Big Finish Update

Friday, 16 March 2007 - Reported by Jarrod Cooper

The latest issue of Doctor Who Magazine included titles and plot details for the Doctor Who audios for the rest of the year...

Renaissance of the Daleks from a story by Christopher H Bidmead. Slated for release this month, this story sees the Doctor and Nyssa do battle with Daleks in Rhodes, America, Vietnam, and the 'Pantemporal Ambience'.

April's release contains two stories. The first is I.D. by Eddie Robson, which features the Sixth Doctor in the thirty-second century stumbling across organic-digital interfacing, personality surgery and an army of Scandroids on a planet piled high with technological junk. Urgent Calls is the second story on this release, and is the first of the new one-part 'Virus Strand' stories. This story sees the Doctor learning that one phonecall can change everything...

May also has a dual-story release, starting with Exotron by Paul S Sutton. Here the Fifth Doctor and Peri are menaced by the ravening Farakosh in a tale of broken hearts and bioengineered nightmares. Urban Myths finishes out the release with a tale of planetary destruction and culinary confusions.

Marc Platt brings us Valhalla in June, in which the Seventh Doctor finds himself without a companion on a moon of Jupiter.

Dual-releases return in July with The Wishing Beast by Paul Magrs. In this three-part story, the Sixth Doctor is unexpectedly expected by some weird sisters. This release also includes The Vantiy Box, a single episode set in a cosy northern backstreet.

Nicholas Briggs shows us Frozen Time in August and lets us join the Seventh Doctor on an expedition to Antarctica with Lord Barset.

In September, Steve Lyons introduces the Fifth Doctor, Peri, and Erimem to Vlad the Impaler in Son of the Dragon.

The 100th Big Finish Doctor Who Release comes out in September. Earthstorm by Stephen Baxter gets the Sixth Doctor and Evelyn get caught up in a global catastrophe in 1963.

October brings Absolution for the Eighth Doctor, Charley and C'rizz. Written by Scott Alan Woodard, this story sees the companions reach a turning point in their lives.

Colin Brake shows us The Mind's Eye in November. The Fifth Doctor, Peri, and Erimem face life-changing experiences on a planet swarming with hostile lifeforms. There will also be a one-part adventure on this release that has yet to be confirmed.

The year ends in December with the Eighth Doctor and Charley meeting The Girl Who Never Was




FILTER: - Audio

Stars on CD

Friday, 16 March 2007 - Reported by DWNP Archive

Fantom Films has released details and cover images of forthcoming CD releases featuring Doctor Who andTorchwood stars.

Volume one of Cult Conversations will have interviews with Gareth David-Lloyd, who plays Ianto Jones inTorchwood, and Deborah Watling, who played companion Victoria Waterfield in Doctor Who. It will be launched at the Memorabilia event, to be held from March 31 to April 1 at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham.

Tales from the Supernatural presents ghost stories penned by M R James and read by Geoffrey Bayldon,Ian Fairbairn and Gareth David-Lloyd. It will be available from April 2.




FILTER: - Audio

Big Finish Update

Tuesday, 20 February 2007 - Reported by Josiah Rowe

Big Finish Productions has updated their website, with information on new and upcoming releases. The Seventh Doctor story Nocturne and the CD of the BBC7 Eighth Doctor story Blood of the Daleks - Part 2 have both been released to subscribers, as have the first four releases of The Companion Chronicles. Actress Sara Griffiths, who played Ray in the 1987 story "Delta and the Bannermen", returns to Doctor Who in the April release, I. D. by Eddie Robson. The cover and synopsis for the latest Bernice Summerfield adventure, The Tub Full of Cats, are available on the website, as is information about new and upcoming releases in the Sapphire and Steel, which has now been confirmed for a third season, and Tomorrow People lines. And the cover and blurb are now available for next month's main Doctor Who release, Renaissance of the Daleks, which is also the first story on the main range to feature the new cover design. This release is based on a story by former Doctor Who script editor and writer Christopher H. Bidmead:
A random landing in London and a trip to the Savoy Hotel yield unexpected results for the Doctor. Tea, scones, an American general who knows far too much, and the threat of a Dalek invasion of Earth.

Meanwhile, the Doctor's companion Nyssa is in Rhodes during the time of the Crusades, where her position proves to be distinctly precarious.

It seems the Doctor's deadliest foes have woven a tangled web indeed. And in order to defeat them, he must cross the forbidden barriers of time and walk into the very centre of their latest, most outlandish scheme of conquest.





FILTER: - Audio

More Companion Chronicles to come

Saturday, 17 February 2007 - Reported by Jarrod Cooper
Jason Haigh-Ellery of Big Finish Productions announced today that there will be a second series of the newCompanion Chronicles series. No information about casting or characters have been announced at this time.




FILTER: - Audio

Dalek Empire becomes FEARLESS

Sunday, 11 February 2007 - Reported by Jarrod Cooper
In a recent interview with Doctor Who Magazine, Co-Executive Producer Nick Briggs has released more information about the fourth Dalek Empire series. Entitled The Fearless, the series will take place during the first Dalek Empire series and will feature at least one of the original characters. Storylines have already been approved by the BBC, with recording slated for May. This latest serial will be released from September to December.




FILTER: - Audio

Big Finish Updates for 2007

Thursday, 1 February 2007 - Reported by Jarrod Cooper
Big Finish has published information for their upcoming releases in 2007, including the 100th title for the Doctor Whorange. The latest cover for the Paul McGann BBC7 series, The Horror of Glam Rock, can be viewed by clicking on the preview below.

March 2007 sees the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa experiencing the Renaissance of the Daleks. April sees the first 'dual' release, with the Sixth Doctor stories I.D. and Urgent Calls. The following month, the Fifth Doctor does double duty with Exotron and Urban Myths. The Seventh Doctor visits Valhalla in June, with The Wishing Beast and The Vanity Box featuring the Sixth Doctor in July. August has the Seventh Doctor experiencing Frozen Time. September has two seperate releases, starting with the Fifth Doctor meeting the Son of the Dragon in the early part of the month.

The 100th Release of the Big Finish Doctor Who range is Earthstorm by award-winning author Stephen Baxter, which features the Sixth Doctor and is due to be released late September. Baxter is one of Britain's most respected hard science-fiction novelists, his books include The Time Ships, which was an authorised sequel to H.G. Wells influential classic The Time Machine.

The Eighth Doctor will continue to have his BBC7 adventures released monthly alongside his predecessors in the main range. Also, Doctor Who Magazine reports that there is a fourth series of Dalek Empire and a second series ofCyberman in the works. The Dalek Empire series will be set during the first series but from a different perspective. There will also be a free CD with the purchase of DWM issue 380.




FILTER: - Audio - DWM

Big Finish New Releases

Sunday, 21 January 2007 - Reported by Jarrod Cooper
Big Finish has released the cover images and plot information for their January and February Doctor Who releases.

January sees the release of Circular Time. Written by new series writer Paul Cornell, it features Peter Davison and Sarah Sutton in four one-episode stories.

February has Sylvester McCoy, Sophie Aldred, and Philip Olivier being joined by Are You Being Served? alumnus Trevor Bannister for Nocturne
Circular Time

Summer to winter, the seasons turn.
In the springtime of a distant future, the Doctor and Nyssa become embroiled in Time Lord politics on an alien world. During the stifling heat of a summer past they suffer the vengeful wrath of Isaac Newton. In the recent past, Nyssa spends a romantic golden autumn in an English village while the Doctor plays cricket. And finally, many years after their travels together have ended, the two friends meet again in the strangest of circumstances.
Four seasons. Four stories. Now close the door behind you, you're letting the cold in...

Nocturne -

On the human colony planet Nocturne, there is suffering and blight, tragic symptoms of an ages-old war. Never the less, Nocturne is also one of the Doctor's favourite places in all of time and space, because it is here that a late, great flowering of human art - the High Renaissance - is taking place.
He has been back here, many times. It is a place of music and art which he finds inspirational and uplifting. It is a place he wants to share with Ace and Hex. It's always been a safe haven for him, a world of friends and laughter. But with strict Martial Law imposed on the front-line city, and the brutal scourge of interstellar warfare vicing the system, how safe can anyone really be?
There is a note of death in the wild, midnight wind...




FILTER: - Audio

Doctor Who Singles Chart battle

Friday, 19 January 2007 - Reported by Chuck Foster

The BBC children's news programme Newsround is the latest to report on plans to put Love Don't Roam by Murray Gold into the UK Singles charts.

Reporter Lizo Mzimba commented: "It's all happened because of a change in the rules on how the singles chart works. Now any song, whether it's a single or an album track, whether it's in the shops or only by downloading, can make it into the singles chart if enough people buy it. That's what a group of Doctor Who fans have tried to take advantage of. They've spent the week trying to persuade people to download a track featured in the Doctor Who Christmas Special, in the hope that the song Love Don't Roam - which was never intended to be a single - will actually make it into the singles chart next week."

He went on to say: "If you think it's ridiculous that a Doctor Who song could be popular enough to get into the charts, think again - a few years back this song (Doctorin' The TARDIS), inspired by Doctor Who, not only got into the charts, it got to number one!"

The item was entitled "David Tennant vs Billie Piper" as, in addition to above and as we previously reported, BBC Radio One DJ Chris Moyles is also attempting to get a track into the charts - Honey to the Bee by former Doctor Who actress Billie Piper.

Newsround have also invited viewers to vote on which song they'd like to see make it to the top of the charts their website - though you can't vote for both!

Though not referenced by name, Outpost Gallifrey made it into the item, used as an illustration of one of the sites where the download is being discussed (see above picture).

(Billie Piper was also mentioned on this morning's Entertainment Today, talking about her new play Treats, but also to comment that she was on their first ever show, some 250 editions ago.)





FILTER: - Murray Gold - Audio - Press

Gunfighters CD release

Wednesday, 17 January 2007 - Reported by DWNP Archive
The BBC has given a few details about the release of the Hartnell story "The Gunfighters" on CD scheduled for 5 February. The release, which features linking narration by Peter Purves, will also include a special interview with Purves on the making of the episode. As a special there is a 10-minute bonus track of the original recordings of Lynda Baron singing "The Ballad of the Last Chance Saloon" from the story. This is the first ever release of the soundtrack that is sure to set the toes tapping.




FILTER: - Audio - Classic Series

The Companion Chronicles

Sunday, 7 January 2007 - Reported by Jarrod Cooper
Big Finish has released full cover images and plot information for their upcoming Companion Chronicles series. This series sees Classic companions Vicki, Zoe, Liz, and Romana in brand new stories told from their point of view.
Frostfire
Read by: Maureen O'Brien as Vicki, with Keith Drinkel as The Cinder.
Vicki has a tale to tell. But where does it start and when does it end?
Ancient Carthage. 1164 BC. Lady Cressida has a secret. She keeps it deep in the cisterns below the Temple of Astarte with only one flame for warmth. And it must never get out.
Regency London, 1814 AD. The first Doctor, Steven and Vicki go to the fair and meet the fiery Dragon, the novelist Miss Austen and the deadliest weather you ever did see.
But which comes first? The Future or the Past?
The Phoenix or the Egg? The Fire or the Frost?
Or will Time freeze over forever?

Fear of the Daleks
Read by: Wendy Padbury as Zoe, with Nicholas Briggs as the Daleks
Why has Zoe Heriot been having nightmares about the Daleks? Who is the Doctor, a mysterious man from her past? When an evil scientist hijacks her mind to control a galaxy-conquering weapon, Zoe must stop him. First, she and the Doctor will face an enemy they had thought destroyed forever.

The Blue Tooth
Read by: Caroline John as Liz, with Nicholas Briggs as the Cybermen
"I suppose that was one of the Doctor's most endearing qualities: the ability to make the bizarre and the terrifying seem utterly normal."
When Liz Shaw's friend Jean goes missing, the Doctor and U.N.I.T. are drawn to the scene to investigate. Soon Liz discovers a potential alien invasion that will have far-reaching affects on her life… and the Doctor is unexpectedly re-united with an old enemy…

The Beautiful People
Read by: Lalla Ward as Romana, with Marcia Ashton as Karna
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FILTER: - Audio