The Ninth Doctor encounters the dead and their ghosts over these three new Big Finish Productions Ninth Doctor Adventures Volume 4, released Feb. 16, 2022, but it’s a familiar face from the past that heralds impending catastrophe.
Travelling the universe alone, the Doctor can’t help running into people he has met before. Some are new acquaintances, and some have a much longer history, back through all of his lives. But every one of them knows that in the face of danger, and when the monsters arrive, there’s no better friend to have by their side.
Christopher Eccleston stars alongside Jon Culshaw (the Brigadier), Warren Brown (Sam Bishop) and Elinor Lawless (Fiona McCall, a Scottish historian and teacher) as the Ninth Doctor travels from a futuristic funeral to a festival by the Forth. Just what is the Burryman and what threat does it pose to Earth’s Unified Intelligence Taskforce?
Doctor Who – The Ninth Doctor Adventures: Old Friends is now available exclusively at the Big Finish website here.
The three fantastic stories in this box set are as follows:
“Fond Farewell” by David K Barnes — Fond Farewell is the intergalactic funeral parlour with a difference: the deceased attend their own wake! Invited by celebrated naturalist Flynn Beckett to his memorial, the Doctor finds he’s not quite the man he was. But who would steal the memories of the dead?
“Way of the Burryman” by Roy Gill — Young Sam Bishop is at a crossroads with girlfriend Fiona: she’s staying in Scotland, he wants to travel the world. As the Burryman celebrations begin, ghosts haunt the Forth Bridge. Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart arrives to investigate – and so does the Doctor…
“The Forth Generation” by Roy Gill — The Forth Generation have emerged. The Doctor, the Brigadier, Sam and Fiona are at their mercy. Is there a way to defeat them? Has UNIT learned from the past? And can the enemy’s nature be changed for the future?
Ninth Doctor Adventures producer David Richardson said: “It’s season finale time! We end our first run with the Ninth Doctor in a suitably epic way: a battle for the Earth, an unstoppable enemy… and old friends.
“I wanted to include the Brigadier because he never got to meet any of the modern Doctors on screen and, frankly, he deserves to. So here we have the retired Brigadier, played impeccably by Jon Culshaw, doing consolation work for UNIT and finding himself standing shoulder to shoulder with his oldest friend.
“So we already had the UNIT connection in place and then Warren Brown dropped me a text, having seen the announcement that we were making Ninth Doctor audios, asking if there was any chance he might be able to act with Christopher Eccleston. And I leaped at the opportunity.
“We’re so lucky to work with Warren at Big Finish, and pairing the Doctor and Sam Bishop was irresistible: it meant we could go back and look at Sam’s origin story. What made him the man we know today in our UNIT and Lady Christina series?”
Eccleston said: “I remember the Cybermen well and the strange beauty of them was fascinating to me as a child. I suppose what I was responding to was the idea that these things were in some sense human. The Doctor’s fascination – and the debate in Doctor Who – is ‘What it is to be human?’ and, to me, the answer is: to be empathetic.
“I’ve had a great time being creative with the Ninth Doctor in these audio adventures – it’s a character that I’ve always loved so much – and interacting with all of these great and imaginative writers.”
“It’s also been quite freeing not having a companion. I like the loneliness of the Doctor and it was one of the things that drew me to him in the first place. I never want him getting too domesticated. I like his solitary lone-wolf quality.”
Director Helen Goldwyn added: “The Way of the Burryman and Forth Generation is a two-parter by the fabulous Roy Gill. It has his usual depth, complexity and atmosphere. It’s an origin story for Sam and I was delighted when I realized we were finally understanding how he came to UNIT and why he’s such a maverick. “It’s been such a genuine privilege to work with Christopher Eccleston and a joy to have been asked to be involved. The energy when Christopher is playing the Doctor is just so high and fun. I’ve laughed so much when recording these sessions with him. I just hope that people will be delighted, enthralled and love hearing the Ninth Doctor again.”
