Doctor Who Earns Its First-Ever Emmy Nomination

Doctor Who earned its first-ever Emmy Nomination when the nominees were announced on Tuesday. Doctor Who: The Runaway is nominated in the Outstanding Derivative Interactive Program category. Emmys for interactive media categories honor "excellence in the combined, overall interactive media execution for an existing program or series, containing programming and features that extend the program experience beyond passive viewing, often across multiple platforms." In this case, Doctor Who: The Runaway is an interactive story game for VR platforms including Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, and Windows. The BBC also adapted the game into a 360-degree webcast on YouTube. The game features Jodie Whittaker as the voice of the Thirteenth Doctor.

Doctor Who: The Runaway is a 13-minute adventure that lets players into the TARDIS. Here's the synopsis for the game:

"You've been in a collision. You wake inside the TARDIS. The Doctor introduces you to the person, or thing, you collided with. He's a strange and magnificent ball of living energy called Volta. Part surly teenager, part bomb, Volta is very unstable. In fact, he's primed to explode. Big time. Unless he can be returned to his home planet, sharpish. The problem is, a squad of galactic busybodies has other plans for Volta. Bad ones.

"Drawn into a frantic chase, you become The Doctor's unlikely assistant as she races against time to get Volta home to his parents. Armed with a sonic screwdriver, it is down to you to help The Doctor as she faces the forces of evil, and teenage angst, in this animated 13-minute VR adventure from the team behind Doctor Who Series 11."

Doctor Who: The Runaway has done what the Doctor Who television series has been unable to achieve. Doctor Who has been pushing for Emmy recognition since 2016, but nominations haven't come either for the major categories or the technical ones.

Doctor Who: The Runaway is one of two nominees in the Outstanding Derivative Interactive Program category. The other is Big Mouth Guide To Life from Netflix. That means there's a fair chance that Doctor Who: The Runaway will also earn Doctor Who its first Emmy Award win.

As for Doctor Who on television, the series is between seasons but will return for its holiday special during the upcoming holiday season. Showrunner Chris Chibnall recently assured fans that this won't change due to the coronavirus pandemic as the holiday special was shot already. "There is a festive episode," he said. "We happened to be quite lucky and fit it in, so that will be exciting."