The first full-cast, full-length Doctor Who audio drama to have been recorded entirely during lockdown by Big Finish Productions was released on May 12.
Tom Baker, Louise Jameson and John Leeson star in Doctor Who: Shadow of the Sun, an exciting Fourth Doctor mystery adventure written by Rob Valentine.
It’s the first full-cast Doctor Who audio drama to have been produced using Big Finish’s remote recording techniques, and it boasts among its guest cast the brilliant Fenella Woolgar (Inside Number 9, Call the Midwife) as terminally bored socialite, Lady Malina Rigel-Smythe. She is one of many passengers aboard a luxury liner with a difference.
After an accident, the TARDIS lands on a luxury star-liner. Leaving their ship to repair itself, the Doctor, Leela and K9 find themselves facing a great terror: mingling at a cocktail party.
Something seems awry behind the pleasantries however. Guests are going missing, and equipment is breaking down. When the Doctor investigates further he discovers that the star-liner is literally on course for disaster.
But no-one seems surprised by this information, still less troubled. What’s going on? And can the Doctor and his friends save everyone… when nobody wants to be saved?
Director Nicholas Briggs said: “In Shadow of the Sun, we have a great, well-made script by Rob Valentine. A lovely slice of science fantasy. It has a great central idea and a cast of superb characters. At its core, there’s a fanatical belief in something that is patent nonsense, but the Doctor, Leela and K9 find themselves to be the only people who know the truth. That’s a great set-up!
“And it also has a flavour of the often talked about ‘base under siege’ setting, which adds an appealing claustrophobia to the storytelling. It makes the situation more extreme and therefore more of an exciting ride for the audience.”
Writer Robert Valentine added: “This is a story inspired by the modern trend of giving the same value to opinion as fact – including everything from climate change denial to the anti-vaccination movement – but specifically the recent (and ultimately fatal) rocket launch experiments intended to prove that the Earth is flat. The Doctor is about to find himself in a situation where the true enemy is pseudo-scientific hubris, and for once it might be an enemy he hasn’t the tools to overcome.”
