This is a list of audio productions based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who produced by Big Finish Productions. The first fifteen monthly releases were made available in both cassette and CD format, with subsequent releases being CD only. Most releases have also been made available as downloads.
Contents
Cast
The dramas feature both former actors who portrayed the Doctor and his companions, and new continuing characters as well as elements from other spin-off media. The canonicity of the audio dramas, as with other Doctor Who spin-off media, is unclear. To date, productions have featured the Fourth (Tom Baker), Fifth (Peter Davison), Sixth (Colin Baker), Seventh (Sylvester McCoy), Eighth (Paul McGann), War (Sir John Hurt) and Tenth (David Tennant) Doctors portrayed by their original actors.
Big Finish is not licensed by the BBC to produce audio dramas featuring the Twelfth Doctor, as portrayed by Peter Capaldi, or any characters which originate from his era.
Nearly all of the companions from the original series have appeared, voiced by their original actors. They include Susan (Carole Ann Ford), Ian Chesterton (William Russell), Vicki (Maureen O'Brien), Steven Taylor (Peter Purves), Sara Kingdom (Jean Marsh), Polly (Anneke Wills), Jamie McCrimmon (Frazer Hines), Victoria Waterfield (Deborah Watling), Zoe Heriot (Wendy Padbury), Jo Grant (Katy Manning), Mike Yates (Richard Franklin), Leela (Louise Jameson), K9 (John Leeson), Romana I (Mary Tamm), Romana II (Lalla Ward), Adric (Matthew Waterhouse), Nyssa (Sarah Sutton), Tegan Jovanka (Janet Fielding), Vislor Turlough (Mark Strickson), Peri Brown (Nicola Bryant), Melanie Bush (Bonnie Langford) and Ace (Sophie Aldred). Adventures featuring revival series companion Donna Noble (Catherine Tate) have also been released.
Several actors who played the Doctor and companions of previous Doctors have appeared in other roles, including Russell, O'Brien, Marsh, Wills, Watling, Padbury, Caroline John, Manning, Elisabeth Sladen, Leeson, Daphne Ashbrook, Tennant and Bernard Cribbins. Sladen also reprised Sarah Jane Smith in a spin-off series simply entitled Sarah Jane Smith. Sladen never appeared as Sarah alongside any incarnation of the Doctor for Big Finish; a series with Tom Baker was planned, but was never recorded due to Sladen's untimely death in April 2011.
Initially the role of Adric was not portrayed by Waterhouse, but recast and played by Andrew Sachs as an older version of the character. Waterhouse later reprised the role.
Big Finish also started The Companion Chronicles series of plays, featuring a companion or friend of the Doctor and a supporting cast member. Ford, Russell, O'Brien, Purves, Marsh, Wills, Hines, Watling, Padbury, Manning, Jameson, Tamm, Ward, Sutton, Strickson and Aldred have all reprised their roles in this series along with John (Liz).
As well as this, Big Finish started the Doctor Who: The Early Adventures series of full-cast plays, featuring the First Doctor (recast by William Russell and Peter Purves, following William Hartnell's death in 1975) and the Second Doctor (recast by Frazer Hines, following Patrick Troughton's death in 1987), and companions Barbara Wright (recast by Maureen O'Brien and Jemma Powell, following Jacqueline Hill's death in 1993) and Ben Jackson (recast by Elliot Chapman, following Michael Craze's death in 1998), and Russell, Ford, O'Brien, Purves, Marsh, Wills, Hines, Watling and Padbury reprising their roles from the original series. They also started The Third Doctor Adventures series of full-cast plays, featuring Tim Treloar recast as the Third Doctor (following Jon Pertwee's death in 1996), Manning as Jo, and Franklin as Yates.
Content
New companions created for the audio series include Evelyn Smythe (Maggie Stables), Charley Pollard (India Fisher), Erimem (Caroline Morris), Hex Schofield (Philip Olivier), C'rizz (Conrad Westmaas), Lucie Miller (Sheridan Smith), Thomas Brewster (John Pickard), Abby (Ciara Janson), Tamsin Drew (Niky Wardley), Elizabeth Klein (Tracey Childs), Flip Jackson (Lisa Greenwood), Molly O'Sullivan (Ruth Bradley), Liv Chenka (Nicola Walker), Helen Sinclair (Hattie Morahan) and Constance Clarke (Miranda Raison). Lisa Bowerman has appeared as Bernice Summerfield, a companion from the Virgin New Adventures, in several Doctor Who audio dramas as well as in original productions with her as the central character. Robert Jezek and Jemima Rooper have appeared as Frobisher and Izzy Sinclair, companions from the Doctor Who Magazine comic strip, Travis Oliver and Yasmin Bannerman have portrayed companions Roz Forrester and Chris Cwej from the Virgin New Adventures, and Matt Di Angelo has played Fitz Kreiner, a companion from the BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures.
Charley, C'rizz, Lucie, Tamsin and Molly were all referenced by name in the 50th Anniversary mini-episode "The Night of the Doctor".
Broadcast
In 2005, six of the audio dramas featuring Paul McGann as the Eighth Doctor were broadcast on the digital radio station BBC 7: Storm Warning, Sword of Orion, The Stones of Venice, Invaders from Mars, Shada (originally created for webcast on the BBC's online service), and The Chimes of Midnight. These plays were rebroadcast on BBC7 beginning in July 2006. The Chimes of Midnight was repeated again as part of "The New Eighth Doctor Adventures" Series 1 & 2 in 2009.
In January 2007, a new series of Eighth Doctor audio adventures was broadcast on BBC7. These starred McGann alongside Sheridan Smith as the aforementioned new companion Lucie Miller. There were eight 50-minute episodes in total; the first and last stories were two parters, and the rest were single episodes. These adventures have since been released on CD. In 2008, BBC7 broadcast the second series of The New Eighth Doctor Adventures (which Big Finish had already released on CD) bar the final two-part story. All fourteen episodes were then repeated in 2009, and the final two-part story later that year. Big Finish has gone on to produce two further series of these Adventures, and four selected stories from the third series were aired in 2010, with BBC Radio 4 Extra (as Radio 7 became) skipping ahead to the fourth series in early 2013.
In May/June 2011, BBC Radio 4 Extra broadcast the Fifth Doctor stories Cobwebs, The Whispering Forest, and Cradle of the Snake. In May/June 2012, these were followed by the Seventh Doctor stories A Thousand Tiny Wings, Survival of the Fittest, Klein's Story and The Architects of History.
For the 50th anniversary of the show, BBC Radio 4 Extra repeated several stories and broadcast two new stories; Protect and Survive starring Sylvester McCoy and 1963: Fanfare for the Common Men starring Peter Davison.
In May 2015, BBC Radio 4 Extra broadcast the first series of Fourth Doctor Adventures starring Tom Baker and Louise Jameson.
In 2016, the station broadcast a run of Sixth Doctor adventures: The Crimes of Thomas Brewster (28 May - 4 June), Industrial Evolution (11 - 18 June) and The Curse of Davros (25 June - 2 July).
The Eighth Doctor Adventures
In 2006 Big Finish began a standalone range of audio plays featuring the Eighth Doctor. These stories were set after his travels with Charley Pollard and C'rizz in the monthly range, which were subsequently ended. This range ended in March 2011.
The Fourth Doctor Adventures
In 2012, Big Finish began a range of ongoing dramas featuring the Fourth Doctor, as portrayed by Tom Baker. Baker had previously declined to feature in Big Finish releases, but after recording The Fourth Doctor Box Set had been encouraged to participate.
Season 1 (2012)
This series of adventures is set between seasons 14 and 15 of the classic series, and features Louise Jameson reprising her role as Leela.
Season 2 (2013)
This series of adventures is set between seasons 16 and 17 of the classic series, and features Mary Tamm and John Leeson reprising their roles as Romana and K9.
Season 3 (2014)
This series of adventures, like Series 1, is set between seasons 14 and 15 of the classic series, and, like Series 1, features Jameson reprising her role as Leela. Chronologically, it takes place after The Oseidon Adventure and the special Night of the Stormcrow.
Season 4 (2015)
A fourth series of adventures featuring Leela was released, this time also starring John Leeson as K9.
Season 5 (2016)
A fifth series of adventures was released from January 2016, this time featuring Lalla Ward as the second incarnation of Romana and John Leeson as K9.
Season 6 (2017)
A sixth series will be released from January 2017, also featuring Lalla Ward as the second incarnation of Romana and John Leeson as K9. The plays are set during season 18 of the classic series, prior to that season's E-Space trilogy.
Season 7 (2018)
A Seventh series will be released from January 2018, also featuring the return Louise Jameson as Leela and John Leeson as K9. When it is to be set around is to be confirmed later. This is the first season to be released in 2 separate box sets rather than a new release every month.
Dark Eyes
Following on directly from the Eighth Doctor Adventures, Dark Eyes consists of four box sets, each made up of four hour-long episodes, the first released in November 2012 and the last in March 2015.
Destiny of the Doctor
Produced for AudioGo to celebrate Doctor Who's 50th anniversary, it was the first series produced by Big Finish to feature Doctors from the revived series (2005–present).
Doom Coalition 3 (2016)
Doom Coalition 3 was released in September 2016 and is directed by Ken Bentley.
Doom Coalition 4 (2017)
Doom Coalition 4 was released in March 2017 and is directed by Ken Bentley.
Doctor Who spin off audio plays
Big Finish Productions produce several lines of spin off audio plays with characters from the Doctor Who Universe.