BBC Audio: diamond anniversary releasesBookmark and Share

Monday, 2 January 2023 - Reported by Chuck Foster

BBC Audio have announced their plans for the Doctor's adventures on audio for digital and physical release for the diamond anniversary of the show.

Michael Stevens, Doctor Who Range Editor for BBC Audio, said:

We’re celebrating 60 years of Doctor Who by journeying with each Doctor in turn, from the series’ beginning to the present day. We’ll also be charting the history of the programme itself with Doctor Who at the BBC: The Collection and The Making of Doctor Who, and delving into the psychedelic realm of mid-1970s annuals with The Amazing World of Doctor Who. With a huge variety of readers, writers and characters, there’s something to delight the ears of everyone throughout 2023.

Highlights include

  • new audio titles for Doctors1-13, starting with the First Doctor in January and culminating with the Twelfth and Thirteenth in December
  • encounters with Daleks, Cybermen, Ice Warriors, Silurians, Sea Devils, the Master, the Toymaker and a host of new adversaries
  • adventures with Ian, Barbara, Vicki, Jamie, Zoe, Jo, Sarah, Harry, Tegan,Turlough, Peri, Ace, Clara and many other much-loved travelling companions – plus a few new ones
  • readers including Maureen O'Brien, Jon Culshaw, David Troughton, Tim Treloar, Dan Starkey, Louise Jameson, Jamie Glover, David Banks, Katy Manning and many more
  • two very special nostalgic releases based on legendary books from the 1970s: The Amazing World of Doctor Who and The Making of Doctor Who.

 

The Romans (Credit: BBC Audio)January:The Romans
Written by Donald Cotton
Read by Tim Treloar, Jamie Glover, Dan Starkey, Clare Corbett, Jon Culshaw, Maureen O'Brien and Louise Jameson
Available to pre-order from Amazon

 

A multi-voice retelling of historical events featuring the First Doctor, Ian, Barbara and Vicki.

 

The TARDIS crewmembers have taken a break from their adventures and are enjoying a well-deserved rest in a luxury villa.

But, in the gory grandeur that is Imperial Rome, things don't stay quiet for long. If the time travellers can save themselves from being sold as slaves, assassinated by classical hit-men, poisoned by the evil Locusta, thrown to the lions, maimed in the arena and drowned in a shipwreck, they still have to face the diabolical might of the mad Emperor Nero.

As if that wasn't enough, they also discover that, although Rome wasn't built in a day, it burnt down in considerably less time...

 

The Seeds of Death (Credit: BBC Audio)February: The Seeds of Death
Written by Terrance Dicks
Read by David Troughton
Available to pre-order from Amazon

 

Returning to Earth in the 21st Century, the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe immediately find themselves caught in the midst of a crisis. T-Mat, a form of instantaneous transportation essential to the smooth running of life on Earth, is going disastrously wrong.

The Doctor discovers that the T-Mat base on the Moon has been taken over by a group of Ice Warriors, led by the villainous Slaar. With their home a desolate and dying planet, the Martian invaders see Earth as a world ripe for conquest. But before they can colonise Earth they must dramatically alter its atmosphere.

And so they unleash the Seeds of Death...

 

David Troughton reads Terrance Dicks's novelisation of the 1969 TV serial by Brian Hayles.

 

The Time Monster (Credit: BBC Audio)March: The Time Monster
Written by Terrance Dicks
Read by Jon Culshaw
Available to pre-order from Amazon

 

Outside the bounds of this world lives Kronos, the Chronivore - a mysterious creatures that feeds on time itself.

Posing as a Cambridge professor, the Master intends to use Kronos in his evil quest for power. To stop him, the Doctor and Jo must journey back in time to Ancient Atlantis and to a terrifying confrontation within the Time Vortex itself.

But can even the Doctor save himself from the awesome might of the Time Monster?

 

Jon Culshaw reads Terrance Dicks's novelisation of the 1972 TV serial by Robert Sloman, first published by Target Books in 1986.

 

Planet of Evil (Credit: BBC Audio)April: Planet of Evil
Written by Terrance Dicks
Read by Tim Treloar

Available to pre-order from Amazon

 

The expedition to Zeta Minor began with eight men. Seven were murdered. One survived - but he was not the murderer.

The Doctor and Sarah land on the planet at the same time as the expedition's rescue team, and are immediately taken prisoner as the suspected murderers. But even stranger things soon begin to happen...

What terrible creature inhabits this wild, desolate planet, killing mercilessly and lurking in the murky depths of the Black Pool? Will anyone ever be allowed to leave alive?

 

Tim Treloar reads Terrance Dicks's novelisation of the 1975 TV serial by Louis Marks, first published by Target Books in 1977.

 

May: Warriors of the Deep
Written by Terrance Dicks
Reader to be announced
Available to pre-order from Amzon

 

When the TARDIS materialises on Earth in the year 2084, the Doctor once again encounters the Sea Devils.

Formerly the masters of this planet, but now forced to live in the murky depths of the sea, their intention is to reclaim their position of domination. Aiding them in a dastardly plan to attack humanity's defences are the Silurians, also known to the Doctor of old.

With deceit and subterfuge rife among the Sea Base personnel, can there be any hope for the Doctor's attempts to broker peace between humans and reptiles?

 

June: The Nightmare Fair
Written by Graham Williams
Resader to be announced
Available to pre-order from Amazon

 

Drawn into 'the nexus of the primeval cauldron of Space-Time', the Doctor and Peri are somewhat surprised to find themselves at Blackpool Pleasure Beach.

Is it really just chance that has brought them to the funfair? Or is their arrival somehow connected with the sinister presence of a rather familiar Chinese Mandarin?

Once again the Doctor encounters his deadly adversary the Celestial Toymaker in this adventure by Graham Williams, planned but never made for the TV series in 1986.

 

Other releases for the first half of the year include:

  • January: Doctor Who at the BBC: a collection of the nine volumes released so far in the series
  • February: The Renegades Collection: "a collection of four classic TV novelisations featuring Time Lords who fled life on Gallifrey" - includes The Time Meddler, The Deadly Assassin, Shada and The Mark Of The Rani
  • April: The Amazing Worlds of Doctor Who: "Geoffrey Beevers, Louise Jameson and Dan Starkey perform these stories and features from the celebrated book of the same name"
  • May: The Alt Reality Collection: "the Doctor ventures into alternative dimensions in these four exciting novelisations of TV stories" - includes The Mind Robber, The Invisible Enemy, and Warriors Gate

 

 





FILTER: - Publications; BBC Audio; Novelisations

Celestial Toyroom Annual 2023Bookmark and Share

Monday, 2 January 2023 - Reported by Chuck Foster
Celestial Toyroom Annual 2023 (Credit: DWAS)

The Doctor Who Appreciation Society have released a new annual available to download for free:

 

This year, the seventh annual in our series, covers the Sixth Doctor's era. Every televised story from The Twin Dilemma to The Ultimate Foe is covered along with features on the play, the audios and some of the un-made scripts.

 
The book features articles from 17 different contributors, including Colin Baker himself, along with cover illustrations produced especially for the book by Alister Pearson and Graeme Wey.
 
 
The annual can be downloaded from the DWAS website in both single or double page views; the previous annuals are also avaiable to read from the site.
 
A limited hardcover copy will be published later in January.
 




FILTER: - Publications - DWAS - Colin Baker