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Big Finish Productions

 Big Finish Productions, who are fully licensed by the BBC, are producing original and new full length Doctor Who audio adventures starring members of the series' original cast. This venture is headed by Doctor Who novelist Gary Russell and producer Jason Haigh-Ellery along with Jacqueline Rayner who is the executive producer for the BBC. This company were originally producing the Benny Summerfield audio adventure spinoffs starring Lisa Bowerman.

 Below are the latest news items and details of the stories that are due to be released in the coming months.

 Please click here for details of the stories released so far and below for further information on those that Big Finish Productions are planning for the future.

 
STOP PRESS

Added 1 August 2010
The Four Doctors

Big Finish Productions have announced that production is continuing on "The Four Doctors", the eagerly awaited special release that unites the Fifth, Sixth, Seventh and Eighth Doctor in a time-bending battle against the Daleks.

This story, which is written by Peter Anghelides and stars Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy, Paul McGann and Nicholas Briggs, is released in December and will be available only to subscribers of the main Doctor Who range.

It has also been announced that, in a departure to previous years, there are no plans to subsequently make this story available for sale. "The Four Doctors" will only ever be available to subscribers.


STOP PRESS

Added 1 August 2010
The Return of The Dream Team

With the release of in July 2010 of "Cobwebs", the four part audio story by Jonathan Morris which sees the Fifth Doctor, Nyssa, Tegan Jovanka and Turlough back together after 26 years, Big Finish Productions have revealed that they will be back together in a new run of stories to be released in 2011, as Peter Davison, Sarah Sutton, Janet Fielding and Mark Strickson have committed to a run of new recordings later this year.


The Latest Big Finish Audio Release
Updated 15 August 2010


Audio - The Whispering Forest
The Whispering Forest
(Stephen Cole)

Click here for more details of this story

The Latest Big Finish Audio Release
August 2010 Details on this story that is due next

The Whispering Forest
(
Stephen Cole)

5th Dr, Nyssa, Tegan & Turlough

The Next Big Finish Audio Releases
September 2010 Details on this story that is due next

The Cradle of the Snake
(
Marc Platt)

5th Dr, Nyssa, Tegan & Turlough
September 2010  

Project: Destiny
(
Cavan Scott and Mark Wright)

7th Dr & Ace
October 2010  

A Death in the Family
(
Steven Hall)

7th Dr & Ace
November 2010  

Lurkers at Sunlight's Edge
(
Marty Ross)

7th Dr & Ace


Click here for a full listing of
the stories released so far.



Audio - The Suffering

 

Updated 6 August 2010
The Latest Covers

The Main Range New Eighth Doctor Companion Chronicles The Lost Stories
Audio - The Cradle of the Snake

The Cradle of the Snake
(Marc Platt)

Audio - The Book of Kells

The Book of Kells
(Barnaby Edwards)

Audio - Find and Replace

Find and Replace
(Paul Magrs)

Audio - The First Doctor Box Set

The First Doctor Box Set

 
Release Dates
SEP 10
SEP 10
SEP 10
NOV 10
 


Added 6 June 2010
Licence Renewed

Big Finish has announced that their licence with BBC Audiobooks to make Doctor Who on audio has been extended for another year, up to December 2012.

This is wonderful news’, Executive Producer Jason Haigh-Ellery has announced. ‘All of us at Big Finish love making the Audio Adventures of Doctor Who, and after a decade it remains both a thrill and an honour to continue doing so’.

We have a great and fruitful relationship with both BBC Wales and BBC Audiobooks’. Executive Producer Nicholas Briggs has added. ‘And long may it continue. Big Finish and BBC Audiobooks work alongside each other to provide the best possible range of audio productions for fans of the series. I never forget what a great privilege it is for us to be in this position’.

‘We have many plans for the future’, Line Producer David Richardson has revealed. ‘The main range starring Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy and Paul McGann continues on a monthly basis, as do The Companion Chronicles. You’ll be hearing more from The Lost Stories and Jago and Litefoot. Plus… we’ve been in talks with Tom Baker, who is eager to join the audio range for a series of full cast plays’.

Everything was planned up until the end of 2011, so now we can forge ahead with our plans for 2012’, Nicholas Briggs has also revealed. ‘These are exciting times indeed!



Added 12 April 2010

New Companion for 'Lost Season 27'

Big Finish Productions has revealed the casting of The Doctor’s new companion for their upcoming second series of The Lost Stories. The unmade Season 27, which was planned for production in 1990 but abandoned. The second 'Lost' series on audio will introduce Raine Creevy, a young, sophisticated safecracker who joins The Doctor on his adventures through space and time.

Raine is sort of a beautiful flower growing on a bomb site’, Script Editor Andrew Cartmel has explained. ‘Her father is a dodgy character with underworld connections in London, and her background is in that milieu. But her parents wanted her to have a different and better life, so she’s received the best education and been groomed for posh society. Of course, Raine being Raine she’s reacted against this and she’s developed her own taste for danger and excitement’.

Raine is to be played by Beth Chalmers, an actress who has experience of working with Big Finish Productions on the stories "Time Reef ", "Forty-Five", "Curse of the Daleks" and "Leviathan".

This was the easiest bit of casting ever’, Producer David Richardson has revealed. ‘Andrew’s first script came in and the director, Ken Bentley, and I read it. Raine is gorgeous, sophisticated, intelligent and sassy – and Ken and I just turned to each other and said “Beth”. We actually surprised her with the news while we were in the pub, enjoying a drink after recording our Sherlock Holmes play Holmes and the Ripper, in which she plays Mrs Hudson’.

I was just so thrilled to be asked’, Beth Chalmers has stated. ‘And, while I’m familiar with being in Doctor Who, it feels so special to be playing such a key character and to become a part of the show’s long history. It’s wonderful working with Sylvester again, and Big Finish have promised me that they’ll take me to some conventions – which I’m looking forward to immensely!’.



Added 22 March 2010

Tom Baker Rumours


Tom Baker
Tom Baker

Big Finish Productions have decided to state the facts in the wake of a large amount of speculation on the internet about the possibility of Tom Baker working on Doctor Who audio productions with them:

Tom Baker would like to confirm that ‘warm contact’ has been made with Big Finish and that he's ‘enthusiastic’ to work with us. He adds, wryly, ‘In my twilight years, I am looking forward to a tremendous Big Finish and the sooner the better’.

Executive Producer Nicholas Briggs as announced: ‘Tom and I have been communicating about possible projects for some time. There is really no firm news other than that, but we are both keen to make something happen. Lis Sladen, Louise Jameson and Nicholas Courtney have also expressed an interest in being involved, but no storylines have been written or approved yet and we don't anticipate anything being available before 2011’.

Louise Jameson, who played Leela, has also added, ‘I'm delighted at the possibility of working with Tom again now we have this new found friendship. I've always rated him as a brilliant and unique actor with the most marvellous voice, Big Finish must be over the moon that he has agreed to re-visiting the sci-fi world’.

Big Finish have though stressed that any audio productions it may make featuring Tom Baker as the Fourth Doctor would not clash with or affect Tom's continuing, highly successful work with BBC Audiobooks.




Added 05 February 2010

The Mara Coming to Audio


Peter Davison
Peter Davison

Big Finish Productions has revealed that the Mara, the snake-like demon from the 1980’s stories "Kinda" and "Snakedance", will be returning in the forthcoming season of audio adventures featuring the Fifth Doctor Tegan Jovanka, Turlough and Nyssa.

The three stories were recorded just after Christmas’, Executive Producer Nicholas Briggs has announced. ‘And everyone was on brilliant form. It was quite thrilling to hear Peter Davison, Janet Fielding, Mark Strickson and Sarah Sutton - who hadn’t acted together since 1983 - recreating their roles so authentically. These adventures sound just like they’ve fallen through a time warp! The mood during the recording was quite rambunctious, and everyone had such a brilliant time that I wouldn’t be surprised to see this team reunited again sometime in the near future...

The Mara returns in the release for September 2010. "The Cradle of the Snake", by Marc Platt, sees the TARDIS crew return to Manussa, a planet that they last visited in 1980’s "Snakedance".

When we knew we could get these characters back together, we realised we wanted to bring back the Mara because it was an iconic monster from the Davison era’, Nicholas Briggs has revealed. ‘Original writer Christopher Bailey gave us his blessing, and Marc Plat seemed the obvious choice to write it - because Marc does ‘weird’ so wonderfully!’.

Also announced by Big Finish Productions is what they have planned for the free story for subscribers. It is going to be a multi-Doctor extravaganza! Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy and Paul McGann will all join forces in "The Four Doctors", in an epic fight against the Daleks...




Added 22 November 2009

The Lost Stories - Season Two


William Hartnell
William Hartnell

Big Finish Productions have revealed that it will be releasing a further series of Lost Stories – audio versions of scripts that were intended, but never produced, for television.

The first release is a four-disc box set titled "The Hartnell Years", which will feature two unmade stories by Moris Farhi: "Farewell Great Macedon" (a six-part historical tale featuring Alexander the Great) and "The Fragile Yellow Arc of Fragrance" (a one-part science fiction story set on an alien world).

Moris Farhi’s original scripts have been adapted as an enhanced audiobook, which will be performed by William Russell and Carole Ann Ford, with a guest actor portraying Alexander the Great and is scheduled for release in November 2010.

Patrick Troughton
Patrick Troughton

Next up is another four-disc box set The Troughton Years, the centerpiece of which will be "Prison in Space", performed by Frazer Hines and Wendy Padbury, with Susan Brown (Torchwood) guest starring as the villainous Chairman Babs. The adaptation is by Simon Guerrier, working from Dick Sharples’s original scripts that were written in 1968. It is scheduled for release in December 2010.

There will also be a very exciting bonus story in this box set as Big Finish productions have been granted the rights by the estate of Terry Nation to produce an audio version of the unmade US TV Dalek pilot, "The Destroyers". This adaptation will be a full cast drama, starring Nicholas Briggs as the voice of the Daleks.”

Then moving forward two decades, the remaining productions are drawn from what would have been Doctor Who’s twenty-seventh season that was due in 1990. This season would have introduced a brand new Doctor Who companion – the young, sophisticated safecracker Raine. Big Finish Productions plan to reveal titles, casting and the story details in the New Year.




Added 22 August 2009

New Doctor/Companion Line-ups For 2010



Jamie
Jamie

Following on from the announcement that Nazi scientist Elizabeth Klein (played by Tracey Childs) will be joining the Seventh Doctor for a season of three audio stories (Click Here for details), Big Finish Productions has released more news concerning its output of their Doctor Who audio adventures in 2010.

We’re trying something a little different next year’, Executive Producer Nicholas Briggs has announced, ‘with some surprising combinations of Doctors and companions. So it’s with great pleasure that I can announce that Frazer Hines will be reprising the role of Jamie McCrimmon, joining the Sixth Doctor for four brand new adventures. Naturally that presents some gargantuan continuity issues to consider, but never fear, we know what we’re doing!

Tegan Jovanka
Tegan Jovanka

Jamie mainly accompanied the Second Doctor in his travels on television between 1966 and 1969. He did though return alongside the Second and Sixth Doctors in the 1985 story "The Two Doctors". And so it is during the events of this story that Big Finish Productions will be able to use for a Sixth Doctor/Jamie paring.

2010 also brings another season of three stories, reuniting another team for the first time in 26 years. ‘Janet Fielding will be back as Tegan Jovanka’, Nicholas Briggs has revealled, ‘for three stories that include Peter Davison as the Fifth Doctor, Sarah Sutton as Nyssa and Mark Strickson as Turlough’.

Getting these actors together in one studio is a first for us - Janet has only done one play with us before, while Mark now lives in New Zealand. But they’ve all committed to the project and we couldn’t be more excited’.





The latest updates are either marked New Item or are in green.
  The Next Release
Updated 15 August 2010
 
Audio - The Cradle of the Snake

The Cradle of the Snake
(Marc Platt)


September 2010:

This month sees the third, and final, of three stories starring Peter Davison as the Fifth Doctor, Sarah Sutton as Nyssa, Janet Fielding as Tegan Jovanka and Mark Strickson as Turlough.

"The Cradle of the Snake" by Marc Platt, sees the return of the Mara, the snake-like demon from the 1980’s stories "Kinda" and "Snakedance".

In this story the TARDIS crew return to Manussa, a planet that they last visited in "Snakedance".

When we knew we could get these characters back together, we realised we wanted to bring back the Mara because it was an iconic monster from the Davison era’, Nicholas Briggs has revealed. ‘Original writer Christopher Bailey gave us his blessing, and Marc Plat seemed the obvious choice to write it - because Marc does ‘weird’ so wonderfully!’.

This story’s guest stars include Dan Stevens (The Line of Beauty, Dracula), Vernon Dobtcheff ("The War Games") and Hugh Fraser (Poirot and the Doctor Who audio story "Circular Time").

This story has been directed by Barnaby Edwards and was recorded on the 6th and 8th January 2010.

"The Mara is in all of us, deep in our minds. In our darkest thoughts, that’s where it started. Some people call it a demon, but that’s too simple. It’s about temptation".

Tegan's nightmares have returned. Seeking to banish the snake-like Mara from his companion's psyche, the Doctor sets course for Manussa, the creature's point of origin. But the TARDIS arrives instead in the heyday of the Manussan Empire, where infotainment impresario Rick ausGarten is preparing to turn dreams into reality.

The sun is setting on the Manussan Empire… and it's all the Doctor's fault.



Click here for more details of the stories planned for the future


Dalek Empire 3

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Through 2010
The latest updates are either marked New Item or are in green.

Updated 15 August 2010

Late September 2010:

The Forge, the secret organisation led by the vampire Nimrod, is to make a comeback in the release for late September 2010.

The Sixth Doctor first encountered them in the 2001 audio "Project: Twilight", then the Sixth Doctor and the Seventh Doctor were embroiled in another Forge encounter in the 2003 "Project: Lazarus".

Writers Cavan Scott and Mark Wright have teamed up once again to create "Project: Destiny", to be released in September 2010 as the first story in 2010's second Sylvester McCoy mini-season.

This story has been directed by Ken Bentley and was recorded on the 26th and 27th April 2010.

Actor Stephen Chance returns as Nimrod in a story which sees the Seventh Doctor and Ace returning to Earth after the shooting of their companion Hex, only to find that London is not what it was. Also guest starring in the adventure is Maggie O'Neill (Shameless, Peak Practice, Invasion: Earth) playing the part of Captain Lysandra Aristedes. Also starring are: Philip Dinsdale and Ingrid Oliver.

Over the years we've had many requests to continue the Forge storyline’, Executive Producer Nicholas Briggs has revealed, ‘and they're back with a vengeance in this thrilling story of alien mutation and personal betrayals. Be warned - a long kept secret is about to be divulged, and things may never be the same again’.

1999: Leaving her infant son behind, a young mother named Cassandra Schofield departs Bolton, seeking a better life amid the lights of London.

2004: Despite the best efforts of the time-travelling Doctor, 'Cassie' Schofield dies on Dartmoor, a vampirised victim of the sinister organisation called The Forge.

2021: All grown up, and a nurse at St Gart's Hospital, Thomas Hector Schofield – known as 'Hex' – meets, and becomes a companion to, that time-travelling Doctor… but remains unaware that his alien friend knew his mother, and watched her die.

1854: In the Crimean War, Hex takes a bullet, and is seriously injured. The Doctor promises to return him to St Gart's.

2025: Now. In a London ravaged by a deadly contagion… destiny awaits.



October 2010:

The second 2010 Seventh Doctor mini-season continues in October with "A Death in the Family" by acclaimed author Steven Hall, in which The Doctor meets someone from his past and someone from his future.

Executive Producer Nicholas Briggs has revealed:‘The surprise from the past is none other than Evelyn Smythe, played by Maggie Stables who teams up with The Doctor to help battle an old foe. We're delighted to have Maggie back, in what is the first of more appearances to come’.

The story's villain is the Word Lord, who previously appeared in the audio "Forty-Five". This time, the charismatic but utterly psychotic villain is played by Ian Reddington, who memorably played the Chief Clown in "The Greatest Show in the Galaxy".

Also starring are: John Dorney, Alison Thea-Skot, Andrew Dickens and Harriet Kershaw.

This story has been directed by Ken Bentley and was recorded on the 28th and 29th April 2010.

"The future folds into the past. The homeless hero has fallen. Now begins the time of three tales: The Tale of the Herald. The Tale of the Hidden Woman. The Tale of the Final Speaker. When the last tale is told, all the lights shall fail. The world will end".

21st century London: Nobody No One, the extra-dimensional Word Lord, is again running amok. Only this time, he's unbeatable – and a terrible tragedy is about to unfold.


November 2010:

The second 2010 Seventh Doctor mini-season concludes with "Lurkers at Sunlight's Edge" by Marty Ross, a horror story set in the Arctic Circle.

This story has been directed by Ken Bentley and was recorded on the 21st and 23rd June 2010. It stars Sylvester McCoy, as the Seventh Doctor, and Sophie Aldred as Ace. Also starring are: Michael Brandon, Kate Terence, Stuart Milligan, Alex Lowe, Sam Clemens and Duncan Wisbey.

1934: the TARDIS lands on a snowy island off the coast of Alaska – one that wasn’t there four years, three months and six days ago, according to the Doctor. The island is dominated by a vast, twisted citadel. Inside it, the Lurkers lie dreaming. It's said when they wake the world will end…

Led by the ruthless Emerson Whytecrag, an expedition has come to the citadel, to exploit the horrors in its ebon-dark interior. Horrors just like those published in the pages of the pulp magazine Shuddersome Tales, where a hero's only reward is madness, death… or worse.

Horrors that the Doctor and his companion are about to wake up.


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The Best Big Finish Audio Releases

 Do you have a favourite Big Finish audio story? Interested in what others think? If so then why not have a go at our poll.

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Big Finish Productions
AUDIO COVERS
Big Finish Productions

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Click here for the covers of
the stories released so far.
Click here for details of
the stories released so far.
 
New Doctor Who Adventures on Audio
 These stories will be widely distributed on CD and are available from specialist shops, mail order or online direct from the Big Finish Productions Web Site.


Big Finish Productions
AUDIO
 There are also no plans for any future incarnations of The Doctor and that Big Finish Productions are not going to try and recreate the first three incarnations by using different actors. There may however, be continued attempts to introduce 'new' companions. The first of these was Evelyn Smythe, played by Maggie Stables, in "The Marian Conspiracy". Another 'new' character is Frobisher, the shape-changing Penguin from Marvel's Doctor Who Magazines comic strips, in "The Holy Terror".

Click here for a full listing of the stories released so far and those due to be released in the future.
Click here for full details on the stories already released.
Click here for story details and plots for future adventures.
Click here for pictures of the covers of the stories released so far.
Click here for details of who has appeared in which stories and some other interesting facts and figures.
Click here more information on this new exciting Doctor Who project or visit the Big Finish Productions Web Site.

 
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DISCLAIMER

Please note that the release dates and the UK prices quoted may be subject to change and are believed to be accurate at this time.

The news articles, and any related photographs, has been put together with the kind permission of Big Finish Productions.
 
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