Along the same lines as the Big Finish: The Monthly Adventures thread, here’s a general thread for The Companion Chronicles. What are your favorite stories, authors, arcs, etc? What don’t you like about this range? Discussion, rants and ramblings are encouraged.
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I’ve only dabbled in the Companion Chronicles. Personally, when it comes to Big Finish, I prefer the full-cast stuff. That said, there’s a lot of great stuff in this range. Particularly anything written by Simon Guerrier. This is the range that greatly expanded Sara Kingdom as a companion by placing a lot of great stories in the gap around Episode 7/8 of Daleks’ Master Plan. If you haven’t checked some of these out, you might want to.
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I’ve only listened to the four Sixth Doctor companion chronicles (Peri and the Piscon Paradox, Night’s Black Agents (with Jamie), A Town Called Fortune (with Evelyn), and Beyond the Ultimate Adventure).
Naturally, I enjoyed Piscon; I quote it all the time! I couldn’t finish Night’s Black Agents as I’m not a fan of Jamie as a Sixth Doctor companion. A Town Called Fortune was decent, and I’d recommend it for anyone who likes Westerns. I don’t recall how Beyond the Ultimate Adventure went, but I don’t remember it being bad.
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i haven’t gotten that deep into tCC yet but i really ought because man, the ones ive heard that were good were GOOD. i adore The Scorchies, easily in my top 5 Big Finish stories, and i love Solitaire and Piscon Paradox. i really enjoy stories with a small cast/character study type stuff, and im always charmed by the actors having to do their silly impressions of people theyve worked with for years (ESPECIALLY Katy Manning’s Pertwee impression. SO cute)
a lot of really great comfort stories in here i think !!! ill have to dive back in.
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I’ve not listened to much of this range, but I really love what I’ve heard so far. It’s fun getting to dig into a companion’s headspace a little more, especially when these stories are usually being narrated after their travels ended, meaning we often get some introspection and hindsight on the companion’s part. Considering that Smith and Capaldi aren’t coming back any time soon, and Tennant is pretty busy, I’d love to see them bring back this range for the new series companions sometime. I’d love to know what’s going on in Bill and Nardole’s heads.
I’ve mostly listened to the 1st Doctor stories, namely the ones written by Simon Guerrier (The Sara Kingdom Trilogy, the Oliver Harper Trilogy, the Anachronauts and the Steven trilogy). Guerrier does an amazing job of capturing that whimsical vibe of the Hartnell years, but at the same time adding a touch of melancholy. His stories also feel incredibly dangerous, like even though I know the characters will survive, I’m still often convinced that there’s no way out. You get this in his non Companion chronicle stories too, like the Settling and the Carrionite Curse. He really knows how to push characters to the brink.
Some other stories I’ve liked are The Last Post, the Glorious Revolution, the Suffering, Solitaire, Peri and the Piscon Paradox, and the Unwinding World.
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Some of my favorite stories of all time are in this series! The Suffering, Solitaire, Find and Replace, The Rocket Men, The Last Post, Across the Darkened City, and The Plague of Dreams are all phenomenal!
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I love the Companion Chronicles—it’s a contender for my favourite audio range. I love seeing older eras of the show from a different perspective, and I adore the deeper and more emotional takes on the classic companions. I also enjoy how the storytelling nature of the range allows for some fascinating twists and interesting uses of framing devices.
I have so many favourites it would be silly to name them all! Off the top of my head my great loves are: Ringpullworld, Home Truths, the Cold Equations, Find and Replace, the Last Post, the Transit of Venus, the Scorchies, Second Chances… et al! Truly one of my favourite ranges.
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I think this Range greatly benefits with the first and second Doctor. I don’t know, but so far from what I listened those fitted the format the best. Not to say other Doctors didn’t have great ones (Blue Tooth comes to mind as a great one for 3 and especially Liz or Solitaire and there are some other great ones, that I probably still need to listen to).
The big Standout for me personally so far in that Range is basically the Sara Kingdom Trilogy, which is perfectly written for this format.
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This is one of those ranges where I’ve enjoyed most the releases I’ve listened to, but am always hesitant to jump into because of the format. I’m almost of the mind of “pick one: full-cast or single narrator, don’t try to be both”.
I know it’s still a long ways off (several years) but part of me is considering advocating for this to be the next Audio Club range after we finish the Monthly Adventures/Main Range. 
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Oooh, yes please!
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Oh, that would be fun! Although it might take a while until we get to that point 
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I know. I think when working out the schedules for 2024 and 2025, I discovered that we’d finish the Main Range sometime in 2029.
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Here’s the comment I wanted.
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Maybe we’ll mix it up a bit before then so we can talk about stuff other than the main range. Nothing is fixed in stone.
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I have most of the Companion Chronicles but have listened to surprisingly few of them. Of those I have heard, I particularly enjoyed…
The pre-An Unearthly Child stories featuring Carole Ann Ford as Susan. (Recently realised there’s one of these in the First Doctor volume 1 boxed set so have picked that up and will listen to it soon.)
The post-War Games stories featuring Wendy Padbury as Zoe.
The Mahogany Murderers - Given the lack of Doctor in this one I consider it a Jago & Litefoot story rather than a Doctor Who, but whatever we consider it, it’s wonderful. Probably my favourite of all the Companion Chronicles and it led to the wonderful Jago & Litefoot spin-off, so I can’t praise it enough.
I’m currently marathoning all of Doctor Who from the beginning with audios included, so I look forward to hearing more Companion Chronicles along the way.
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I adore that pre-Unearthly Child story from the boxset, I hope you like it too!
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Just completed the Oliver Harper trilogy. Listened to in sequence, it is really clear that Guerrier want to remind us that Steven is from the future and is a pilot. A lot of The Perpetual Bond is Steven commenting on the differences between London of the 60s and his time and then The Cold Equations and The First Wave really lean into his space pilot background and actually give us some details about his pre-Mechanus life.
I do think The Cold Equations and The First Wave are a bit too similar. There’s a lot of breathy acting from Purves and Allen in both which, listened to back to back, became a bit repetitive.
The opening of episode 2 of The First Wave has a real gut punch when we’re told bluntly that Oliver is dead. . I knew this going in but didn’t expect it to be revealed in that way.
What really works for these though is how they tie perfectly into the gap they are inserted into between Dalek’s Masterplan and The Massacre. The doomladen atmosphere and Steven reflecting on how his journeys in the TARDIS mean he is living on borrowed time and very poignant. Having recently lost Katarina, Bret and Sara (as well as saying goodbye to Vicki) he is resigned to the death that follows the Doctor around. When it seems like he and Oliver are dead without hope of rescue in The Cold Equations it feels a natural line from the events of DMP and when this is reversed in The First Wave and the two men believe the Doctor is dead, it leads neatly in The Massacre where Steven again believes himself to be on his own and stranded in time. At least with The First Wave he is more or less in his own time period.
There is a starkness and definite ‘black and white’ quality to these stories which I know is something BF strive for with their audios - to reflect the era they are ‘set in’ whilst still pushing the boundaries.
Although I have only rated all three of these as 3/5, as a trilogy they actually deserve a 4/5 simply for the fact of how well they develop Steven’s story as well as Oliver’s and how well they develop the themes of DMP and The Massacre.
It also made me think about Dodo in a different light, coming as she does at the end of a very tragic period. She is a breath of life and energy that the Doctor and Steven clearly need. Her enthusiasm during the opening of The Ark and her subsequent excitement at being in places like the Wild West and even playing the Toymaker’s games is needed to counteract the rather dark path the Doctor and Steven were heading down after these stories. Next time I work my way through Season 3 in order, I may well insert these audios into the run for this reason.
The coda where Oliver is witness to the First Doctor’s final moments may not be necessary but it’s quite nice to see the Doctor get to acknowledge Oliver before his ‘death’ (and, for my money a better ‘addition’ to those final moments than Twice Upon a Time).
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I really should relisten to this trilogy, I barely remember it.
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I thought I’d listened to The Cold Equations but I remember absolutely nothing about it!
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I do recommend them! Especially if you enjoy the Character Drama between 1 and Steven. It’s a small, nice arc and pretty easy to be listened to fairly quickly! I do also highly recommend the Sara Kingdom Trilogy, one of the finest Addition for the First Doctor in the EU!
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