Doctor Who: The Cancelled Years - The Jo Jones Chronicles: Series 1

The Jo Jones Chronicles would’ve been the third official Doctor Who spin-off after The Pyramid in 2002 & UNIT in 2008. The series would’ve followed former Doctor Who companion Jo Jones as the main character, as we see her dealing with alien invasions on Earth with her grandson Jon & his friends, working with her husband Cliff & driving around in Besse.

The cast for the show would see Katy Manning & Tyger Drew-Honey reprising their roles of Jo & Jon Jones, however we’d also be introduced to 2 new characters, these being Yasmin Garcia, played by Rukku Nahar, and Rhys Lynch, played by Percelle Ascott.

The idea for the series came about due to the popularity of Jo’s return in Season 51 of Doctor Who, as well as the BBC’s desire to create a new Doctor Who spin-off. However, unlike The Pyramid & UNIT, which were aimed towards the older part of the fanbase, The Jo Jones Chronicles would’ve been aimed at the younger demographic, with the show being much more kid-friendly & airing on CBBC.

The show was created by Pete McTighe however with McTighe focusing his efforts more into Doctor Who, the showrunner position was instead given to writer Phil Ford. The Executive Producers would’ve been made up of Pete McTighe, Phil Ford & Matt Strevens, with Brian Minchin acting as Producer. Composing the music of the show would’ve been new composer to the Who franchise, Philip Curran.

The format of this series would’ve consisted of 6 stories, which would’ve been made up of 12 half-an-hour long episodes. The show would begin airing in early 2018, with an episode airing on both a Monday & a Tuesday at 16:50.

For the title sequence, we get something vastly different to previous Doctor Who titles, with the closest comparison being the titles for K9 & Company. We begin with images of our cast & some of the villains with all the bright colours and images flying through space, with a lot of bright & striking light colours & swirling clouds of smoke. We then zoom into blackness, where the Jo Jones Chronicles logo is revealed, before we travel down a tunnel of colours, where the title episode & writer are credited.

(Please note, due to how complex / different these titles are, i will NOT be able to recreate these titles. However, if you want to see something similar to what was described above, i’d suggest viewing the Class title sequence, which is what inspired the Jo Jones Chronicles titles)

THE ENERGY OF AXOS

WRITTEN BY: Phil Ford & Pete McTighe
DIRECTED BY: Lee Haven Jones

This would be the first story in the series & as such, it has the job of setting up the shows basic premise as well as introducing us to our cast.

The mostly follows around Yasmin Garcia, as we see her & her family moving into their new house, 37 Willis Road. We see Yasmin setting into her new house as well as meeting the couple who live in house 38, Jo & Cliff Jones, as well as their grandson Jon.

We then see Yasmin bonding & making friends with Jon quite quickly, before we see the two of them going to school together the following day, with Jon helping Yasmin settle in & learn the ropes. Here, we also get introduced to the final member of our cast, Rhys Lynch, a close friend to Jon, who will be the troublemaker of the group. We also see that the school is selling a drink named Superpop, a new drink which is accepted by the school, as it claims to increase brain activity while also tasting good. Meanwhile, we see Jo gaining access to the Superpop factory, as she & Cliff have discovered that the drink contains strange chemicals.

It turns out that the drink is actually a part of an alien invasion, which is being run by the Axons. We find that the Axons have disguised themselves as humans & are trying to get as many children as possible to drink Superpop which when enough is drunk, brainwashes the children into serving the Axons. They then plan to hold the world to ransom by threatening to execute the children unless they divert all of the world's power to them.

We see Jo & Jon reuniting & working with Yasmin & Rhys to stop the Axon invasion. Eventually however, the Axons are defeated when the group discover that the Superpop liquid is actually volatile to the Axons, so they cause their storage tanks to explode, which kills the Axons, thus freeing the children from the brainwashing & returning them back to normal.

INVASION OF THE ATARMEN

WRITTEN BY: Matt Fitton
DIRECTED BY: Adrian McDowall

The story properly introduces us to St. Letts High School, which was briefly featured in the previous episode. We see that most of the teachers, including the head teacher, have been replaced with new people, who bring with them improved technology for the IT wing.

It turns out however that the teachers are actually cyborgs named the Atarmen, who are stranded on Earth after an experiment on their home world went wrong. They plan to use the IT tech to build a transmitter, which’ll summon their army to Earth & take over the planet.

Eventually however, the Atarman are defeated when the group work together to overload the Atarmens machinery & trapping them in the basement, which was their base of operations, before it blows up & destroys the Atarmen

THE GREAT RAINSTORM

WRITTEN BY: Lisa McMullin
DIRECTED BY: Adrian McDowall

The story would’ve been about a new prototype weather controlling machine named WAS, the Weather Alteration System, a machine which scientists hope will be used to control the weather of the world & provide warmth & coldness wherever it is needed.

We find that a race of fish aliens named the Galapagos have sabotaged the machine & are planning to flood the Earth & turn it into a world for their people.

Eventually however, the Galapagos are defeat when Jo & her friends are able to reclaim control over the machine, reverse the flooding & are sent on their way when Jo threatens to expose the Galapagos to UNIT, who’ll have them arrested & blow their ship out of the sky

CONQUEST OF THE NESTENE

WRITTEN BY: Sarah Dollard
DIRECTED BY: Joss Agnew

The story begins with Jon trying to teach Jo how to use a Laptop, before Cliff enters the house & tells her to turn on the television. She turns it on & we see an advert for a new smart product. It’s a new home AI system named Robbie Robot, which is being advertised as your plastic pal who’s fun to be with!

Cliff is annoyed by the fact that they’re using a ton of plastic on a home system however Jo is more concerned, as she’s positive that this is the start of a Nestene invasion. She then calls up UNIT to warn them and a car soon arrives at her base. Jo & Jon enter the car & are taken to UNIT where they meet with Nicholas Lethbridge-Stewart. They work together to investigate the Robbie Robots &, after being attacked by one when it’s triggered online, confirm that they’re a part of a Nestene invasion.

They discover that they act as a radio transmitter, which is used to convert any form of plastic anywhere in the world into a deadly weapon. They eventually track down the Nestene’s lair by hacking a Robbie Robot & reversing the signal. However the Nestene knows it’s been discovered & has begun its invasion, as we see tons of Autons coming to life in their biggest takeover yet. We also see Yasmin & Rhys, who have been mostly absent this episode, trying to survive the Nestene invasion as well as trying to find Jo, unaware she is out.

The group then enters the Nestene’s lair, where Jo tries to convince it to leave. Naturally the Nestene refuses & it summons a few Autons to capture them. However before the Autons arrive, the Nestene is defeated when Jo reveals a Robbie Robot to the Nestene & reveals it’s been reprogrammed to cut the Nestene’s signal off. The Nestene is cut off, and all the Plastic across the world stops. Everyone makes their exit, where Nicholas announces that they’re going to bury the Nestene underground & seal it in so that it can never try again & that all Robbie Robots will be recalled, & urges the public to either destroy or get rid of their Robbie Robots.

MONA LISA’S REVENGE

WRITTEN BY: Phil Ford
DIRECTED BY: Lee Haven Jones

This would be near identical to The Sarah Jane Adventures story from our own history. The only major change to the story would be near the ending, where instead of drawing K9 to save the day, a simple laser weapon is used.

THE SECRET OF JO JONES

WRITTEN BY: Phil Ford
DIRECTED BY: Joss Agnew

The story begins with Jon & his friends going into school, with Jo goes off on her own to investigate. However, something appears to be wrong with Jo, as she appears to be acting unnatural & doesn’t want to explain what she’s actually investigating. Suspecting something is wrong with Jo, Jon & his friends decide to break out of school to follow Jo & find out why she’s being so secretive.

It turns out that this isn’t actually Jo, but rather a duplicate. & not any old duplicate, but an Atarman. It turns out that after the events of Invasion of the Atarmen, one lone Atarman survived the explosion & has been slowly rebuilding an army. At some point prior to this episode, Jo was captured & replaced by an Atarman off-screen. The Atarman has been ordered to infiltrate UNIT, steal a bunch of technology & alien weaponry & return them to the base of operations, which is an abandoned factory, where the Atarmen prepare to conquer the Earth.

Eventually however, Jon & his friends are able to find the real Jo, who has been locked away in her basement all this time, and they all work together with UNIT to try & stop the Atarmen, who are eventually defeated when they detonate an EMP across the world that is programmed to destroy only the Atarmen.

CONCLUSION

That concludes Series 1 of The Jo Jones Chronicles. This show proved to be an instant success with both fans of Doctor Who & casual CBBC audiences, which resulted in the show being commissioned for a second & third season.

Join me next time for Season 54 of Doctor Who

Thank you & goodbye!

(Thanks to TimeLordMaster108 for helping with the casting of Yasmin & Rhys)