Just as the first Doctor Who “Lost Story” is about to be released, Big Finish Productions has announced that they will be producing further un-produced stories in 2010. “Lost Stories” Series 1 consists of episodes commissioned or planned for the original season 23 back in the mid-1980’s. Those stories were scrapped in favor of the “Trial of a Time-Lord” linked season. Other than a novelizations of a couple of scripts, most of these stories have been only sporadically talked about until now. Below are the details of the second series of “Lost Stories”, which now expand to the planned-for Season 27 (the show went into hiatus after Season 26) and also some first and second Doctor stories. Stay tuned to Pop Culture Zoo for more on these audio plays including a review of the first “Lost Story”, Graham Williams’ “The Nightmare Fair.”
Big Finish can now reveal that it will be releasing a further series of Lost Stories – audio versions of scripts that were intended, but never produced, for television. The original run of eight lost Colin Baker stories begins this month, with “The Nightmare Fair”, which is set in Blackpool and features David Bailie (Robots of Death) as The Celestial Toymaker.
For a limited period only the second series of Lost Stories will be available at a special discounted price only from www.bigfinish.com.
The first release is a four-disc box set titled The Hartnell Years, which will feature two unmade stories by Moris Farhi: “Farewell Great Macedon” (a six-part historical tale featuring Alexander the Great) and “The Fragile Yellow Arc of Fragrance” (a one-part science fiction story set on an alien world).
“Sadly both William Hartnell and Jacqueline Hill passed away some time ago,” comments Richardson, “so we never considered making the production with a full cast. Instead Moris Farhi’s original scripts have been adapted as an enhanced audiobook, which will be performed by William Russell and Carole Ann Ford, with a guest actor portraying Alexander the Great.”
This production will be recorded over four days at the start of December, and is scheduled for release in November 2010.
Next up is another four-disc box set The Troughton Years, the centerpiece of which will be “Prison in Space”, performed by Frazer Hines and Wendy Padbury, with Susan Brown (Torchwood) guest starring as the villainous Chairman Babs. The adaptation is by Simon Guerrier, working from Dick Sharples’s original scripts that were written in 1968. It is scheduled for release in December 2010.
“There’s also a very exciting bonus story in this box set,” adds Richardson. “Big Finish has been granted the rights by the estate of Terry Nation to produce an audio version of the unmade US TV Dalek pilot, The Destroyers. This adaptation will be a full cast drama, starring Nicholas Briggs as the voice of the Daleks.”
Moving forward two decades, the remaining productions are drawn from what would have been Doctor Who’s twenty-seventh season in 1990.
“Doctor Who was cancelled in 1989,” says Richardson, “but the production team already had plans for the following year. It’s been my pleasure to collaborate with script editor Andrew Cartmel, who is rebooting those original storylines together with the writers who had been pencilled in for the season. Script writing is underway – in fact, the second story is nearly finished – and we hope to record these in the early months of 2010.”
The season also introduces a brand new Doctor Who companion – the young, sophisticated safecracker Raine.
“We’ll probably start recording these stories in January 2010,” reveals the producer, “but I can reveal that the role of Raine has already been cast. More news on that, and the story details, will be revealed in the New Year.”
Richardson reveals that ‘Season 27’ actually came together very quickly.
“It seemed like it was meant to be. I was at the Regenerations convention in Swansea, and Sylvester McCoy came over and suggested that Big Finish should make his Lost Stories. Sophie Aldred was in the next room, so I texted her on my mobile, she joined us and committed to the idea instantly. Big Finish executive producer Jason Haigh-Ellery was there and gave the green light, I contacted Andrew Cartmel on Facebook and he said yes, and a representative from the BBC was in Swansea too, and gave us the go-ahead instantly. The whole project came together in about two hours!”