Doctor Who: The Eighth Doctor Adventures


The Eighth Doctor Adventures is a Big Finish Productions audio play series based on the British science fiction television programme Doctor Who. It sees the return of Paul McGann reprising his role as the Eighth Doctor from the 1996 television movie.

History

In 2001, Paul McGann became involved with Big Finish Productions producing adventures as the Eighth Doctor, a role he originated in the 1996 TV movie Doctor Who, as part of their ongoing Main Range. However, in 2007, due to the popularity of several of these titles on BBC Radio 7, the BBC partnered with Big Finish to produce a series called The Eighth Doctor Adventures for BBC Radio 7 beginning with Blood of the Daleks, co-starring Sheridan Smith as the Doctor's latest companion Lucie Miller and featuring a guest appearance from a then fairly unknown Hayley Atwell. This range would go on for a further three seasons of stories, with Lucie initially departing in the 2009 Christmas special Death in Blackpool. The fourth season brought in Niky Wardley as the Doctor's new companion Tamsin Drew and reintroduced Carole Ann Ford as the Doctor's granddaughter Susan Foreman from the original television series, with Sheridan returning as Lucie later in the season. The range concluded in 2011 with the fourth season finale To the Death, which saw the deaths of both Lucie and Tamsin in a grim ending for the Doctor.
After the original end of The Eighth Doctor Adventures, November 2012 saw the return of the Eighth Doctor in a new boxset entitled Dark Eyes starring McGann alongside Ruth Bradley as new companion Molly O'Sullivan. The box set was a commercial success and won the BBC Audio Drama award for Best Online or Non-Broadcast Drama. This led to the commission of three further box sets continuing the Dark Eyes saga starting in 2014, which starred McGann and Bradley and introduced a second companion in Liv Chenka, played by BAFTA TV Award nominated actress Nicola Walker. Due to Bradley's limited availability, Molly was written out at the end of the third volume, though the character returned once more in the fourth volume played by Sorcha Cusack.
Following the success of Dark Eyes, the multi-volume boxset format was used extensively, starting with the four-part saga Doom Coalition from 2015 to 2017. McGann and Walker reprised their roles as the Eighth Doctor and Liv Chenka respectively, and were joined by new companion Helen Sinclair, portrayed by Hattie Morahan. It also featured the return of Alex Kingston as River Song in a recurring capacity, marking the first time elements from the revived iteration of the parent series Doctor Who appeared. Doom Coalition was followed by two more four-part sagas starring McGann, Walker, and Morahan as the Doctor, Liv, and Helen, which were entitled Ravenous and Stranded. The end of Stranded depicted Liv's departure from the TARDIS, though it left a narrative gap for more adventures with the trio in the future.
Alongside the box sets with Liv and Helen, in 2017 Big Finish Productions began a new strand of stories set much later in the Eighth Doctor's life at the onset of the Time War. The Eighth Doctor: The Time War, as it was called, served as a prequel to The War Doctor and drew from the depiction of the Eighth Doctor in the 2013 minisode "The Night of the Doctor", which had marked McGann's first reprisal of the role on television since 1996 and also mentioned audio companions Charley, Lucie, Tamsin, and Molly on screen for the first time. The series starred McGann alongside Rakhee Thakrar as his companion Bliss, and ran for four volumes through 2020. Additionally, two one-off box sets were released which featured the return of Sheridan Smith as Lucie Miller in 2019 and India Fisher as Charlotte Pollard in 2022 and were each set during their original runs.
In May 2020, Big Finish announced the Main Range would conclude in March 2021 and subsequently replaced with regular releases of each Doctor's adventures continuing in their own respective ranges. A previously released special title from 2003 and all the boxset series with the Eighth Doctor were united under the umbrella banner of The Eighth Doctor Adventures as part of this change. Two new standalone boxsets What Lies Inside? and Connections were announced for release in 2022, which featured the returns of McGann, Walker, and Morahan as the Doctor, Liv, and Helen.

Cast and characters

Notable guests

Episodes

Main series

''The Eighth Doctor Adventures'' (2003–2011)

Special (2003)
Originally released as a CD extra for Doctor Who Magazine, but was retroactively added as a part of the range.

Series 1 (2007)
The first series of the Eighth Doctor Adventures began with Blood of the Daleks, a two part story spread across two separate releases and showcasing a more violent approach.
Re-released as 'The Eighth Doctor and Lucie Miller Series 1 in October 2023.

Series 2 (2008)
Re-released as The Eighth Doctor and Lucie Miller Series 2 in June 2024.

Series 3 (2009)

Series 4 (2009–11)

Special (2010)


''Dark Eyes'' (2012–2015)

Starting with Dark Eyes, Big Finish abandoned singular releases for the range and opted to move to Boxsets. During this era, It would heavily focus arcs and storylines that would play out across four boxsets. They would discontinue this format after Stranded and the end of ''The Monthly Adventures.''
Series 1 (2012)

Series 2 (2014)

Series 3 (2014)

Series 4 (2015)


''Doom Coalition'' (2015–2017)

Series 1 (2015)

Series 2 (2016)

Series 3 (2016)
Doom Coalition 3 was released in September 2016 and is directed by Ken Bentley.

Series 4 (2017)
Doom Coalition 4 was released in March 2017 and is directed by Ken Bentley.


''Ravenous'' (2018–2019)

Series 1 (2018)

Series 2 (2018)

Series 3 (2019)

Series 4 (2019)


''Stranded'' (2020–2022)

Series 1 (2020)
Featuring the first appearance of Tania Bell, the first transgender companion in any Doctor Who media.

Series 2 (2021)

Series 3 (2021)

Series 4 (2022)


Standalone boxsets (2022–)

''What Lies Inside?'' (2022)
After the end of Stranded and The Monthly Adventures, Big Finished moved away from the four-part boxset approach and ongoing arcs. Instead, focusing on two main boxsets per year that are typically released from November to December.
Set after Stranded.

''Connections'' (2022)

''Audacity'' (2023)
Set earlier in the Eighth Doctor's life.

''In The Bleak Midwinter'' (2023)

''Echoes'' (2024)

''Deadly Strangers'' (2024)

''The Causeway''

''Empty Vessels''


Other series

''The Eighth Doctor: Time War'' (2017–)

Set much later in the Eighth Doctor's timeline and a prequel to The War Doctor range. This explores Eighth Doctor's time attempting to avoid the Time War and his adventure with Bliss, and later Alex Campbell and Cass Fermazzi. It was originally known as The Eighth Doctor: The Time War before being rebranded.
Series 1 (2017)

Series 2 (2018)
This was the final box set to feature Jacqueline Pearce as Ollistra before her death in September 2018.

Series 3 (2019)

Series 4 (2020)
This box set features Ken Bones reprising his role of the General, a character who appeared in the Fiftieth Anniversary special "The Day of the Doctor" in 2013 and made one final appearance in the Series 9 episode "Hell Bent" in 2015.

Series 5: ''Cass'' (2023)

Series 6: ''Uncharted 1: Reflections'' (2024)

Series 7: ''Uncharted 2: Pursuit''

Series 8: ''Uncharted 3''


''The Further Adventures of Lucie Miller'' (2019)

Announced in August 2018, this series is set between the first and second series of audio adventures.

''Charlotte Pollard – The Further Adventuress'' (2022)



''The Stuff of Legend'' (2024)

A Special 25th Anniversary special of Big Finish Doctor Who audio dramas. Released alongside a full-cast live recording event at Cadogan Hall in London on Saturday 14 September 2024.

Audio dramas

''Immortal Beloved''

Immortal Beloved is an audio drama based on the series. It was produced by Big Finish Productions and was broadcast on BBC 7 on 21 January 2007. Ian McNeice would later play Winston Churchill in the revived series episodes "The Beast Below", "Victory of the Daleks" and "The Pandorica Opens" in 2010, and "The Wedding of River Song" in 2011. He also went on to star in The Renaissance Man in 2012. The cast is:
The Doctor and Lucie Miller land the TARDIS next to a cliff in what appears to be ancient Greece. Two star-crossed lovers, Kalkin and Sararti, have been preparing to kill themselves nearby, but the Doctor and Lucie prevent this, and soon anachronistic helicopters surround them all. One of the soldiers who disembark, General Ares, is gravely injured in the ensuing struggle. The Doctor just about saves his life and he, Lucie, Sararti and Kalkin are taken back to a grand palace, where to their horror they witness the ailing Ares' mind being transferred into the body of another man, one of the soldiers, who has expected this and is entirely willing to so sacrifice himself to his 'destiny'. The Doctor confronts Zeus, the autocratic ruler of this strange society where guns are labelled as magic wands and the hi-tech mind-transfer device is an 'incarnation chamber'.
Zeus admits that he is not really a god, and reveals that they are on a lost Earth colony planet in Lucie's distant future. Generations ago, he and his wife Hera, along with many others, some now long gone, landed here and he has gone on to create a society based upon Greek myth. He explains that he was the pilot of the original colony ship, and Kalkin is not his son, but his next-in-line clone, who has rebelled against his fate. The next clone after that, Ganymede, is by contrast committed to his cruel destiny, but is too young for a transfer. The ruling class, the remains of the original crew – the 'gods' – use their machine, which the Doctor insists has long been outlawed as an abomination – to transfer their minds periodically into their clones, giving them practical immortality. Zeus has appeared welcoming, but lusts after Lucie despite insisting that he and Hera have a thousand-year-old love.
He reveals himself to be a madman, and demands that the Doctor use the TARDIS to fetch parts to repair the immortality machine, as it has become worn out and they are now without space-travel capabilities. The Doctor very reluctantly agrees after Zeus threatens to hurt Lucie – even to clone her repeatedly and torture each Lucie to death for all eternity. When Hera suffers a heart attack, her mind transfer into the unwilling Sararti fails, leaving Sararti in control of her body. Pretending all is well, she suddenly stabs Zeus, so that he requires an immediate transfer into Kalkin's body. The Doctor appears to go along with this under pressure from Ares and the loyal soldiers, but ensures that it fails. Though Lucie and Sararti at first fail to appreciate this ruse, the Doctor and the new Zeus – Kalkin, of course – convince them that the lovers can secretly take on his and Hera's roles. They insist that they will stop using the machine as the Doctor and Lucie take their leave. Lucie is optimistic, but the Doctor reminds her that these two are essentially younger versions of the tyrannical pair they have helped to overthrow...

''Phobos''

Phobos is another audio drama based on the series, produced by Big Finish Productions and broadcast on BBC 7 on 28 January 2007. The cast is:
The Doctor and Lucie land on Phobos, the moon of Mars, which has become popular with extreme sports fans in the future, due to a wormhole on the surface which is used for bungee jumping. The Doctor and Lucie listen to Kai Tobias's stories of monsters on the surface, although no-one takes him seriously. Later the monsters from Tobias's stories appear and begin attacking visitors. When The Doctor discovers that the monsters are just robots, Tobias reveals that an entity from another universe is in the wormhole and that it feeds on the pleasurable fear extreme sports fans feel. However, it is hurt by real fear and Tobias made the robots to create real fear. The Doctor enters the wormhole and shows the entity his fears, which kill it, and The Doctor and Lucie leave. The Headhunter awakens on the moon's medical ward, angry that she has missed Lucie again.
The drama was also featured elsewhere:
  • The 2000 Big Finish audio play The Fearmonger also features a creature which stirs up fear and feeds on it.
  • The short story Crimson Dawn in the book Decalog 2: Lost Properties explains that Phobos is an artificial moon created by Ice Warriors.
  • The 2006 Big Finish audio play Memory Lane features a character called Kim Kronotska who says she was on a Phobos mission.
  • The Fifth Doctor comic strip story The Moderator features a reference to Phobos at the start of part 2.
  • The Eighth Doctor visits Mars' other moon in Deimos.
  • The Doctor, when showing the entity his own fears, mentions his fears of the future, and the fears of things that he sees he himself might have to do. This is possibly a reference to the events of the Time War, which was to occur in the Eighth Doctor's relative distant future, in which the Doctor was forced to kill all of his own people, the Time Lords.