10 Best Doctor Who Big Finish Releases
Big Finish have been making Doctor Who audios since 1999, but with years of content, where to start?
In 1989, after the airing of ‘Survival’, besides the 1996 Paul McGann TV Movie, Doctor Who was gone from our screens till its 2005 revival. However, created in this period of hiatus was Big Finish Productions. Founded in 1996, Big Finish started producing audio adaptations of novels featuring the Seventh Doctor’s companion, Bernice Summerfield. It was not until 1999 that Big Finish began producing Doctor Who content.
Assembling what Doctors they could from the classic era of the show, Big Finish began a monthly range of two-hour long audio adventures reuniting Peter Davison, Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy with a mix of their onscreen and original companions. Throughout the years, Big Finish has gone from strength to strength, creating new adventures in 2002 for the (at the time) current Doctor, Paul McGann, as well as later on Tom Baker and David Tennant.
Over twenty years later, Big Finish are still producing content, in some form, for every Doctor they have the rights for. As well as countless cracking spin-offs such as 'Gallifrey,' 'The Diary of River Song' and 'Torchwood!'
But if you’re stuck for where to dive into their vast catalogue of stories, here are ten of the best Doctor Who Big Finish releases so far…
10. The Light At The End
This fiftieth anniversary celebration, released back in 2013, sees Doctors Four to Eight join forces against the Master, as well as appearances from the Doctor’s first three incarnations. This story is a great stand-alone jumping on point for any Doctor Who fan. Multi-Doctor tales are tricky, and it is very easy to mess up, but writer Nicholas Briggs (executive producer and Dalek voice-artist) creates a worthwhile experience that gives Doctors who maybe couldn’t participate on screen a chance to be involved in the festivities.
A particular highlight is the joined forces of Tom Baker and Paul McGann, this pair bouncing off each other is something truly magical. The nostalgia is high, and the excitement is in full swing. This release showed Big Finish truly knew all The Doctors they had access to and didn’t stumbled when tasked to bring them all together, alongside their companions. Whilst it has nothing to do with the TV fiftieth special, ‘The Day of the Doctor’, this two-hour adventure compliments it nicely, allowing all eras of the show to come together for an impressive celebration.