Big Finish to do Doctor Who audio adventures until 2030. Could Jo Martin’s Fugitive Doctor join the line-up?

Doctor fans will likely not need to be told what – or who – Big Finish is, the home of the Doctor Who audio adventures, Big Finish has, over the years, carved out an impressive niche for itself, providing consistently great adventures… even when the show that inspired it couldn’t do the same.

Just before Christmas, Big Finish proudly announced that it will be producing Doctor Who audio awesomeness until 2030, saying in a press release:

“For more than two decades, Big Finish has been producing high quality, full-cast audio drama featuring characters from the worlds of Doctor Who. The first, The Sirens of Time, was released in July 1999 and, since then, over a thousand new adventures have been released on collector’s edition CD, digital download or vinyl LP.

“This year, the company was awarded a Guinness World Record for the longest-running science fiction audio play series, in recognition of the achievements of its Doctor Who range. 2022 will see the release of a raft of new ‘classic era’ box sets (starring original series actors Tom Baker, Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy and Paul McGann) plus new adventures for the Ninth and Tenth Doctors (played by Christopher Eccleston and David Tennant respectively).

“Big Finish also produces the spin-off audio drama series Torchwood, Class, The Diary of River Song, Jenny – The Doctor’s Daughter, The War Doctor Begins, The War Master, UNIT, The Year of Martha Jones, Peladon, The Lone Centurion, The Robots, and The Lost Stories, plus a range of audio novels.

“Jan Paterson, Director of Books and Audio at BBC Studios, said: “Our partnership with Big Finish has been going for over 20 years. Over this time the team there has created the most extensive range of original Doctor Who audio dramas and readings, working with the original casts. This renewal of our long-term licence secures our partnership to allow Big Finish to create fantastic new adventures for the Doctors and their friends for many more years.”

“Jason Haigh-Ellery, Big Finish Chairman and Co-Executive Producer, added: “We are very grateful to the BBC for once again placing their faith in Big Finish and extending our license into another decade – this time up to 2030. This allows us to really plan ahead and create long term story lines and character development not just for the Doctors and the companions but also for new series and elements that we can’t talk about yet! We are excited about the next decade and the adventures we are going to create in the TARDIS for us all to enjoy together.”

“Nicholas Briggs, Big Finish Creative Director and Co-Executive Producer, said: “This rather lovely licence extension from the BBC for us to continue making Doctor Who audio drama until 2030 takes me past my official retirement date — although I have no plans to retire from anything. I look forward to working with Big Finish’s great creative team and our colleagues at BBC Studios for many years to come!””

This is, of course, exciting news – I’m a big fan of their stuff myself and am currently making my way through several of their adventures – and it seems they may be scouting for new content.

With current Doctor, Jodie Whitaker, being unlikely to come onboard as The Doctor in the audio world – several of previous Doctors are officially part of Big Finish’s roster, including Paul McGann, Sylvester McCoy, David Tenant, Colin Baker and Tom Baker – they may still be looking at the latest incarnation of the character for future adventures.

In a recent tweet, they wrote:

So who would like Fugitive Doctor audio adventures? (Asking very much to test the water here. No plans are afoot, before you get too excited.) https://t.co/UACBpjv2kG

— Big Finish Insider (@bigfinish) January 26, 2022

Now, in the new Who lore, The Fugitive Doctor is played by Jo Martin and is a previously unknown incarnation of the Doctor – one of many – who now it seems, came before who we previously believed to be the first Doctor, William Hartnell.

Is this tweet putting out feelers to see if there’s a potential audience for this Doctor? Personally, I have hated almost all of the recent Doctor Who but admit that, while I don’t like what they have done with the lore, I liked Martin’s portrayal and would be keen to hear more of her in the future, just as I would Whitaker’s… it’s not their fault that the writing has been verging on kindergarten levels.

But what say you? Would you like to see Martin return to role? Could this open the floodgates for more actors to play previous unheard of Doctors? It could certainly give the company a wealth of content to mine.

Let me know all your thoughts on this one, folks.