Although we don’t actually know when the second volume of Big Finish’s Doctor Who: Classic Doctors, New Monsters box set comes out, we’re already very excited – because Cardinal Ollistra, played by the wonderful Jacqueline Pearce (The Two Doctors; Blake’s 7), has been confirmed for the Eighth Doctor’s segment!
We fell in love with Ollistra for her part in The War Doctor series, when she played a central role alongside John Hurt; writer, Matt Fitton enthuses:
“It’s a joy to meet Ollistra once again. We know from the War Doctor series that she and the Doctor have history, and we get to explore some of those tensions. With mutated Vashta Nerada in the mix, it’s not just the shadows you need to fear…”
In our review of The War Doctor: Agents of Chaos, we said:
“It’s for the first time that you get to see the chink in the amour here; this isn’t a woman bread for war, no mere warrior resurrected to fight on the front line, this is a Time Lord that has been thrown in at the deep end and is doing her best to protest her planet and the web of creation. It’s not realised by a soppy scene of repentance or anything as simple as that, but merely certain small moments over the course of two hours that lead the listener to believe there’s more to her than meets the eye.”
Classic Doctors, New Monsters Volume 2 sees a return to the Eighth Doctor’s Time War era, as he stumbles across a space station being used for nefarious purposes by his own people. Ollistra is sponsoring research to weaponise some already-lethal creatures, but the scientists have unwittingly used a colony of Vashta Nerada (as seen in Silence in the Library/ Forest of the Dead) with an unfortunate history of humanoid contact…
Producer, David Richardson says:
“This is the second Vashta Nerada story in the box set, and it was always our intention to link them – so the Fourth Doctor meets them in the opening story, and his Eighth incarnation faces the consequences of that adventure in the closing tale.”
Day of the Vashta Nerada (which follows Night of the Vashta Nerada) also stars Jan Ravens (Dead Ringers), Tim Wallers (Victory of the Daleks), and Himiesh Patel (EastEnders), and is directed by Dalek operator, Barnaby Edwards.
You can pre-order Classic Doctors, New Monsters Volume 2 now for £23 on CD or as a download for £20. Its release date is expected to be announced soon.
