Over the years there have been numerous commercial audio readings of the various Doctor Who books, beginning with State of Decay from Pickwick in the early 1980s, but it is only in recent years that the idea of producing completely new works for CD has taken off.
Although BBC Worldwide had dabbled with the idea in the late-1990s, when two of their three audio releases based on BBC Books' series of Doctor Who anthologies had included an original story, a regular series wasn't to start until January 2007, when Big Finish Productions launched their Companion Chronicles series. The company had been producing full-cast Doctor Who audio dramas featuring Doctors Five to Eight since 1999, and the new range allowed them to create stories featuring the adventures of Doctors One to Four, with each CD being read by the actors and actresses who originally played the television companions featured in each of the stories.
BBC Audiobooks finally got in on the act in May 2008 with the release of Pest Control, the first in an ongoing series of original Tenth Doctor stories.
Although BBC Worldwide had dabbled with the idea in the late-1990s, when two of their three audio releases based on BBC Books' series of Doctor Who anthologies had included an original story, a regular series wasn't to start until January 2007, when Big Finish Productions launched their Companion Chronicles series. The company had been producing full-cast Doctor Who audio dramas featuring Doctors Five to Eight since 1999, and the new range allowed them to create stories featuring the adventures of Doctors One to Four, with each CD being read by the actors and actresses who originally played the television companions featured in each of the stories.
BBC Audiobooks finally got in on the act in May 2008 with the release of Pest Control, the first in an ongoing series of original Tenth Doctor stories.
Doctor Who: Pest Control
Writer: Peter Anghelides / Narrator: David Tennant
- UK
- 2 × CD / Download
- Running Time: 2h 26m
- BBC Audiobooks
- May 2008
Back Cover Blurb
The Doctor and Donna face monstrous insects and a ruthless robot exterminator in this thrilling, exclusive audio story, read by David Tennant.
The TARDIS is lost in battle on a distant planet. When the Doctor sets off in pursuit, Donna is left behind, and finds herself accepting a commission in the Pioneer Corps. Something is transforming soldiers into monstrous beetles, and she could be the next victim.
Meanwhile, the Doctor steals a motorbike and stages a jailbreak. Well, how hard can it be to find a TARDIS, rescue Donna, and negotiate a peace?
But that's before the arrival of a brutal and remorseless mechanical exterminator, bent on wiping out the insects. It may be that nothing can stop it, becasue this robot's solution for the infestation is very simple: kille everything.
Featuring the Doctor and Donna, as played by David Tennant and Catherine Tate in the hit series from BBC Television, this story has been written specially for audio, and is read by David Tennant.
The Doctor and Donna face monstrous insects and a ruthless robot exterminator in this thrilling, exclusive audio story, read by David Tennant.
The TARDIS is lost in battle on a distant planet. When the Doctor sets off in pursuit, Donna is left behind, and finds herself accepting a commission in the Pioneer Corps. Something is transforming soldiers into monstrous beetles, and she could be the next victim.
Meanwhile, the Doctor steals a motorbike and stages a jailbreak. Well, how hard can it be to find a TARDIS, rescue Donna, and negotiate a peace?
But that's before the arrival of a brutal and remorseless mechanical exterminator, bent on wiping out the insects. It may be that nothing can stop it, becasue this robot's solution for the infestation is very simple: kille everything.
Featuring the Doctor and Donna, as played by David Tennant and Catherine Tate in the hit series from BBC Television, this story has been written specially for audio, and is read by David Tennant.
Regular Characters
Tenth Doctor / Donna Noble
Tenth Doctor / Donna Noble
Notes
- Pest Control is the first in a series of original audio books to feature the adventures of the Tenth Doctor, and is the first full-length Doctor Who story to be penned by Peter Anghelides since co-writing The Ancestor Cell with Stephen Cole for the Eighth Doctor Adventures series of books in 2000. More recently he has written Another Life, one of the first batch of three Torchwood novels to be published in January 2007.
Doctor Who: The Forever Trap
Writer: Dan Abnett / Narrator: Catherine Tate
- UK
- 2 × CD / Download
- Running Time: 2h 23m
- BBC Audiobooks
- October 2008
Back Cover Blurb
Catherine Tate reads this exclusive, thrilling story, in which the Doctor and Donna are imprisoned on the Edifice and become neighbours to a terrifying assortment ofaliens.
When the TARDIS is invaded by a holographic marketing scam, the Doctor and Donna find themselves trapped on the Edifice, a purpose-built complex of luxury apartments in space. Their new environs leave much to be desired: millions of beings from across the Universe have been gathered to live side by side in similar apartments.
Instead of creating neighbourly affection, it's led to terrible battles being waged in the corridors and on the stairwells. The Doctor and Donna must cross the paths of deadly alien mobs as they search for the Edifice's ultimate authority. Who, or what, lies at the heart of the incredible complex? What destructive scourge is eating away at the Edifice itself? And are the Doctor and Donna trapped forever in this living hell?
The Forever Trap features the Doctor and Donna as played by David Tennant and Catherine Tate in the hit BBC Television series Doctor Who. It was written specially for audio by Dan Abnett.
Catherine Tate reads this exclusive, thrilling story, in which the Doctor and Donna are imprisoned on the Edifice and become neighbours to a terrifying assortment ofaliens.
When the TARDIS is invaded by a holographic marketing scam, the Doctor and Donna find themselves trapped on the Edifice, a purpose-built complex of luxury apartments in space. Their new environs leave much to be desired: millions of beings from across the Universe have been gathered to live side by side in similar apartments.
Instead of creating neighbourly affection, it's led to terrible battles being waged in the corridors and on the stairwells. The Doctor and Donna must cross the paths of deadly alien mobs as they search for the Edifice's ultimate authority. Who, or what, lies at the heart of the incredible complex? What destructive scourge is eating away at the Edifice itself? And are the Doctor and Donna trapped forever in this living hell?
The Forever Trap features the Doctor and Donna as played by David Tennant and Catherine Tate in the hit BBC Television series Doctor Who. It was written specially for audio by Dan Abnett.
Regular Characters
Tenth Doctor / Donna Noble
Tenth Doctor / Donna Noble
Notes
- The Forever Trap is the first full-length Doctor Who story to be written by Dan Abnett, whose only previous connections with the series were a number of comic strips for Doctor Who Magazine in the early 1990s, and a number of stories for the Short Trips anthologies published by Big Finish.
More recently he has written two Torchwood stories: Border Princes, which was one of the first batch of Torchwood novels to be published in January 2007, and Everyone Says Hello, one of two original audio books released in Februry 2008.
Doctor Who: The Nemonite Invasion
Writer: David Roden / Narrator: Catherine Tate
- UK
- 2 × CD / Download
- Running Time: 2h 22m
- BBC Audiobooks
- February 2009
Back Cover Blurb
When the sky rips open somewhere over Dover, two objects hurtle out of the Vortex and crash-land in the sea. One is the TARDIS, out of control and freefalling — but the other, a mysterious crystalline sphere, is far more sinister...
The Doctor and Donna are rescued and taken to a secret command centre in the Dover cliffs. It's May 1940, and Vice-Admiral Ramsey is about to finalise one of the most daring plans of the Second World War: Operation Dynamo. But something else has got inside the War Tunnels, a parasitic Nemonite from the crashed sphere. Its aim is to possess all humans and spawn millions of young.
The Doctor and Donna must fight for their lives in order to save both Operation Dynamo and the world at large...
When the sky rips open somewhere over Dover, two objects hurtle out of the Vortex and crash-land in the sea. One is the TARDIS, out of control and freefalling — but the other, a mysterious crystalline sphere, is far more sinister...
The Doctor and Donna are rescued and taken to a secret command centre in the Dover cliffs. It's May 1940, and Vice-Admiral Ramsey is about to finalise one of the most daring plans of the Second World War: Operation Dynamo. But something else has got inside the War Tunnels, a parasitic Nemonite from the crashed sphere. Its aim is to possess all humans and spawn millions of young.
The Doctor and Donna must fight for their lives in order to save both Operation Dynamo and the world at large...
Regular Characters
Tenth Doctor / Donna Noble
Tenth Doctor / Donna Noble
Notes
- The Nemonite Invasion is the first full-length Doctor Who story to be written by David Roden, who is best known to Doctor Who fans for writing the Dimensions in Time charity sketch for Children in Need in 1993. More recently he has contributed The Weeping to The Story of Martha and wrote Rescue, a story featuring the Rani, her sidekick Cyrian and the Cybermen, for the Doctor Who Yearbook 1995.
Doctor Who: The Rising Night
Writer: Scott Handcock / Narrator: Michelle Ryan
- UK
- 2 × CD / Download
- Running Time: ??h ??m
- BBC Audiobooks
- July 2009
Back Cover Blurb
The TARDIS arrives in an 18th Century village in the Yorkshire Moors, where livestock has been vanishing from the farmland and strange lights have been seen in the skies. Something is very wrong here, and he soon becomes involved in a nightmarish adventure, in which he is helped by a young local woman named Charity. Who is feeding on the blood of the locals, and where will the carnage stop...?
The TARDIS arrives in an 18th Century village in the Yorkshire Moors, where livestock has been vanishing from the farmland and strange lights have been seen in the skies. Something is very wrong here, and he soon becomes involved in a nightmarish adventure, in which he is helped by a young local woman named Charity. Who is feeding on the blood of the locals, and where will the carnage stop...?
Regular Characters
Tenth Doctor
Tenth Doctor
Notes
- Scott Handcock's other Doctor Who work includes a number of short stories for Big Finish Productions and also The Magician's Oath, an entry in their Companion Chronicles series of original audiobooks, which was released in April 2009 and narrated by Richard Franklin. His next story due to be released is The Shadow People, an original audiobook based on The Sarah Jane Adventures, which is due out in September 2009.
- As with the Doctor Who television specials broadcast since The Next Doctor at Christmas 2009, The Rising Night sees the Doctor travelling on his own in the TARDIS.
- Michelle Ryan is still probably best known for playing Zoe Slater in EastEnders, although she made a brief trip to Hollywood in 2007, where she played Jaime Sommers in the short-lived revival of The Bionic Woman. More recently she has played recurring villainess Nimueh in four episodes of BBC One's Merlin, and at Easter 2009 starred in the Doctor Who special Planet of the Dead, in which she played the part of Lady Christina de Souza.
