Doctor Who scheduling changes mean many audio dramas will be delayed by up to nine months…
Audio drama producer Big Finish Productions has announced a wide-ranging reshuffle of its 2026-28 release schedule. This will mean a delay to 15 titles from its popular Doctor Who ranges and some associated spin-offs. The changes push these audio dramas back by several months, into 2027 and some into 2028. So if you’ve bought a release as a Christmas present, you may want to think of an alternative gift…
First to get bumped is The Seventh Doctor Adventures: Homecoming, which won’t be in your headphones in November this year, but will rather arrive in January 2027. Classic Doctor releases are most badly affected, with audios for the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth Doctors delayed by up to nine months.
Spin-off releases have met similar adjustments, with The Death and Life of River Song: River and Rory slipping one month into February 2027, while the fourth volume of Gallifrey War Room is now scheduled for March 2027. Noticeably absent from these delays are the New Series ranges, such as the 9th, 10th, 13th Doctors, and Jo Martin’s Circuit Breaker.
Emailed Announcement
The changes were announced in an email from Big Finish: “In response to customer feedback and also to align the production and release schedule, we have taken the decision to reduce the number of new Big Finish audio dramas released per month. This means that a number of releases are being pushed back in the schedule. The affected release dates are listed in detail below. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause and appreciate your patience.”
Redditors (users) on the unofficial Big Finish Reddit pages have had a mixed reaction to the announcement. Many listeners welcomed the scaled-back monthly output, noting that a lighter schedule gives their wallets breathing room after years of overwhelming title releases, with user u/Better_Hawk_2921 saying they now have “time to breathe instead of the constant Doctor Who conveyor that’s not a bad thing”.
However, this relief was not shared by fans who have already pre-ordered multi-year classic Doctor bundles, only to find their expected releases pushed back by six months to a year. Key concerns centred on how reducing Classic Doctor box sets to just one release a year would disrupt ongoing narrative arcs. Redditor u/effiegee called it “the biggest step ‘back’ that [Big Finish] have ever made,” prompting others to express reluctance about placing pre-orders.
Speculation on Reddit suggests that the schedule changes may be linked to Big Finish’s Creative Director, Nick Briggs, taking a three-month sabbatical until January 2027. Speaking on the Big Finish podcast, which he presents alongside Benji Clifford, Briggs stated that he hasn’t had a proper break since taking up his current post 20 years ago.
Although whether the two announcements are connected is not clear. You’d hope that an organisation like Big Finish could function for a few weeks without him.
30 Official Ranges!
Since Big Finish launched its Doctor Who monthly range in July 1999, they have increased their ranges from the Whoniverse to include every incarnation of the Time Lord, multiple companions, villains, and other key characters from the TV show. Big Finish seems to be becoming ever more reliant on multi-Doctor (and multi-Master etc.) stories to boost sales and interest, with diminishing returns.
There are now around 30 major official ranges. Completists who buy every range released will need to spend up to £60 a month to get them all. And then you have to find the time to listen to them.
Without knowing the full story behind the scheduling changes, it’s not possible to know whether this is a strategic move or has been forced by oversaturation of the market. Rumour has it that they have already recorded enough Tom Baker Fourth Doctor stories to fill the next five years. So, presumably, Big Finish have many more stories to tell for years to come.
And with TV Doctor Who unlikely to materialise until 2028 at the earliest, Big Finish will hopefully get a boost by plugging the gap. Imagine if they (miraculously) enticed Ncuti Gatwa into a recording booth for a full series in 2027. Now, that would be a story…
Are you affected by the delays? Are you happy that Big Finish has put on the brakes? Or are you overwhelmed by Big Finish’s output? Let us know in the comments below.
