Big Finish: Where Does This Piece Go?
Looking to get into Big Finish? Gustaff Behr shares some tips on where to start.
When people think about diving into Big Finish, they often find themselves asking a few questions: Where do I start? Is this title a good starting point? How many other stories do I have to have knowledge of in order to fully understand this title? These are all good questions and I agree, the popularity of Big Finish is a double edged blade because of there being over 600 Doctor Who or spin-off stories available, it’s like going swimming in shark infested waters.
My personal experience? Eye of the Scorpion was my first title, followed by The Chimes of Midnight. Both great. I didn’t worry too much about continuity at that point and I still don’t. Well, not in the sense that I feel obligated to listen to titles in chronological order. For the last five years, I’ve pulled a River Song and met the Doctors at various points in his lives. At some stages, I had no clue what was going on as I had met him in the middle of the overarching conflict. Other times I was ahead of him and knew what was coming. Both these feelings are great to have so don’t be afraid of them. This routine went on until the release of The Silver Turk in October 2011. From there on out, I started collecting Big Finish audio dramas as they were released to keep up to date whilst still River Song-ing it with releases prior to it, often going back and listening to a bunch to fully understand the current story line.
However, not everybody feels the same way and what is keeping a lot of fans from Big Finish is the ‘is this in the right order’ dilemma. For this reason, I have compiled a chronology of sorts to help you understand in what order you should listen to the audios. I will reference which arcs require other listens and what they are to help connect all the wires for you. I will also highlight whether or not the particular arc or series is a good jumping off point for new listeners.
We’ll focus on the Fifth Doctor first. He doesn’t really have much in the way of arcs or trilogies. You can dive into pretty much anything that isn’t on the list of what I’m about to reference. Please note that I will only reference the introductory and ending stories. You can do your own research on the stories in between, but I will point out if the middle bits are important as well.
Fifth Doctor
The Haunting of Thomas Brewster – Not recommended for new listeners.
Thomas Brewster has two arcs in Big Finish, the first being with the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa. It starts in The Haunting of Thomas Brewster and concludes in A Perfect World. Not a very interesting arc or character in my opinion.
Listening Order: Order of release.
Princess Erimem joins the Fifth Doctor and Peri Brown in Eye of the Scorpion and leaves in The Bride of Peladon. She and Peri pop up in the Doctor-lite audio The Veiled Leopard where they compete against Ace and Hex. Stand alone adventure, but you require basic knowledge of Hex to fully enjoy it. When I talk about basic knowledge, I mean have a rough idea of the character, but nothing plot related.
Listening Order: Save the first and last stories, no particular listening order.
After watching Terminus, you can find out what happened to Nyssa in Cobwebs and watch the TARDIS team journey through the very very arc-like Rihter’s Cure storyline. You only really need to watch/listen to the aforementioned to understand and follow this saga. Please note that this journey concludes in The Entropy Plague, but it is advisable to listen to all the stories (in no particular order if you like) except for the last three of which The Entropy Plague would be the final one.
Listening Order: Save the first and last set of stories, no particular listening order.
Eighth Doctor
The Eighth Doctor Adventures.
These adventures are split up into three phases that make up the first saga of Eighth Doctor adventures. The first part is the Charley Pollard Saga which begins in Storm Warning and concludes in Zagreus before transporting us to The Divergence Arc in which new companion C’Rizz joins the team as they travel the Divergent Universe. This starts in Scherzo and ends in The Next Life.
The final part of the journey involves the trio making it back to our universe and continuing on their adventures in the TARDIS from Terra Firma before concluding in Absolution and then a final end in The Girl Who Never Was.
Listening Order: Order of release for the Charley Pollard Saga. Save the first and last stories, no particular listening order for the Divergent Arc and the final set of stories in our universe.
The New Eighth Doctor Adventures is set after these and features Lucy Miller as the Doctor’s companion, but the two story sets do not reference each other.
Sixth Doctor
The Sixth Doctor meets Evelyn Smythe in The Marian Conspiracy which is a great jumping off point for new listeners as the pair don’t have a particular arc, although there are a couple of stories that are important for multiple other arcs that need to be listened to in the right order. Project Twilight and the first half of Project Lazarus serve as an introduction to The Hex/Forge Arc. Note that there is no solid exit story for Evelyn Smythe and her departure from the TARDIS is only dealt with/referenced in the Six/Mel audio story Thicker Than Water. Please note that Medicinal Purposes, Peer Pressure and Assassins in the Limelight have to be listened in this order.
The Sixth Doctor picks up a distress signal from Charley Pollard in the year 500 001 in The Condemned and takes her on as a companion in the Six/Charley Adventures. Note that this arc picks up directly after The Girl Who Never Was and ends in Blue Forgotten Planet.
Listening Order: You need to be very familiar with Charley Pollard and her story to fully appreciate this arc. It is also advised to listen to this series in the order of release. Tight plot points in the in-between bits.
The Doctor encounters Jamie McCrimmon in Scotland in the Six/Jamie Trilogy starting with City of Spires and ending in Legend of the Cybermen. This is also a great jumping off point for new listeners as this team and their stories are top notch.
After you’ve listened to the Five/Thomas Trilogy, you can move onto the Six/Thomas Trilogy. Note that these stories take place with Evelyn Smythe as well. It starts in The Crimes of Thomas Brewster and concludes in Industrial Evolution.
Listening order: Recommended to first listen to the Five/Thomas trilogy before moving onto this one. Also basic knowledge of Evelyn Smythe is required. Listen in order of release.
If you’ve listened to The Crimes of Thomas Brewster, but you’re not in the mood for the rest, check out the Six/Flip Adventures starting with The Curse of Davros. Note that this journey is still ongoing.
Listening Order: Listening to The Crimes of Thomas Brewster isn’t that important as the story only introduces us to Flip Jackson as a side character, but other than that, you can start with The Curse of Davros which is another great jumping off point.
When you reach the current end of stories featuring Six and Flip, checking out The New Six/Peri Adventures would satisfy your Big Finish appetite. Starting with The Widow’s Assassin, this arc is heavily driven by plot points introduced in the Trial of a Time Lord TV serial while at the same time teasing future Six/Flip adventures.
Listening Order: Heavily driven by past continuity, both TV and Big Finish. Not recommended for new listeners. Listen in order of release.
Seventh Doctor
Please note that the Seventh Doctor audio adventures are more intertwined and connected than any other Big Finish Doctor Who series. The longest running arc is the Hex/Forge Arc that starts in The Harvest and introduces us to Thomas Hector Schofield or “Hex” for short. Travelling with the Seventh Doctor and Ace, this arc can be listened to in any order, save for a couple of key stories that, regardless of purchase of in-between adventures, must be listened to in a particular order in order to fully convey the story. The Sixth Doctor audio Project Twilight and the first part of Project Lazarus introduces us to the arc while The Harvest introduces us to Hex. Please note that The Harvest is part of a cross-Doctor Cybermen trilogy which features a loose story arc connecting the Fifth, Sixth and Seventh Doctors. It is advisable to listen to The Reaping (with Six) and then The Gathering (with Five) before listening to The Harvest.
After that, you may listen to any Seven/Ace/Hex adventure, but keep in mind that 45, Project Destiny and A Death in the Family have to be listened to in that general order regardless of how many stories you choose to listen to in-between. 45 has plot points that come up in A Death in the Family while Project Destiny precedes A Death in the Family and utilizes plot elements laid out in Project Lazarus and Project Twilight. To end the Forge side of the arc, listen to the second half of Project Lazarus. There is also a final ending in the short trips audio Twilight’s End featuring the Seventh Doctor travelling alone.
The second phase of the Hex story arc, commonly referred to as the White/Black TARDIS Arc, features six incredible complex and confusing non-linear tales, the first three following the Seventh Doctor travelling alone and the last three in the company of four companions of which Ace and Hex are present. This arc begins in Robophobia and ends with Gods and Monsters. Heavily driven by continuity and not recommended unless you’ve listened to the above first.
The last phase of the Hex arc features four stories beginning with Afterlife and ending in Signs and Wonders. Like the above, please listen to Phase One and Two before listening to these to truly appreciate the story arc. It is as a whole, one of the best Big Finish has produced without making a companion feel overused or saturated.
The Doctor vs Klein Arc is a collection of stories in which the Seventh Doctor faces off with a Nazi named Elizabeth Klein who is from an alternate universe in which the Nazis who WWII. The opening story is Colditz, a terrific jumping off point for new listeners of the Seventh Doctor, which carries over into the Klein Trilogy, three stories A Thousand Tiny Wings, Klein’s Story, Survival of the Fittest before being resolved in The Architects of History.
Listening Order: Order of release.
Fans who want to get in on Alex Macqueen’s Master, the starting point is usually UNIT Dominion, but I recommend listening to Mastermind first. Please bear in mind that Raine Creevy who joins the Seventh Doctor for this adventure was introduced in the four-part series that make up the Seventh Doctor Lost Stories beginning in Thin Ice and ending with Earth Aid. Note however that save for basic knowledge that the companion’s name is Raine Creevy, no knowledge of the Lost Stories are required in order to listen to UNIT Dominion and nothing is referenced. Also, the Seventh Doctor Lost Stories are poor and not recommended – at all! However, to understand Elizabeth Klein’s story, it’s recommended that you listen to the Doctor vs Klein Arc first.
Like Hex, there is a Phase Three to Elizabeth Klein and the Seventh Doctor in a trilogy of stories starting with Persuasion and ending in Daleks Among Us. Like before, it is recommended that you listen to Phase One and Two first.
The Villain Trilogy is a cross-Doctor series featuring three stand alone adventures with the Fifth, Sixth and Seventh Doctors that bares no relation to one another and can be listened to in any order at any stage of your Big Finish journey. They are Omega (with the Fifth Doctor), Davros (with the Sixth Doctor) and Master (with the Seventh Doctor). These are also great jumping off points for new listeners and are three of the best stories Big Finish has ever produced.
Now that you’ve got a grasp of the companions introduced by Big Finish, check out the cross-Doctor Dalek series. It has an underlying arc, but none of the stories reference each other and can be listened to in any order but the plot order is The Genocide Machine (Seven/Ace), The Apocalypse Element (Six/Evelyn), The Mutant Phase (Five/Nyssa), Time of the Daleks (Eight/Charley).
Listening Order: Any, but basic knowledge of Big Finish companions is required.
Your head is probably spinning right about now. That is a lot of stories and unlike the TV Series, Big Finish likes to weave the stories of all their Doctors to make them feel more connected. You have arcs from the Sixth Doctor carrying over to the Seventh Doctor, companions of the Eighth Doctor teaming up with the Sixth Doctor. You have trilogy stories that feature important plot threads for other stories. It’s wibbly wobbly, timey wimey.
What I recommend…
Guys, don’t worry too much about getting the order right! Sure it helps to have an idea of what’s going on, but Big Finish isn’t going to wait for you to catch up. Six hundred stories and counting. Like I did, pull a River Song and pluck a story out of the hat at random. Use this guide to see if you’re okay with the story’s connection to continuity and go for it. Or better yet, pick an arc or a companion in particular and just listen to all their stories before moving on to the next. You will be spoiled on some stuff. You will find yourself at times not fully comprehending how important the current story is to everything. That is an obstacle that you can’t avoid.
If you want to keep up with the new releases, check out Wikipedia to see which arcs are ending and start following the new ones while casually picking up the backlog in order or release or order of your choosing. Whatever you decide, have fun with it!