When Tim Treloar and Katy Manning return as the Third Doctor and Jo Grant in The Third Doctor Adventures: Volume Five, they’ll be joining forces with three other iconic characters from 1970s Doctor Who.

In this new audio box set from Big Finish Productions made in association with BBC Studios, several friends of the Third Doctor will be returning for more Doctor Who adventures in this iconic science-fiction franchise.

Jon Culshaw takes on the role of UNIT commanding officer Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart, a character appearing under licence from the Haisman Literary Estate.

After an extensive casting process, senior producer David Richardson and executive producer Nick Briggs finally remembered a conversation they’d had with Jon, when he told them the thing he’d most like to do for Big Finish would be to play the Brigadier.

Nicholas Briggs said:

"After checking his rendition of the character in the BBC Audiobook of The Five Doctors, we just gave him the job! It was a very tricky thing casting someone to do justice to Nicholas Courtney’s brilliant, original performance. Jon has done this with honour and love for what the splendid Mr Courtney did all those years ago."

Returning alongside the Brigadier is Liz Shaw, the first companion of the Third Doctor. She will be portrayed by Daisy Ashford, the daughter of the original Liz Shaw actress, Caroline John (who played the role on TV and returned to the role for several Companion Chronicles at Big Finish).

Plus, returning to play Sergeant Benton is John Levene. John first played the part of Benton (who was then a corporal) in the Second Doctor TV adventure The Invasion. He returned to become a regular with Third Doctor Jon Pertwee (also appearing with later with Tom Baker), and has previously reprised Benton twice for Big Finish.

Tim Treloar, who has portrayed the Third Doctor on audio since 2015, has been at the forefront of a new era of 70s audio Who treats.

David Richardson, Producer of The Third Doctor Adventures, said:

“It’s been so rewarding to see how Doctor Who fans have embraced these new Third Doctor stories. We knew Tim’s performance (and it is a performance, not a mere impersonation) as the Third Doctor was extraordinary – and it’s clear that listeners feel the same way too."
 

The two adventures in The Third Doctor Adventures: Volume Five will require the Third Doctor, all his companions AND the full might of UNIT to save planet Earth.

Primord by John Dorney 

The Scream of Ghosts by Guy Adams

The Primords (from the Doctor Who TV story Inferno) interrupt the Doctor and Liz Shaw’s reunion, and become one of the fiercest tests of UNIT and the Doctor to date. And in the second, 'ghostly' adventure, the population of a village are apparently being spirited away in the oddest of manners.

Katy Manning (who plays Jo Grant) told us during recording what it was like to bring back these beloved characters:

“It was a joy working with Jon Culshaw, and working with Tim has been so much fun, watching him become the Doctor more and more. But Jon came in and in an instant (and I won’t tell him how!) caught the Brigadier immediately!”

Daisy Ashford says of coming to the Big Finish fold to play Liz Shaw:

“I’m really excited and honoured to have been asked to play Liz, and to step into my Mum’s brilliant shoes!”

Doctor Who: The Third Doctor Adventures Volume Five will be released in May 2019.

Pricing:
Pre-order: £25 (CD box set) / £20 (Download) from www.bigfinish.com

Big Finish online: 

Website: www.bigfinsih.com
Twitter: @BigFinish
Facebook: Facebook.com/TheBigFinish
Instagram: @BigFinishProd

[Source: Big Finish]

Will Brooks’ 50 Year Diary - watching Doctor Who one episode a day from the very start...

Day 725: Downtime

Dear diary,

I’ve been curious about Downtime for ages. Back when I was first getting in to Doctor Who it seemed like the most amazing thing in the world - the return of three former associates of the Doctor, and of the Yeti after almost 30 years. Of course, at that point there were only two Yeti episodes surviving in the BBC archives, so the thought of a complete story featuring them instantly won extra brownie points. Over the years, I must have seen this story more times than I’ve seen some real episodes of Doctor Who, and you know what? I’ve always been confused by it.

Partly, I think, that’s because I’d never experienced the two Patrick Troughton Yeti adventures. I therefore had no clue why the little wooden carving of a Yeti was so important (and, watching again here, I note that it’s never actually explained), and I was forever getting confused by the fact that Victoria is looking for her own father - who’s long dead - but finds Professor Travers, played by Deborah Watling’s real life father, who goes on to talk about his daughter; meaning Anne. Can you see where my confusion came from? Please say you can.

And yet, somehow, Downtime always remained oddly fascinating to me. I think a certain amount of that comes from the fact that it’s the ultimate example of the programme surviving in any climate. In 1995, it had been six years since the BBC had actively produced a proper new episode of Doctor Who, and through all the false starts of various film projects in the preceding half-decade, didn’t really have much interest in the property. And yet you get a group of fans clubbing together, getting a licence to use various elements that aren’t directly owned by the BBC, and making something new with them, that sits firmly - and comfortably - within the Doctor Who world. I think it’s something to be admired, and actually, it comes off rather well.

Because this time around, I’m actually surprised by just how much I’ve enjoyed this! Truth be told, the main reason I wanted to watch it again was to see if my half-memories of earlier viewings fitted neatly in to the Great Intelligence timeline that I was pondering back during The Abominable Snowmen and The Web of Fear last year (more on that in a moment). But then as I watched, it suddenly became less about simply ticking this one off on the list of things I needed to see for the marathon, and more about simply enjoying it. Certainly, having experienced those earlier Intelligence stories, I’ve managed to follow the plot of this one a whole lot better than ever before, but there’s numerous other things that had troubled me in the past that all fit together perfectly well here - I guess I was too busy worrying about things I didn’t understand before that I missed some important dialogue.

It’s also great to use this story as something of a send-off to ‘classic’ Doctor Who. The TV Movie being isolated out on its own in the middle of the 1990s means that it doesn’t really feel like it belongs lumped in with those earlier Doctors, and the recent reappearance of McGann in the programme means that he feels, if anything, closer to the new series than the old. The appearance of Sylvester McCoy in the film just makes it feel a little bit like a handover between the ‘old’ and the ‘new’. So this story is perfectly placed to have a reappearance for Sarah Jane Smith, the Brigadier, and Victoria Waterfield. All three were on hand to celebrate the programme for Dimensions in Time, but in regards to the actually main narrative of the show, the Brig hasn’t been seen in six years, Sarah Jane for more than ten, and our last sight of Victoria was on a beach almost thirty years ago! Bringing them all back together here for a new story alongside an old foe really does work, and introducing Kate Stewart, who’ll go on to be a recurring presence in the revived series later on, makes it feel like another vital part of the ‘Wilderness Years’.

Indeed, I’ve been somewhat struck by just how much this feels like proper Doctor Who, and I even found myself slightly mourning the fact that it’s never had a DVD release with some special features. Several key members of the cast are sadly no longer with us, but it would be nice to see if given some kind of treatment, because it comes across as so much more than ‘just another fan film’.

So. The big question - for me at least - is how this fits in with the timeline I proposed last year. Back then, I suggested that following the defeat of the Intelligence on the Underground, it retreated back onto the Astral Plane, but continued its link with the ‘many human hands’ at its disposal. I think that’s borne out here - Travers has been summoned back to Det Sen and kept alive beyond his years, and Victoria is later brought to the same location, and used to carry out the task. The plan seems to be using the fledgeling internet to carry the Great Intelligence and take over the world… which isn’t a million miles away from the plan we see in The Bells of Saint John. Yeah, I’d say that this fits in rather nicely with what I’ve assumed before - and I’m glad about that! I’ll keep reviewing the situation when we reach Season Seven in a few month’s time, but I think for now this is going in as part of my personal ‘canon’ when it comes to Doctor Who.

Forbidden Planet have teamed up with Character Options for another Exclusive Doctor Who Toy.

'The Daemons' Collector's Set features The Brigadier, The Master and Bok, as featured in the 3rd Doctor adventure; The Dæmons.

In the peaceful village of Devil’s End something very strange is happening. A professor is preparing to open a nearby burial mound and a local white has foresees death and disaster. Meanwhile, the new vicar looks suspiciously like the Master and he is using black magic to conjure up an ancient Daemon.

Contents:

1 x Brigadier action figure in jersey with U.N.I.T. beret and pistol.
1 x The Master action figure.
1 x Bok the dæmon action figure.

+  'The Dæmons' Collector's Set is released in August 2013, priced £29.99.

+  Preorder this product from Forbidden Planet for £29.99!

[Source: Forbidden Planet]

Forbidden Planet have teamed up with Character Options for another Exclusive Doctor Who Toy.

'The Claws OF Axos' Collector's Set features Jo Grant, The Brigadier and an Axon Man, as featured in the 3rd Doctor adventure; The Claws Of Axos.

A In this Third Doctor adventure an approaching alien spaceship lands in England and the UNIT team meet its occupants: Beautiful golden-skinned humanoids called Axons. The Axons claim that their ship, Axos, is damaged and that they need time in which to repair it. In return, they offer Axonite, a substance that can cause animals to grow to enormous sizes and thus end Earth’s food shortages. The Doctor is suspicious, and rightly so: Axos, Axonite and the Axons - whose true form is that of hideous tentacle monsters - are all part of a single parasitic entity brought to Earth by the Master to feed on the planet's energy.

The Doctor links his and the Master’s TARDIS's together to make one giant time machine in order to help Axos - but on condition that they assist him in taking revenge on the Time Lords for exiling him to Earth. But, this is merely a trick, and Axos is locked in a time loop from which it can never escape.

Contents:

1 x Brigadier action figure in jersey with U.N.I.T. beret and pistol.
1 x Jo Grant action figure.
1 x Axon in Humanoid form action figure.

+  'The Claws Of Axos' Collector's Set is released in July 2013, priced £29.99.

+  Preorder this product from Forbidden Planet for just £27.99!

[Source: Forbidden Planet]

Forbidden Planet have teamed up with Character Options for another Exclusive Doctor Who Toy.

The Three Doctor's Collector's Set features Jo Grant, The Brigadier and a Gel Guard, as featured in the 3rd Doctor adventure; The Three Doctors.

A gel-like plasma creature arrives on Earth and hunts down the third Doctor, who calls on the Time Lords for help. The Time Lords themselves are in crisis as their energy is being drawn off into a black hole. They send the Doctor’s earlier selves to join him.

The first Doctor, caught in a time eddy and able only to advise, deduces that the creature is a time bridge. The third Doctor and Jo then give themselves up to it and are transported to a world of antimatter beyond the black hole.

On Earth, the second Doctor is forced to take refuge in the TARDIS along with the Brigadier and Sergeant Benton. On the advice of the first Doctor he switches off the ship’s force field, and the whole UNIT building is transported through the black hole.

Behind these events is Omega, a figure from Time Lord history whose solar engineering provided the power for time travel. He has been trapped in the black hole ever since and now wants the Doctor to swap places with him, but it transpires that the corrosive properties of his domain have already destroyed his physical form, leaving only his will.

Contents:

-  The Brigadier In Peaked Cap with Pistol.
-  Jo Grant (with alternate arms and removable gilt).
-  Gel Guard.

+  The Three Doctors Collector's Set is released on 3rd January 2013, priced £26.99.

+  Preorder this product from Forbidden Planet!

[Source: Forbidden Planet]

It is with deepest regret that DWO announces the passing of much-loved Classic Series Actor, Nicholas Courtney.

Nicholas (born in Egypt in 1929), was known to fans for his role as Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart in the Classic Series of Doctor Who. He was the only actor to have worked with all of the first five Doctors, as well as the Seventh Doctor from 1965-1989, and was one the longest-serving co-stars in the show's entire history.

Courtney's first appearance in Doctor Who was as Space Security Agent, Bret Vyon, in the First Doctor adventure; The Daleks' Master Plan, but it was for his role as Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart (later Brigadier), who made his first appearance in The Web of Fear in 1968, that fans regard most.

In total, the character of The Brigadier appeared in 23 stories:

The Web of Fear, The Invasion, Spearhead from Space, Doctor Who and the Silurians, The Ambassadors of Death, Inferno, Terror of the Autons, The Mind of Evil, The Claws of Axos, Colony in Space, The Daemons, Day of the Daleks, The Time Monster, The Three Doctors, The Green Death, The Time Warrior, Invasion of the Dinosaurs, Planet of the Spiders, Robot, Terror of the Zygons, Mawdryn Undead, The Five Doctors & Battlefield.

In 2008, Courtney returned to the role in the spin-off series, The Sarah Jane Adventures, in an episode titled, Enemy of the Bane. Fans had long been requesting his return to Doctor Who, but, alas, it never came to pass.

As well as taking part in several Big Finish audio adventures, Courtney also featured as a regular cast member in Cosmic Hobo's The Scarifyers, as Detective Inspector Lionheart, in which his co-stars alongside Terry Molloy (Davros in the Classic Series).

Courtney is survived by his wife, Karen and children, Bella and Philip, whom DWO would like to extend our deepest sympathies to.

DWO Editor, Sebastian J. Brook had the following to say about Nicholas:

"Hearing this news is indeed an incredibly sad blow to fans worldwide. On a personal note, I have had the pleasure of meeting, and indeed working with Nicholas over the years. He was always an incredibly warm, generous and wickedly funny man, who always found time for his fans. He will be sorely missed and leaves an irreplaceable void in Doctor Who."

On hearing the news early this morning, DWO asked our Facebook and Twitter followers for your memories and comments about Nicholas. Below are just a few:

Alan Dobbie via DWO Facebook

"I last met Nick at a fundraiser 18 months ago in a Tottenham restaurant where of course he was on good form; everyone wanted to speak to him and not the guest speaker!! A fond memory I also have is at breakfast at a convention and dear Nick just couldn't work the tea machine and turned to me and "Benton's never around when you need him". He always had time for the fans, thanks Nick and we'll raise a pint for you!!!"

Dale Who via DWO Facebook

"I was fortunate enough to meet Nick on many occasions, and he was always such good value. He was very well respected by both fans and peers alike, always in demand and always a witty, clever and thoroughly professional man. The acting world - and Doctor Who in particular - has lost a shining star, and my heart goes out to the many affected by his passing."

Brian Stultz via DWO Facebook

"I was not fortunate enough to meet Nic! I have watched so many hrs of Dr. Who that included this fine actor. He has made such an impact on my life, brought me many hrs of enjoyment and I feel as though I have lost an old friend or family member. He will be truly missed and never forgotten!"

@andy984 via Twitter

"@drwhoonline RIP Nicholas Courtney 1929-2011. In memory I'll be watching Inferno cos he was just bloody brilliant in it!"

@mrdavidj via Twitter

"@drwhoonline I don't think I've seen anyone or anything else applauded and welcomed with such passion."

@cpn_jack via Twitter

"@drwhoonline R.I.P nicolas courtney I may not of watched all your episodes but you were brilliant in SJA and the five doctors."

Finally, to commemorate Nick's life and contribution to Doctor Who, DWO have put together the following tribute video via our YouTube Channel:

[youtube:arUeqQ5LsZw]

[Source: BBC]