Big Finish: Adric returns to the TARDIS in 2017

Wednesday, 15 June 2016 - Reported by Chuck Foster

Big Finish have announced that Matthew Waterhouse will be reprising his role as Adric in three new adventures alongside Peter Davison as the Doctor, Janet Fielding as Tegan and Sarah Sutton as Nyssa:

Matthew Waterhouse rejoins the 5th Doctor TARDIS team for 2017 (Credit: Big Finish)

2017 will find the Fifth Doctor joined by Adric, Nyssa and Tegan for three new adventures set within Season 19 of the classic television series!

Thirty-five years since they parted ways on television, Matthew Waterhouse will rejoin his TV co-stars Peter Davison, Sarah Sutton and Janet Fielding for three new Big Finish releases, following an appearance together in the critically-acclaimed Doctor Who: The Fifth Doctor Box Set.

Doctor Who main range script editor Alan Barnes said:

I've got a huge amount of affection for Adric and the whole of Season 19. It's the series that was on TV when I was 11, turning 12, which is a great moment to be a Doctor Who fan, when you're madly enthusiastic but not yet so insanely critical that you can't enjoy it!

The new trilogy begins with Doctor Who: The Star Men by Andrew Smith; who made his writing debut with Adric's introductory adventure Full Circle. Barnes continues:

The first thing I wanted to do was to get Andrew writing Adric again, because he'd been such a huge part of the character's development. So with The Star Men I asked Andrew to write something significant for Adric, something to serve the character well and perhaps show him in a slightly different light. I wanted a cosmically big sort of story, too, “full of spacey stuff”. I think it's a bit of a shame that Season 18's script editor Christopher H Bidmead didn't do Season 19 as well, so that was part of the thinking: “What would Bidmead do...?

The trilogy continues with Doctor Who: The Contingency Club by Phil Mulryne – set within an exclusive Victorian gentleman's club - and Doctor Who: Zaltys by Matthew J Elliot.

Zaltys came about because it struck me that there are a few hints in Season 19 that some of the directors have been looking at pop videos of the day – in the “Tegan's mind” bits of Kinda, for example, and in the Adam Ant-like “chandelier jump” in Castrovalva – so I asked Matthew to think about the sort of story that could have been told in the language of the pop video circa 1981/2. Yes, obviously, we don't have the visuals, but every story needs a starting point, and that can be almost anything. You'll have to wait to work out which particular videos we were looking at!

The three stories will be released by Big Finish from January next year, and can be pre-ordered from their website.

FILTER: - Big Finish - Fifth Doctor

Big Finish: regular range during 2016

Tuesday, 23 February 2016 - Reported by Chuck Foster

Big Finish have released details on what to expect in their regular monthly range of adventures for the Doctor.

The first quarter of the year features the fifth Doctor and companions, with Peter Davison, Janet Fielding and Sarah Sutton reprising their roles as they encounter Rembrandt, a mysterious apparently abandoned spaceship, and a bad time in Manchester's history:

Waters of Amsterdam (Credit: Big Finish)

Starring Peter Davison as the Doctor, with Janet Fielding as Tegan and Sarah Sutton as Nyssa
Written by Jonathan Morris, directed by Jamie Anderson
Released January 2016 [order]

Reunited with the Doctor and Nyssa, Tegan joins them on a trip to Amsterdam's Rijkmuseum to see a new exhibition of the work of Rembrandt van Rijn, featuring his drawings of “Vessels of the Stars”. The Doctor is astonished to discover that they are designs for spaceships that would actually work, and decides to pop back to the Dutch Golden Age for a quiet word with Rembrandt – but the world-weary artist is no mood to help.

Meanwhile, strange forces are swirling in the canals, creatures from ancient myth, the watery, goblin-like Nix. What is their connection to the mysterious Countess Mach-Teldak – and to the events of Tegan’s life during her year away from the Doctor?

Starring Peter Davison as the Doctor, with Janet Fielding as Tegan and Sarah Sutton as Nyssa
Written by Simon Barnard & Paul Morris, directed by Ken Bentley
Released February 2016 [order]

Today should be much like every other day for Hargreaves, the computer consciousness that co-ordinates daily life aboard the spaceship Aquitaine, stationed on the outer fringes of a black hole. Water the plants, run the diagnostics, cook the Captain’s breakfast; then tidy the plates away, rotate the ship, clean the windows of the observation deck. When at last the day’s work is done, Hargreaves will dim the lights in the sleeping quarters. But no-one will sleep aboard the Aquitaine tonight. Because the Aquitaine’s crew is missing.

But today will be different. Today, a space/time ship called the TARDIS will materialise in the botanical section, bringing the Doctor, Nyssa and Tegan aboard the Aquitaine. Together, they’ll seek to discover the truth of what happened to Hargreaves’ crew...

... if only the ghosts will let them.

The Peterloo Massacre (Credit: Big Finish)

Starring Peter Davison as the Doctor, with Janet Fielding as Tegan and Sarah Sutton as Nyssa
Written by Paul Magrs, directed by Jamie Anderson
Released March 2016 [pre-order]

"They say there’ll be thousands pouring into Manchester tomorrow. From all over the county, north and south. It’ll be a piece of history. People will remember this!"

Lost in the smog of the Industrial Revolution, the TARDIS crashes four miles south of Manchester, in the grounds of Hurley Hall – a grand mansion belonging to a local factory owner, a proudly self-made man. But while Hurley dreams of growing richer still on the wealth of secret knowledge locked up in the Doctor’s time and space machine, his servants hope only for a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work. His young maid Cathy, for instance, whom Nyssa learns is looking forward to joining the working people’s march to St Peter’s Field, in the heart of the city. There’ll be speeches and banners and music. It’ll be like one big jamboree…

Or so she thinks. For the city’s establishment have called in their own private militia, to control the crowd. One of the darkest days in Manchester’s history is about to unfold – and the Doctor, Nyssa and Tegan are right in the thick of it.

The second quarter provides a new encounter with the Masters ... with the fifth Doctor encountering an earlier incarnation (Geoffrey Beevers) in April, followed by the sixth Doctor embroiled with the recent (Alex Macqueen) in May, before the seventh Doctor finds himself recruited by both in June!

And You Will Obey Me (Credit: Big Finish)

Starring Peter Davison as the Doctor, with Geoffrey Beevers as the Master
Written by Alan Barnes, directed by Jamie Anderson
Released April 2016 [pre-order]

The Master: wanted for crimes without number, across five galaxies.

The Master: escaped his pursuers. Last known location: rural Hexford, England, Earth.

The Master: dead and buried in an unmourned grave, in a lonely churchyard.

Apparently.

Vampire Of The Mind (Credit: Big Finish)

Starring Colin Baker as the Doctor, with Alex Macqueen as the Master
Written by Justin Richards, directed by Jamie Anderson
Released May 2016 [pre-order]

Somewhere off the South Coast of England, there’s a lonely island. On that island stands a solitary castle, long since abandoned – haunted, they say. But the truth is, that castle houses something far worse than mere ghosts.

The castle is what lies at the end of a trail followed by the Doctor in search of several missing scientists – all of them connected to the top secret Dominus Institute and its elusive CEO, Sir Andrew Gobernar…

But the Doctor will soon discover that he’s the one being haunted, by a ghost from his past… or perhaps, his future.

Starring Sylvester McCoy as the Doctor, with Geoffrey Beevers and Alex Macqueen as the Master
Written by John Dorney, directed by Jamie Anderson
Released June 2016 [pre-order]

The future is dying. All over the universe, gaps are beginning to appear. From the space lanes terrorised by the rag-tag remnants of the once-mighty Rocket Men, to the empire of the Gorlans, stricken by a terrible civil war. Gaps in space/time, portents of the end of everything.

Only three beings might prevent it. The Doctor, a renegade Time Lord from Gallifrey. The Master, another renegade Time Lord from Gallifrey. And another Master, yet another renegade Time Lord from Gallifrey.

One Doctor. Two Masters. What could possibly go wrong?

The summer sees Sylvester McCoy reunited with Bonnie Langford and Sophie Aldred as the seventh Doctor, Mel and Ace embark on a new trilogy of adventures, A Life of Crime, Fiesta of the Damned and Maker of Demons. Then as autumn and winter descends, the fifth Doctor returns in an anthology The Memory Bank and Other Stories, whilst Colin Baker and Miranda Raison return as the Doctor and Constance for a trilogy to round off the year, Order, Absolute Power and Quicksilver.

FILTER: - Audio - Big Finish - Fifth Doctor - Seventh Doctor - Sixth Doctor

Target re-issues in 2016

Saturday, 13 February 2016 - Reported by Chuck Foster

BBC Books have announced that seven of the original Doctor Who Target novelisations are to be re-issued on 28th April, reflecting each of the seven Doctors from the range:

Doctor Who and the Zarbi by Bill Strutton
Doctor Who and the Web of Fear by Terrance Dicks
Doctor Who and the Dinosaur Invasion by Malcolm Hulke
Doctor Who and the Genesis of the Daleks by Terrance Dicks
Doctor Who: The Visitation by Eric Saward
Doctor Who: Vengeance on Varos by Philip Martin
Doctor Who: Battlefield by Marc Platt

All of the books feature cover illustrations by Chris Achilleos, who was commissioned to create new covers for the latter books in the range. He said:

I am delighted to be back on board after so many years. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience, illustrating the jackets in the original old style – it felt just the same, and I am looking forward to signing them for the fans. I'm so pleased that people still want to revisit these books.

Albert DePetrillo, senior editorial director at BBC Books, said

The Target novelisations hold a special place in the hearts of Doctor Who fans. When we published our first set of reissues in 2012, the response was overwhelming, and we’re delighted to continue bringing these classic books to a new generation of readers.

The three original novels that launched the range back in 1972, Doctor Who and The Daleks and Doctor Who and The Crusaders by David Whitaker, and Doctor Who and the Zarbi by Bill Strutton, are also set to be re-released as hardback facsimile editions on 3rd November.

FILTER: - BBC - Books - Fifth Doctor - First Doctor - Fourth Doctor - Second Doctor - Seventh Doctor

TARDIS Eruditorum Volume 6

Thursday, 1 October 2015 - Reported by Marcus

Eruditorum Press has released the latest volume of TARDIS Eruditorum covering The Peter Davison and Colin Baker Years.

Included in this edition

Revised editions of every TARDIS Eruditorum post from the Peter Davison and Colin Baker eras.
A book-exclusive Pop Between Realities, Home in Time for Tea essay on the musical Time, an oft overlooked influence on Trial of a Time Lord, and the expansion of another one to include Box of Delights and Robin of Sherwood.
New essays in praise of Tegan, addressing the stuff left out of the Enlightenment essay, exactly and precisely whose fault the cancellation was, and a completely rewritten essay on "A Fix With Sontarans."
New Time Can Be Rewritten essays on Burning Heart, Dave Stone's Doctor Who/quasi-Judge Dredd mashup, Peri and the Piscon Paradox, Nev Fountain's two-Doctor timey wimey fish farce, and The Holy Terror, Rob Shearman's first-ever Doctor Who story.
A pair of Now My Doctor essays looking at the Fifth and Sixth Doctor eras as wholes.

Plus a forty page long interview with Rob Shearman about his work with Colin Baker at Big Finish and his genuine love for the Eric Saward era.

THis magazine is available in the following editions at these links: US Print ($17.99); US Kindle ($4.99); UK Print (£13.99); UK Kindle (£3.99); Other eReaders/Smashwords ($4.99).

FILTER: - Books - Fan Productions - Fifth Doctor - Sixth Doctor

Germany News Roundup

Monday, 20 July 2015 - Reported by Pascal Salzmann

Peter Capaldi in Berlin (Credit: FOX International Channels Germany)

The last week has seen the cast of Doctor Who visiting Berlin, in a country where the show has grown in popularity for the last few years. Here is a news update on current and upcoming developments in Germany:

FOX announced that Series 9 will premiere in December, almost three months after the UK. This is a departure from the near simulcast broadcasts from recent years. Last year, problems with the BBC's delivery of the material needed to dub Series 8 in time, resulted in near simulcast airings of the episodes in English with German subtitles.

Books publisher Cross Cult announced the release of a monthly e-books series called Zeitreisen (Time Trips). Book 1 Die Todesgrube ("The Death Pit") by A.L. Kennedy will be released on 26th October 2015. It can be pre-ordered at Amazon Germany.
More upcoming printed titles include the eighth Doctor novels Silhouette by Justin Richard on 24th August 2015 and Der Kriechende Terror ("The Crawling Terror") by Mike Tucker on 8th February 2016. November will see the release of the novelisation of City of Death, written by James Goss, with the German title Die Stadt des Todes.

German online audio books platform Audible has announced the release of Gareth Robert's Shada novelisation. It will be unabridged and read by Michael Schwarzmaier, who dubbed Tom Baker in the German versions of The Five Doctors and in Day of the Doctor. The audio book can be pre-ordered on Amazon Germany.

The first German convention for fans of Doctor Who, the TimeLash Event, has now sold out. Guests include Paul McGann, Nicholas Briggs, Catrin Stewart, Nicola Bryant, Terry Molloy, Toby Hadoke, Nev Fountain, Terrance Dicks, Andrew Cartmel and many more. It takes place in Kassel on the 24th to 25th October 2015.

DVD distributer Pandastorm Pictures has released a trailer for the upcoming German DVD boxed set of Die Fünf Doktoren (20th anniversary special The Five Doctors). The 3-disc-set will contain the 90 minute TV-version, the three-parter that was shown in Germany in 1995 and the 100 minute special edition. The set will be released on 28th August 2015. The trailer can be viewed below.

The Five Doctors trailer on YouTube

FILTER: - Audio - Books - Cross Cult - Fifth Doctor - FOX - Germany - International Broadcasting

German DVD release of The Five Doctors delayed

Friday, 15 May 2015 - Reported by Pascal Salzmann

Pandastorm Pictures (Credit: Pandastorm Pictures)

In a statement to fans on their Facebook page as well as in a newsletter, German DVD distributer Pandastorm Pictures announced that their release of The Five Doctors, originally planned for 26th June 2015, will now be released two months later, on 28th August 2015.

The reasons for the delay are, according to the Facebook message, "problems with the material". The newsletter adds that Pandastorm believed the german dub to exist but realised too late that it had been deleted. Thankfully a fan helped out with his recording of the german dub.

Here is the original newsletter announcement, translated from German:

Dear Doctor Who-fans,
we received a lot of positive feedback from you for the last few months. There were photos with you and the boxed sets, a self-made action figure of the Candyman and even Sophie Aldred (Ace) who can be seen on a picture, posing with our second 7th Doctor boxed set. WOW! We would like to send you all a big THANK YOU. Without you the making of these boxed sets would not have been possible.

Some of you might already know that we will also release "The Five Doctors" in Germany. We planned to release it on 26th June 2015 but we sadly have to delay the release to 28th August 2015. After some misunderstandings we now know for sure that the German TV-version had been destroyed. The good news is that our appeal to fans last summer payed off after all and a Doctor Who-fan made his recording available to us. All this took us a lot of time, so that the DVD's won't be ready in time, if we want to deliver a high quality product.

Pandastorm then continued listing all the versions of the 20th Anniversary Special that will be on the 2-Disc-Set:

TV version in English
TV version in German (including German subtitles for the scenes edited out in Germany)
Three-part TV version in German (heavily edited, some scenes arranged in a different order)
Special Edition in English
Special Edition in German (including German subtitles for the scenes that were not shown in Germany)

So far Pandastorm Pictures released all three seasons of the seventh Doctor in season boxed sets in Germany. After The Five Doctors they are going to release two boxed sets for the complete sixth Doctor run and a 2-disc DVD release of The TV Movie.

FILTER: - Blu-ray/DVD - Fifth Doctor - Germany - Pandastorm - Second Doctor - Third Doctor

Classic DVD release schedule for Germany announced

Tuesday, 16 September 2014 - Reported by Pascal Salzmann

Siebter Doktor: Volume 1 (Credit: Pandastorm)

German DVD distributor Pandastorm Pictures announced today the upcoming plans for DVD releases of the classic series in a newsletter sent out to fans. As previously reported the first volume of seventh Doctor stories includes the complete Season 24 on four discs, all the bonus features of the UK DVD's and will be released on 28th November 2015.

Additionally, Pandastorm Pictures is going to release the following sets:

Siebter Doktor Volume 2 (Season 25, 5 discs, release date: 27th February 2015)
Siebter Doktor Volume 3 (Season 26, 7 discs, release date: 24th April 2015)
Die Fünf Doktoren (The Five Doctors, 2 discs, release date: tba)
Sechster Doktor Volume 1 (The Twin Dilemma & Season 22, 7 discs, release date: tba)
Sechster Doktor Volume 2 (Season 23, 4 discs, release date: tba)
Doctor Who - The Movie (2 discs, release date: tba)

According to the newsletter there are currently rights issues that need to be resolved before the TV Movie can be released.

There are no German dubs to any other episodes available, so further releases are unlikely. However, the distributor has told fans that it would consider dubbing more classic episodes if the DVD's are going to sell extremely well.

Der Siebte Doktor Volume 1 can be pre-ordered from Amazon Germany.

FILTER: - Blu-ray/DVD - Classic Series - Eighth Doctor - Fifth Doctor - Germany - Seventh Doctor

12 Days of Big Finish-mas

Thursday, 26 December 2013 - Reported by Chuck Foster

Big Finish are running a number of special offers over the twelve days of Christmas as part of the festive celebrations, selected from a many of their range of series.

Today's offering is the The Butcher of Brisbane, a Fifth Doctor tale that acts as a "prequel" to The Talons of Weng-Chiang, and is available to download from the Big Finish website at a special price for the next couple of days.

The Butcher of Brisbane (Credit: Big Finish)

The Butcher of Brisbane
Starring Peter Davison as The Doctor, Janet Fielding as Tegan, Mark Strickson as Turlough, Sarah Sutton as Nyssa, and Angus Wright as Magnus Greel

Adopting the alias of Weng-Chiang, the 51st century war criminal Magnus Greel will one day arrive in Victorian London by Time Cabinet – only to meet his doom, his plans undone by the Time Lord known as the Doctor.

The Doctor never believed he'd meet Greel again. But when a TARDIS trip to companion Tegan's home town goes wrong, the Doctor ends up in the younger Greel's heyday – in a world on the brink of all-out war.

With the Doctor at the mercy of Greel's alien associate Findecker and his army of mutations, Tegan is about to learn just why they called Greel 'The Butcher of Brisbane'...

FILTER: - Audio - Special Offers - Fifth Doctor - Big Finish

Week of Specials on Radio Four Extra

Saturday, 16 November 2013 - Reported by Marcus

Today BBC Radio Four Extra begins a week of celebrations for the fiftieth anniversary of Doctor Who with a reading of the very first Doctor Who novelisation.

Doctor Who in an Exciting Adventure with the Daleks was first published in 1964, adapted by the series' script editor David Whitaker from the first Dalek story written by Terry Nation. The story was republished by Target Books in 1973, kicking off the range which would introduce a generation of fans born in the sixties and seventies to the eras of the first and second Doctors.

The story, intended to work as a standalone, is told from the viewpoint of Ian Chesterton and has a very different meeting between the Doctor and his future companions than that of the television series.

The Audiogo recording is read by William Russell, who played Ian in the TV series. The broadcast begins at 1800 GMT on Saturday with the first two episodes. The full adaptation is broadcast between 0000 GMT and 0430 GMT on Sunday.

The broadcast kicks off a week of Doctor Who programming on the station. Radio Four Extra can be heard worldwide via the BBC Website.

Sunday - Protect and Survive - 1800 GMT & 0000 GMT

Sylvester McCoy

Monday - Fanfare for the Common Men - 1800 GMT & 0000 GMT

Peter Davison

Tuesday - A Thousand Tiny Wings - 1800 GMT & 0000 GMT

Sylvester McCoy

Wednesday - Farewell Great Macedon - 1800 GMT & 0000 GMT
Thursday - Human Resources - 1800 GMT & 0000 GMT

Paul McGann

Friday - The Dalek Invasion of Earth - 1800 GMT & 0000 GMT

William Russell

Saturday - Doctor Who special – Who Made Who - 0900 GMT & 1600 GMT

Charlie Higson

Al Hennen

The Reunion

Whatever Happened to . . . Susan Foreman?

Sunday - Lucie Miller - 0000 GMT

Paul McGann

Sheridan Smith

Graeme Garden

Monday - To the Death - 0000 GMT

Paul McGann

Sheridan Smith

Graeme Garden

FILTER: - Doctor Who - Eighth Doctor - Seventh Doctor - First Doctor - Radio - Fifth Doctor

Big Finish: September releases

Friday, 27 September 2013 - Reported by Chuck Foster

This month's Doctor releases from Big Finish feature the start of the 1963 trilogy, an adventure for the First Doctor, Steven and Vicki, a further "lost" adventure for the First Doctor, and a new set of adventures for the Victorian investigators Jago and Litefoot.

Fanfare of the Common Men (Credit: Big Finish)

Fanfare for the Common Men (available to order)
Starring Peter Davison as The Doctor, with Sarah Sutton as Nyssa

If you remember the Sixties, they say, then you can’t have been there.

The Doctor remembers the Sixties. That’s why he’s taking Nyssa on a trip back to November 1963. Back to where it all began. Back to the birth of the biggest band in the history of British music. Back to see those cheeky lads from Liverpool...

Mark, James and Korky. The Common Men. The boys who made the Sixties swing with songs like Oh, Won’t You Please Love Me?, Just Count To Three and Who Is That Man.

The Doctor remembers the Sixties. And there’s something very wrong with the Sixties, if the Beatles no longer exist...

The Companion Chronicles: Upstairs (Credit: Big Finish)

Upstairs (available to order)
Starring Peter Purves as Steven and Maureen O'Brien as Vicki

When the TARDIS lands in a dilapidated attic, the Doctor, Vicki and Steven discover they are on Earth, in London… in Number 10 Downing Street.

However alien forces are at play here, affecting the very fabric of the building… and adjusting the very essence of history itself.

The Lost Stories: The Dark Planet (Credit: Big Finish)

The Dark Planet (available to order)
Starring William Russell as Ian Chesterton and Maureen O'Brien as Vicki

Somewhere far back in the early days of the universe the TARDIS lands on a world lit by a dying sun. Missing from the Doctor's star maps and dotted with strange crystalline statues, it is a world ripe for exploration. But it is also a world of destruction.

Venturing out onto its surface, the time travellers find themselves drawn into an age-old conflict between the two species residing on the planet - people of Light and Shadow. Proving a catalyst for the escalation of the conflict, the Doctor and his friends need either to create a peace or to pick a side.

Because in times of war, nothing is ever black and white.

Jago and Litefoot - Series Six (Credit: Big Finish)

Jago and Litefoot - Series Six (available to order)
Starring Trevor Baxter as Professor George Litefoot and Christopher Benjamin as Henry Gordon Jago

After returning to Victorian London, Jago and Litefoot are approached by the enigmatic Colonel and offered a role they cannot refuse – investigators by Royal Appointment to Queen Victoria!

Their missions include a mystery on the Suffolk coast where strange things lurk in the sea mist, an encounter with Freud and a threat to the realm itself… But who can save Professor Litefoot when he is accused of murder, and no one can be convinced of his innocence?

6.1 The Skeleton Quay by Jonathan Morris
6.2 Return of the Repressed by Matthew Sweet
6.3 Military Intelligence by George Mann
6.4 The Trial of George Litefoot by Justin Richards
PLUS! An extra bonus CD of behind-the-scenes material.

Win a copy of Upstairs

This month's competition thanks to Big Finish is to win one of five copies of Upstairs. To be in with a chance to win, please answer the following question:

The Doctor has encountered Prime Ministers past, present and future over the course of his adventures, but which one was forecast by him to be the architect of Britain's "Golden Age"?

Send your answer to comp-upstairs@doctorwhonews.net with the subject line "Yes, I know!", along with your name, address, and where you saw the competition (the news website, twitter, facebook, etc.). Only one entry per postal address will be accepted. The competition is open worldwide, and the closing date is 6th October 2013.

FILTER: - Audio - Competitions - First Doctor - Fifth Doctor - Big Finish

Previous 10 Stories

Big Finish: Adric returns to the TARDIS in 2017

Big Finish: regular range during 2016

Target re-issues in 2016

TARDIS Eruditorum Volume 6

Germany News Roundup

German DVD release of The Five Doctors delayed

Classic DVD release schedule for Germany announced

12 Days of Big Finish-mas

Week of Specials on Radio Four Extra

Big Finish: September releases

Win a copy of Upstairs

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