Infinite Potential: Where Could Big Finish Take New Who? (Part 2)
DWTV contributors propose ideas for other potential New Who audios.
Trenzalore
– Joshua Yetman
For 900 years, the Eleventh Doctor selflessly protected the town of Christmas (and his own people) from his greatest enemies, a conflict referred to as the Siege of Trenzalore. 900 almost entirely undocumented years in the life of the Doctor are just begging to be explored, which is why I believe this idea has such enormous potential for Big Finish to sink their teeth into.
Big Finish could handle stories set during the Siege of Trenzalore in a similar fashion to the book Tales of Trenzalore
But I suggest a more exciting idea. Big Finish could delve into the lore behind the Siege of Trenzalore. Perhaps they can flesh out the life of Tasha Lem, a character I personally enjoyed but thought lacked substantial character development in her fleeting appearance in The Time of the Doctor. Furthermore, perhaps they can document the early life of Madame Kovarian, telling the story of the Siege of Trenzalore from her perspective, her interactions with Tasha, and how and why she split away from the church. It could even explain what ultimately happened to her after the siege ended. Big Finish could flesh out her character considerably, and, ultimately, give much more depth to the Siege of Trenzalore as a whole.
Torchwood
– Ed Smith
The 21st Century is when everything changes. And we have to be ready. Torchwood is the ideal scenario for a Big Finish series. In certain aspects, it shares several similarities to Doctor Who. An absolutely phenomenal TV series, ‘cancelled’ before its time and with all the potential in the world to be renewed! Torchwood is something that I have recently been thinking about quite a lot (I’m a fanfiction writer) and there is just so much you could do with it!
As the TV show demonstrated, Torchwood had the ability of going where Doctor Who couldn’t go. It took us in to darker, uncharted territory. It showed us concepts unlike any we had seen yet, and it’s something that I would absolutely love to see explored further. A series of Big Finish audios could show us a similar, darker continuous story, similar to Children of Earth. Of course, it could also be done as standalone adventures, similar to Series 1/2. It would be fantastic to see some new, creepy, horrifying creatures make their way on to the iPod.
An audio series could start again – a clean slate, as it were, with Gwen and Jack, rebuilding a brand new team, possibly containing characters we have already met in Doctor Who or The Sarah Jane Adventures (eg. Luke Smith). But with an audio series we could see the return of Naoko Mori, Burn Gorman and Gareth David Lloyd, featuring in a series set during the course of the earlier Torchwood TV show. It would be a true joy to see these characters again.
As we know, Torchwood is being brought back for some radio plays. But there’s nothing to say that Torchwood couldn’t be brought back for Big Finish as well. As a massive fan of the show, I will happily listen to any new material, whatever it is. So, fellow Torchwood fans, we can only hope!
Martha and Mickey
– Michelle Kerry
It is fair to say that Mickey and Martha’s marriage, as revealed in the Tenth Doctor’s farewell tour in The End of Time: Part Two, came out of the general direction of nowhere. It’s generally agreed there’s some degree of pairing the spares here, and there has been some debate about the advisability of doing this with the show’s biggest recurring non-white characters. The main problem is the lack of any development of a relationship, largely due to both Freema Agyeman and Noel Clarke having to drop out of Torchwood: Children of Earth late on in production. In fact, up until The End of Time, Martha was; as far the audience knew; engaged to Tom Milligan, who she first met during The Year That Never Was.
A Smith and Jones (obvious title is obvious) audio spinoff would be a great resolution to all of this. The start of the series would focus on building their relationship, with Martha helping Mickey adjust to the obvious difficulties in returning to a world in which he has been thought dead for 2 years. This would start with getting him a job at UNIT working alongside her, in spite of her growing disillusionment with the organisation. At the same time, Mickey would become Martha’s confidant during the breakdown of her relationship with Tom, as she realises how inadvisable basing a relationship on the fact the person died for you in a parallel universe really is.
Their burgeoning relationship would obviously be developed alongside typical alien shenanigans and other standard UNIT fare, up until the point where they discover how far the militarism within the organisation extends, resulting in them leaving in disgust and going freelance after that. This would inspire Kate Stewart (at the time Junior Scientific Advisor) to reform the organisation based on the creed of ‘Science Leads’, which would tie back into the newly announced UNIT: Extinction.
Big Finish, if you want to hire me…
River Song
– James Blanchard
To me, River Song is a name synonymous with adventure. Looking back at some of earlier adventures (from our perspective, if not hers) before the mystery of her identity began to unravel, there was a great sense of this galactic free-spirit, romping through planets and time periods. She could be sleuthing with a certain green-skinned detective one minute, constantly pestering (slash threatening) Dorium Maldovar for some new gadgets, or opening up the ancient tomb of some Osirian. There are endless possibilities for stories with Doctor (or Professor?) Song, she could become a veritable Indiana Jones, thrust into a space opera.
Why, it almost sounds like Doctor Who itself, doesn’t it?
But wait, I can hear the cries of certain Doctor Who fans who are far better versed in the expanded lore than I. “A space travelling archaeologist? Why, that sounds an awful lot like Bernice Summerfield.” And you’d be right. It does. But would that be a bad thing? Bringing a popular, more well-known character into the Big Finish fold could incentivise listeners to dig deeper. Hell, Steven Moffat even suggested that River and Bernice got married – and there can never, ever be enough gay girls in the galaxy. Having them, and other Big Finish characters cross over, would be great way to bridge remaining gaps between New, Classic and Big Finish Who.
Fundamentally, River Song is a character with a lot of energy, and although I consider her story brought to a good end by The Name of the Doctor, it would be a shame not to see her again. The beauty of Big Finish, of course, is that they not only let us see more, but let us expand what we already have into something new, vibrant, and interesting.
Conclusion
As has been demonstrated by our array of writers above the possibilities for Big Finish to expand into the New Who market are endless. All of this of course is dependent upon the assumptions that yesterday’s news means they have got their hands on the magic ticket that would be the rights to use New Who. So whilst we are all extremely excited about UNIT: Extinction. Here’s hoping that it is actually the start of something special…
