The Company of Friends is a Big Finish Productions audio drama based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. The play is made of four one-part stories, by different authors, rather than the usual multi-part serial. All episodes use the Eighth Doctor as played by Paul McGann, and he is joined in each episode by a companion who originated in either the Doctor Who book or comic ranges.
by Lance Parkin
Benny is hired to recover a familiar artifact: the key to the TARDIS.
Bernice Summerfield - Lisa Bowerman
Klarner - Richard Earl
Venhella - Su Douglas
by Stephen Cole
The Doctor and Fitz investigate an alien world's alien defense business.
Fitz Kreiner - Matt Di Angelo
Commander Hellan Femor - Fenella Woolgar
Michael Rond - Paul Thornley
Gem Weston - Su Douglas
by Alan Barnes
Izzy asks the Doctor to look into the rarest comic book in history: 'Aggrotron!'
Izzy Sinclair - Jemima Rooper
Grubb/The Man - Steve Hansell
Grakk/Clerkie/The Camp Robot - Teddy Kempner
Courtmaster Cruel - Anthony Glennan
Foreman - Ian Hallard
Juror - Katrina Cooke
Captain Cannibal - Robert Forknall
Suits - Robert Forknall/Ian Hallard
by Jonathan Morris
Mary Shelley becomes inspired by events in Switzerland, 1816, at the Villa Diodati when she meets the two Doctors.
Mary Shelley - Julie Cox
Percy Shelley - Anthony Glennon
Lord Byron - Robert Forknall
John Polidori - Ian Hallard
Claire Clairmont - Katrina Cooke
The Three Companions bonus feature, Part 4.
Cremation Point by Marc Platt
Polly - Anneke Wills
The Brigadier - Nicholas Courtney
Gerry Lenz/Announcer - Russell Floyd
The chronological placement of these adventures is unclear, but it is fair to assume that they all occur soon after the Television Movie, earlier than any other main range drama.
Benny last appeared in the main Doctor Who range in 2003's The Dark Flame opposite the Seventh Doctor and Ace. Benny first met the Eighth Doctor in the novel The Dying Days.
Fitz appeared in the Eighth Doctor Adventures novels, starting with The Taint. How he parted company with the Doctor is uncertain, as he was also in the final book of the range, The Gallifrey Chronicles.
Izzy was the first companion given to the Eighth Doctor in the Doctor Who Magazine comics. She traveled with him from End Game until Oblivion. In this audio story, they visit Stockbridge, a town which has featured in many Doctor Who Magazine comics as well as audios such as Circular Time and The Eternal Summer. Located somewhere in Gloucestershire, is also Izzy's home.
Bernice, Fitz and Izzy have all been featured previously in Big Finish's Short Trips short story anthologies: Fitz in Zodiac, Izzy in Life Science and Benny in various collections.
There have been several references in Big Finish's Eighth Doctor stories to the incident in 1816, in Lake Geneva, Switzerland, with Mary Shelley, Percy Shelley, John Polidori and Lord Byron, which resulted in Mary writing Frankenstein. The first mention is in Big Finish's very first Eighth Doctor play, Storm Warning. At its very start, the Doctor picks up the aforementioned book and reads the preface, in which she recounted her version of the incident. The Doctor implies what she had written wasn't the entire truth. This scene was repeated in its entirety in Terror Firma. In Neverland, while dazed, the Doctor blurts out warnings to Byron about meddling with terrible forces and also warns Mary that that someone or something isn't really her brother. A similar moment occurs in Zagreus, where he laments Polidori as well as Mary. In the Shada remake, the Doctor mentions meeting up with his friend Professor Chronotis at Lake Geneva with Mary and Byron. And in the last Eighth Doctor story in the main range, The Girl Who Never Was, the Doctor is very excited when he stumbles across one of Mary's books. The Doctor mentions Mary one last time before the release of Mary's Story in The Beast of Orlok. A year after its release, he recalls being at the Villa Diodati in Nevermore.
In the 1996 TV Movie, during the first moments of the Eighth Doctor's life, the 1931 film adaptation of Mary's Frankenstein was playing on a nearby television, mirroring the creature's first moments of life.
Prior to the launch of the Big Finish range, clones of Mary and Percy Shelley and three clones of Byron had been featured in the Missing Adventures novel Managra by Stephen Marley, where it is implied that the originals were known to the Fourth Doctor.
The characters Samson and Gemma, who are waiting for the Doctor in Vienna, were previously heard in Terror Firma. They are waiting for him the on the same day as Mary's Story, in June, 1816.
Mary Shelley's adventures with the Doctor continue after this, starting with The Silver Turk, in which he attempts to reunite with Samson and Gemma.
The older Doctor recalls the "years" that Mary spent journeying in the TARDIS, mentioning Cybermen, Axons and "King Herold at The Battle of Hastings". The events with the Cybermen occur in her first trip, The Silver Turk.
The older Doctor also recalls many of his former companions, including Charley Pollard, Lucie Miller, Trix MacMillan, Ssard, Compassion, Destrii, Samson and Gemma. He also mentions Alex, which may be a reference to his great-grandson, who meets in An Earthly Child.
