Big Finish Podcast Notes and Misc News Roundup Thread

News
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The big takeaway that I get from this is that they acknowledge that they are releasing too much stuff. I think one a week is more than enough. And if they are moving towards more single CD releases then I think their bottom line will be better for it. £50-60 a month on single releases is much more wallet friendly than a handful of £25-£30 box sets a month. I remember each release felt special, now it feels like they are churning out sub-par serials to fill out space in a set.

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While I totally agree on your comments relating to being more wallet friendly, I have to say I completely disagree with the above quoted statement. I still feel like most releases are special, each one is to someone! That’s the beauty of covering a wide range of era’s and characters, while they may not be for everyone there’s someone who will be over the moon with it. I think the past year or so has been extremely strong for BF, with barely any “sub-par” stories.

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As much as I would much rather have single CD releases that I could consistently afford, I’m willing to pay more from time to time if it means we can get absolute bangers of releases like Hooklight

As a Fifth Doctor fan, these last few years have been excellent, from single CDs to boxsets. I can’t complain about their output if there are people who feel similarly about all the other ranges they put out

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I respect what you say, and BF have been on a good streak for the past year or so, but I still feel like there are duds in a lot of box sets. I have a limited “fun” budget, so I’d rather have a concentrated 4/5 experience, than an all over the place box set.

Most box sets are going to be someone’s favourite, but it seems that a lot aren’t selling at the numbers BF need. If they slimed down their releases, people like me would be more likely to take a punt on a new “IP” when it’s not at the expense of another release.

With them releasing 6-8 CDs a month, it’s become normal, almost mundane. When there was only 2-4 released, each felt special, even if it wasn’t an immediate “I need it”.

The MCU was special, then they ramped up to 4 releases a year, and it wasn’t special any more.

Hope that makes sense. It’s more about the frequency makes it less special to me.

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No I do get that, its more that I checked out your profile and unless its out of date you haven’t done many recent ones, so I was a bit like idk more defensive given you called them sub-par despite not having done them. If you have done a lot but not marked then I stand corrected aha, ofc you can feel that way about them.

Their quantity has kind of been more or less the same in my eyes since I got into BF circa 2015, albeit back then I very much cherry picked the ranges I wanted to hear as opposed to now where I’m much more of a completionist who is terrible at budgeting their money.

I do agree re: MCU tbf!

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I have listened to about half of what they have released since the beginning of 2025, but I haven’t really made notes as I listened. I am rather particular when it comes to rating stuff. I think more of it had been “meh” than great, but I need to do a concentrated listen to really confirm it.

I just think they have spread themselves too thin, and oversaturated their own market.

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Podcast

Podcast Notes

  • Nick does try to go era-specific for all his Dalek voices (i.e., emulate the performance of the actors of the time).
  • Nick says they are recording Time War: Daleks vs Cybermen soon, which will feature the Dalek Supreme and the Dalek Emperor. He also says there are surely writers who are coming up with new Dalek variants.
  • Nick recently ordered a new mixer that will allow him to record Dalek and Cybermen voices at roughly the same time (for the aforementioned Time War: Daleks vs Cybermen)

Random Tangents: Welcome to the Principality of Sealand

Production Interviews: The Fourth Doctor Adventures Series 15: A New Occupation - Daughter of Destruction by Katharine Armitage and Dark Gallifrey: The Decayed Master Part 3 by Lauren Mooney and Stewart Pringle.

Fifteen Minute Drama Tease: The Fourth Doctor Adventures Series 15: A New Occupation - Daughter of Destruction by Katharine Armitage

Randomoid Selectotron: 25% off a random Big Finish release every week! Just click on this link and enter the code BUCKUP. There are currently technical issues with the Randomoid Selectotron, so it will be stuck on the last release from the 26 June podcast for the foreseeable future. This release is The Companion Chronicles: 7.6 The Child.

Vortex #211

  • The Third Doctor Adventures: The Planet Killers
    • The Planet Killers by Andrew Smith
      • Producer Heather Challands describes this one as a “very industrial, very classic science fiction sort of story.”
      • Andrew Smith came up with the idea of this story years ago for another range, and was happy to have another chance at it. Daleks weren’t originally in the story – that was a request from Nicholas Briggs.
      • Earlier this year, Big Finish reported that five students from Bristol Old Vic Drama School were selected to record an upcoming Third Doctor story. This is that story, and it was also recorded in the same studio that Paul McGann’s first stories were recorded in. Because they were picking students based on talent, all characters were written without gender in mind.
      • The Planet Killers are contractors that destroy planets that are directly endangering another planet on an astronomical scale, such as a decaying orbit that will make it collide with another.
    • The Beasts of Sakhalin Island by Jez Fielder
      • This story comes from a long time Big Finish actor who felt he could take a shot at writing a story. Nick liked the outline and after it got final approval from Heather Challands, he was off to the races.
  • The Ninth Doctor Adventures: False Friends by Timothy X Atack
    • The story was written with the approach that in the vast universe, there’s planets out there that resemble Earth in many ways, but it’s as if “it’s been copied in broad strokes without any attention to detail.”
    • Timothy liked to lean into the rhythm between the Doctor and Rose, and how she has become more confident in her travels.
    • This story features “a grenade [Timothy gets] to throw in at a crucial moment that leads to na almost existential challenge for the TARDIS team…a real brain-boggler.” He was unsure whether the schene would be feasible to perform or to hear.
  • The War Master: Deeds Without Name
    • The Unstately Home by Alison Winter
      • Alison says: “Rob explained in his brief that the Master at this point was ‘no longer making plans for the future because he’s realised there isn’t one. He’s always wanted to survive the Time War but now that he’s accepted it can’t be survived, he’s indulging in wanton wickedness in the face of his own inevitable destruction.”
      • Summing up the story, Alison suggests it’s like: “The sitcom Waiting for God meets Hannibal Lecter. Older people in a luxury home for seniors are navigating the awareness of their own ageing and end-of-life with a little help from a friendly cognitive hypnotherapist who is merely helping them explore their memories and how to be at peace with them – or to be tortured by them…”
    • Dead Man’s Pulse by Mark Bowsher
      • Mark says: **“**I was told Derek loves dark humour and that his incarnation was very Hannibal Lecter so I really leaned into both. There was a line in the brief about the Master at this time toasting teacakes on the fires of a burning universe or similar. Lovely stuff!”
      • This story takes place in a star system halfway between Gallifrey and Skaro that’s been decimated by the crossfire, with scavengers keeping the Master alive with the Dead Man’s Pulse to use him as a bargaining chip. But they soon find they need his help to keep the people they stole him from off their tail.
    • The Devil’s in the Detail by David K Barnes
      • In this story, the Master is assisting an engineer who’s trying to break up the monopoly on energy on his planet, where perpetual night forces them to always have the lights on. While we’ve seen stories where the Master helps someone for his own purposes just to stab them in the back, David says his true motives may surprise you.
    • In His Anecdotage by Matthew Sweet
      • Matthew sweet tested positive for COVID-19 the day before recording, so he didn’t get to attend and see Sir Derek record his script.
      • The Master is publishing his memoirs, and promoting them too – he’ll go on all sorts of talk and game shows to spread the word. Matthew says that “When the Master appears on Call My Bluff, I think almost everything he says is from Derek’s appearance on Call My Bluff!”
      • Most of this story sounds to be a bit of a farce (in a good way), but does end with the Master doing something “very evil in the last scene…and he also sings while he’s doing it.”
  • The Confessions of Dorian Gray: A Night at the Theatre by Scott Handcock
    • Scott Handcock says he never considered them to be done with Dorian, just that he deserved an ending in 2016. The story takes place in 1925 so it doesn’t impact the finale at all.
    • Scott is open to doing more and setting something in modern times – one of his pitches was actually to reboot the range and set it in today’s world.
    • Alex forgot how he played Dorian and what he sounds like, and Scott had to remind him that it’s just him.
  • The Audio Novels: The Missing Hour by Simon Guerrier and Fio Tretheway
    • Full details on this release are revealed in the pages of Vortex. The story will feature the First Doctor and the original TARDIS team, set in the Mediterranean Sea during the Second World War, and be narrated by Barnaby Edwards.
    • Synopsis: The First Doctor and his friends arrive in June 1940, when the island of Malta is under constant bombardment. Flight Officer Roddy Wright is one of a handful of Hurricane pilots helping to defend the island. He knows the odds are against him. So, too, does his daughter. In fact, Barbara knows that there are just days – hours – until her father goes missing in action. She can’t alter history…
    • The story will explore the family history of Barbara Wright, specifically her father Roddy (named after Simon’s great uncle, a Hurricane pilot in the Bartle of Britain), and play with the idea of altering your own personal history.
    • I list this story as being written by Simon Guerrier and Fio Tretheway as they originally were each going to write half, but Fio became ill at the time and Simon eventually took the whole thing over.
  • Star Cops: Conflict: Adrift by Roland Moore and Star Cops: Conflict: Tick Tock by Andrew Smith
    • These stories make up an effective two-part finale to the Conflict series.
    • They’re keeping extremely tight-lipped about this series, except that Roland’s half ends on a game-changing cliffhanger.
  • Vortex Mail
    • Nick says “The jury is still out on whether [a weekly release schedule like the 12DAs] makes a difference in terms of popularity.” I think it’s a shame to do it just for sales, but I guess if it hurts and the series can’t exist under the model then I can see that appraoch.
    • A recreation of the first series of Pathfinders in Space would not garner a big enough audience for Big Finish.
    • There are no plans to do more Space: 1999, but Nick would love to do more.
    • Nick thinks it would be fun to adapt some Short Trips from the old books range in future releases.

Big Finish News

New Releases

  • The Death and Life of River Song Series 04: War Widow is released on 2 September (DTO: £29.99 | DTO + CD: £35.99)
    • Synopsis: River Song is dragged into the madness of the Time War, alongside a Doctor who never wanted to fight that battle. River thinks she knows where their paths will take them, but the temporal battlegrounds are shifting - and she can no longer take anything for granted. Not even her own existence.
      • 4.1 The Shape of Fear by James Kettle The Stormcage is attacked by creatures recruiting for the Time War, and the Doctor saves its most dangerous prisoner. He takes River into hiding on a remote world, whose rulers reject science. But spectres stalk the unwary, as the land itself becomes the enemy. And when the Doctor is lost, River discovers that the worst thing to do is to become emotional…
      • 4.2 Bad Timing by Matt Fitton River knows this Doctor’s time is almost over. She can’t save him, but he wants to save her. Trying to escape the Time War, they end up deeper inside it, on a Time Lord mission threatening the fabric of causality. But the Daleks are to blame for the Doctor’s fate - and River will make them pay.
      • 4.3 Unchained Melodies by Lisa McMullin River Song takes a moment to find herself, to discover her true potential… and put a stop to it before it even gets started! Is she the Woman Who Killed the Doctor? Or the Woman Who Wins the War? In the maelstrom that is the Time War, she can be both and neither all at once.
      • The Reality Director We go behind the scenes of the making of the latest River Song adventure with cast and crew.

Trailers

Cover Reveals

News, Announcements, Videos, and Blog Posts

  • Official News
    • None

Out of Print This Week

  • The Fifth Doctor Adventures: Hooklight 2

Sales and Recommendations (As a reminder, bulleted stories are recommended by me, and those in bold are my favorites)

Big Finish Book Club: Discounts on a specially selected Big Finish audio drama every month. September’s selection: The Withdrawal by Geoffrey Beevers for just £2.99 on DTO.

Free Excerpt: Every month a 15 minute excerpt is chosen from an upcoming release to download for free. September’s selection is The Death and Life of River Song Series 04: War Widow: The Shape of Fear (Excerpt). Just click on the link and use this month’s code STORMCAGE.

Free Day Friday: Every week, Big Finish highlights an excerpt from their Big Finish For Free! collection, and offer 25% off the full release using a unique sale code. There is currently nothing posted this week, but I will update if anything changes.

Big Finish Release Schedule

Community Reviews via TARDIS Guide:

Release No. Title Score Votes
6.2 Dark Gallifrey: The Decayed Master Part 2 3.49/5 39 votes
2 The Eleventh Doctor Adventures: Hidden in Plain Sight
Tyranny of the Judoon 3.67/5 78 votes
Gambit of the Judoon 3.24/5 67 votes
Wanted Dead and Alive 3.74/5 57 votes
10 The Sixth Doctor Adventures: Reunion
Save the Date 3.55/5 46 votes
Poison’s Reach 2.52/5 41 votes
Broken Home 3.99/5 38 votes
4 The Death and Life of River Song Series 04: War Widow
The Shape of Fear 3.29/5 21 votes
Bad Timing 3.74/5 19 votes
Unchained Melodies 3.41/5 16 votes
The Reality Director 4.50/5 14 votes

What Big Finish I Was Listening To This Week: None again, very distracted by life this week.

General Doctor Who / Non-Big Finish News

News

  • None

The Rumor Mill

  • None

Media/Merchandise

  • The Black Archive Files, a Blu-ray compilation of TV stories tangentially related to Circuit Breaker plus an interview with Jo Martin and all the digital shorts used in promotion of the event, is released on 31 August.
  • The Kaleidoscope, the major novel in the Circuit Breaker event featuring the Fugitive Doctor and Martha Jones, is released on 3 September.
  • Doctor Who: The Planetary Collection is released on 3 September. It collects the audiobook novelisations of five stories: They Keys of Marinus, The Nightmare of Eden, The Caves of Androzani, Vengeance on Varos, and The Waters of Mars
  • Doctor Who: The Ultimate Evil, the audiobook novelisation of the Sixth Doctor story read by Nicola Bryant, is released on 3 September.
  • Doctor Who: The Collection: Season 7 (Standard Edition) is available to preorder and will be released 11 January 2027.

Circuit Breaker Event Guide

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What Nick is teasing there is that with next year onwards, the releases are going to be more spaced out. They’ve already made a decision on that. All the stuff banked up for 2027 is now in part going to spread in early 2028 instead. They started planning it as soon as the license renewal to 2035 was finalised. Up until then, there was not really anywhere to move the stuff planned for 2029 (particularly stuff in the winter months) back into, as the Who license stopped early 2030.

Now they’ve got that license… broadly speaking… 2027 is now 2027/28, 2028 is 2028/2029, 2029 is 2029/2030. Beyond that, plenty plans are firmly afoot for the 2030 and 2031 years, but very much with that gentler flow of output in mind. It’s a very sensible move.

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While I think they are going to space things out, and my wallet thanks them, what is your source for this info?

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He maintains that he is not only a member of production, but a name we would recognize. He’s obviously been cagey about who he is (though I have a theory) and has provided mostly vague insights rather than hard verifiable predictive facts. That is consistent with a hoax, but also with someone who’s signed several NDAs and doesn’t want to drop information that’s too specific and personally identifiable. It’s up to you how much you believe that, I’m not sure how much I do, but I do find his contributions interesting

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First, we have to wait forever until DW returns to TV, and now BF is giving us less stuff in the meantime?! How are we going to survive :smiling_face_with_tear:

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Podcast

Podcast Notes

  • BIG NEWS - Big Finish have found a cost-effective way to print smaller volumes of physical releases. They will potentially start implementing a new ordering model where customers have a specific window of time to pre-order a physical release, and they will essentially manufacture them to order. That being said, Big Finish intend to start releasing previously released/announced download-only runs on CD, starting with Torchwood: Legacy and the recently released Twelfth Doctor Adventure: Run Fast, Be Kind, with other ranges being considered for the same treatment.
    • No word on how they’ll approach this for customers who have already purchased the 12DAs or pre-ordered Torchwood: Legacy, but I can easily see them offering an “upgrade” option at the price of pressing plus whatever margins they need to keep it profitable.
    • To add some clarification about how this new process makes a difference: for a download-only release to be profitable it must only overcome production costs. If a CD is to be profitable, it must overcome production, manufacturing, and storage costs. Storing a sellable product creates tax liability. If the Big Finish presses 2,500 CDs and only 1,500 sell, they have financial burden associated with the unsold 1,000. But if people put their orders in first and they can manufacture exactly 1,500 then that burden goes away. That cost could be the deciding factor in whether a release makes it physically or not. They’re certain of demand for Torchwood and 12DAs so they’ll go ahead with those, but they have to run the numbers on other ranges.

Random Tangents: Nick gets pedantic about cliques.

Production Interviews: The Fifth Doctor Adventures: Shock and Awe - Lair of the Voltaxa by Roland Moore and Star Cops: Conflict: Adrift by Georgia Cook

Fifteen Minute Drama Tease: The Fifth Doctor Adventures: Shock and Awe - Lair of the Voltaxa by Roland Moore

Randomoid Selectotron: 25% off a random Big Finish release every week! Just click on this link and enter the code BUCKUP. There are currently technical issues with the Randomoid Selectotron, so it will be stuck on the last release from the 26 June podcast for the foreseeable future. This release is The Companion Chronicles: 7.6 The Child.

Big Finish News

New Releases

  • The Fourth Doctor Adventures Series 15: A New Occupation is released on 8 September (DTO: £19.99 | DTO + CD: £24.99)
    • Synopsis: Time travel. The Doctor is well aware of its dangers. But even the most well-meaning Time Lord can’t guarantee something somewhere won’t nudge it off track. And then history itself might be at stake…
      • 15.6 Daughter of Destruction by Katharine Armitage The TARDIS lands in the city of Ongud during a rebellion. The world is suffering the wrath of Genghis Khan and the Doctor and Sarah are right in the middle of it. It’s a dangerous time, but one woman is about to stand up to the despot for the first time. His anger is about to be halted. Unless someone has made a very small mistake…
      • 15.7 A New Occupation by Helen Goldwyn Temporal disruption on Jersey leads to a new kind of time travel for the Doctor, Sarah and Harry and they soon find themselves on the island during its occupation by the Nazis. Can they return to the future without a TARDIS? And without the German forces changing history irrevocably?
  • Dark Gallifrey: The Decayed Master Part 3 is released on 8 September (DTO: £8.99 | DTO + CD: £10.99)
    • With the Master bearing down, Naava flees through a skiproad to the plague-infected streets of medieval York. She’s seeking her old friend Calix, the greatest of the chronosurgeons, to warn him of the nightmare that pursues her. But something else is emerging from the skiproads, something twisted and deadly, tearing chunks out of the panicked city. Naava has only one hope to set things right and escape the Master’s clutches, and he’s hundreds of years in the future, listening out for ghosts of the ancient city.

Trailers

Cover Reveals

News, Announcements, Videos, and Blog Posts

  • Two new Doctor Who Audio Novels. The October 2026 and January 2027 audio novel releases have been unveiled as The Missing Hour (DTO: £19.99) and The Bath Chronicles (DTO: £19.99).
    • The Missing Hour by Simon Guerrier, from a storyline by Fio Tretheway and Simon Guerrier, performed by Barnaby Edwards June 1940 and the island of Malta is under constant bombardment. Flight Officer Roddy Wright is one of a handful of Hurricane pilots helping to defend the island. He knows the odds are against him. So, too, does his daughter. In fact, Barbara knows that there are just days – hours – until her father goes missing in action. She can’t alter history. But until that fateful hour, how can she resist spending more time with the father she lost so long ago? What could possibly go wrong?
    • The Bath Chronicles, written and performed by Dan Starkey Jenny and Strax have been dispatched to Bath, the jewel of the West Country, for a bit of well-earned rest and recuperation. The Roman Baths, tea shops, and elegant Georgian arcades beckon. But they get more old-world charm than they bargained for on their itinerary, after an eccentric lady leads them on journey that spans thousands of years into the past and hurls them into the far-flung future of the 1990s! Will Jenny ever find a decent cup of tea again? Will Strax find a plug socket that’s compatible with his Sontaran travel charger? And will time itself collapse? Along the way though, they’ll be reunited with two familiar Doctors…
  • It’ll be a Doctor Who Halloween and Christmas. Following the popular 2025 box sets, Big Finish Productions today announced two new collections of Halloween and Christmas-themed full-cast audio drama set across the Doctor Who universe, to be released this October and December.
    • Halloween: Doctor, Doctor, Doctor and Other Stories (DTO: £24.99 | DTO + CD: £35.99) will be comprised of the following:
      • Doctor, Doctor, Doctor – a Seventh Doctor adventure by Stewart Pringle and Lauren Mooney
      • The Song of the Reed Man – a Third Doctor and Jo Jones adventure by Katherine White
      • Office Space – a UNIT adventure by Georgia Cook and Fio Tretheway
      • Overworked – a Fifth Doctor and Nyssa adventure by Hannah Kennedy
    • Christmas: Out of the Dark and Other Stories (DTO: £24.99 | DTO + CD: £35.99) will be comprised of the following:
      • Merry Christmas, Mr Chimbly – a Fifth Doctor, Tegan and Nyssa adventure by John Dorney
      • From the Realms of Glory – a River Song adventure by Hannah Kennedy
      • Out of the Dark – a Seventh Doctor and Ace adventure by Jonathan S Powell
      • And Tiny Tim, Who Did Not Die – an Eleventh Doctor and Bernice Summerfield adventure by James Goss

Out of Print This Week

  • The Thirteenth Doctor Adventures: The Hallamshire Incident
  • Dark Gallifrey: Master! Part 2
  • The Fourth Doctor Adventures Series 14: The Last Queen of the Nile
  • Torchwood: 58. Cadoc Point

Sales and Recommendations (As a reminder, bulleted stories are recommended by me, and those in bold are my favorites)

Big Finish Book Club: Discounts on a specially selected Big Finish audio drama every month. September’s selection: The Withdrawal by Geoffrey Beevers for just £2.99 on DTO.

Free Excerpt: Every month a 15 minute excerpt is chosen from an upcoming release to download for free. September’s selection is The Death and Life of River Song Series 04: War Widow: The Shape of Fear (Excerpt). Just click on the link and use this month’s code STORMCAGE.

Free Day Friday: Every week, Big Finish highlights an excerpt from their Big Finish For Free! collection, and offer 25% off the full release using a unique sale code. This week’s selection: Hamlet Act 1. Use discount code GHOST at checkout to save 25% off the full release of Hamlet (Ends 13 September).

Big Finish Release Schedule

Community Reviews via TARDIS Guide:

Release No. Title Score Votes
2 The Eleventh Doctor Adventures: Hidden in Plain Sight
Tyranny of the Judoon 3.67/5 90 votes
Gambit of the Judoon 3.21/5 85 votes
Wanted Dead and Alive 3.73/5 73 votes
10 The Sixth Doctor Adventures: Reunion
Save the Date 3.62/5 58 votes
Poison’s Reach 2.59/5 47 votes
Broken Home 3.97/5 48 votes
4 The Death and Life of River Song Series 04: War Widow
The Shape of Fear 3.34/5 40 votes
Bad Timing 3.68/5 38 votes
Unchained Melodies 3.30/5 32 votes
The Reality Director 4.29/5 33 votes
15C The Fourth Doctor Adventures Series 15: A New Occupation
Daughter of Destruction 3.50/5 1621 votes
A New Occupation 3.82/5 14 votes
6.3 Dark Gallifrey: The Decayed Master Part 3 3.50/5 12 votes

What Big Finish I Was Listening To This Week: Have had too much going on and now I’ve got a big backlog.

General Doctor Who / Non-Big Finish News

News

  • The villain of Circuit Breaker revealed! New social media post revealing the villain of the Circuit Breaker multi-media event: the Conductor, played by Dan Starkey. The short is directed and animated by Anthony Lamb, and the Conductor is designed by Lee Binding.

The Rumor Mill

  • Noel Clarke continues to be trash.

Media/Merchandise

  • Doctor Who: The Third History Collection will be released on 3 December and feature audiobook novelisations of The Reign of Terror, The Smugglers, The Fires of Pompeii, The Crimson Horror, and The Witchfinders.

Circuit Breaker Event Guide

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A physical version of TW: Legacy im so excited for, I just hope that upgrade theory is close to truth because buying both were already pretty expensive for me, digitally. Would hate to pay that price again… so mixed feelings for now. Still good news though.

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You could always get the pre-order cancelled and then pre-order the physical version.

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I suspect they’ll offer an upgrade for Legacy or if not do what @apocryphalCottontail suggested. The 12DA’s is the one I’m unsure on. It may be they offer a discounted CD price for those who bought the range I reckon.

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Great news in my view. I’ve wanted Big Finish to do a print to order approach for so long now as it’s such a better idea than only producing a certain number of copies. It means anyone who does want a copy doesn’t miss out, it potentially solves the issue of titles being swept up by scalpers and sold for insane prices (as presumably if there is a big enough demand, there could be more than 1,500 produced), and it gives smaller titles the chance to sit on people’s shelves.

I hope they re-release Smith And Sullivan and Space Security Service as print to order runs on CD.

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If the Print on Demand option ever gets flexible enough, I would like Big Finish to add a “Print & Buy CD?” button for each item on a customer’s BF account wishlist. That would simplify things and encourage people to spend money.

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They could add optional extras too, like pay extra for each CD in a box set to come with its own individual case and cover art.

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But for ‘optional extras’ they would still have to produce things like extra cover art in advance which ultimately would not be very effective when only a handful of people want it

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To clarify for everyone: as I understood Briggsy, they’re not moving to a true “print-to-order” model.

Historically, Big Finish would print a large number of CDs as it was the main way customers used to buy releases. They’d keep releases in print for a while, like you do with books, and then once sales slow down they go out of print. But as downloads became more popular and CD sales declined, they had to switch tacts. Currently, they only print CDs in large batches, and have to order a set amount ahead of general on-sale. This is why we have “limited edition runs” of 1,250 or whatever number suits the release. They can safely estimate that, say, 1,000 people will preorder a new Ninth Doctor Adventure, and 250 will purchase after release.

But sometimes they overestimate. If a CD underperforms and only sells 750 copies by release, they’re sitting on 500 CDs in their warehouse. Similarly, they may also underestimate. Early 9DAs and 13DAs were sold out well before release leaving a lot of fans miffed. And in the same vein, some releases they thought there wouldn’t be enough demand to justify a CD release at all, prompting them to release it as download-only to keep it profitable (Torchwood: Legacy).

But what they’ve now discovered a way to do is to take the number of preorders for a release and press exactly that many copies. What Nick suggested is a preorder cutoff for physical releases so that every customer who wants it on CD can get it, and they won’t be sitting on any inventory for general sale. This way on both physical and digital release they can make the exact return on investment they need to be profitable, rather than hazarding a loss.

While it sounds like they can do smaller batches for new releases, they likely cannot sustain a true print-on-demand model after general release. Pressing a CD isn’t a simple push of a button, there’s a process and associated costs with startup and commissioning discrete periods of production. This is why there will only be a preorder window, because they can guarantee a bulk order of at least the minimum size of order they need for production. What they can’t do is take daily orders and print them as they get them. Best case scenario they’d have to hit some sort of threshold of orders received before they can print another batch, but that would require customers putting money down without being promised that threshold would be reached.

This model would completely change the game for customers. Anyone who currently waits for general release would either have to switch to preordering or commit to buying releases as download only. I don’t know Big Finish’s sales statistics beyond them saying only 20% of sales are CD, but I’d also guess most of that 20% is as pre-orders. But for everyone else, there would no longer be the ability to buy CDs on a sale after release because they wouldn’t have any inventory to discount.

It entirely changes the complexion of their business model to switch to this, but I think the benefit of everyone who does want a CD getting one and no one feeling left out would be great for customers. There may also be a lower CD cost coming if they don’t have to factor in the risk of a loss.

EDIT: Sorry hit reply too early, so I had to go back in and finish my thought lol.

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