Produced by David Richardson | ||
 | ||
Featuring Sixth DoctorConstance ClarkeCharley PollardFlip JacksonMel Bush Written by Simon Barnard & Paul Morris (The End of the Line)Alan Barnes (The Red House)Matt Fitton (Stage Fright)Nicholas Briggs (The Brink of Death) Executive producer(s) Jason Haigh-Ellery and Nicholas Briggs | ||
The Sixth Doctor: The Last Adventure is a British audio drama based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who.
Contents
Within the narrative of the series, the Doctor, its principal character, is a time-travelling alien known as a Time Lord, whose biological characteristics allow him to regenerate into a new form to circumvent an otherwise deadly experience; the device has been used to allow for a change in lead actor every few years in the production of the televised series. The sixth such instance was depicted in 1987 in Time and the Rani, but due to the firing between seasons of actor Colin Baker, who had portrayed the Sixth Doctor, the event was given less screen time and explanation than other of the Doctor's regenerations.
Big Finish Productions producer David Richardson approached Baker in 2014, after seeing "The Time of the Doctor", which had depicted (on television) the regeneration of the Eleventh Doctor into the Twelfth: "I felt very strongly that regeneration stories, and each Doctor’s final end, are very important to Doctor Who fans - these are stories that allow us to see the Doctor at his most courageous, making a sacrifice that only makes us love him more." Baker, who had been working with Big Finish since 1999, agreed to participate, saying that his depiction of the Doctor "did not benefit from" the difficult circumstances the show faced in the 1980s, and that Big Finish's work was "the only reason [he had] agreed to bring [his] Doctor to an end".
The audio drama consists of four one-hour episodes, each by a different author and each pairing the Doctor with a different companion and taking place at a different point in his life, but all unified by the presence of the villainous Valeyard, a potential future version of the Doctor introduced in Baker's last television serial, The Trial of a Time Lord. Besides Baker, Michael Jayston and Bonnie Langford reprised their roles from The Trial of a Time Lord, respectively as the Valeyard and as the Doctor's companion Mel.
The End of the Line
The Doctor and his new companion Constance investigate a dimensional nexus made out of a train station with ever-increasing platforms and people who appear multiple times, who are all dead.
The Red House
The Doctor and Charley investigate a village populated by werewolves and by scientists who attempt to normalize them.
Stage Fright
The Valeyard crosses paths with the Doctor's old friends Henry Jago and Professor Litefoot in Victorian London, where he stages a play that seems to recall the Doctor's previous regenerations.
The Brink of Death
With the Valeyard's plan coming to fruition, the Doctor finds himself trapped in a cold 'Hell' of isolation, unable to stop the Valeyard from taking his place at Mel's side, and soon, much, much more than that...