Big Finish General Discussion / News and Updates

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I’m starting this thread to talk about Doctor Who at Big Finish as a general topic. This isn’t necessarily the place to talk about the ins and outs of specific ranges or specific Doctors. Instead, it’s ideally to talk about more broad topics.

To start with, I’d like to talk about the various Doctors and their place (both past and future) at Big Finish. This was kinda brought to mind by the Jodie announcement this morning. Obviously, the first three Doctors have been recast in order to get new stories with them because the original actors have passed away and we’re fairly quickly running out of the original TV companions with which to things. Tom Baker is 90 and could potentially be next to go. I think there’s still some previously recorded stuff in the pipeline, but I have no idea how much. Doctors Five through Seven are Big Finish’s most solid and likely to keep going (though I remember reading a rumor on here somewhere about the possibility of McCoy retiring, though I have absolutely no evidence of this being true). Paul McGann will probably keep making these for the foreseeable future, though I don’t know how busy he is with other projects. The War Doctor has been recast, so that’s probably going to keep going for a while.

That brings us to the New Series. Eccleston is done for now, though if he needs an influx of cash, he might return. I think Tennant enjoys doing these, but he’s a very in-demand actor so I doubt we’ll see anything with him for quite a while. I don’t know if Matt Smith has expressed interest in Big Finish at all, but he’s also a very popular (and therefore busy) actor these days. Capaldi’s the wild card. I think he’s fairly busy, but he’s also stated that he’ll never return to the role. I don’t know if that includes Big Finish or just TV and therefore potential multi-Doctor specials. And then we have twelve stories with Jodie officially announced with release dates. So what are your thoughts on Doctor Who as whole at Big Finish?

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One thing I have been thinking about for a very long time is what is going to happen once all of the Classic Who Doctors and companions are gone. None of them are spring chickens exactly. Are they going to recast everyone and keep going, pretending that everything is as it’s always been? Or is it going to be the end of Big Finish as we know it, given that it’s been much more difficult to get New Who actors back to do new stories than it was getting back the classics?

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OK this topic is making me sad lol

I’m sure once all the Classic actors are gone, the New Who actors will be heading into TV retirement and happy to give audio more of a go, this cycle will keep repeating forever and ever :smiley: that’s my hope!

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We’ve already reached the point where “the second third doctor” and “the fourth first doctor” are useful phrases. I don’t see why this style of recasting wouldn’t continue indefinitely

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I don’t see Big Finish ever stopping unless the cash runs dry (and, anyway, I’m sure they have plenty of donors who will gladly give them money to keep going). Just as they do with the already deceased Doctors and companions, they’ll recast and carry on.

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Plus even if they don’t have any Doctor actors to work with or impressionists, they can still expand into the worlds of Doctor Who. Which imo, is some of BF’s best and most creative work considering they are not constrained as heavily by BBC mandates eg to make the War Doctor more family friendly than a dark warrior, because he was still the “Doctor”.

As a very off topic Big Finish point, someone pointed out that “Ash Darby” is an anagram of “A Shy Bard” which is quite sweet but I really want to know who wrote Art Decadence just so I can hype them up fr

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I think Big Finish is great, but in need of the actors behind the new series Doctors joining them. The Chronicles don’t really cut it for me.

I’m glad Jodie Whittaker has joined, and I think it’s only a matter of time before the next David Tennant audio, because he’s a big fan who loves playing the character.

I still think Matt Smith and Peter Capaldi will join one day. I don’t think Matt Smith has had the career he expected, even taking into account the highs of The Crown and House of Dragons, as most of his films have been flops at the Box Office, and I don’t think Peter Capaldi will be able to resist, given that he is a massive fan like David Tennant.

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The thing with Capaldi is he’s said he doesn’t like doing audio based on past experience, maybe Big Finish would he a nicer time for him, but he might not be open to giving it a shot. I’m a bit less convinced the 12DAs will happen. I’d be happy to be wrong! My bank account less so, especially if Pearl Mackie is along for the ride.

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Obviously the future of Doctor Who at Big Finish depends on the licence as well, but I see no reason for it to be suddenly denied them. At this point we’re decades in and it’s a solid branch of Doctor Who merchandise so I’m not saying I think they’ll lose the licence, just that it’s something to consider.

I honestly don’t see Smith or Capaldi joining, I think they’re incredibly unlikely - although once upon a time that was true of both Tom and Chris so give them enough time and anything is possible I suppose. I just can’t see it myself, which is a shame. Of all the post-2005 Doctors to return to the role, Smith is my biggest wish but I just can’t see it happening. But like I said, time was I couldn’t see Tom doing it either.

If we’re looking far, far ahead then I can’t see recasting Classic Doctors once they sadly leave us happening immediately. But I do think there’s life in all of them at Big Finish for a little while longer yet. As has been said, they’ve banked years worth of Fourth Doctor stuff I think and the others seem to be consistently recording as well. Paul is the one who constantly surprises me in that he genuinely doesn’t want to give it up - not that I’m necessarily surprised at that, just that he always finds time for it. That’s really heartening.

I used to be dead set against recasting but once they started it then it was tricky to ignore and, to be honest, I’ve been won over. The David Bradley run I really enjoyed and I think Stephen Noonan is doing a great job. Tim Treloar’s stories are proving to be really enjoyable and I do think Michael Troughton is nailing it (even though I’ve not been superkeen on the stories they’ve given him so far). Jacob Dudman was very impressive as the Eleventh Doctor in the recently ended run of stories with Valarie (also a strong run in its own right) so care is still put into deliver the best work they’re able to, with the added benefit that listeners can revisit eras of the show with new adventures (should they choose to) that would have otherwise been out of bounds to mine.

Easily the strongest recast for me though is Jonathon Carley as the younger War Doctor. I think some of his stories have been absolutely superb and he has done the best material he has been given more than justice. I was nervous that that would be that when his first run ended I am very glad they’re continuing with him.

And with Jo Martin and now Jodie officially on board, there’s years and years worth of more Doctor Who from Big Finish to come, which is absolutely glorious. And as others have said, Chris and David may indeed pop back occasionally so when the unthinkable happens and we very sadly lose some Doctors, the ranks have been bolstered to ensure Big Finish will likely never have NO Doctors.

In the past decade we had John Hurt, David Tennant, Christopher Eccleston, Jo Martin and Jodie Whittaker all say yes to Big Finish. Now while Matt Smith and Peter Capaldi have resisted so far and there’s obviously no telling how Ncuti and subsequent Doctors will go, Big Finish do seem to be able net some of the most unlikely of gets.

And with things like Dark Gallifrey (quite enjoyable so far) scheduled to run for a number of years then I think the future of Doctor Who at Big Finish does look pretty strong right now.

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That was never my intention.

I wonder if at that point we’ll start getting more Audio Novels for deceased Doctors.

And while Doctor Who and the Whoniverse is their primary source of material, Big Finish is perfectly happy creating original content and grabbing the rights for any old British series they can. I would not be surprised (though do I think it’s very unlikely) if they were able to get the rights to make Star Wars audio dramas or do more Star Trek.

And finally, @ChrisStokes, that was a brilliant post. Elegantly thought out and well said.

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Thanks @DarthGallifrey!

One thing that did just occur to me - I’d be very surprised if Big Finish haven’t approached Richard E Grant in recent weeks. And if they haven’t then I’d be surprised if we don’t get some Shalka Doctor stuff at some point in the future.

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Big Finish getting Star Trek would be great. I could easily see a Lower Decks continuation as an audio series. And I’m ready for a series covering Wesley Crusher’s adventures in time and space…

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If Big Finish got Star Trek, then maybe there could be a Doctor Who + Star Trek crossover audio series…!

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There could be!

Though Wil Wheaton seems to have already nailed the role as Star Trek’s equivalent of the Doctor.

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From what I heard ages ago, Briggs hates the Shalka Doctor, which might by why it’s never come up, similar to how adventures with the Fifth Doctor and Peri stopped. Then again, Russell is on record expressing the same! So maybe one day.

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Rediscovering this post (and I created it). One thought, and I might’ve expressed it already (or expressed it elsewhere in the forum), is that even if Big Finish runs out of Classic Doctors and companions, as long as they’re allowed to keep the license to keep selling their back catalog, they can still keep making money as more fans discover these. It’s not like they don’t have a big enough back catalog of Doctor Who stories to keep selling.

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I’m curious why Big Finish never expanded upon Maxil’s character. He only had a brief (like one line) cameo in one of the Gallifrey stories.

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Cos Colin needs more work?

Oh hang on, look who I’m replying too :wink:

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:stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes: Honestly, I would not mind if, after these two Six anniversary sets, they put that character on the backburner for a while and focused on some others not the Unbound Doctor though :stuck_out_tongue: . It makes no sense that they made a whole Gallifrey audio starring a dark version of Six, but didn’t make one about Maxil who actually belongs in that “universe”. :face_with_spiral_eyes:

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I think people are vastly over-selling Matt Smith’s availability. House of the Dragon is planning at least another couple of seasons, and considering the level of visibility (and presumably money, per episode rates on these things tend to be quite high) I doubt he’s on Big Finish’s radar, is probably marked down as “Too Expensive.”

Controversially, I think Eccleston coming back was one of the biggest disappointments in Modern Who History. I love Nine, but when you listen to the BF stories he’s in, basically siloed away from the rest of the DW universe by request, and clearly just In It For The Money, I would rather preserve the memory of Nine than have that dead horse beaten, but I’m sure next time a big tax bill turns up he’ll do it anyway.

Capaldi, I don’t think will ever do it. It’s not even that he doesn’t like audio, he even said he probably wouldn’t do multi-Doctor episodes because his time as The Doctor was his time, and very special to him. Also we don’t actually need him in multi-Doc episodes because he’s the MOST important Doctor in the MOST important multi-Doc episode (seriously, “No, all thirteen!” is the greatest Doctor reveal moment we’ve ever had.)

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