A MEDIA company is using a Tardis to help transport classic sci-fi series Dr Who into the 21st Century.

System Enterprises, at Gilesgate, Durham, was set up by managing director Darren Bean in May 2000, after he was made redundant as an electronic engineer.

His friend, Rupert Booth, joined the company as head of production, and the team was completed by Robert Hill, as database programmer, and animator Ian Liddle.

As Mr Booth had previously helped produce spin-off videos for fans of Dr Who, he brought with him a purpose-built Tardis.

The Tardis is a full-scale set in one of the company's two studio rooms which are used for filming. It has been modelled on the Doctor's famous time machine down to the smallest detail.

The time machine helped the company land a contract contributing to DVD versions of the cult shows, which ran from 1963 to 1989, and featured seven Doctors.

Mr Booth said: "With Dr Who being 40 years old, there are not that many extras around, and we make comedy extras for DVDs.

"The first one we did was called Making Cocoa, which is on The Aztecs DVD.

"They had got two Aztec characters to do a commentary, and they brought us the soundtrack of the two actors.

"They wanted South Park-type animation, which is what we did."

The Aztecs, along with the comedy sketch produced by System Enterprises, was commissioned by the BBC for worldwide release.

A restoration team, including Newcastle GP and freelance video editor Peter Finklestone, painstakingly con- verted the existing poor quality footage into a sharp DVD format.

System Enterprises, which functions as a recording studio, blended live animation with computer generated images to create its section.

It has since contributed to another three DVDs, although they have yet to be released.

Mr Booth said he understood that the BBC was planning a celebration to mark the 40th anniversary of Dr Who this year, but was unsure of what form it would take.

He said: "The Dr Who DVDs go down very well, and I think they are doing a bit of a push on them this year.

"I'm terribly fond of Dr Who - I remember watching it when I was younger - but I never thought I would ever make a living out of it."

Following its success with Dr Who, System Enterprises hopes to branch out into producing comedy programmes