TWIDW Update - BBC7 Announces 2 Christmas Doctor Who Audio Broadcasts
(posted 12th Nov 2005, 11:52am - TWIDW post #0356)

BBC 7 http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbc7 has opted to present more Big Finish Doctor
Who audios after the success of the current Paul McGann season. This was
hinted at in the BBC7 forum last week - now Outpost Gallifrey has been
provided with confirmation.

1) Saturday 10 December 9AM to Noon, 8 to 11PM GMT - Shada (2003).

Written by Douglas Adams for the TV series in 1979. Shada was originally to
be the TV story after The Horns Of Nimon, concluding the 17th season of the
classic TV series. 2/3rds of the way through filming, a strike forced
production to stop. It never restarted, leaving all 6 episodes incomplete -
the only abandoned Doctor Who TV story ever. It never aired on TV, but a Tom
Baker narrated version was released on VHS in the 1990s.

This 6 episode remake of Shada stars Paul McGann as the 8th Doctor, Lalla Ward as Romana, and John Leeson as K9. Big Finish and BBCi collaborated to make a "complete" version of Shada to run on the BBC's Doctor Who website http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho . Gary Russell of Big Finish wrote some new sequences to explain the 8th Doctor's presence, and otherwise used Douglas Adams' scripts. The story was remade from scratch with a new cast (apart from Lalla Ward returning as Romana, obviously). The BBCi version (which was still on the Doctor Who website as of this writing) was illustrated, almost animated - one of 4 Doctor Who stories produced for BBCi to be audio/visual experiences. BBC7 will presumably use the audio as released on CD by Big Finish a bit later.

I notice this story is being shown in one day in the Comedy Controller
timeslot, where normally a series of linked radio comedies with commentary
air.

2) Saturday 17 December time TBA - The Chimes Of Midnight (2002). 6th Paul
McGann Big Finish audio, starring Paul McGann as The Doctor and India Fisher
as Charley Pollard. Christmas themed audio story. The next one produced
after Invaders From Mars, which ended the first Big Finish Doctor Who season
on this station. 4 episodes long. Dunno if it will be serialized or shown in
one day.

Listeners in the UK can hear BBC7 on digital radio and any digital TV
format. Listeners worldwide can hear BBC7 through the website in RealPlayer
and Windows Media Player formats. Programmes are available online for one
week in RealPlayer format.

We can probably gather from this that BBC7 achieved the desired ratings and
audience reaction for the early Paul McGann audios.

This has been a TWIDW update.

Benjamin Elliott
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/thisweekindoctorwho
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/torchwood