Season 2 (Through Time and Space)

Season 2 of Doctor Who: Through Time and Space, broadcast as Doktor – Przez Czas i Przestrzeń in Poland premiered in the spring of 2021. It featured Janusz Gajos as The Doktor, Paulina Walendziak as Pola Pisarek, and Jan Hrynkiewicz as Benek Jackiewicz. And in the final episode, Hanna Śleszyńska as The Doktor.

Renewal for Season 2
After the relative success of the first season of Doktor – Przez Czas i Przestrzeń, TVN were happy to give the go-ahead for it’s second season, however a renewal would not come until the final foreign adaptation, Mysteriet Doktorn, had been aired, as BBC Studios wouldn’t give their approval until they’d seen how successful the foreign adaptation scheme was as a whole. With no green light from the BBC, the production of Doktor – Przez Czas i Przestrzeń Season 2, and the other foreign adaptations was stalled, for now. In January 2020, Doktor – Przez Czas i Przestrzeń was formally commissioned with an order of 10 more bilingual episodes to be produced, this was at the same time as the announcement of Dokter Wie Season 3 and Mysteriet Doktorn Season 2, as well as the cancellation of Doctor Misterio.

Departure of Yoka and Introduction for Szafrański
The extra 6 months, created by this later-than-anticipated renewal, allowed Patrick Yoka to work full-time on two other shows he was showrunning, which helped him out a lot. Throughout this time, however, Yoka was approached by TVN to direct the new instalment of their very successful rom-com franchise, Listy Do M. 4, and therefore devised a schedule whereby he could do Doktor – Przez Czas i Przestrzeń and Listy Do M. 4. However, when COVID-19 struck in Spring 2020, these schedules were thrown out of the window. TVN aimed to get filming started for both these projects in the Summer of 2020, and as this schedule would no longer work, as time was a necessity, TVN practised Listy Do M. 4 and Yoka was taken off Doktor – Przez Czas i Przestrzeń as showrunner. This was largely due to ATM Group’s eagerness to get Season 2 out as soon as possible in order to prove the shows worth to the Doctor Who Production Team, due to another recent development.

They turned to Tomasz Szafrański, the director of The Mara, who had been considered for a role of showrunner even before Season 1 but was unavailable due to his work on Echo Serca. This time, he happily accepted the job. To ensure the smooth transition between the existing status quo and Szafrański’s vision, Piotr Szymanek stayed as a joint showrunner for the duration of this season, taking the top billing. The rest of the crew remained unchanged.

Removal of Bilingual Approach
Following the ViacomCBS report, new Executive Supervisor of Distribution, Maggy Chan, decided that Season 2 of Doktor – Przez Czas i Przestrzeń would not be made bilingually, in the way Season 1 had, as Doctor Who: Through Time and Space instead just being shot as any other show, in full Polish, and then dubbed in English – with the caveat that the original cast would provide the dub, as this would provide a consistency for English viewers. The reason behind this move was simply because Doctor Who: Through Time and Space didn’t benefit enough from the bilingual format, viewing figures wise, to necessitate the amount of money that BBC Studios and ViacomCBS were contributing towards it. However, ATM Group didn’t see it this way and were understandably unhappy, and therefore thought that if they got Doktor – Przez Czas i Przestrzeń to broadcast the fastest out of not just the foreign adaptations, but faster than most shows in the main Doctor Who Franchise then Maggy Chan might reconsider her position on the matter. The necessity to get this season out so fast, is why ATM Group allowed Yoka to be replaced as showrunner, instead of just waiting.

Controversy of Season 1
On 1st August 2020, Janusz Gajos was a guest on Pol’and’Rock Festival, where during the conversation panel he criticized Jarosław Kaczyński, the leader of the ruling party in Poland. In response, several party officials publicly attacked Gajos, and government-controlled public broadcaster TVP launched a hate campaign targeted at him. Due to Gajos being a face of the Polish adaptation, it was calumniated as well, with TVP reporters digging up the controversies around Season 1 episodes and accusing the show of promoting nihilistic, hedonistic and ‘neomarxist’ values. Several actors and politicians from the opposition came to defend Gajos and the show. TVN decided to ignore the incident, which turned out to be the right call – the bashing died down after a week, and when the involvement of Szafrański, one of TVP’s most valuable collaborators, was announced, they decided that Gajos’s remark isn’t worth alienating him and abandoned the subject altogether.

Filming
The filming started in September 2020. Despite several complications related to governmental anti-COVID restrictions and second wave of the pandemic, it was done before the end of 2020. Once again, the season consisted of 10 episodes. It premiered on 21st March 2021 at 8 PM of Polish time on TVN and their VOD service Player.

Branding
Branding wise Doktor – Przez Czas i Przestrzeń remained the same in Poland, with the same logo and title cards as Season 1. For the international English release, the logo was altered to fit the new unified brand logo and the title cards were in the style of the new unified franchise title cards, introduced in Doctor Who: Adventures Series 2.

Removal of the Toymaker
Finally the Toymaker introductions were dropped, firstly because the show was no longer on BBC Two so it wasn’t aiming for a larger casual audience as Season 1, and secondly because technically following the events of Her Final Stand, the Toymaker was no longer controlling the pocket universe in which the show was set, and everyone had instead been transported into the main multiverse. David Bailie sadly passed away in March 2021 just before the season was aired. Although he didn’t feature in Season 2, Episode One opened with a “In loving memory of David Bailie” card – this was not present on the original Polish version.

Regular
and
 * The Doktor - Janusz Gajos
 * Pola Pisarek - Paulina Walendziak
 * Benek Jackiewicz - Jan Hrynkiewicz
 * The Doktor - Hanna Śleszyńska

Recurring

 * To be added.

Guest

 * To be added.

Crew
To be added.

Shooting Blocks
To be added.

Filming
To be added.

Aliens and Enemies

 * To be added.

Viewing Figures
To be added.

Physical Media
To be added.