As usual, the aim is to guess the BARB final consolidated viewing figure for Doctor Who on Christmas Day, to the nearest 10,000 viewers (i.e. two decimal places).

"We have a long history of adventures with the Eighth Doctor," says writer/director Nicholas Briggs, "and we'd just got to the end of four years' worth of adventures with Sheridan Smith as Lucie Miller. So, I wanted to create a fresh start for Paul McGann and our listeners. It's a real jumping-on point where the Doctor is embroiled in a whole new, gigantic adventure. You can listen to this without ever having heard an Eighth Doctor audio drama before and understand every word and nuance. Of course, if you want to go back and find out what happened before, you can always do that too."

Dark Eyes introduces a new companion for the Eighth Doctor in the form of Molly O’Sullivan, played by Ruth Bradley, a volunteer nurse who he meets in France during the First World War. "I wanted there to be a new companion who had something different to offer," Nick continues. "Someone mentioned that there'd never been an Irish companion in the TARDIS and I was already thinking of making her someone who was involved in the First World War, so the two things came together to make something rather unique in the form of Molly O'Sullivan. She's a girl who's seen and experienced the most terrible, harrowing things, so she's no innocent and she's not really a willing participant in the Doctor's adventures. Also, she is the 'Dark Eyes' of the title, so the adventure is all about her relationship with the Doctor."

Dark Eyes also showcases a new costume for Paul McGann’s Doctor, which was designed and made by WETA Workshop. "That's something that Paul McGann worked out with an great Australian guy called William Geradts who organises conventions Down Under," Nick explains. "He and Paul got chatting about creating a new image for the Eighth Doctor and Bill got WETA to make it for him. Paul loved it and came to us, asking if we'd be prepared to use it. Since the Eighth Doctor had had so many adventures with us, and it seemed odd that he'd keep that Wild Bill Hickok costume on for so long, we thought it was high time for a change. Our Doctors show so much loyalty, continuing to work with us over the years, so we're always happy to incorporate their ideas and this was one we were very keen to embrace. We sent the images to the BBC, they approved them, so off we went! It's a brave new era with a great new look."

Dark Eyes (available to order)
by Nicholas Briggs
starring Paul McGann, Ruth Bradley and Peter Egan

'I really hoped it would be a wonderful view... to look back from the end of everything... to see how things finally turned out.'

The Doctor is looking for hope. But instead, he finds himself on a mission. The Time Lords have uncovered terrifying fragments of an insane plot to destroy the universe. And somehow, at the centre of that plot is one, random female in Earth’s history, Molly O’Sullivan.

Soon, the Doctor and Molly find themselves thrown headlong into a series of dangerous and terrifying adventures, with the dreaded Daleks never far behind them.

The five-disc box set Doctor Who – UNIT: Dominion finds the Seventh Doctor (Sylvester McCoy) taking on invading forces from another dimension. Luckily, he has the help of UNIT, including former companion - and former Nazi! - Dr Elizabeth Klein, his trusty safe-cracking companion Raine Creevy and... another version of himself!

A massive event of a story running to approximately four hours (plus an hour of behind-the-scenes material), Doctor Who – UNIT: Dominion also stars Tracey Childs as Klein, Beth Chalmers as Raine and Alex Macqueen as the Other Doctor. It's written by Nicholas Briggs and Jason Arnopp and directed by Nicholas Briggs.
Originally starting its life as one of Virgin's Doctor Who: New Adventures novels, Love and War was now-TV-Who-writer Paul Cornell's second novel for the range, and the one which introduced Bernice Summerfield, a stalwart of Big Finish's audio output literally from day one.

Doctor Who: Love and War is an audio adaptation by Jacqueline Rayner of that novel, to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of Benny's creation. It finds the Doctor (Sylvester McCoy) and Ace (Sophie Aldred) visiting the planet Heaven, where they meet Professor Bernice Summerfield (Lisa Bowerman) and discover dark deeds afoot that will change the Doctor and Ace's relationship forever... The three-disc set includes a special prelude plus an extensive behind the scenes documentary.
Finally, a whole month earlier than scheduled, is Doctor Who – Voyage to Venus. The story finds Victorian investigators of infernal incidents Jago and Litefoot off on a jaunt with the Sixth Doctor, in the aftermath of their latest series of adventures in their own spin-off series. Their first stop is the planet Venus, mentioned on several occasions in Doctor Who but not actually visited - and what a wealth of strange creatures both fair and foul it brings!

Colin Baker once more plays the Sixth Doctor, while Christopher Benjamin and Trevor Baxer again embody the olden-days adventurers Henry Gordon Jago and George Litefoot as they're taken out of the comfort zone of their own time and space for the first time!

UNIT: Dominion is a massive story. The script was enormous and we realized when we were making it that it’s actually the same length as The Invasion. But it needed to be that long to tell a tale of such scope, which crosses between multiple dimensions.

Issue 11 covers the second season of adventures featuring the Eighth Doctor and Lucie Miller.

It has all-new, exclusive interviews with the cast and crew, including executive producer Nicholas Briggs on remixing the theme, writers Pat Mills, Jonathan Morris, Jonathan Clements, Marc Platt, Eddie Robson, and Paul Magrs, as well as guest actors Harry Potter star Sean Biggerstaff and Colin Spaull, plus composer Timothy Sutton on writing the song Falling Star.

It also features previously-unseen and exclusive cover sketches by Grant Kempster.

Gods and Monsters sees the long-awaited rematch between the Seventh Doctor and his arch enemy Fenric. "With four companions, a multitude of godlike creatures and an army of Haemovores, this will be a battle to remember," says producer David Richardson. Written by Mike Maddox and Alan Barnes, Gods and Monsters finds the Doctor in grave danger, with his latest manipulations having gone wildly out of his control. And he's got a lot of explaining to do to four companions wanting to know just why they've all been brought together... Gods and Monsters is the epic conclusion to the latest trilogy of Seventh Doctor main range adventures, and pulls together threads which have been building since Ace's first appearance way back in the TV story Dragonfire and which have continued through recent audio range releases!

Prepare for a journey into the heart of the Drashani Empire, as three different Doctors take turns paying a visit and discovering that time can change many things... The Burning Prince begins the new linked trilogy, starring Peter Davison as the Fifth Doctor. "I have to admit this is one of my favourite scripts of the year," David says. "John Dorney has delivered a rollercoaster ride of a story, which takes the Fifth Doctor into the direst peril. Strap yourselves in and enjoy!"

Project Nirvana is the latest in Cavan Scott and Mark Wright's 'project' series of tales, which traditionally deal with the sinister secret organisation known as The Forge. In this latest tale, former Forge operative Lysandra Aristedes and Private Sally Morgan take a trip into the past on the Doctor's orders and learn some surprising things... Tying in to events in the recent Doctor Who main range releases Black and White and Gods and Monsters, Project Nirvana explores the backgrounds of these two very different soldiers and gives some insight into what the Black TARDIS team was up to before they were 'discovered' by Ace and Hex.

Finally, Season Three of The Lost Stories concludes this month with The Rosemariners, a four-part Second Doctor story that has been completed by Donald Tosh which finds the Second Doctor and his companions examining the mysteries of a closing Earth Station. Frazer Hines once again provides his recreation of Patrick Troughton.

As a special promotion, episode one is available for FREE as the latest Big Finish podcast. The episode can be heard via the Big Finish website.

Gods and Monsters (available to order)
by Mike Maddox and Alan Barnes
starring Sylvester McCoy, Sophie Aldred, Philip Olivier, Maggie O'Neill, and Amy Pemberton

The TARDIS travellers arrive in a bizarre landscape seemingly immune to the physical laws governing the rest of the universe. Ace, Hex, Sally and Lysandra battle to rescue the Doctor from the trap he's walked into… soon realising that the odds are stacked against them.

Because the Doctor is playing an old adversary again: Fenric, shatterer of worlds. But the gods and monsters who inhabit this strange realm loaded the dice against them long ago, in the dim and distant past – and defeat's their only option.

The Burning Prince (available to order)
by John Dorney
starring Peter Davison and Caroline Langrishe

The Drashani Empire – a galaxy-spanning civilisation, the glory of Rome set among the stars. But for decades now, the Royal Houses of Gadarel and Sorsha have been at war, each claiming the Imperial throne.

The wedding of Prince Kylo and Princess Aliona was meant to change all that – a blessed union between the Houses, a new hope for the Empire. Until Aliona's wedding galley crash-landed on the planet Sharnax – and all contact was lost.

The TARDIS lands aboard the ship carrying the fiery Kylo in search of his lost princess – but with a sabre-toothed monster roaming its corridors, the Doctor soon discovers he's not the only alien presence aboard.

Project Nirvana (available to order)
by Cavan Scott and Mark Wright
starring Maggie O’Neill, Amy Pemberton, and Sylvester McCoy

The place is Eastern Europe. The year is 2015.

The TARDIS lands in mid-air, and Captain Lysandra Aristedes is dropped into a daring mission in her own past. There are enemies and creatures out there in the night, and the Doctor is waiting at the rendezvous point.

Because this is all part of his bigger picture. And Aristedes is going to learn something about herself...

The Rosemariners (available to order)
by Donald Tosh
starring Frazer Hines, Wendy Padbury, with David Warner and Clive Wood

The Doctor, Jamie and Zoe find themselves on an almost deserted space lab. Earth Station 454 is being closed down, mothballed, its staff relocated. Years of research and co-operation are coming to an end and only distinguished xeno-botantist Professor Arnold Biggs remains on board.

But is there more to the closure than meets the eye? For the operation is being supervised by the Rosemariners of the planet Rosa Damascena. Their terrifying Commander, Rugosa, seems to have something to hide. Who is he? What do the Rosemariners want with the scientists? And what is the secret of Rosedream?

In a world where no one is quite what they seem, and deadly plants lurk around every corner, the Doctor will have to use all his ingenuity just to stay alive... just to stay himself.

I'd loved John Dorney’s The Rocket Men, and really wanted to bring them back. Matt Fitton – who's a writer we've quickly grown to admire at Big Finish – has delivered a thrilling sequel, in which the heroic Steven takes on the might of the jet-packed marauders.

Return of the Rocket Men
by Matt Fitton
starring Peter Purves, with Tim Treloar

Once before the Doctor battled the sadistic Rocket Men and once before he won. But when the dreaded pirates of the skies raid a remote frontier planet, he's not the only member of the TARDIS crew for whom they are old enemies.

Steven Taylor knows them well. Back in his days as a pilot, on his twenty first birthday, Steven's ship was brought down by the malevolent Van Cleef. He barely escaped with his life. And now he's going to have to go through that again.

But this time round, he knows what happens. And he knows there's no way out. Steven Taylor has to make a choice. A choice where either way... he loses.

1001 Nights
by Emma Beeby, Gordon Rennie, Jonathan Barnes, Catherine Harvey
starring Peter Davison and Sarah Sutton

A long time ago, two travellers came from far away...

In the perfumed palace of an omnipotent Sultan, a girl must tell stories to keep the man she cares about from a cruel and horrible death. She spins tales of distant lands she has visited with a mysterious traveller, of fabulous creatures and fantastic adventures – and of a blue box that can travel in time and space.

Meanwhile, in the dungeons below the throne room, there lurks a secret which will bring down the kingdom – perhaps even the universe.

Can the Doctor and Nyssa escape from this never-ending story before the final chapter spells their end?

This is a scary one! Writer Marc Platt has explored that uneasy feeling you get of being wide awake at 3:30 in the morning, and the fear that there’s something lurking in the darkness.

Night of the Stormcrow
by Marc Platt
starring Tom Baker and Louise Jameson

High atop Mount McKerry sits the observatory. For years now it's been watching the skies. Now something's watching back. Something dark and huge that blots out the stars. Something with giant wings. Something that kills.

When the TARDIS is struck mid-flight, the Doctor and Leela crash-land on the mountain to find they are not the only aliens to be visiting. Beings of nothing infest the complex, staff members are dead or mad. As the survivors argue amongst themselves and attempt to take advantage of the situation, a creature vast and terrible is coming ever closer.

A creature called... Stormcrow.

I loved Nick's script for this story, and it sets up an interesting arc for the series which will see David Warner and Toby Hadoke recurring through four of the releases. I think we made Toby’s year when we cast him in an ongoing role opposite one of his favourite Doctors!

The Sands of Life
by Nicholas Briggs
starring Tom Baker, Mary Tamm and John Leeson

Plot synopsis to be confirmed.

Cast: Hayley Atwell (President Moorkurk), David Warner (Cuthbert), Toby Hadoke (Mr Dorrick)

It's astonishing to think that it's only four months until the launch of Season Two, And it’s desperately sad to think Mary is no longer with us to enjoy the public unveiling of Romana’s return to the Fourth Doctor’s side.

However, I have no doubt at all that Mary would want us to forge ahead with releasing these stories as planned, and she'd want them to be a huge success. She certainly worked very hard to finish them, despite her illness.