Big Finish has revealed the final monsters to star in the upcoming Classic Doctors, New Monsters: Volume Two: alongside the Vashta Nerada and Racnoss, the set will feature the Sixth Doctor’s battle with the Carrionites!
The Carrionite Curse is the return (sort of) of the witch-like creatures from 2007’s The Shakespeare Code, created by Gareth Roberts. Writer, Simon Guerrier says:
“Matt Fitton asked me to write for Colin [Baker] and the Carrionites. The Carrionites get their power from words, and the Sixth Doctor is the most logophile of Doctors, so I knew there was something potent there. David Richardson suggested the 1980s setting, invoking something of the Enfield poltergeist of the late 1970s, and I drew a bit on Hammer’s To The Devil a Daughter, or at least my memories of being terrified of that in my teens. And I was keen to ensure that this was definitely the Carrionites, not just any witchy aliens, so I looked for something to link it firmly to The Shakespeare Code…”
This is the third story of the set, which also includes adventures by John Dorney, Scott Handcock, and Matt Fitton. The box will be out in July 2017, priced at £20 as a download and £23 for the 5-disc CD set (which unlocks access to a digital version). It’ll remain exclusive to the Big Finish site until 30th September, at which point the frozen pre-release price ends and it becomes £30 for a download and £35 on CD.
Here’s the full synopsis:
Night of the Vashta Nerada by John Dorney
Funworld was set to be the happiest planet in the galaxy. A planet of joy, of euphoria, of laughter and delight. Except construction was marred by reports of a predator and then, a few days before opening, all communication ceased.
Owner Georgia Donnelly is desperate to open the resort and has hired Amanda Steele’s crew to find out what happened on the planet. They’re the best. But even they might not be up to the task.
Joined by the Doctor and being picked off one by one, they slowly start to realise that something terrifying lurks in the shadows.
Empire of the Racnoss by Scott Handcock
When a distress call rips the TARDIS from the Vortex, dragging it back through time, it arrives in the midst of a conflict between Gallifrey and an ancient foe.
The Doctor, as ever, wants to help, but in returning a wounded combatant home, he becomes further and further entangled in a web of deceit and recrimination. A web spun by an eight-legged Empress and her minions…
The Empire of the Racnoss is at war, and wherever he stands, the Doctor is on the wrong side.
The Carrionite Curse by Simon Guerrier
Katy Bell returns to her Midlands home to find strange goings-on at the buskers fair. A witch trial in the 1980s. A bonfire ready to be lit…
Luckily, a colourful visitor is already investigating, and the local vicar, Katy’s dad, is versed in tales of the macabre. Terrifying forces are on the loose, and the town hall holds a secret. There is black magic in the Black Country, and the Doctor has the name of his enemy on the tip of his tongue…
Something wicked this way comes.
Day of the Vashta Nerada by Matt Fitton
As the Time War rages, Cardinal Ollistra of Gallifrey seeks to create ever more dangerous weapons to deploy against the enemy.
When the Doctor stumbles across Synthesis Station, he discovers that the Time Lords have sponsored a project to weaponise already-lethal creatures. But in doing so, Eva Morrison and her team have unwittingly used a colony of Vashta Nerada with a very unfortunate history of humanoid contact.
The Doctor finds himself leading a desperate race for survival, in which the shadows may be the least of their worries…
Directed by Barnaby Edwards, Classic Doctors, New Monsters: Volume Two features a number of guest stars including Adjoa Adhoh as the Racnoss Empress, Nigel Planer as the Old Racnoss Emperor/Herrax, Jacqueline Pearce as Cardinal Ollistra, Jan Ravens as Dr Eva Morrison, and Michael Fenton Stevens as Rev. Douglas Bell. You can pre-order it from Big Finish now.
