Big Finish Spinoff Adventures

BF Welcomes Iris Wildthyme: Big Finish will debut a third series of Who-related merchandise in 2001, as announced on their website. Iris Wildthyme, the popular character featured in several BBC books written by author Paul Magrs, will feature in her own book and audio series from BF. Wildthyme, a fellow renegade Time Lord who has enjoyed a long-standing tryst with the Doctor (and has encountered him in several incarnations), will debut in a book written by Magrs, along with an audio play written by Stephen Cole. No casting or release date information has yet been posted.

A New Beginning for the Benny Summerfield Adventures: Paul Cornell, who owns the rights to the character, advised on an anthology that kicks off the new publishing foray; all books and audios will now have the moniker "Professor Bernice Summerfield And..." before the name of each production. They will not be called New Adventures, however, as BF only has the rights to certain individual characters and not many of the other creations in the earlier Virgin book range. Says the new website: "And so, we now prepare to pick up the story of her life, and those around her, some time later- at the dawn of the twenty-seventh century in fact. Benny has now set up home on The Braxiatel Collection, a small planetoid that her old chum and fellow academic Irving Braxiatel has created to house what is, probably, the biggest and best collection of... well things that people with money collect, in the galaxy. Scholars, researchers and interested parties the cosmos over flock to The Braxiatel Collection to see the art, literature, history and science on display there. Or they will, when Irving gets around to actually finishing it." Meanwhile, a new series of Benny audio plays will be issued bi-monthly, alternating with the novels. These new stories will not be adaptations from Virgin Books. Paul Cornell may be editing a second anthology in 2001, with an open submissions policy.

The new website for the releases is located at www.bernicesummerfield.com.