The Third Doctor returns in two brand new audio adventures, separately featuring Liz Shaw with Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, and Sarah Jane Smith.
It feels heartwarmingly nostalgic to have both Daisy Ashford and Sadie Miller reprising the roles of the respective companions, once again, as originally portrayed on-screen by their late mums Caroline John and Elisabeth Sladen. Similarly, Jon Culshaw’s vocal impression playing the Brigadier truly remains faithful to Nicholas Courtney. Tim Treloar once more plays the Third Doctor.
Here’s what you’ll find in The Third Doctor Adventures Volume 7:
The Unzal Incursion by Mark Wright
Under the supervision of the Doctor, the Brigadier and Dr Liz Shaw, UNIT are getting ready to activate Hotspur: their new and advanced early warning network.
But something goes wrong, and UNIT are betrayed from within. Suddenly bases are falling across the globe, and only the Doctor and his friends are able to escape.
Not knowing how far the conspiracy goes, the Doctor, Liz and the Brigadier become fugitives… and they soon discover worrying connections to both the Fulcrum military training facility… and something beyond this Earth.
The Gulf by Tim Foley
The TARDIS lands on an ocean planet and the Doctor and Sarah find themselves on a former rig that’s been converted into an artistic retreat.
But art is far from the residents’ minds. A painter has disappeared, and the Doctor senses a dark psychic presence at play.
The waves are rising. And there’s something in the water.
Writer Tim Foley explains:
I think the Third Doctor and Sarah are such an underrated duo. There’s the melancholy of a Doctor reaching the end of his life, and the excitement of a companion just beginning her adventures – I think that’s a Tim Treloar/Sadie Miller crossroads ripe for exploration.
In The Gulf, we’re on an alien ocean planet, on a decommissioned spindrifter – a concrete rig floating on a poisonous ocean. The galaxy is at war, but this former industrial site has been transformed into an artistic retreat – led by the fabulous Marta Malvani. I like it when the Third Doctor rails against a corporation and a system, and I wanted Sarah to experience something wondrous whilst also wearing her investigative journalist hat.
Daisy Ashford adds:
I really loved working with Tim again on this latest Third Doctor Big Finish release. It was wonderful after being in lockdown to be able to actually go to a studio and work with him in person – with all the necessary precautions of course.
We were in separate booths but could see each other from behind the glass. The rest of the cast were either in another studio in Liverpool or recording from home, but we were all connected over the headphones, so it felt like we were together. It is a brilliant script, with lots of action and peril to overcome which is always so much fun to play. Tim was, as ever, cheeky, funny, naughty and brilliant as the Third Doctor. Close your eyes and Jon is there instead – I don’t know how Tim does it!
If those synopses haven’t sufficiently whetted your appetite, listen to the trailer:
The Third Doctor Adventures Volume 7 is out now from Big Finish.
