File:Forty years of the Fifth Doctor

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Exactly forty years since the Fifth Doctor’s first full series began on BBC television comes the release of a special audio adventure reuniting the original 1982 cast.

Peter Davison returns to the role of the Doctor for this brand new collection of stories from Big Finish Productions, and he’s accompanied by some familiar friends.

Alongside Matthew Waterhouse (Adric), Sarah Sutton (Nyssa) and Janet Fielding (Tegan), Doctor Who – The Fifth Doctor Adventures: Forty Volume 1 includes Christopher Timothy and Barbara Flynn among the guest cast.

Davison and Timothy both appeared in All Creatures Great and Small – playing Tristan Farnon and James Herriot respectively – between 1978 and 1990, while Flynn appeared opposite Davison in A Very Peculiar Practice between 1986 and 1992.

The cast is completed by Belinda Lang, Tamzin Outhwaite, Ronan Summers, Matilda Tucker and Nicholas Briggs.

Secrets of Telos by Matt Fitton

Professor Parry’s expedition to the tombs of Telos was hardly an unmitigated success. The handful of survivors limp home in a spaceship… unaware that the deadly peril they faced from the Cybermen is not yet banished.

Into this situation stumble the Fifth Doctor and his friends Nyssa and Tegan – and they’re soon in a deadly fight for their lives.

Except things aren’t quite that simple – something odd is happening to the Doctor. He’s suddenly in a different part of his own timeline inhabiting his future self with no idea of why or how this has happened.

Who is bouncing him through time? And what could they possibly want?

God of War by Sarah Grochala

The Doctor is still being jolted through his own timeline, and has now found himself with Nyssa, Tegan and Adric in ninth century Iceland near a Viking settlement on the edge of a volcano. A settlement whose leader has just found a god in the ice.

The TARDIS crew are soon in a battle with the fearsome Ice Warriors. There are a lot of lives to save… and not just those of their new friends.

The Doctor’s about to find that his biggest battle may be with his own conscience.

Producer David Richardson said: “Forty years of the Fifth Doctor is a big deal – Peter is the actor who changed the direction of the show forever, showing viewers for the first time that the Doctor could be portrayed as the wisdom of centuries within the body of a young man. I love the whole Fifth Doctor era, so this was a party I was very keen to throw – and it seemed very fitting that the guest stars should be memorable figures from Peter’s career outside of Doctor Who, from other major TV series in which he has starred.”

Peter Davison added: “I did ask if we could get some good names in the stories, and I was looking at some of the other Doctors doing their stories and they had very impressive cast lists. I wanted to get up there!”

Of the anniversary, Matthew Waterhouse said: “It's amazing to think that forty years have passed since that incredible first story, Castrovalva, introduced the world to a brand new Doctor! And here we all are, still doing Fifth Doctor adventures! It's still really exciting to have been, and to be, a part of this great and ever-developing period of classic Doctor Who!”

Sarah Sutton added: “It’s hard to believe that forty years have gone by since the arrival of the Doctor’s fifth incarnation! Forty years ago, I was so excited about Peter’s casting as the Fifth Doctor and thrilled that I was involved in the show at that particular time in Doctor Who’s history. How wonderful that we’re still playing these characters for Big Finish, still working and laughing together.”

And Janet Fielding said: “Back in 1980 when I was cast as Tegan, if folk had suggested I was stepping into a parallel universe which I would inhabit for decades to come, then I would have suggested they go easy on the Kool Aid. But so it has proved. I love Big Finish for keeping the door to that universe open. I treasure dearly the friends and colleagues I have made there. Long may our travels together continue.”

Doctor Who – The Fifth Doctor Adventures: Forty Volume 1 is available now as a collector’s edition 3CD box set at £19.99 or on download from the Big Finish website at £16.99.

Plus, Doctor Who – The Fifth Doctor Adventures: Forty Volume 2 is due for release in September 2022 and is currently available to pre-order as a collector’s edition box set (on CD at £19.99) and as a digital download (at £16.99). Big Finish listeners can save money by ordering both volumes together in a bundle for £38 on CD or £33 on download.

All the above prices include the special pre-order discount and are subject to change after general release.