Katarina Returns for Big FinishBookmark and Share

Monday, 18 March 2019 - Reported by Marcus
Ajjaz Awad as Katarina (Credit: Big Finish)Big Finish Productions are bringing back the First Doctor's Companion Katarina for a new set of Audio adventures

As well as the return of the companion, originally played in 1965 by the late Adrienne Hill, the Early Adventures stories this year will see classic Doctors colliding, quite literally.

Doctor Who – The Early Adventures, Series Six, will help celebrate 20 years of Doctor Who on audio, in association with BBC Studios.

Daughter of the Gods by David K Barnes is the first adventure in Series Six of Doctor Who – The Early Adventures to be released this year. This adventure will see the First Doctor and Second Doctor meeting, on a mission to alter the course of time forever.
When Zoe reattaches an old piece of equipment to the TARDIS console, she, Jamie and the Doctor are very lucky to avoid a collision. But the place they find themselves in may be even more dangerous - because there they encounter another Doctor, a space pilot called Steven... and a young woman called Katarina who really shouldn’t be there.
In Daughter of the Gods, Frazer Hines as the Second Doctor and Jamie, and Wendy Padbury as Zoe are reunited, continuing to travel the cosmos. But then they bump into someone they should really avoid.

Cast and crew of Daughter of the Gods (Credit: Big Finish)Peter Purves returns as Steven Taylor and takes on the mantle of the First Doctor. Plus, joining him, in a Big Finish first, is Ajjaz Awad (Stones, Holby City), playing the lost companion Katarina.

Many may not recognise Katarina, as unfortunately, only one of the episodes which she starred in still exists, the rest having being lost to time over the last 50 years. However, the Trojan handmaiden Katarina makes a re-appearance, to celebrate Doctor Who on audio’s 20th anniversary.

David K Barnes tells us more about this unlikely resurrection, and how to write a story where Time Lords collide
From the beginning, I had so many exciting elements to play with. Contrasting the fun and frolics of the Troughton years with the darker days of the late Hartnell era was something I wanted to get my teeth into, with the Daleks providing their customary threat.

However, I always knew what the core of my story should be. What could possibly bring the two Doctors into conflict, on the opposite sides of a dilemma?

It could only be the fate of Katarina.
Big Finish Listeners may recognise David K Barnes from his other recent work in the Doctor Who Early Adventures range. Barnes wrote last year’s very popular story, The Dalek Occupation of Winter.

The Second Doctor crew and the Master (Credit: Big Finish)Also to be announced is the second story in Doctor Who - The Early Adventures Series Six. The Home Guard by Simon Guerrier features the Second Doctor and Jamie (both played by Frazer Hines) journeying together with Polly (Anneke Wills) and Ben Jackson (Elliott Chapman) – but things are not all as they seem
It’s the middle of the Second World War and Ben Jackson has returned to visit his married friends Polly and Jamie in their quiet English village. But they can’t quite shake the feeling that something’s not right.
For the first time in Big Finish and Doctor Who history, the Second Doctor and his companions will be encountering the Master… Reprising his role as the first incarnation of the Master is James Dreyfus, who listeners will recognise from the December 2017 release, The First Doctor Adventures Volume One. He’s back, and more malevolent than ever.

Simon Guerrier told us more about this story
I found out that when the first episode of Dad’s Army went out in 1968, James Beck (playing dodgy dealer Walker) invited a good friend round to watch it, and that good friend was Doctor Who story editor and writer David Whitaker. It was roughly around the time Whitaker was working on The Enemy of the World and The Wheel in Space, and so I started to think about how you’d do a Dad’s Army kind of Doctor Who story with that kind of baroque, complicated plotting.
These two adventures in the sixth series of Doctor Who – The Early Adventures will be released in November 2019, priced at £14.99 on CD or £10.99 on download individually. They are also available to purchase together in a bundle, priced at £26 on CD or £20 on download.




FILTER: - Audio - Big Finish - First Doctor