Big Finish has long been the bastion for fans of past Doctor Who stories and characters. Since before the series returned to television in 2005, the audio drama producers have made full cast adventures starring the Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth Doctors. But for a long time, the Classic Series was all they were allowed to touch, until recently. It was announced a few months ago that John Barrowman’s Capt. Jack Harkness would be starring in a new Torchwood audio, giving fans hope that more New Series characters might make their way to audio. And Saturday gave us another huge jump in that direction.
It was announced that Alex Kingston would be returning to Doctor Who in 2016 in an audio adventure with Paul McGann’s Eighth Doctor. The story will be called Doom Coalition 2 and will also star the Eighth Doctor’s two current companions, Liv Chenka (Nicola Walker) and Helen Sinclair (Hattie Morahan). Since River’s relationship with the Doctor has always been out of order, it makes perfect sense, but the twist will be that she can’t actually meet the Doctor because he didn’t know who she was until his Tenth incarnation. It’s all timey and wimey folks.
“The idea of River meeting previous Doctors was actually proposed by Steven Moffat,†says producer David Richardson, “and it’s just irresistible, isn’t it? Alex embraced the idea of returning to the role, and so she will be starring in no less than two box sets next year. And yes, we are still pinching ourselves!â€
River will be back later in 2016 in The Diary of River Song, which will be a four-hour adventure (split up, surely) that will have the time-traveler looking for the secret rulers of the universe. McGann will reprise his role as the Eighth Doctor for that story’s final installment.
And if THAT weren’t enough New Series audio, there will be a whole series of Winston Churchill adventures with Ian McNeice reprising his role, plus a series called Classic Doctors, New Monsters in which the Fifth Doctor meets the Weeping Angels, the Sixth Doctor meets the Judoon, the Seventh Doctor meets the Sycorax, and the Eighth Doctor will find a new batch of Sontarans on the edge of the Time War.
That there is a whole lot of New Who coming to your earholes. It’s probably only a matter of time before we get David Tennant or Matt Smith doing audios. For full information, be sure to visit Big Finish’s website.
Are you looking forward to River Song coming back and meeting past Doctors? Could she get her own series of Doctorless adventures? Let me know in the comments below, or on Twitter!
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