Eighth Doctor Adventures: Audacity explores the unexplored …
This year sees the release of two new Eighth Doctor audio drama box sets from Big Finish Productions, starring Paul McGann and a new companion. Audacity is played by Casualty’s Jaye Griffiths and she joins him for adventures in a Doctor Who era not previously explored by Big Finish.
Griffiths debuts as the noblewoman, Lady Audacity Montague, who is about to be propelled from Regency England into the far future and the war between the Cybermen and Vogans.
Producer David Richardson said: “We’re exploring a different era of the Eighth Doctor’s adventures, when he made a new friend. We’re long before Lucie Miller, the Ravenous, Baker Street or the Time War and we’ve got the wonderful Jaye Griffiths bringing Audacity to life brilliantly. Hang on? (I hear you cry) Didn’t Jaye recently play Hieronyma Friend in Time War: Cass? Ssshh… Spoilers…”
Doctor Who – The Eighth Doctor Adventures: Audacity and In the Bleak Midwinter are each available to pre-order.
The two adventures in The Eighth Doctor Adventures: Audacity are:
- The Devouring by Lisa McMullin (1 part)
- The Great Cyber War by Tim Foley (2 parts)
The three adventures in The Eighth Doctor Adventures: In the Bleak Midwinter are:
- Twenty-Four Doors in December by John Dorney (1 part)
- The Empty Man by Tim Foley (1 part)
- Winter of the Demon by Roy Gill (1 part)
Gary Russell’s return to Big Finish Who
It’s been over five years since Big Finish’s founding creative director, Gary Russell, wrote a Doctor Who audio adventure for them, but now he’s back …
Due for release this month, Doctor Who – Interludes: The Doctor and His Amazing Technicolour Nightmare Coat will be accessible to Big Finish listeners who have purchased The Sixth Doctor Adventures: Purity Unleashed. The Interlude, written by veteran Doctor Who author Gary Russell and read by actress Rosie Baker, continues the adventures of the Sixth Doctor and Mel.
A loose thread on his spectacular coat ties the Doctor and Mel into complicated knots. With an obstreperous otter and assorted cloned bureaucrats on their coat-tails, they have to unravel a multitude of scams and schemes to get the Doctor’s coat – and his TARDIS – back.
Producer Jacqueline Rayner said: “I was over the moon that Gary Russell could be tempted back to the world of the Sixth Doctor. As well as shaping his future at Big Finish, he was also responsible for three significant novels about the Sixth Doctor and Mel, including Spiral Scratch, which gave the Doctor his prose regeneration.
“As you might expect, Gary’s Interlude is brimming with fun and invention, and it was a joy to read and record. Rosie Baker valiantly threw herself into the chaos and gave a wonderful performance that captures the wit and humour of Gary’s tale.”
Writer Russell added: “It’s been more years than I care to remember since I last had the chance to write some prose featuring my dream team of Ol’ Sixie and Mel. What a joy to revisit them, their banter, their wit and above all, that coat! Oh, and otters are lovely creatures, but not very good purveyors of tee-shirts. If you take any lessons away from this story, that should be it!”
Interludes continue …
The final Interlude of 2023, Frozen Worlds written by Katharine Armitage and performed by Sophie Aldred, will be released as part of The Seventh Doctor Adventures: Far from Home box set in June 2023.
On the peaceful world of Nauros, the children play a game. There are creatures in the skies – the bat-like Flitters – which feed on possibilities, and the game is to find out who scores the highest. But now, crops are failing and the planet is in danger of starving. And when a time traveller meets the Flitters, it seems things can only get worse…
Aldred said: “I thoroughly enjoyed recording this story as, despite sitting in my cramped airing cupboard full of towels and sheets, I had very clear pictures in my mind’s eye of exactly what the landscape was like and the atmosphere conjured up. I like the fact that Ace is goaded into a game that she knows she really shouldn’t be playing – one of those moments which I’m sure will have the listener shouting, ‘No! Ace! Don’t do it! You know how this is going to go!’ Great fun.”
