Mandip Gill, who plays Thirteenth Doctor companion Yasmin Khan, says part of the joy of working for audio company Big Finish is in revisiting characters she adores.
The Thirteenth Doctor Adventures series began earlier this year, pairing Gill back up with Jodie Whittaker (the titular Thirteenth Doctor), and Gill enthuses:
“[It’s] so good. You’ve gone back to characters you adore, you’re working with these amazing people, and you’re also having such a laugh. They don’t need a budget for location and all that stuff, so these stories can go anywhere – and you don’t need to learn your lines. And I get to spend 72 hours in a room together with one of my best friends!”
This is pretty much in line with what everyone says about Big Finish — that the budget is basically limitless so the scope of stories is massive, you get to joke about with pals, and you don’t need to put in the extra effort of learning lines as you can just read from the script on the day.
In our review of Vampire Weekend, Ida Wood said:
“This lands really well as an emotional beat, with some great dialogue for Yaz, and begins the character development for this pair that many people buying Vampire Weekend will be seeking. At this point in time, she doesn’t know yet how to navigate being solo with the Doctor… It’s well-written and the performances are pitched in the right area for it to neither feel too big (in that the characters would give it more emotional value than the life-and-death situation going on) nor too small (in that it’s rushed through and not allowed time to breathe as a scene), and shows how outside of her police role, Yaz was seen to be lacking in confidence before meeting the Doctor.”
However, Ida was less keen on The Return of the Doctor:
“With a simple plot, a resolution that is basically a bunch of public apologies, and much of the Doctor and Yaz’s conflict being induced by the alien infection, this story is definitely suitable for a young audience, and would probably be of more interest to them than adults.”
Keep a look out for our review of the latest release, Lionesses in Winter, soon!
You can check out all the titles in Big Finish’s The Thirteenth Doctor Adventures range now.
