This just appeared on the Big Finish website – it is a future statement about certain series that have come to an end or are being created. It seems to be a mix of obvious news (no more Lost Stories), sad news (8th series of the Companion Chronicles is the last, 6th series of Gallifrey is the last), good news (a new Early Adventures being four part stories set in the time of the First and Second Doctors.
The only loser appears to be the Third Doctor who doesn’t feature in these plans.
Details from the announcement:
Doctor Who: The Lost Stories, the adaptations of scripts originally devised for television but never made, will end in December after a short final run of stories for the first three Doctors. Gallifrey, the much-loved spin-off centred on Romana and Leela on the Time Lord homeworld, concludes in spectacular style in October with series six. And The Companion Chronicles, adventures narrated by the Doctor’s friends, will end their monthly run in June 2014.
“It’s always sad to say goodbye to something, especially if they are popular,” says Nicholas Briggs. “But at Big Finish we feel we must always be moving forward, and finding new ways to tell exciting Doctor Who stories on audio.”
For those whose current subscription will leave them fewer than six releases from the end of the Companion Chronicles, we’ve added a four-release Final Season sub so it won’t be necessary to buy up to five titles at full price.
This does mean it is now possible to buy a subscription to Series 8 of the Companion Chronicles
Update: 9th February 2014 Big Finish has stated on twitter that they have other plans for the Third Doctor that they will announce when they are ready
Update: 13 May 2018: How time moves on, so much great stuff since this item in 2014, and we still get Companion Chronicles boxsets (and I wrote one of the stories!)
Perhaps the Third Doctor isn’t represented because few of the cast from his era are available to work on the Early Adventures. I believe all but 2 of the (many) companions of Hartnell and Troughton are still alive. (Jacqueline Hill and Michael Craze have passed on. So Barbara and Ben aren’t available. However Susan, Ian, Vicki, Katarina, Sara Kingdom, Steven, Dodo, Polly, Jamie, Victoria and Zoe can all be involved.) On the other hand, sadly, only about half of Pertwee’s and Tom Baker’s companions are alive. Ian Marter and Roger Delgado passed on years ago and Liz Sladen, Nick Courtney, Caroline John and Mary Tamm died in the last couple of years. That leaves only Jo, Leela and 2nd Romana (plus K9 and the lesser men of UNIT).
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Paul,
Thanks for the comments – clearly the Pertwee years suffer from a lack of still living companions (hence Mike Yates appearing soon) and we can’t expect Kay to do every story from now on in. Mabe BF will invent a new companion?
Hopefully the announcement on the Third Doctor years that they mentioned recently will come sooner than later. Fingers crossed!
Cheers
Tony
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Thanks for pointing out the news about the Third Doctor. I missed that line when I read the item.
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Glad to be of use and thanks for the comments!
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