Remember When ‘Community’ Had Its Own ‘Doctor Who’?

From action movies to war documentaries to classic westerns, NBC’s Community has always excelled at doing parody. But perhaps one of its greatest achievements when it comes to poking fun at other media hasn’t been receiving the attention it deserves. A staple of the “geek is the new cool” era of the 2010s, Community‘s Inspector Spacetime series was a Doctor Who spoof that is still very much beloved by the most die-hard fans, with cosplays still popping up at conventions and even its own wiki, but it is hardly remembered by more casual viewers, or at least not as much as the now iconic paintball episodes that aimed their guns at practically every genre in the film world.

Once Abed (Danny Pudi) and Troy’s (Donald Glover) favorite television series, Inspector Spacetime was, for a while, one of the biggest things born out of Community. It eventually made its way to the Doctor Who world and even became its own thing, with a webseries that fans can still check out to this day. But in case you aren’t sure what we’re talking about, let’s pop into the TARDIS… ahem, on the BOOTH for a bit and remember that time Community did Doctor Who almost as well as Doctor Who itself.

Community

TV-14

Comedy

A suspended lawyer is forced to enroll in a community college with an eccentric staff and student body.

Release Date

September 17, 2009

Cast

Joel McHale , Gillian Jacobs , Danny Pudi , Alison Brie , Jim Rash , Ken Jeong , Paget Brewster , Keith David

Main Genre

Comedy

Seasons

6

Studio

NBC

‘Inspector Spacetime’ First Appears in ‘Community’ Season 3

Viewers are introduced to Inspector Spacetime alongside Abed in Season 3’s inaugural episode, “Biology 101”. While the main story focuses on Jeff trying to maintain his friendship with the study group after being kicked out of the biology class in which they had enrolled together, there’s a side plot about Abed losing his mind over the fact that his beloved Cougar Town has been moved from the mid-season schedule, a reference to Community‘s own scheduling troubles at NBC. To help calm him down, Britta (Gillian Jacobs) introduces him to the British sitcom that actually inspired Cougar Town, a fictional show by the name of Cougarton Abbey. Alas, as is the case for most British series, Cougarton Abbey only ran for a total of six episodes, and ended with all of its characters drinking poisoned tea and dying. This drives Abed into a complete breakdown, and it’s as she’s trying to undo the damage that she caused that Britta finds out about the Inspector and his adventures.

Unlike Cougarton Abbey and other British shows, Inspector Spacetime, Britta explains, has been on the air non-stop since 1962. With an absurdly low budget, the series features two main characters: the Inspector (Travis Richey) and his human partner, Constable Reggie (Derwin Jordan), a clear reference to Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart (Nicholas Courtney), who served as the Doctor’s companion mainly during their third incarnation (Jon Pertwee). Traveling in a typically British phone booth instead of a police box and fighting Blorgons that scream “Eradicate!” instead of exterminating Daleks, the Inspector immediately wins over Abed’s heart. Fans are also hooked, particularly those that are also into a certain copycat British show called Doctor Who — a show that was enjoying popularity back when “Biology 101” first aired, with Matt Smith as the Eleventh Doctor and Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill as companions Amy Pond and Rory Williams.

From then on, Inspector Spacetime started popping up in a lot of Community Season 3 episodes, either as something that’s playing in the background as Abed senses the existence of another, darker timeline in “Remedial Chaos Theory” or as one of the components of Troy and Abed’s Dreamatorium in “Virtual Systems Analysis”. Little by little, we learn more about the show, such as the fact that it has a very much reviled holiday special in which the Inspector and Reggie celebrate Time Day. While Doctor Who does have its fair share of specials, the episode, which Abed wants his friends to watch with him for Christmas, is a nod to another sci-fi franchise: Star Wars. In a maligned TV special, Luke (Mark Hamill) and company pop by Chewbacca’s (Peter Mayhew) to see how the Wookiees celebrate Life Day.

The ‘Inspector Spacetime’ Fever Reached Its Highest Point in a Season 4 Episode

And speaking of maligned, while Season 3 of Community is the one that introduces us to Inspector Spacetime, the fictional TV series actually peaked in Season 4. The season’s third episode, “Conventions of Space and Time,” is all about the study group traveling together to an Inspector Spacetime event. While Jeff (Joel McHale) is mistaken for the actor behind the popular shirtless villain Thoraxis, Shirley (Yvette Nicole Brown) and Pierce (Chevy Chase) get invited to a panel to discuss an American version of the show titled Epochs of Eternity. Pierce’s many opinions on the pilot end up making a difference, which leads to the series being a very sexist, awful parody of itself. With itself being, you know, already a parody.

Also, in a bizarrely prescient storyline, Britta wants to convince Troy and Abed that the only female Inspector ever, Minerva, is actually good, despite the fact that she is hated by the fandom. Not because they are sexist, mind you, but because she’s actually bad. Now, there’s no telling whether or not this is true — it’s a fictional fandom for a fictional TV show, after all — but it is weird how much this ends up saying about the future. Back when the episode aired, in 2013, there was already some pressure by fans to make the next Doctor a woman. This wouldn’t happen until 2018, though, when Jodie Whittaker took over as the Thirteenth Doctor, the first and only woman to ever lead the series. As a performer, she’s far from doing a bad job, and actually brings her very best to the character. However, it is hard not to argue that her run as the Doctor, helmed by showrunner Chris Chibnall, is unmemorable at best.

But the real main plot of the episode surrounds Abed and Troy facing changes to their duo’s dynamic. While Troy has started sleeping with Britta, Abed has made a new friend in the form of Inspector Spacetime superfan Toby (Matt Lucas). Mad at his own best friend for having chosen his wife instead of the convention, Toby wants to convince Abed to ditch Troy, arguing that neurotypicals only keep people like them down. However, ultimately, Abed makes a whole speech about how Troy is important and the one person that keeps him grounded, which is a very sweet moment for the pair. It’s also nice for what it says about Doctor Who, or, rather, Inspector Spacetime: Just like the logical Inspector needs his emotional human constables, Abed needs his Troy.

The ‘Doctor Who’ Cast Was Extremely Into ‘Inspector Spacetime’

Toby’s Matt Lucas is none other than the actor who played Nardole, River Song’s (Alex Kingston) sidekick during Peter Capaldi‘s time as the Twelfth Doctor. This already goes to show that Community spared no efforts when it came to making Inspector Spacetime‘s connection to its source of inspiration quite clear. However, the cast of Doctor Who as a whole was also pretty into Community‘s take on their work. At the time, it was common for Gillan, Darvill, and Smith, as well as showrunner Steven Moffat, to get questions about Inspector Spacetime, either from fans or from reporters; the topic emerged at the 2012 San Diego Comic-Con, and at the 2012 official Doctor Who convention.

Gillan is often the most excited about the spoof. During a 2012 interview, she even expressed interest in having a cameo in the NBC series. “Hey, Community, I just wanted to say that anytime you maybe need an Amy Pond on Inspector Spacetime, then just let me know,” the actress joked. Sadly, Amy Pond left Doctor Who later that year, and Community pretty much stopped talking about the show after “Conventions of Space and Time,” so this cross-over was never realized.

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‘Inspector Spacetime’ Eventually Became Its Own Thing

But that doesn’t mean Inspector Spacetime itself died all the way back in 2013. Well, okay, it kind of did, but not because Community‘s showrunners decided to kill it. In 2012, the actor underneath the Inspector’s bowl hat, Travis Richey, reached out to Sony and NBC in an attempt to make an actual Inspector Spacetime TV series. As he never heard back from them, Richey decided to create a Kickstarter to fund his project as a webseries. Of course, Sony and NBC reached out soon after the crowdfunding campaign went online and asked him to, pretty please, drop it. He didn’t, but he changed his show’s title to Untitled Webseries About A Space Traveler Who Can Also Travel Through Time.

The whole first season of Untitled Web Series About A Space Traveler Who Can Also Travel Through Time is available on YouTube, and while it is far from being prestige TV, it is still a fun watch for fans of Community and Doctor Who. Mentions of a second season featuring The Big Bang Theory‘s Mayim Bialik and Star Trek: Voyager‘s Robert Picardo can be found online, even on IMDb, but the actual videos don’t seem to be uploaded anywhere. It’s pretty likely that this never got made, or maybe it’s just lost to time, where only the Inspector can retrieve it.

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