Changes: The Companion Chronicles

Revision as of 04:22, 3 October 2020

The Companion Chronicles — 2007–present

Series details

First release:

February 2007

Publisher:

Big Finish Productions

Official trailer

Official audio trailer

Another official audio trailer

The Companion Chronicles was a Big Finish Productions audio series that ran for eighty monthly releases across eight series between 2007 and 2014, before relaunching with yearly box set releases thereafter.

The general, but not invariable, ambition of the series was to tell stories using the companions of the first four Doctors. The typical release in the range used just two actors, a musical score, some foley work and sound design — meaning that the end result sat somewhere between an audio book and a full-cast drama.

Overview

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. While the range has remained primarily focused 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 — use the convention of at least two characters in conversation with each other. Most have a sound design worthy of any title in the main range. On rare occasions, the range has moved away from its titular concern and featured characters who are more commonly considered "prominent guest stars" or "allies", such as King Peladon and Henry Gordon Jago.

Format and structure

In general, Companion Chronicles have a fairly standard format. They are usually two, approximately 25 minute long episodes divided by a single cliffhanger, barring special double length releases released regularly each season from the fourth onwards. The part of the story that has to do with the Doctor is almost always told in flashback, as a recollection of a past adventure. Thus, 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 who recounts the adventure with the Doctor, and the "younger" version of the character, who is as he or she appeared on television.

The actor not portraying a companion is used in a variety of ways to allow stories in the range to have markedly different structures. Some common narrative uses for the second actor are:

to voice a character trying to get the companion to recollect his or her past, as in Ringpullworld
to voice a friend of the companion, as in The Transit of Venus
to voice the principal adversary, as with Fear of the Daleks

Sometimes, the interrogator is revealed to be the principal adversary, as in Mother Russia or Frostfire; sometimes the listener knows the interrogator is the adversary right from the start, as with The Catalyst. In any case, 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 a co-star equal with the featured character and is given a a proper story with the "present day" companion woven into the companion's recollections of the Doctor's TARDIS.

Dwm companion chronicles — Preview art for the first series by Ben Wilsher from DWM 381.

The 2011 release Tales from the Vault was a departure from the "enhanced audiobook" format, being effectively a straight audio drama (albeit still one with a limited cast) that incorporated interviews with various companions.

Continuity

A few of the plays tie in to others 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 their main characters' televised continuities. Some detail an adventure that adds little to their lives; for instance, Mother Russia gives Steven an adventure in Napoleonic Russia between the main narrative of The Gunfighters and its conclusory scenes, which lead into The Savages. Even the interchange with his interrogator is set within the main story. Thus, Steven gains merely another adventure that fits neatly in his established, televised timeline.

By contrast, other plays expand greatly on the known fates of their principal character/s. For instance, the trilogy of stories featuring Sara Kingdom, the main narratives of which take place between episodes of 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. Thanks in part to the typical interrogative "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. Equally, the series shows that 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.

Stories

Series 1

Main article: Series 1 (CC)

#	Title	Author	Performer	Doctor	Featuring	Released
1.1	Frostfire	Marc Platt	Maureen O'Brien	1st	Vicki, Steven	February 2007
1.2	Fear of the Daleks	Patrick Chapman	Wendy Padbury	2nd	Zoe, Jamie, Daleks
1.3	The Blue Tooth	Nigel Fairs	Caroline John	3rd	Liz, the Brig, Yates, Benton, Cybermen
1.4	The Beautiful People	Jonathan Morris	Lalla Ward	4th	Romana II, K9

Series 2

Main article: Series 2 (CC)

#	Title	Author	Performer	Doctor	Featuring	Released
2.1	Mother Russia	Marc Platt	Peter Purves	1st	Steven, Dodo	October 2007
2.2	Helicon Prime	Jake Elliott	Frazer Hines	2nd	Jamie	November 2007
2.3	Old Soldiers	James Swallow	Nicholas Courtney	3rd	The Brig	7 December 2007
2.4	The Catalyst	Nigel Fairs	Louise Jameson	4th	Leela	January 2008

Series 3

Main article: Series 3 (CC)

#	Title	Author	Performer	Doctor	Featuring	Released
3.1	Here There Be Monsters	Andy Lane	Carole Ann Ford	1st	Susan, Ian, Barbara	July 2008
3.2	The Great Space Elevator	Jonathan Morris	Deborah Watling	2nd	Victoria, Jamie	August 2008
3.3	The Doll of Death	Marc Platt	Katy Manning	3rd	Jo, the Brig, Yates, Benton	September 2008
3.4	Empathy Games	Nigel Fairs	Louise Jameson	4th	Leela	October 2008
3.5	Home Truths	Simon Guerrier	Jean Marsh	1st	Sara, Steven, Robert	November 2008
3.6	The Darkening Eye	Stewart Sheargold	Sarah Sutton	5th	Nyssa, Adric, Tegan, Dar Traders	December 2008
3.7	The Transit of Venus	Jacqueline Rayner	William Russell	1st	Ian, Barbara, Susan	January 2009
3.8	The Prisoner's Dilemma	Simon Guerrier	Sophie Aldred, Laura Doddington	7th	Ace, Zara	February 2009
3.9	Resistance	Steve Lyons	Anneke Wills	2nd	Polly, Ben, Jamie	March 2009
3.10	The Magician's Oath	Scott Handcock	Richard Franklin	3rd	Yates, Jo, the Brig, Benton	April 2009
3.11	The Mahogany Murderers	Andy Lane	Christopher Benjamin, Trevor Baxter	None	Jago & Litefoot, Dr Tulp	May 2009
3.12	The Stealers from Saiph	Nigel Robinson	Mary Tamm	4th	Romana I	June 2009

Series 4

Main article: Series 4 (CC)

#	Title	Author	Performer	Doctor	Featuring	Released
4.1	The Drowned World	Simon Guerrier	Jean Marsh	1st	Sara, Steven, Robert	July 2009
4.2	The Glorious Revolution	Jonathan Morris	Frazer Hines	2nd	Jamie, Zoe	August 2009
4.3	The Prisoner of Peladon	Cavan Scott & Mark Wright	David Troughton	3rd	King Peladon, Alpha Centauri, Ice Warriors	September 2009
4.4	The Pyralis Effect	George Mann	Lalla Ward	4th	Romana II	October 2009
4.5	Ringpullworld	Paul Magrs	Mark Strickson	5th	Turlough, Tegan, Huxley	12 November 2009
4.6	Bernice Summerfield and the Criminal Code	Eddie Robson	Lisa Bowerman	7th	Bernice	31 January 2010
4.7	The Suffering	Jacqueline Rayner	Peter Purves & Maureen O'Brien	1st	Vicki, Steven	February 2010
4.8	The Emperor of Eternity	Nigel Robinson	Deborah Watling & Frazer Hines	2nd	Jamie, Victoria	March 2010
4.9	Shadow of the Past	Simon Guerrier	Caroline John	3rd	Liz, the Brig, Yates, the Mim	30 April 2010
4.10	The Time Vampire	Nigel Fairs	Louise Jameson & John Leeson	4th	Leela, K9	31 May 2010
4.11	Night's Black Agents	Marty Ross	Frazer Hines	6th	"Jamie"	May 2010
4.12	Solitaire	John Dorney	India Fisher	8th	Charley, Celestial Toymaker	June 2010

Series 5

Main article: Series 5 (CC)

#	Title	Author	Performer	Doctor	Featuring	Released
5.1	The Guardian of the Solar System	Simon Guerrier	Jean Marsh	1st	Sara, Steven, Bret, Mavic Chen, Robert	July 2010
5.2	Echoes of Grey	John Dorney	Wendy Padbury	2nd	Zoe, Jamie, The Company	August 2010
5.3	Find and Replace	Paul Magrs	Katy Manning	3rd	Jo, Iris Wildthyme, Huxley, the Brig, Benton	30 September 2010
5.4	The Invasion of E-Space	Andrew Smith	Lalla Ward	4th	Romana II, Adric	31 October 2010
5.5	A Town Called Fortune	Paul Sutton	Maggie Stables	6th	Evelyn	November 2010
5.6	Quinnis	Marc Platt	Carole Ann Ford	1st	Susan	23 December 2010
5.7	Peri and the Piscon Paradox	Nev Fountain	Nicola Bryant, Colin Baker	5th, 6th	Peri	January 2011
5.8	The Perpetual Bond	Simon Guerrier	Peter Purves, Tom Allen	1st	Steven, Oliver	February 2011
5.9	The Forbidden Time	David Lock	Anneke Wills, Frazer Hines	2nd	Polly, Ben, Jamie	March 2011
5.10	The Sentinels of the New Dawn	Paul Finch	Caroline John	3rd	Liz	April 2011
5.11	Ferril's Folly	Peter Anghelides	Mary Tamm	4th	Romana I	May 2011
5.12	The Cold Equations	Simon Guerrier	Peter Purves, Tom Allen	1st	Steven, Oliver	June 2011

Series 6

Main article: Series 6 (CC)

#	Title	Author	Performer	Doctor	Featuring	Released
6.1	Tales from the Vault	Jonathan Morris	Daphne Ashbrook, Yee Jee Tso, Peter Purves, Wendy Padbury, Katy Manning, Mary Tamm	1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th	Matheson, Sato, Steven, Dodo, Zoe, Jamie, Jo, Romana I	July 2011
6.2	The Rocket Men	John Dorney	William Russell	1st	Ian, Barbara, Vicki, Rocket Men	10 August 2011
6.3	The Memory Cheats	Simon Guerrier	Wendy Padbury	2nd	Zoe, Jamie, The Company	September 2011
6.4	The Many Deaths of Jo Grant	Cavan Scott & Mark Wright	Katy Manning	3rd	Jo	October 2011
6.5	The First Wave	Simon Guerrier	Peter Purves & Tom Allen	1st	Steven, Oliver, Vardans	8 November 2011
6.6	Beyond the Ultimate Adventure	Terrance Dicks	Colin Baker, Claire Huckle, Noel Sullivan	6th	Crystal, Jason	December 2011
6.7	The Anachronauts	Simon Guerrier	Jean Marsh & Peter Purves	1st	Steven, Sara	January 2012
6.8	The Selachian Gambit	Steve Lyons	Frazer Hines & Anneke Wills	2nd	Jamie, Polly, Ben, Selachians	February 2012
6.9	Binary	Eddie Robson	Caroline John	3rd	Liz	March 2012
6.10	The Wanderer	Richard Dinnick	William Russell	1st	Ian, Susan, Barbara	18 April 2012
6.11	The Jigsaw War	Eddie Robson	Frazer Hines	2nd	Jamie, Zoe	May 2012
6.12	The Rings of Ikiria	Richard Dinnick	Richard Franklin	3rd	Yates, the Brig, Benton	June 2012

Series 7

Main article: Series 7 (CC)

#	Title	Author	Performer	Doctor	Featuring	Released
7.1	The Time Museum	James Goss	William Russell	1st	Ian	23 July 2012
7.2	The Uncertainty Principle	Simon Guerrier	Wendy Padbury	2nd	Zoe, Jamie, The Company	August 2012
7.3	Project: Nirvana	Cavan Scott, Mark Wright	Maggie O'Neill, Amy Pemberton, Sylvester McCoy	7th	Lysandra, Sally, Elder God	19 September 2012
7.4	The Last Post	James Goss	Caroline John, Rowena Cooper	3rd	Liz, Emily, the Brig	25 October 2012
7.5	Return of the Rocket Men	Matt Fitton	Peter Purves	1st	Steven, Dodo, Rocket Men	10 November 2012
7.6	The Child	Nigel Fairs	Louise Jameson	4th	Leela	20 December 2012
7.7	The Flames of Cadiz	Marc Platt	William Russell, Carole Ann Ford	1st	Ian, Susan, Barbara	9 January 2013
7.8	House of Cards	Steve Lyons	Anneke Wills, Frazer Hines	2nd	Polly, Jamie, Ben, Sidewinder Syndicate	6 February 2013
7.9	The Scorchies	James Goss	Katy Manning	3rd	Jo, the Brig, Scorchies	7 March 2013
7.10	The Library of Alexandria	Simon Guerrier	William Russell	1st	Ian, Barbara, Susan, The Mim	10 April 2013
7.11	The Apocalypse Mirror	Eddie Robson	Frazer Hines, Wendy Padbury	2nd	Jamie, Zoe	8 May 2013
7.12	Council of War	Simon Barnard, Paul Morris	John Levene	3rd	Benton, the Brig	11 June 2013

Series 8

Main article: Series 8 (CC)

#	Title	Author	Performer	Doctor	Featuring	Released
8.1	Mastermind	Jonathan Morris	Geoffrey Beevers, Daphne Ashbrook, Yee Jee Tso		The Master, Matheson, Sato	10 July 2013
8.2	The Alchemists	Ian Potter	Carole Ann Ford	1st	Susan	August 2013
8.3	Upstairs	Mat Coward	Maureen O'Brien, Peter Purves	1st	Vicki, Steven	12 September 2013
8.4	Ghost in the Machine	Jonathan Morris	Katy Manning	3rd	Jo	11 October 2013
8.5	The Beginning	Marc Platt	Carole Ann Ford	1st	Susan, Stoyn	15 November 2013
8.6	The Dying Light	Nick Wallace	Frazer Hines, Wendy Padbury	2nd	Jamie, Zoe, Stoyn	19 December 2013
8.7	Luna Romana	Matt Fitton	Lalla Ward, Juliet Landau	4th	Romana I, Romana II, Romana III, Stoyn	17 January 2014
8.8	The Sleeping City	Ian Potter	William Russell	1st	Ian, Barbara, Vicki	13 February 2014
8.9	Starborn	Jacqueline Rayner	Maureen O'Brien		Ian, Barbara, Vicki	13 March 2014
8.10	The War To End All Wars	Simon Guerrier	Peter Purves		Steven, Dodo, Sida	9 April 2014
8.11	The Elixir of Doom	Paul Magrs	Katy Manning	8th	Jo, Iris Wildthyme	16 May 2014
8.12	Second Chances	John Dorney	Wendy Padbury	2nd	Zoe, Jamie, The Company	17 June 2014

The First Doctor: Volume One

Main article: The First Doctor: Volume One

#	Title	Author	Performer	Doctor	Featuring	Released
9.1	The Sleeping Blood	Martin Day	Carole Ann Ford	1st	Susan	3 June 2015
9.2	The Unwinding World	Ian Potter	Maureen O'Brien		Vicki, Ian, Barbara
9.3	The Founding Fathers	Simon Guerrier	Peter Purves		Steven, Vicki, 1st Doctor's mind copy, Sida
9.4	The Locked Room	Simon Guerrier	Peter Purves		Steven, 1st Doctor's mind copy, Sida, Vardan

The Second Doctor: Volume One

Main article: The Second Doctor: Volume One

#	Title	Author	Performer	Doctor	Featuring	Released
10.1	The Mouthless Dead	John Pritchard	Frazer Hines, Anneke Wills, Elliot Chapman	2nd	Jamie, Polly, Ben	23 June 2016
10.2	The Story of Extinction	Ian Atkins	Frazer Hines, Deborah Watling		Jamie, Victoria
10.3	The Integral	David Bartlett	Frazer Hines, Wendy Padbury		Jamie, Zoe
10.4	The Edge	Rob Nisbet	Frazer Hines		Jamie, Zoe

The First Doctor: Volume Two

Main article: The First Doctor: Volume Two

#	Title	Author	Performer	Doctor	Featuring	Released
11.1	Fields of Terror	John Pritchard	Maureen O'Brien	1st	Steven, Vicki	15 June 2017
11.2	Across the Darkened City	David Bartlett	Peter Purves		Steven, Vicki, Daleks
11.3	The Bonfires of the Vanities	Una McCormack	Anneke Wills, Elliot Chapman		Polly, Ben
11.4	The Plague of Dreams	Guy Adams	Anneke Wills, Elliot Chapman		Polly, Ben

The Second Doctor: Volume Two

Main article: The Second Doctor: Volume Two

#	Title	Author	Performer	Doctor	Featuring	Released
12.1	The Curator's Egg	Julian Richards	Anneke Wills	2nd	Polly, Ben	20 June 2018
12.2	Dumb Waiter	Rob Nisbet	Frazer Hines, Louise Jameson		Jamie, Victoria, Leela
12.3	The Iron Maid	John Pritchard	Wendy Padbury		Jamie, Zoe
12.4	The Tactics of Defeat	Tony Jones	Wendy Padbury		Jamie, Zoe, Ruth

The First Doctor: Volume Three

Main article: The First Doctor: Volume Three

#	Title	Author	Performer	Doctor	Featuring	Released
13.1	E is for...	Julian Richards	Carole Ann Ford	1st	Susan, Ian, Barbara	18 September 2019
13.2	Daybreak	John Pritchard	Maureen O'Brien		Ian, Barbara, Vicki
13.3	The Vardan Invasion of Mirth	Paul Morris, Ian Atkins	Peter Purves		Steven, Vardans
13.4	The Crumbling Magician	Guy Adams	Anneke Wills		Ben, Polly

Special releases

Title	Author	Performer	Doctor	Featuring	Released
The Three Companions	Marc Platt	Anneke Wills, Nicholas Courtney, John Pickard	2nd, 3rd	Polly, the Brig, Brewster, Ben, Jamie	April 2009 - February 2010^[1]
The Mists of Time	Jonathan Morris	Katy Manning	3rd	Jo	19 August 2009
Freakshow	Mark Morris	Mark Strickson	5th	Turlough, Tegan	4 March 2010
The Revenants	Ian Potter	William Russell	1st	Ian, Barbara	31 May 2012

Notes

The Three Companions was a twelve-part serialised story issued as a bonus with the regular monthly Big Finish Doctor Who releases, beginning with The Magic Mousetrap in April 2009 and concluded with Survival of the Fittest in February 2010. An omnibus edit of the story is available in The Companion Chronicles: The Specials box set, released in August 2011.
Three 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 DWM 411, Freakshow in March 2010 via DWM 419 and The Revenants in May 2012 via DWM 448. The Mists of Time and Freakshow are also available in The Specials box set, while The Revenants was included in the Limited Collector's Edition of The Light at the End.

Cover gallery

External links

Official The Companion Chronicles page at bigfinish.com

Footnotes

↑ Serialised over 12 chapters beginning with AUDIO: The Magic Mousetrap in April 2009

[1] Serialised over 12 chapters beginning with AUDIO: The Magic Mousetrap in April 2009

[1]

Tardis