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.[1]
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".[2]
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.
Stories
Series 1
- Main article: Series 1 (EA)
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.
| # | Title | Author | Doctor | Featuring | Released |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1.1 | Domain of the Voord | Andrew Smith | 1st | Susan, Ian, Barbara, Voords | 4 September 2014 |
| 1.2 | The Doctor's Tale | Marc Platt | Ian, Barbara, Vicki | 17 October 2014 | |
| 1.3 | The Bounty of Ceres | Ian Potter | Vicki, Steven | 14 November 2014 | |
| 1.4 | An Ordinary Life | Matt Fitton | Steven, Sara | 16 December 2014 |
Series 2
- Main article: Series 2 (EA)
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.
| # | Title | Author | Doctor | Featuring | Released |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2.1 | The Yes Men | Simon Guerrier | 2nd | Ben, Polly, Jamie | 16 September 2015 |
| 2.2 | The Forsaken | Justin Richards | 15 October 2015 | ||
| 2.3 | The Black Hole | Simon Guerrier | Jamie, Victoria, the Monk | 17 November 2015 | |
| 2.4 | The Isos Network | Nicholas Briggs | Jamie, Zoe, Cybermen | 13 January 2016 |
Series 3
- Main article: Series 3 (EA)
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.
| # | Title | Author | Doctor | Featuring | Released |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3.1 | The Age of Endurance | Nick Wallace | 1st | Susan, Ian, Barbara | 14 September 2016 |
| 3.2 | The Fifth Traveller | Philip Lawrence | Ian, Barbara, Vicki | 13 October 2016 | |
| 3.3 | The Ravelli Conspiracy | Robert Khan, Tom Salinsky | Vicki, Steven | 10 November 2016 | |
| 3.4 | The Sontarans | Simon Guerrier | Steven, Sara, Sontarans | 14 December 2016 |
Series 4
- Main article: Series 4 (EA)
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.
| # | Title | Author | Doctor | Featuring | Released |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4.1 | The Night Witches | Roland Moore | 2nd | Ben, Polly, Jamie | 14 September 2017 |
| 4.2 | The Outliers | Simon Guerrier | 12 October 2017 | ||
| 4.3 | The Morton Legacy | Justin Richards | 16 November 2017 | ||
| 4.4 | The Wreck of the World | Timothy X. Atack | Jamie, Zoe | 13 December 2017 |
Series 5
- Main article: Series 5 (EA)
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."[3]
| # | Title | Author | Doctor | Featuring | Released |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5.1 | The Dalek Occupation of Winter | David K Barnes | 1st | Steven, Vicki, Daleks | 12 September 2018 |
| 5.2 | An Ideal World | Ian Potter | Steven, Vicki | 17 October 2018 | |
| 5.3 | Entanglement | Robert Khan, Tom Salinsky | 14 November 2018 | ||
| 5.4 | The Crash of the UK-201 | Jonathan Morris | 11 December 2018 |
Series 6
- Main article: Series 6 (EA)
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)
| # | Title | Author | Doctor | Featuring | Released |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6.1 | The Home Guard | Simon Guerrier | 2nd | Ben, Polly, Jamie, the Master | 13 November 2019 |
| 6.2 | Daughter of the Gods | David K Barnes | Jamie, Zoe, First Doctor, Steven, Katarina, Daleks |
External links
- Official The Early Adventures page at bigfinish.com
Footnotes
- ↑ Doctor Who: The Early Adventures Announced!. Big Finish Productions (8 February 2013). Retrieved on 28 June 2015.
- ↑ Doctor Who Early Adventures Detailed. Big Finish (19 September 2013). Retrieved on 29 June 2015.
- ↑ Doctor Who - Early Adventures return. bigfinish.com/news. Big Finish Productions (27 January 2018). Retrieved on 21 June, 2018.
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