Doctor Who Has Earned Its First Emmy Nomination

Doctor Who has finally achieved its first Emmy nomination, but it’s not for the recent season of the TV show. The British institution traditionally hasn’t had enough clout in the U.S. to be in the running for the Emmys, but since 2016 the BBC has been pushing for it to get some recognition. Unfortunately, though, it’s proved unable to earn any nominations in either the major or technical categories.

Yesterday’s Emmys 2020 nomination announcement, however, has revealed that this drought is over, thanks to an unexpected part of the franchise. VR game Doctor Who: The Runaway has been nominated for Outstanding Derivative Interactive Program. There’s actually only one other nominee in this rather niche category – Netflix’s Big Mouth Guide to Life – so there’s a pretty high chance of Who getting its first Emmy win here and not just nomination.

The category aims to 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.” The Runaway is a 13-minute interactive story game available on VR platforms such as Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and Windows. It’s also been adapted into a 360-degree webcast on YouTube.

Jodie Whittaker voices the Thirteenth Doctor in the game, which lets players act as the Time Lord’s companion. For more, you can check out the synopsis for The Runaway below:

“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.”

As for TV Doctor Who, season 13 was supposed to get going in the near future but may have been delayed due to the pandemic. At least we definitely have winter special “Revolution of the Daleks” to look forward to at the end of the year, though.