If they did recast, Stephen Beckett from The Kingmaker would be ideal; his Richard III sounded like Eccleston's Doctor. (That one also had Jon Culshaw as the fourth Doctor.)
To update: Paul Spragg from Big Finish has confirmed that the last DOTD release will be available as a download only for the time being. Sucks for those of us still old fashioned enough to want a physical object but at least we'll get to hear it.
Oh dear. It looks like it's not just another case of a business failing in a fragile economy. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-somerset-24743256 While awful for the 100 people who are going to lose their jobs due to the greed of a few, I can see it working out better for BF in the long run with them coming away with the exclusive audio license for all of Doctor Who, not just the Original Series.
Back when the series returned to TV there were seperate licenses for Original and New Series material but that's no longer the case. It's only split at the moment because of AudioGO. Basically they have the entire DW audio license and they have (soon to be had) a contract with BF that sub-licensed them the rights to produce material based on anything up to the TVM. And even then BF have started to be given permission to include a few New Series things here and there; like the Time War Daleks appearing in the last series of 'Gallifrey'.
It's not available yet, still says November. I got 1-10 as digital downloads and they were all available promptly.
7th of November was the original release date; but I think we can cut them some slack if it doesn't quite hit that.
The Time Machine is already available on Audible in both the US and the UK, so I doubt Big Finish will be too far behind.
Over half the staff were let go yesterday with the remainder staying on to help wind the business up, so BF will definitely have to negotiate a new contract. Now in the past this has been done before their current one is up so it flows straight from one to the other. This time we could end up with them not being able to release any new DW product for a while until the new contract is in place.
Its a crying shame. Although I haven't used them for Dr Who downloads, I did by the MP3 editions of all 12 James Bond reloaded audiobooks and was planning on getting the short stories which have recently been released. I much preferred Audiogo to Audible (which I'm also a member of) its much easier to use downloadwise and you can download the audio MP3s a chapter at a time. I find with Audible its a rather complicated affair and you get the book in one single file.
And here's a kick in the teeth for Big Finish. "The Time Machine" is now available at Audible and iTunes but BF still haven't been given the go-ahead to sell it from their site.
Apparently Audible already had it up and ready to go before things went south, it's possible the links went "Live" as planned simply because no one told them they couldn't, a straightforward oversight. If that is the case, it may disappear in the next day or so, at least until it can formally be released.
Well I just bought a copy from them and am wishing I hadn't. The quality of the audio is so bad even with their so-called highest quality setting that it's hurting my ears. Not to mention the annoying Yank telling me "This is Audible" every time I start it. Definitely the first and last purchase from them for me.
Someone on the BF forums says they are are the designer of the covers for Destiny, talking about the situation. http://forums.bigfinish.com/threads...iness-operations?p=37473&viewfull=1#post37473
^ Well that's good news, at least. Really sucks for the folks who lost their jobs over at AudioGo, though. Do we think these issues are why Big Finish pushed the anniversary release up - to make sure it could get the release out ahead of any possible lapse in its contract?
Looks like Random House takes over after Audiogo: http://www.thebookseller.com/news/audiogos-bbc-titles-signed-random-house.html