same kind of shared universe and brought in millions of viewers. Russell T Davies used his 2005 revival of Doctor Who as a launchpad for two major spinoffs featuring popular characters from the series: the darker, Captain Jack Harkness-fronted Torchwood; and the kid-friendly The Sarah Jane Adventures, which focused on classic companion Sarah Jane Smith. Each proved a hit with viewers at the time, and their shared DNA gave the Whoniverse a sense of scale that covered all audience bases. There was even a behind-the-scenes show, Doctor Who Confidential, which was similar in style to the MCU's Marvel Studios Assembled.
The Doctor Who spinoffs featured crossovers and shared threats, such as a Cyberwoman appearing in Torchwood’s basement or The Doctor visiting Sarah Jane on Bannerman Road. The most significant crossover was the Doctor Who season 4 finale, consisting of the episodes “The Stolen Earth” and “Journey’s End,” which aired in 2008, the same year the first MCU movie, Iron Man was released. This was essentially Doctor Who doing The Avengers before the MCU did, with a franchise team-up to defeat a Thanos-scale universal threat, namely Davros and his hoards of Daleks. And it brought in over 10 million viewers. This era of the show lasted from 2006 to 2011, at which time both Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures came to an end.
During those years, Doctor Who and its spinoffs essentially took over British television in the same way the MCU has now taken over blockbuster cinema. By creating a diverse universe of characters aimed at different audiences, Davies and the production teams that followed him ensured that the Doctor Who franchise was always on people’s minds, not dissimilar to how audiences have come to expect a new entry in the MCU every few months. After this, Doctor Who only attempted one other spinoff – 2016's Class – but it was not a hit with audiences and lasted a single season. However, with Davies now returning as the showrunner for Doctor Who, there is a chance to once again expand the Whoniverse to MCU levels.
Davies expressed a desire for such an expansion of Doctor Who last year, stating: "There should be a Doctor Who channel now. You look at those Disney announcements, of all those new Star Wars and Marvel shows, you think, we should be sitting here announcing The Nyssa Adventures or The Return of Donna Noble, and you should have the Tenth and Eleventh Doctors together in a 10-part series." With both David Tennant and Catherine Tate confirmed to return as The Tenth Doctor and Donna, respectively, it looks like a variation of Russell T Davies's vision could be on the horizon.
Indeed, even before Davies's new era starts, classic companions like Tegan and Ace have been announced as returning for Jodie Whittaker and Chris Chibnall’s 90-minute centenary swansong later this year. Already opportunities have opened for popular characters to be given new shows. If Davies and Bad Wolf Studios were to expand the variety of characters beyond companions too, there could easily be a Loki-style antihero series with The Master or even a Dalek TV series such as the one Terry Nation initially tried to get off the ground in the 1960s. Stylistically, the franchise could also expand its palette to more surreal fare like Wandavision, and animation like Marvel’s What If? could open doors to past Doctors returning for a full series. BBC iPlayer has certainly given Davies a streaming opportunity as flexible as Disney+ in which to build this varied universe.
Davies established a way of working remarkably similar to Kevin Feige’s MCU before it even existed, overseeing a network of shows to tell both individual and overarching stories on a cosmic scale. With the MCU setting its sights on the TV industry in the past few years, it seems only right that Doctor Who should rise to match the ambition. The Whoniverse is boundless, and Davies has shown that alongside Ncuti Gatwa's new Doctor, he’s the right man to pilot the TARDIS through it.