How many Doctor Who spin-offs can you name? There's K9 and Company and The Sarah Jane Adventures, Torchwood and Class, and, well, that's it – officially, that is.

But, over the past 30 years, there have been a wealth of non-broadcast, semi-official spin-off videos featuring characters from the series that have been licensed out to filmmakers.

Films featuring the Doctor or the TARDIS are a no-no, but other characters and monsters (which, thanks to the BBC's liberal copyright terms back in the day, are owned by the writers who created them) have been allowed to star in their own fan-produced stories.

Here's a look at some of the non-BBC, non-canon Doctor Who spin-offs...

1. Wartime (1988)

Reeltime Pictures

John Levene was never the most polished of Doctor Who's cast in the early 1970s, but he acquits himself pretty well in this eerie tale which sees UNIT's Sergeant Benton revisiting the ghosts of his past. Listen out for a voice cameo from Nicholas Courtney, revisiting the part of Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart. There aren't any clips online (that we could find), but you can buy it here for a tenner.

2. The Stranger series (1991-1995)

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Colin Baker had a number of interdimensional adventures as The Stranger (never named on screen), sometimes assisted by Miss Brown (Nicola Bryant, aka Peri Brown in Doctor Who), sometimes by Ria (Sophie Aldred, who played Ace).

It's Doctor Who in all but name, budget and quality.

3. P.R.O.B.E. (1994-2015)

BBV Productions

An early writing credit for Mark Gatiss, 1994's 'The Zero Imperative' was the first of a five-film series following the exploits of former UNIT scientist (and former Doctor's companion) Dr Liz Shaw (still played by Caroline John).

In this one (which stars ex-Doctors Jon Pertwee, Peter Davison, Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy, all in new roles, oddly), Shaw is now working for an organisation called the Preternatural Research Bureau as she's called upon to investigate a series of bizarre murders.

The following year's 'The Devil of Winterborne' saw investigating some strange goings-on at a public school in an X-Files-flavoured thriller, again by Mark Gatiss and featuring a guest appearance from Reece Shearsmith.

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'Unnatural Selection' (1996) provided more grisly investigations for Liz in another Gatiss-penned film when a bunch of mutilated bodies appear near the site of a top-secret government installation.

'Devil' sequel 'Ghosts of Winterborne' had Dr Shaw and her fellow P.R.O.B.Ers investigating a series of occult-flavoured deaths. This film has the distinction of being the first ever Doctor Who-related video to be slapped with an 18 certificate by the BBFC (though they later downgraded it, somewhat bizarrely, to a 12).

Almost 20 years later and we got the final (to date) P.R.O.B.E. film in 2015. Despite Caroline John's death in 2012 and Gatiss going on to greater things, the P.R.O.B.E. series was rebooted, but 'When To Die' is a pale shadow of its predecessors with a miscast Hazel Burrows taking over the role of an now-aged Liz Shaw.

4. Shakedown: Return of the Sontarans (1995)

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With a script by Doctor Who telly veteran Terrance Dicks and an impressive line-up of sci-fi-friendly thesps (Jan Chappell and Brian Croucher from Blake's 7, plus Doctor Who's own Sophie Aldred and Carole Ann Ford), this is a commendably ambitious and handsomely-mounted sci-fi tale featuring not just the Sontarans but their alien rivals, the Rutans.

Dicks later novelised the story, adding the Seventh Doctor to the narrative.

5. Downtime (1995)

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Despite the broadly similar title, this isn't a sequel to Wartime, though it does feature Nicholas Courtney, in the flesh this time, as a now-retired Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart.

Reeltime Pictures

In fact, it's more a follow-on to the 1968 story 'The Web of Fear', featuring the Yeti, as well as former Troughton-era companion Victoria Waterfield (Deborah Watling) and the character of Professor Edward Travers (who appeared in 'The Abominable Snowmen' and 'The Web of Fear' and is still played by Jack Watling).

It also manages to find room for appearances from Sarah Jane Smith (Elisabeth Sladen) and the Brig's daughter, Kate (not yet played by Jemma Redgrave, mind).

6. Auton (1997-1999)

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Doctor Who's killer plastic dummies returned in 1996, in a UNIT-centred spin-off written by future Doctor Who Dalek voice man Nicholas Briggs. Auton 2: Sentinel (1998) gave us more of the same, with impressive (for the time) CGI work lending this one a sheen of movie-like professionalism.

BBV Productions

Auton 3: Awakening (1999) was the final part of the trilogy, picking up from the end of the previous film with UNIT racing to stop an all-out Auton invasion of Earth.

7. Mindgame (1998)

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A Sontaran (Toby Aspin), a Draconian (Miles Richardson) and a human (Sophie Aldred) are trapped inside a prison cell together and goaded by an unnamed alien into fighting each other in this talky psycho-drama penned by Terrance Dicks.

Though Sophie Aldred's character isn't named as Ace (producers Reeltime Pictures couldn't get the rights), it's heavily implied she is. Nudge nudge, and all that.

Reeltime Pictures

A sequel in 1999 took the form of a three-tale anthology which picks up the stories of the three characters as they're beamed back to the moment where they were originally snatched.

Playing like a sci-fi-garnished version of Alan Bennett's Talking Heads, it's a very different beast to its more straightforward predecessor, and features a cracking turn from Sophie Aldred as A*e.

8. Cyberon (2000)

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So unofficial that it stars nobody from Doctor Who, not even the Cybermen, even though they're the clear inspiration for the techno-monsters of the title.

Remember "Dr Lauren Anderson" (Jo Castleton), though, we'll be seeing her again later.

9. Do You Have A License To Save This Planet? (2001)

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"The dark heart of the Licensed Reality Corporation is about to unleash a terrible new weapon... A new power that will threaten the delicate balance of accepted canonicity."

Do you get the feeling that they were really just making these things for themselves?

Sylvester McCoy plays The Foot Doctor. (He may have a license to save the planet, but not to call himself the Doctor.)

10. Daemos Rising (2004)

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Existing in the same continuity as Downtime, this has Kate Stewart (still played by Beverley Cressman) going head-to-head with a Daemon (as in the 1972 story, 'The Daemons') in this creepy, Hammer-inspired horror.

Reeltime Pictures

11. Zygon: When Being You Just Isn't Enough (2008)

Ever watched Doctor Who and thought, "What this needs is more sex"? Well, hey presto, here's a spin-off with more groin-on-groin action and nudity than even Torchwood could muster, as a Zygon who's forgotten he's a Zygon approaches "sexy psychiatrist Lauren Anderson" (to quote the official blurb) for help. Cripes.

BBV Productions

12. K-9 (2009-2010)

Network Ten

The rights to the Fourth Doctor's robot buddy don't lie with the BBC, but with its co-creator, the writer Bob Baker. After the Beeb turned down his pitch for a K-9 spinoff series, Baker upped sticks to Australia to make this 26-episode curio, featuring a redesigned K-9 (though still voiced by John Leeson) joining forces with three kids and an agoraphobic professor to do battle with invading species.

With no involvement from the BBC, canonically it's unconnected to Doctor Who, but there are still plenty of Easter eggs for keen-eyed fans.

13. White Witch of Devil's End (2017)

Reeltime Pictures

Like the earlier Daemons Rising, this is another spin-off from the 1971 Pertwee favourite 'The Daemons', though this one has the added novelty of being based around an actual character from that story, the charmingly eccentric Olive Hawthorne (still played by 88-year-old Damaris Hayman, who was just 42 when she first played the role).

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