Doctor Who: The Early Adventures
Doctor Who: The Early Adventures is a series of audio dramas based on the British television series Doctor Who and produced by Big Finish Productions.
In February 2013, Big Finish Productions announced that, following the conclusions of The Lost Stories and the monthly Companion Chronicles, they would be launching The Early Adventures, a series of brand new stories featuring the First and Second Doctors. The four-part plays star surviving lead actors from the original series, and follow a similar structure to The Lost Stories set in this era, mixing dialogue and narration.[1]
Cast
[edit]This section includes characters who will appear or have appeared in at least one season.
- A green cell indicates the actor is a main cast member.
- A red cell indicates the actor is a recurring cast member.
- A light blue cell indicates the actor is a guest or special guest cast member.
| Actor | Character | Appearances | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| S1 | S2 | S3 | S4 | S5 | S6 | S7 | ||
| William Russell | Ian Chesterton / The Doctor | ✓ | ✓ | |||||
| Carole Ann Ford | Susan Foreman | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ||||
| Maureen O'Brien | Vicki | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ||||
| Peter Purves | Steven Taylor / The Doctor | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ||||
| Jean Marsh | Sara Kingdom | ✓ | ✓ | |||||
| Frazer Hines | Jamie McCrimmon / The Doctor | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ||||
| Anneke Wills | Polly Wright | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ||||
| Elliot Chapman | Ben Jackson | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ||||
| Deborah Watling | Victoria Waterfield | ✓ | ||||||
| Wendy Padbury | Zoe Heriot | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ||||
| Jemma Powell | Barbara Wright | ✓ | ||||||
| Ajazz Awad | Katarina | ✓ | ||||||
| Lauren Cornelius | Dodo Chaplet | ✓ | ||||||
Episodes
[edit]Series 1 (2014)
[edit]The first series consist of stories featuring the First Doctor. William Russell reprises the role of Ian Chesterton in the first two stories, while Peter Purves reprises the role of Steven Taylor in the second two. Carole Ann Ford plays Susan Foreman in the first story, Maureen O'Brien plays Vicki in the second and third stories, and Jean Marsh plays Sara Kingdom in the fourth. Additionally, Russell and Purves perform the Doctor's dialogue in their respective stories, while Ford and O'Brien perform the dialogue of Barbara Wright in the first two stories. The stories have individual episode titles to replicate the era.
| No. | Serial title | Episode titles | Directed by | Written by | Featuring | Released |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Domain of the Voord | "The Floating City" | Ken Bentley | Andrew Smith | First Doctor, Susan, Ian, Barbara, Voord | September 2014 |
| "Return to Terror" | ||||||
| "Behind the Mask" | ||||||
| "Fightback" | ||||||
| 2 | The Doctor's Tale | "The Lord of Misrule" | Ken Bentley | Marc Platt | First Doctor, Ian, Barbara, Vicki | October 2014 |
| "The White Hart" | ||||||
| "Sanctuary" | ||||||
| "The Empty Crown" | ||||||
| 3 | The Bounty of Ceres | "The Hostile Planet" | Lisa Bowerman | Ian Potter | First Doctor, Vicki, Steven | November 2014 |
| "The Outer Edge" | ||||||
| "An Otherworldly Intelligence" | ||||||
| "The Coldest Mind" | ||||||
| 4 | An Ordinary Life | "An Ordinary Life" | Ken Bentley | Matt Fitton | First Doctor, Steven, Sara | December 2014 |
| "The Unalike" | ||||||
| "The Sleeping Army" | ||||||
| "The Enemy Without" | ||||||
Series 2 (2015–16)
[edit]The second series consists of stories featuring the Second Doctor, played in all four stories by Frazer Hines, who also reprises his original role from the series as the Doctor's companion Jamie McCrimmon. Anneke Wills reprises her role as Polly Wright in the first two stories, Deborah Watling reprises the role of Victoria Waterfield in the third story, and Wendy Padbury reprises the role of Zoe Heriot in the fourth. In addition, the first two stories feature Elliot Chapman as Ben Jackson, originally played by Michael Craze.
| No. | Title | Directed by | Written by | Featuring | Released |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "The Yes Men" | Lisa Bowerman | Simon Guerrier | Second Doctor, Polly, Ben, Jamie | September 2015 |
| 2 | "The Forsaken" | Lisa Bowerman | Justin Richards | Second Doctor, Polly, Ben, Jamie | October 2015 |
| 3 | "The Black Hole" | Lisa Bowerman | Simon Guerrier | Second Doctor, Jamie, Victoria, the Monk | November 2015 |
| 4 | "The Isos Network" | Nicholas Briggs | Nicholas Briggs | Second Doctor, Jamie, Zoe, Cybermen | January 2016 |
Series 3 (2016)
[edit]The third series of the Early Adventures saw Carole Ann Ford, William Russell, Maureen O'Brien, Peter Purves and Jean Marsh reprising their roles as the companions of the First Doctor, joined by Jemma Powell as Barbara Wright, who had previously portrayed the role of original Barbara actress Jacqueline Hill in the 2013 drama An Adventure in Space and Time, and Dan Starkey as the Sontarans. The second story also features actor James Joyce in the role of a new companion, Jospa.[2] The stories have individual episode titles to replicate the era.
| No. | Serial title | Episode titles | Directed by | Written by | Featuring | Released |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Age of Endurance | "Ship of Death" | Ken Bentley | Nick Wallace | First Doctor, Susan, Ian, Barbara | September 2016 |
| "Hunters in the Breach" | ||||||
| "A Fight for Survival" | ||||||
| "The End of Endurance" | ||||||
| 2 | The Fifth Traveller | "Hunted" | Lisa Bowerman | Philip Lawrence | First Doctor, Ian, Barbara, Vicki, Jospa | October 2016 |
| "Enemy in the Dark" | ||||||
| "The Sleeping Army" | ||||||
| "The Boy" | ||||||
| 3 | The Ravelli Conspiracy | "A Friend in Need" | Lisa Bowerman | Robert Khan & Tom Salinsky | First Doctor, Vicki, Steven | November 2016 |
| "A Friend in Deed" | ||||||
| "With Friends Like These..." | ||||||
| "Who Needs Enemies" | ||||||
| 4 | The Sontarans | "The Sontarans" | Lisa Bowerman | Simon Guerrier | First Doctor, Steven, Sara, Sontarans | December 2016 |
| "The Descent" | ||||||
| "The Blind City" | ||||||
| "The Rule of War" | ||||||
Series 4 (2017)
[edit]Frazer Hines, Anneke Wills, Elliot Chapman and Wendy Padbury reprise their roles as the Doctor's companions, with Frazer Hines also playing the Second Doctor. Other characters are also played by Anjella Mackintosh, Wanda Opalinska, Kristina Buikaite, Alistair Petrie, Debbie Chazen, Matilda Ziegler, David Sibley, Kerry Gooderson, Ewan Bailey, Alan Blyton, Judith Roddy, Adam Newington, Don McCorkindale, Richenda Carey.[3]
| No. | Title | Directed by | Written by | Featuring | Released |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "The Night Witches" | Helen Goldwyn | Roland Moore | Second Doctor, Polly, Ben, Jamie | September 2017 |
| 2 | "The Outliers" | Lisa Bowerman | Simon Guerrier | Second Doctor, Polly, Ben, Jamie | October 2017 |
| 3 | "The Morton Legacy" | Lisa Bowerman | Justin Richards | Second Doctor, Polly, Ben, Jamie | November 2017 |
| 4 | "The Wreck of the World" | Lisa Bowerman | Timothy X Atack | Second Doctor, Jamie, Zoe | December 2017 |
Series 5 (2018)
[edit]Series 5 was written and marketed as a "season" of episodes, where each story directly follows from the one before it. Peter Purves returned as Steven Taylor and provided the voice of the First Doctor. Maureen O'Brien returned as Vicki. This season featured the first appearance of the Daleks in the Early Adventures range. The stories have individual episode titles to replicate the era.
| No. | Serial title | Episode titles | Directed by | Written by | Featuring | Released |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Dalek Occupation of Winter | "The Chosen Few" | Lisa Bowerman | David K Barnes | First Doctor, Vicki, Steven, Daleks | September 2018 |
| "Keep Your Enemies Close" | ||||||
| "The Blood of the Young" | ||||||
| "A Spark to Light a Flame" | ||||||
| 2 | An Ideal World | "The Weather Makers" | Lisa Bowerman | Ian Potter | First Doctor, Vicki, Steven | October 2018 |
| "The Life Below" | ||||||
| "A World in Revolt" | ||||||
| "A Fight for the Future" | ||||||
| 3 | Entanglement | "The Wall of Death" | Lisa Bowerman | Robert Khan & Thomas Salinsky | First Doctor, Vicki, Steven | November 2018 |
| "Photographic Evidence" | ||||||
| "The Hour of Voting" | ||||||
| "The Entanglement Machine" | ||||||
| 4 | The Crash of the UK-201 | "Return to Yesterday" | Lisa Bowerman | Jonathan Morris | First Doctor, Vicki, Steven | December 2018 |
| "The Road Not Taken" | ||||||
| "Bid Time Return" | ||||||
| "The Crash" | ||||||
Series 6 (2019)
[edit]Series 6 was created as part of Big Finish's celebration of their 20th anniversary of publishing Doctor Who audio dramas. The series features a number of firsts for the range, including the first story to feature multiple Doctors and the first story to feature the Master. In a first for any performed Doctor Who media, this series also features the return of companion Katarina and the first performed story featuring the Second Doctor meeting the Master.
| No. | Title | Directed by | Written by | Featuring | Released |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "The Home Guard" | Lisa Bowerman | Simon Guerrier | Second Doctor, Polly, Jamie, Ben, The Master | November 2019 |
| 2 | "Daughter of the Gods" | Lisa Bowerman | David K Barnes | First Doctor, Second Doctor, Zoe, Jamie, Katarina, Steven | November 2019 |
Series 7 (2021)
[edit]| No. | Serial title | Episode titles | Directed by | Written by | Featuring | Released |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | After the Daleks[4] | "A New Life" | Lisa Bowerman | Roland Moore | Susan, David Campbell, Jenny Chaplin, Daleks | August 2021 |
| "The Balance of Power" | ||||||
| "Salvation of the Robomen" | ||||||
| "Susan's Choice" | ||||||
| 2 | The Secrets of Det-Sen[4] | "The Abominable Snowmen" | Lisa Bowerman | Andy Frankham-Allen | First Doctor, Steven, Dodo, Yeti | August 2021 |
| "Guru Rinpoche Day" | ||||||
| "The Bandits" | ||||||
| "The Ghanta of Det-Sen" | ||||||
References
[edit]- ^ Bigfinish.com
- ^ DWM 496
- ^ "Doctor Who - The Early Adventures - Big Finish". bigfinish.com.
- ^ a b "Katarina Returns". Big Finish Productions. Retrieved 18 March 2019.