River Song will be facing the Masters for Big Finish in the fifth series of The Diary of River Song, released January 2019.

The series will see Michelle Gomez return as Missy and Eric Roberts reprise his portrayal of the Master after a 22 year hiatus. They will join Geoffrey Beevers, who first played the Master in Doctor Who TV episode The Keeper of Traken in 1981 and Derek Jacobi, who played the Master in 2008 episode Utopia and continues at Big Finish

Over the course of four audio series made in arrangement with BBC Studios, River Song, played by Alex Kingston has shone alongside several incarnations of the Doctor, including Paul McGann, Sylvester McCoy, Colin Baker, Peter Davison and upcoming in August, Tom Baker.

Now, in January 2019, River Song will face off against four regenerations of The Master, the mortal enemy of the Doctor, in the fifth series of adventures.

• The Bekdel Test by Jonathan Morris
• Animal Instinct by Roy Gill
• The Lifeboat and the Deathboat by Eddie Robson
• Concealed Weapon by Scott Handcock

David Richardson, producer, tells all. Nicholas Briggs, executive producer Jason Haigh-Ellery, executive producer, talks more about bringing these actors to audio The Diary of River Song: Series 5 is available for pre-order now at £23 on CD or £20 on download.

The Diary of River Song: Series 5 can also be purchased as a bundle with The Diary of River Song: Series 4, to be released in August 2018, at the price of £45 on CD and £40 on download (all CD purchases from the Big Finish website unlock a download exclusive from the Big Finish website and app).

Exclusive

Doctor Who News can today reveal that Big Finish are bringing back the 1980s Cybermen in Hour of the Cybermen, a Sixth Doctor tale out this July.

The story, written by Andrew Smith, and starring Colin Baker, sees the return of two 1980s Doctor Who television actors reprising their roles as Cybermen, with David Banks as the Cyber Leader and Mark Hardy as the Cyber Lieutenant.

Also in the cast are Frog Stone as Riva, Blake Harrison as Daniel Hopkins, Wayne Forester as Captain Reaver and Russ Bain as Lewis Price.

The release will reveal what has happened to the new UNIT team since the events of the Fifth Doctor and The Helliax Rift and whether they trust this latest regeneration.

You can pre-order Hour of the Cybermen now at £14.99 on CD or £12.99 on download. All CD purchases unlock a download option via the Big Finish app and the Big Finish website.

You can save money by getting a subscription to the Doctor Who Main Range. When you subscribe you'll get 30% off the price, free specially recorded Short Trips stories, PDFs of the scripts, and extended downloadable extras. You can subscribe for either 6 or 12 releases.

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Out this month in the Doctor Who Main Range, the Sixth Doctor has a new companion, Mathew Sharpe – space pilot in The Lure of the Nomad.

And next month, the Sixth Doctor visits the Industrial Revolution in Iron Bright.

Many new products have been announced in Germany  recently.

• German DVD distributer Pandastorm Pictures announced at the Doctor Who convention TimeLash III on the last weekend of October a limited boxed set featuring all of the 7th Doctor stories, including new bonus features and the never-before-on-DVD released and newly remastered Silver Nemesis Extended edition. This longer cut of the Season 25 story has previously only been released on VHS in the UK.
  The set will be called Siebter Doktor - Special Collector's Edition and presented in a valuable hardcover book in coffee table format. The set is limited to 1,000 copies, each with an impressed number. Script editor Andrew Cartmel has written over 52 pages of production notes on each story, which can be found in the English language as well as in a German translation. The 17 region-free DVD's contain all adventures in English and German audio as well as English and German subtitles and over 24 hours of bonus material. Anther new bonus feature will be the BBC America special Doctor Who Revisited – The Seventh Doctor and an exclusive new interview with Andrew Cartmel. Product shipment is scheduled for the second week of December. This boxed set can only be ordered from Pandastorm's own shop.


• German books and audio publisher Bastei Luebbe also announced a new project at the convention. In cooperation with Big Finish they are going to release German translations of Doctor Who audio plays, with the German dubbing actors known from TV also speaking the parts on audio. The first batch of releases will be the 10th Doctor adventures featuring Donna Noble as the companion. 27th April 2018 will see the release of Die Zeitdiebe by Jenny Colgan, Technophobie by Matt Fitton and Eiskalte Rache by Matt Fitton. All stories will be released on CD and Download. You can pre-order on the publisher's website.
  
  
• Bastei Luebbe will also release four new novels. Scheduled for next year are:
  

  • Eleventh Doctor story Totenwinter (Dead of Winter) by James Goss (26th January 2018)
  • Eleventh Doctor story Der weinende Engel (Touched by an Angel) by Jonathan Morris (29th March 2018) 
  • Eleventh Doctor story Dunkle Gezeiten (The Coming of the Terraphiles) by Michael Moorcock (25th May 2018)
  • Third Doctor story Der Neunte Schlüssel (The Last of the Gadarene) by Mark Gatiss (27th July 2018)

  All novels will also be available in audio book format.
  
  

River Song as played by Alex Kingston, is to meet the Fourth Doctor, played by Tom Baker, in a new set of audio adventures released by Big Finish.

Series Four of The Diary of River Song, to be released in August 2018, will see the archaeologist encounter Doctor Number Four, in a set of new adventures alongside the longest serving Doctor.

Meanwhile Series Three of the Diary of River Song will released in January 2018, and will feature the Fifth Doctor, as played by Peter Davison, battling against the most evil midwife in Doctor Who history, Madame Kovarian, played by Frances Barber.

This box set will contain four hour-long adventures where the Doctor’s wife, archaeologist, crack shot with an intoxicating kiss and time traveler will have to face the demons of her past, present, and future. A fifth series is planned for release in January 2019

Big Finish have announced that David Bradley will be reprising the role of the First Doctor in a new series of Audio plays.

Bradley will star as the First Doctor in this year’s BBC One Doctor Who Christmas Special alongside Peter Capaldi. Now Big Finish Productions, in arrangement with BBC Worldwide, are giving this reimagined First Doctor another chance to explore the cosmos.

Joining David Bradley are his co-stars from the Mark Gatiss Docu-drama on the origins of Doctor Who, An Adventure in Space and Time. Jamie Glover (Elizabeth, Waterloo Road, Holby City) plays Ian Chesterton, Jemma Powell (Alice in Wonderland, Angel, Foyle’s War) plays Barbara Wright, and Claudia Grant (Harry Potter and the Cursed Child) plays Susan – the Doctor’s granddaughter and the original ‘Unearthly Child’.

Script editor and writer Matt Fitton said Executive producer Nicholas Briggs added Executive producer Jason Haigh-Ellery said This series of adventures pays homage to the beginning years of Doctor Who, and each of the four episodes in each story will be given an individual title. Two of the four stories are historical, focusing on tales from Earth’s history pre-1963. Back in its first few years, Doctor Who was intended to be an educational programme using time travel as a means to explore scientific ideas and famous moments in history, while still captivating the minds and imaginations of generations to come.

Not only will the Doctor be exploring our history, but he will also encounter strange new life forms – the Dalmari and the Ashtallans.

And in a Big Finish exclusive, the First Doctor will encounter his greatest foe, the first incarnation of fellow Time Lord, the Master, played by James Dreyfus.

Available in December, the stories in The First Doctor Adventures - Volume 1 consist of:

• 1.1 The Destination Wars by Matt Fitton
• 1.2 The Great White Hurricane by Guy Adams

And to follow in July 2018, Doctor Who: The First Doctor Adventures – Volume 2:

• 2.1 The Invention of Death by John Dorney
• 2.2 The Barbarians and the Samurai by Andrew Smith

Doctor Who: The First Doctor Adventures – Volume 1 is available for pre-order now at £23 on CD or £20 on download from Big Finish and will remain at this price until general release when it will be available for £35 on CD or £30 on download.

David Tennant And Billie Piper are reprising their roles of the Tenth Doctor and his companion Rose Tyler in three Doctor Who audio dramas from Big Finish Productions in arrangement with BBC Worldwide.

David Tennant’s Doctor, portrayed on screen from December 2005 until December 2009, returned in the 50th Anniversary special, The Day of the Doctor, with Matt Smith and Sir John Hurt in 2013, and on audio for Big Finish with Catherine Tate in 2016.

Billie Piper portrayed the Doctor’s much-loved companion Rose in 2005 and 2006, returning for a number of stories in 2008. She also appeared as The Moment – which had taken Rose’s form – in The Day of the Doctor. These new stories will be Billie’s eagerly awaited debut for Big Finish.

Executive producer Jason Haigh-Ellery says: Doctor Who: The Tenth Doctor Adventures – Volume 2, will be released in November 2017. It is comprised of three hour-long full cast audio adventures.

The set opens with Attack of the Zaross by John Dorney, in which an alien invasion of Earth isn’t quite what it appears to be – Camille Coduri guest stars as Jackie Tyler.

In the second adventure, Sword of the Chevalier by Guy Adams, the Doctor and Rose arrive in Slough in 1791 and encounter Chevalier D’Eon, an enigmatic ex-spy who has lived his life as a woman. Together they must fend off alien slavers, who have come to Earth to abduct valuable humans.

Finally, in Cold Vengeance by Matt Fitton, the TARDIS arrives on Coldstar, a vast frozen food asteroid in deep space. But there is something sinister defrosting in the network of storage units… the Doctor’s old enemies the Ice Warriors! Nicholas Briggs plays Ice Lord Hasskor and Warrior Slaan.

Nicholas Briggs, who is the Voice of the Daleks on TV and for Big Finish, said Doctor Who: The Tenth Doctor Adventures – Volume 2 is produced by David Richardson who said Special Preview of the Tenth Doctor and Rose

Doctor Who: The Tenth Doctor Adventures – Volume 2 will be available in both a Limited Edition Deluxe box set, and as three individual vanilla releases.

Doctor Who: The Tenth Doctor Adventures – Volume 1, starring David Tennant and Catherine Tate, is currently available on CD and download. For the next 24 hours it will be available at half price from the Big Finish website.

Big Finish has announced that Torchwood will be back for a brand new series of audio adventures with Torchwood: Aliens Among Us...

The new series, revealed at the DWAS convention The Capitol II, will follow the events of Miracle Day, and will see the Torchwood team reunited. Captain Jack, Gwen and Rhys will be joined by new characters co-created and overseen by series creator Russell T Davies.

In this series, Captain Jack and Gwen Cooper have restarted Torchwood in Cardiff, home of the original Torchwood Three. But it's in a very different Cardiff. Something terrible's happened to the city. With every day getting darker, will Torchwood need to adopt a whole new approach?

Producer of Torchwood Season 5, James Goss, talked about the new Torchwood team and Russell T Davies’ involvement. This new series of Torchwood will be released in three boxsets, the first being out in August. Torchwood Series 5.2 will follow in October and 5.3 will complete the season in the new year.

Press reaction to this week's Doctor Who episode Knock Knock is mixed. While many reviewers disagree about the strength of the writing, most are agreed on the quality of the performances in the story.

The Telegraph thought the acting plaudits belonged to the main guest star. "David Suchet playing the Landlord was brilliant casting. Just menacing enough as he mysteriously appeared without warning, smiling evilly in corners. Grey-haired and brown-suited, Suchet even looked ghostly. Never before has a tuning fork seemed so sinister."

Radio Times relished the creepy nature of the episode, but was disappointed by the ending. "For the first 35 minutes or so of Knock Knock I’m enthralled. Unfortunately, it showed signs of collapsing like a soufflé during the denouement...... I’d have been far happier with an unhappy ending. And yet I’m dismayed that, as the house crumbles, Bill loses all her knick-knacks, including the treasured photos of her mum that the Doctor sourced for her only weeks ago.

Den of Geek takes the opposite view, preferring the last third of the story. "Appreciating that some aren’t happy when Doctor Who goes emotional in its story wrap-ups, the fact that David Suchet’s mysterious landlord is actually the son of the woman we assumed to be his daughter is a very well earned, impactful piece of storytelling. I like that it works as a twist, but mostly, that it works because it adds real tenderness to the story."

The Mirror felt the episode to be the weekest of the season so far, feeling the character of The landlord was confusing. "Rather than allowing the bad guy of the week to be wonderfully creepy, he gets a 180 in the last few minutes to try and make us sympathise with him. But again, you can’t go killer madman to poor boy trying to save his mother in 3 minutes flat. Frankly, if you bag an actor of such calibre you can't waste him on a character that chops and changes."

Games Radar felt the writing was disapointing after last week's triumph. "The flat story is elevated slightly by David Suchet’s masterful acting, and Bill coming out as bluntly as possible does provide an air-punch moment. But even those stand-outs can’t redeem the overall limp writing. "

Flickering Myth disagreed. "When Doctor Who aims to frighten you, it really knows where those dark corners are in your mind, where you keep those little things you don’t like in your own cozy home, and brings them into light for everyone to see and to watch you leap two foot off your sofa. In this latest episode of Series 10, written by Mike Bartlett, you’re seriously going to be considering screwing down that creaking floorboard outside your bathroom by the end of it."

Carter Matt also enjoyed the story. "What was so fascinating about this story was that the more we saw of it, the more apparent that it became that this was not a story about good and evil; it was a story in some ways about a sacrifice, and what a father was able to do for his daughter. "

AV Club appreciated the style of the story. "Rarely does Doctor Who embrace another genre as completely as the first 30 minutes of “Knock Knock” does. For the first two thirds of its running time, tonight’s episode is a horror movie, with all the customary trappings. There’s the spooky haunted house with the still spookier landlord. There’s a bunch of thinly sketched young people who are all possibly idiots. There are loud noises and eerie music and windows and doors shutting all by themselves. If anything, it’s all a bit old-fashioned, in the best possible way."

Ars Technica praised the effects in the episode. "The storyline is a bit horror-by-numbers as one by one Bill's pals are bumped off by the alien woodlice. The on-screen effect is pretty grim, if thoroughly gripping, and reminds me of the carnivorous scarabs in The Mummy."

Digital Spy also felt the effects were well realised. "The episode is admirably daring when it comes to its scares, throwing up some genuinely disturbing visuals, particularly the sight of a pained Pavel (Bart Suavek) half-eaten by the house, and of a screaming Harry (Colin Ryan) being eaten alive by the Dryads."

Screen Rant looked at the themes behind the current series. "Weighing the life of one against the lives of many has been a recurring theme during Capaldi’s tenure as the Doctor, and with ‘Knock Knock’ the series places the Time Lord in a more intimate situation, almost like it’s a test to see what he’ll do when faced with a group of twentysomethings trapped in what appears to be a haunted house"

Nerdist also picked up the horror in the story. "One of the show’s main goals since the beginning was to scare people senseless. Monstrous aliens are part and parcel of the show’s success, and that often sends people “behind the sofa.” This week’s “Knock Knock” fits right in that genre…for good and ill."

IGN returned to the relationship between The Doctor and his new companion. "I enjoyed “Knock Knock” from the get-go, particularly -- as usual -- due to the Doctor’s interactions with Bill, as we see her here slightly embarrassed by the weird old fella around her new friends. This is her granddad helping her move, she insists, but no, he says, he’s her dad. Can’t we at least say I’m the dad?"

Link to Doctor Who News Review

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