Coming September 2022, David Tennant will star alongside John Lesson, Louise Jameson, Sophie Aldred and Sarah Sutton as the Tenth Doctor meets classic series companions.
Tenth Doctor, Classic Companions – with a title that implies a spiritual spin-off of the Classic Doctors, New Monsters range – will see the Tenth Doctor finding K9 in the aftermath of the Time War and the pair of them going on new adventures meeting Leela, Ace and Nyssa. It’s available to pre-order now from the Big Finish website.
John Dorney, Roy Gill and Lizzie Hopley (who I’ve interviewed about Time Lord Victorious) have written three new stories for the release with Helen Goldwyn directing. With such a long lead time we don’t have any cover artwork yet, but Big Finish provided these photos of the main cast locked away in their makeshift home recording booths. Except Louise Jameson, who appears to be in a proper studio with her co-star dog named Roxie!
It’s been one of the great unexpected delights of being locked in one’s house for months on end, that this was something I was able to do. To be not only doing all these wonderful stories but to be appearing alongside people like Louise Jameson, John Leeson, Sarah Sutton and Sophie Aldred, it’s been just such a treat. I’ve loved it. It’s always such a lovely thing to return to, this show.
David Tennant, The Doctor
The stories goeth thusly:
Splinter by John Dorney
The Doctor finds K9 floating in space, and sets off to clear up Time War fallout. First, they find Leela protecting a village from the Spriggan.
The Stuntman by Lizzie Hopley
The Doctor and K9 enter a virtual world of a movie stuntman to help Nyssa escape a Time War criminal’s scheme.
Quantum of Axos by Roy Gill
Ace investigates a new tech company which seems too good to be true, and meets the Doctor and K9 as Axos escapes its trap.
We took our cue from School Reunion for this set – what would it be like if the Tenth Doctor met some of his past companions, later in their lives. The result is three emotional, exciting stories that cut to the core of Doctor Who, about moving on but never forgetting and always embracing the past.
David Richardson, Producer
For my part, it’s great to hear that the Tenth Doctor will get more time with K9 given their occasional but brief encounters on television. But the big news for me is hearing more from Sophie Aldred as the older Ace. You’ll remember in various media, from her appearances in Class audios, January’s Dark Universe and the novel At Childhood’s End – written by Aldred herself – that the spin-off media is working hard to build on Ace’s post-Doctor life. Ace has already met the Thirteenth Doctor in the books so giving her a Tenth Doctor story seems like a natural fit.
September 2022 is a long way off – this might be the longest gap between announcement and release in any Big Finish audio that doesn’t star Tom Baker – but I definitely think it’s going to be worth the wait. The Tenth Doctor’s plate is going to be full next year with the Dalek Universe saga to deal with, so chasing it with some fun knockabout adventures meeting old friends will be nice.