Doctor Who: Empire of Creativity – A History of Big Finish (Part 6)

Feature by Gustaff Behr.

• Read part one of the series here.
• Read part two of the series here.
• Read part three of the series here.
• Read part four of the series here.
• Read part five of the series here.

I would argue that the 2020s represent the most comfortable time in history to be a Big Finish fan.

In recent years, it has become a lot more ‘mainstream’ than ever before, with the official Doctor Who social media accounts sometimes reporting on new Big Finish news ahead of the actual Empire. YouTube snippets of audios are a dime a dozen. The company has reached a level of maturity where virtually every corner of the Doctor Who universe has become a playground. The sandbox feels completely full, yet Big Finish somehow continues to discover new places to build.

That is perhaps the company’s greatest achievement. After more than twenty-five years of continuous production, you would expect the well to have run dry. Instead, Big Finish continues to uncover overlooked characters, unexplored historical periods, alternate timelines, forgotten monsters, and entirely new formats.

Ironically, Big Finish’s greatest strength has also become one of its few genuine weaknesses: its sheer size. The catalogue has grown so enormous that one of the most common questions asked by prospective listeners is simply, “Where do I even begin?” Newcomers often need a roadmap before purchasing their first release, not because the stories are inaccessible, but because there are now hundreds upon hundreds of them. Choosing a starting point can be more daunting than deciding whether to start at all.

It’s a remarkable problem to have.

Today, Big Finish’s library dwarfs the television series that inspired it. Its backlog now contains well over five times as many stories as the combined output of both Classic Doctor Who and the revived television series. In practical terms, that means there is now significantly more Doctor Who produced by Big Finish than by the BBC itself.

For long-time fans, there is always another Doctor, another companion, another spin-off, another “missing adventure”, or another unexpected pairing waiting just around the corner. And for newcomers, while the mountain may initially seem intimidating, it also means something rather wonderful: no matter what era of Doctor Who you love, chances are Big Finish has already spent years expanding it.

The COVID Years

If there’s one good thing that came out of the pandemic, it was freeing up enough of David Tennant’s time to record more Tenth Doctor audios, like the Out of Time and The Tenth Doctor and River Song box sets in the Tenth Doctor Adventures range.

Also, Donna Noble: Kidnapped (1 season, 4 stories) joined the list of unnecessary spin-offs.

A stranger addition to the Time War expansion was Susan’s War (3 seasons, 8 stories), which attempted to answer the question of what Susan Foreman was doing during the Time War. The series positions her as a diplomatic figure navigating interstellar conflict through negotiation rather than combat. Basically, she talked a lot, and often in platitudes.

On the Torchwood side of things, The Sins of Captain John (1 season, 4 stories) continued the trend of character-focused spin-offs, pairing John Barrowman’s Captain Jack with James Marsters’ Captain John Hart. The series largely thrives on the chaotic chemistry between the two leads, even if its premise is comparatively lightweight next to larger Torchwood arcs.

Elsewhere, the character of Norton Folgate, introduced in Torchwood: The Story Continues, had begun to gain significant popularity. His appearances alongside Andy Davidson in the Torchwood Monthly Range further helped establish him as a fan-favourite, which eventually led to his own dedicated spin-off, Torchwood: Soho (4 box sets, 4 seasons, 24 episodes). Set in a 1950s-era Torchwood division, the series explored the organisation’s historical scope and further reinforced Big Finish’s tendency to build entire sub-franchises out of successful supporting characters.

Finally, by this point, Big Finish’s Monthly Range was approaching its final set of stories, prompting a continued migration of Classic Doctors into box-set formats. This time, the company launched The Sixth Doctor Adventures (20 box sets, 40 stories), as well as The Fifth Doctor Adventures (9 box sets, 26 stories).

It was also around this time that Big Finish captured Eric Roberts in some top-secret paramilitary operation for the sole purpose of him regularly reprising his role as the Master in the aptly named spin-off, Master! (3 box sets, 9 stories). 2021 also saw Big Finish outdoing itself with a multi-Master story epic that brought together John Simm, Derek Jacobi, Alex MacQueen, Gina McKee, Michelle Gomez, Mark Gatiss, Eric Roberts, Geoffrey Beevers, “Anthony Ainley” and Milo Parker for Masterful.

But arguably the biggest news to come out of Big Finish was the successful negotiation with Christopher Eccleston to play the Doctor in a new run of stories, The Ninth Doctor Adventures (18 box sets, 4 seasons, 41 stories). No secret military operation this time.

Due to John Hurt’s passing, the mantle of the War Doctor’s voice was entrusted to Jonathon Carley for not one, but two War Doctor titles, namely The War Doctor Begins (6 box sets, 18 stories) and, most recently, The War Doctor Rises (5 box sets, 15 stories), as part of The War Doctor Adventures series.

Beginning in 2022, Big Finish started experimenting with a different kind of spin-off. Rather than building new ranges around Doctors or companions, the Empire began centring entire box sets on corners of the Doctor Who universe that had previously been little more than footnotes. To make these projects more commercially appealing, each range featured an appearance by one or more incarnations of the Doctor, using the Time Lord as both a narrative anchor and a familiar face for prospective buyers.

One of the earliest examples was Peladon.

Instead of following the Doctor as the central protagonist, the series shifts its focus to King Peladon, with the Doctor serving more as a supporting guest star. On paper, the concept isn’t entirely unlike The Churchill Years, which also placed a supporting television character at the heart of the narrative. The crucial difference, however, is that Peladon features the original actors reprising their respective Doctors, giving the range a stronger sense of authenticity and making the Doctor’s appearances feel like genuine chapters in each incarnation’s life rather than peripheral cameos.

Whether Peladon itself proved to be a breakout success is difficult to judge, but the experiment clearly influenced Big Finish’s long-term strategy. The company soon applied the same formula to some of Doctor Who’s most recognisable monsters. Sontarans vs Rutans (2 seasons, 8 stories), Planet Krynoid (2 seasons, 6 stories) and Zygon Century (2 seasons, 6 stories) each place one of the Doctor’s classic adversaries at the centre of the story while inviting one or more Doctors to appear during the run. The result is a series that can stand on its own while still benefiting from the Doctor’s presence.

From a business perspective, it’s a clever approach. Spin-offs built around secondary characters or classic monsters can be a difficult sell on name recognition alone. By including a Doctor in the marketing and in at least one story of each range, Big Finish lowers the barrier to entry. Fans who might otherwise hesitate to buy a series about Peladon or the Rutans are far more willing to give it a chance when a favourite Doctor is involved.

The Current Meta

Doctor Who as a franchise finds itself in an unexpectedly precarious position in 2026. Just three years ago, the television series appeared unstoppable. Backed by a deal reportedly worth as much as $200+ million, intended to usher in a new golden age, the BBC partnered with the House of Mouse in a landmark deal to transform Doctor Who into a truly global franchise. To complete the sense of occasion, they even brought back Russell T Davies, the very showrunner who revived the series in 2005 and turned it into a cultural phenomenon.

Yet by 2026, that optimism has given way to uncertainty. The television series is now on indefinite hiatus. The BBC has announced plans to put Doctor Who out to competitive tender, but has yet to invite proposals, a situation that many interpret as diminishing confidence in the production model that sustained the show for the past two decades. The brand has also suffered declining viewership, increasingly polarised fan discussion, sluggish merchandising, and a growing perception that the Doctor has lost some of the cultural relevance the character once enjoyed.

But throughout all of this, Big Finish has remained one of the franchise’s steadiest pillars. With the television show’s future uncertain, Big Finish is no longer simply supporting the franchise. It has become its primary creative engine.

The Empire now commands fourteen incarnations of the Doctor, more than sixty companions, over one hundred new stories released each year, dozens of writers, and more than twenty ongoing ranges and spin-offs. If there’s one silver lining to the current hiatus, it’s that more fans can finally discover just how much Doctor Who has continued to thrive outside television.

Understandably, Big Finish is not a cheap hobby. If fans are looking for quality storytelling featuring their favourite Time Lord, then there will be some unhappy wallets along the way. That is simply how the sausage is made. But in exchange for those empty wallets, rest assured that Big Finish has an incredibly big dartboard for you to play with.

The beauty of Big Finish is that it has an answer for almost every “what if?” a fan has ever asked.

Loved the War Doctor but wondered what the Time War might have looked like had Colin Baker taken on the role instead of John Hurt? Unbound: Doctor of War (2 seasons, 6 stories) explores exactly that premise. You want to explore some stories with the Fugitive Doctor because you feel like she got done dirty in the Whittaker era? Well, she’s got a run of her own in The Fugitive Doctor Adventures (2 seasons, 6 stories).

Not a fan of the Timeless Child aspect of the Chibnall era, but you’d be open to hearing more of Jodie Whittaker in the hands of competent writers who make a living off getting fans to love less popular characters? The Thirteenth Doctor Adventures (1 season, 9 stories) and Call Me Master (2 seasons, 6 stories) just came out in 2025 and are going strong.

Perhaps modern Doctor Who isn’t what you’re looking for at all. Rani Takes on the World (2 box sets, 6 stories) reunites Rani Chandra and Clyde Langer, with a welcome appearance from Luke Smith for fans of The Sarah Jane Adventures.

Want something rooted in the 1990s? UNIT: Brave New World (4 box sets, 12 stories) follows Brigadier Winifred Bambera as she leads UNIT through a post-classic-era Earth. Prefer the 1980s? Smith & Sullivan (1 box set, 3 stories) delivers period adventures steeped in the atmosphere of that decade.

Whether your favourite era is classic or modern, whether you love UNIT, Torchwood, Gallifrey, River Song, Missy, the War Master, or obscure one-off characters who only appeared on television for a single episode, Big Finish has almost certainly built an entire range around them already. There is no need to wait two or three years for new content.

That’s ultimately Big Finish’s greatest strength. Its catalogue is so vast and varied that, sooner or later, every Doctor Who fan is likely to stumble across a corner that feels tailor-made just for them.