The Early Adventures

The Early Adventures was a Doctor Who audio series produced by Big Finish Productions announced in February 2013 with the first release Domain of the Voord being released in September 2014.

The Early Adventures continued telling stories from the first two Doctors that The Companion Chronicles began, although producer David Richardson described the series as having a format closer to that of The Lost Stories "except here we have pushed the format to make these productions sound as much as possible like full cast drama".

In producing The Early Adventures, Richardson also stated that it was intended for each story to feel like the soundtrack to a missing episode of the TV series, following the final audio release of an incomplete BBC serial, The Reign of Terror, in 2006. The first releases aimed to replicate this by having all actors speak in RP (Received Pronunciation) as opposed to regional accents and the use of sparing narration to explain actions hard to portray without visuals. (VOR 67)

The stories were performed with two of the original cast along with a cast sized similarly to the Doctor Who monthly range. The two original cast members performed and narrated characters such as the Doctor and other companions.

Series 1
The first series consisted of four stories with the First Doctor. In stories featuring Ian Chesterton, William Russell also voiced the Doctor, while in stories featuring Steven Taylor, the Doctor was voiced by Peter Purves. Additionally, Barbara Wright was voiced by Carole Ann Ford in the first story and by Maureen O'Brien in the second, who also portrayed their traditional roles of Susan Foreman and Vicki Pallister. The last story also featured Jean Marsh as Sara Kingdom.

Series 2
The second series consisted of four stories with the Second Doctor. He was voiced by Frazer Hines in all four stories, who also played his traditional role of Jamie McCrimmon. The role of Ben Jackson was recast, now voiced by Elliot Chapman, as Michael Craze had passed away years before. The second series also featured Anneke Wills as Polly Wright for the first and second stories, Deborah Watling as Victoria Waterfield for the third story and Wendy Padbury as Zoe Heriot for the fourth.

Series 3
Series three saw the return of the First Doctor. For the first two stories, the role of Barbara Wright was recast, as Jacqueline Hill was deceased. She was now voiced by Jemma Powell, who had previously played Hill in An Adventure in Space and Time. Additionally, the first story featured Ian and Susan, while the second featured Ian and Vicki. Like the first series, the third story featured Vicki and Steven, while the fourth featured Steven and Sara.

Series 4
Series four featured the Second Doctor once again, accompanied by Jamie, Ben and Polly for the first three stories, and by Jamie and Zoe in the last.

Series 5
Series five took a different approach to the previous four. Rather than telling four stories with a revolving cast of companions, all stories featured the First Doctor, Vicki and Steven in four chronologically-consecutive adventures. The plan for this series was to "do a season of 1960s Doctor Who."

Series 6
Series six saw the range switch from four annual releases to two, (VOR 125) both of which were released on the same day. The Second Doctor and Jamie featured in both, joined in the first by Ben and Polly. In the second, they were joined by Zoe as well as the First Doctor, Steven and Katarina, voiced by Ajjaz Awad. This multi-Doctor story was made as part of Big Finish celebrating 20 years of its own Doctor Who material, and was framed as a "five-year anniversary special" of the TV series. (BFX: Daughter of the Gods, VOR 128)

Series 7
Originally announced to be scheduled for release in 2020, (VOR 125) but ultimately not materialising until 2021, Series 7 continued the dual release format. Both stories were tied to the William Hartnell era, but the first of the stories did not feature the Doctor at all, instead following Susan in the immediate aftermath of The Dalek Invasion of Earth. The second saw the debut of Dodo Chaplet in a full-cast audio drama, now voiced by Lauren Cornelius, alongside the First Doctor and Steven and acted as a prequel to The Abominable Snowmen.