The Eleventh Doctor is back, albeit not this time played by Matt Smith — instead, Miles Taylor steps into the role for Big Finish’s new series of Doctor Who audio dramas.
This Doctor is joined by Jasmine Bayes (who previously played Corporal Alice Sullivan in The Legend of Ruby Sunday/ Empire of Death) as his new companion, Eleanor Fong.
The Eleventh Doctor Adventures: The First Question begins with the Doctor answering a summons from Fong, a Hong Kong businesswoman who’s devoted her life to memory editing technology. But he’s arrived too late, and her work poses a serious threat to the world. Eleanor then joins the Doctor aboard the TARDIS, and their first adventures together take them to a tourist destination gone very wrong and to Massachusetts at a dark moment in history. All of time and space awaits, and it’s a dangerous universe…
The stories in The First Question are:
The Final Cut by Lisa McMullin, from a story by Max Kashevsky
Hong Kong, 1990. The Doctor answers a call for help from Eleanor Fong, CEO of Fong Enterprises. Only he’s eleven years too late. And in those intervening years she’s been busy – helping people to forget…
The Tourist Trap by Beth Axford
In an attempt to ease Eleanor into time and space travel, the Doctor takes her to Space Florida. Unfortunately, it’s not the relaxing paradise he remembers. The holiday-makers are missing, so are the crew, and something monstrous is closing in.
A Delusion of Witches by Lisa McMullin
As fear rises amid the Salem witch trials of 1692, one woman knows for absolute certainty that it’s not witchcraft or devilry people need to fear – it’s human beings.
Producer John Ainsworth said:
“I’m very excited to be overseeing the new The Eleventh Doctor Adventures. Every Doctor’s era has its own particular flavour and our aim is always to be as authentic as possible, in terms of style and tone, to what was seen in the television series. We’ve been very successful in presenting brand-new stories that still have the familiar flavour of the Eleventh Doctor’s previous adventures.”
On starting his adventures as the voice of the Eleventh Doctor, Miles Taylor added:
“It’s a real dream come true! I’ve done a lot of preparation re-watching Eleventh Doctor stories, absorbing Matt Smith’s habits and the rhythm of his voice, understanding the Eleventh Doctor in a more intimate way than when I was watching as a viewer.
“It’s been so great to start the adventures, to get going, and to meet Jasmine, who’s a delight. I feel like the Doctor now. I’m loving every minute and I’ve got more adventures to come, so bring them on.”
And, new companion Jasmine Bayes said:
“I think it’s really nice to have a character like Eleanor written with so much gumption. She’s very professional. They’re both a little bit resistant in the first episode because they’re trying to outsmart one another, and she has this solid wall up. But there’s a lot to break through there, to see what else she’s capable of and see what other colours come out of her.”
The Eleventh Doctor Adventures: The First Question is now available from Big Finish — rather disappoitingly only as a digital download (£19.99).
