The Companion Chronicles

The Companion Chronicles is a series currently produced by Big Finish Productions. The plays are stories recounted by one of the Doctor's companions (or one of his other friends) with one other actor in a supporting role (exceptions being The Three Companions with four actors, The Mahogany Murderers which featured three actors, and The Stealers from Saiph which featured actress Mary Tamm performing all the roles).

Concept
Originally, the concept was to produce talking books featuring the companions of the first four incarnations of the Doctor who were unavailable to take part in the main range. And while the range has remained focused, if not exclusively so, on companions who appeared earlier than season 19, most releases in the range have not been true "talking books". In fact, all but one release — The Stealers from Saiph — utilize the convention of at least two actors in conversation with each other. And most have a sound design worthy of any title in the main range. Rarely, the range has moved away from its titular concern to feature characters — like Sara Kingdom, King Peladon, and Henry Gordon Jago — who are more properly considered "prominent guest stars" than "companions".

In general, Companion Chronicles have a fairly standard format. They are ususally two, 25-ish minute episodes divided by a single cliffhanger. The central character of the piece (i.e., the companion) is often depicted in two time periods. That is, there is typically an "older" version of the companion recounting some tale of traveling with the Doctor. A second actor is used to either voice a person trying to get the companion to recollect his or her past, as in Ringpullworld, or simply to provide the voices of the principal adversary, as with Fear of the Daleks. Often the interrogator is revealed to be the principal adversary, as in Mother Russia. The relationship between ex-companion and interrogator is usually a pretty obvious "framing device", which takes up a clear minority of the runtime of the release. However, in a few rare cases, as with the "Home Truths trilogy", the interrogator is an equal co-star with the featured character, and is given a a proper story with the "present day" companion weaved amongst the companion's recollections of the Doctor's TARDIS.

Continuity
A few of the plays tie in to other plays in the Big Finish Doctor Who range. The Darkening Eye is a prequel to The Death Collectors; Night's Black Agents explicitly occurs between City of Spires and The Wreck of the Titan; the Leela trilogy which begins with The Catalyst, relies to some degree on the listener's knowledge of the Gallifrey audio series; and The Prisoner's Dilemma occupies a complicated narrative space, tying together the Virgin New Adventures with Big Finish's Key 2 Time series.

All the plays add to the continuity of their main characters' lives as seen on television. More than a few detail an extra adventure in a way that doesn't add much to their lives, however. For instance, Mother Russia gives Steven a holiday in Napoleonic Russia between The Gunfighters and The Savages. Even the interchange with his interrogator is set within the main story. Thus, Steven gains merely another adventure that fits neatly on his established, televised timeline.

By contrast, other plays significantlyexpand the known fates of their principal characters. For instance, the "Home Truths trilogy", taking place between episodes of Sara Kingdom's only televised story, The Daleks' Master Plan, reveals that she had other adventures with Steven and the Doctor besides the quest for taranium, which was the central plot of her televised adventure. More significantly, the trilogy also gives Sara, or at least her consciousness, a thousand-year-lifespan, a way to have met a different incarnation of the Doctor, and thus a second chance to travel in the TARDIS.

Most plays settle somewhere between these two extremes, however. Thanks in part to the typical interrogation "framing device", most of the plays reveal something about the lives of the Doctor's companions after leaving him. In the very first Companion Chronicle, for instance, Vicki is shown to have remained with Troilus, and to have had a large family, all the while still feeling like an outsider. According to the plays, Susan Foreman stayed with David Campbell, Jo Jones continued her globe-trotting life with Dr. Clifford Jones, and Victoria settled down to raise a family.

List of Stories

 * The Three Companions was a 12-part serialized story issued as a bonus with the regular monthly Big Finish episodes, beginning with BFA: The Magic Mousetrap in April 2009 and concluded with BFA: Survival of the Fittest in February 2010. An edited-together version of the story is to be included in a box set called The Specials scheduled for release in June 2011.[]
 * Two stories were available for a limited time as free downloadable content for readers of Doctor Who Magazine: The Mists of Time in August 2009 via issue #411, and Freakshow in March 2010 via issue #419. These stories are also to be included in The Specials box set due for release in June 2011.

The Companion Chronicles