The Ninth Doctor at Big Finish

[Allyn Gibson]

Big Finish is turning their attentions to the ninth Doctor with The Ninth Doctor Chronicles, done along the lines of The Companion Chronicles, with Nick Briggs as the narrator and Bruno Langley as Adam Mitchell and Camille Coduri as Jackie Tyler. The first four stories are written by Cavan Scott, Una McCormack, Scott Handcock, and James Goss.

Cavan Scott writes a little bit about it on his blog.

 

[Lonemagpie]

Adam and Jackie? Bloody hell...

 

[Allyn Gibson]

Adam and Jackie? Bloody hell...

I'm surprised they couldn't get John Barrowman. I'm also surprised, since Cavan Scott is writing one of them, they they're not using Tara, the new companion he introduced in the ninth Doctor comics.

I don't think there was any chance Big Finish would get Billie Piper.

 

[Nightowl1701]

I dunno... I almost feel this is a case of 'if you can't do it right, don't bother with it at all.' I'd rather see BF recast Nine (if Eccleston truly can't ever be talked back) and do pre-Rose stories, rather than try to make do like this without any of the principal actors.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

Nick Briggs actually does a pretty good Eccleston impression.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

I was wondering when they would do this, but I'm also surprised they couldn't get John Barrowman, although I suspect that was due scheduling issues. However, I am disappointed that Nick Briggs is in the role of narrator instead of the companions narrating like the Companion Chronicles.

 

[StCoop]

People have been suggesting Briggs did something like this after his excellent 9th Doctor in Destiny of the Doctor so that's good. But it looks like they've written off any change of more Tennant or any Smith any time soon.

 

[Nightowl1701]

Briggs is going to be doing Nine, Ten AND Eleven - Three Doctors for the price of one!

"I’m not a mimic or an impersonator, although I’ve always had fun capturing the essential spirit of people’s voices, so that’s what I’m doing here. There’s no way you’ll mistake my performances for the actual Doctors in question, but my hope is that you’ll be in no doubt which Doctor is speaking. I also hope that my genuine affection for these great actors and Doctors shines through."

Wonder which companions will get the nod in the next two sets...

 

[kirk55555]

Briggs is going to be doing Nine, Ten AND Eleven - Three Doctors for the price of one!

"I’m not a mimic or an impersonator, although I’ve always had fun capturing the essential spirit of people’s voices, so that’s what I’m doing here. There’s no way you’ll mistake my performances for the actual Doctors in question, but my hope is that you’ll be in no doubt which Doctor is speaking. I also hope that my genuine affection for these great actors and Doctors shines through."

Wonder which companions will get the nod in the next two sets...

Ok, I know I'm not a fan of BF anyway, but didn't they already get David Tennant? I know he's busy, but couldn't they wait to do another 10th Doctor release until he's available again (I'm assuming his first experience wasn't one where he'd refuse to show up again). Then again, I suppose if they have the license they'll wring every cent out of it that they can.

 

[Nightowl1701]

I'm assuming his first experience wasn't one where he'd refuse to show up again

Can't see how, Tennant's no stranger to Big Finish.

Maybe it's a case where BF has to put out a certain number of NuWho titles a year to keep the license to the new series (like it's long been rumored/suspected regarding the Daleks making at least one appearance a year in NuWho to appease the Terry Nation estate) and, in the absence of the actual actors being available (particularly with John Hurt now sadly gone), this is their fallback.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

Briggs as the narrator for all three? Eh, I don't know. Yeah, he did a good job for the one story in Destiny of the Doctor but I was hardly clamoring for more.

I'm rather behind on Big Finish audios for the couple of years of output, so I'm going to be focusing on those. Unless I read great reviews for these, I'll probably give this a pass.

 

[Emperor-Tiberius]

They're overworking themselves, and I also don't see the point of a Doctor Chronicle personally for two Doctors whose actors would gladly return to do the part when time was willing for them, since they're super busy. Really, it'll just be a sweeter deal to get a Tenth Doctor story with Tennant once in a while rather than regularly getting a Tenth Doctor story without him.

That being said, I'm willing to give it a shot with the Ninth Doctor, while still holding out hope for Eccleston, personally. Man, won't that be the day...

 

[Allyn Gibson]

Maybe it's a case where BF has to put out a certain number of NuWho titles a year to keep the license to the new series (like it's long been rumored/suspected regarding the Daleks making at least one appearance a year in NuWho to appease the Terry Nation estate) and, in the absence of the actual actors being available (particularly with John Hurt now sadly gone), this is their fallback.

I doubt very much that Big Finish's contract has a "Use it or lose it" clause. Licensing contracts like this typically run for a fixed amount of time. However, the contract terms may effectively force Big Finish to release NuWho product. What I mean by this -- they paid the BBC x number of pounds for the audio drama rights to NuWho for y number of years, and the only way to recoup that investment is to release NuWho product.

These sets may not have anything to do with actor availability. Big Finish may simply want to see if other approaches, like one aping the Companion Chronicles, connect with the audience. In a way, the Churchill set tested the waters for this style of storytelling with the NuWho Doctors. If audiences buy into these sets, then Big Finish has another way of recouping their NuWho investment.

As for John Hurt -- and this may be too soon to suggest this -- I think the War Doctor could be recast. We know the War Doctor lived a very long time -- he was young and scruffy in "Night of the Doctor," and old and craggy in "Day of the Doctor." (I forget which 1970s Hurt production they took the image of the young War Doctor from.) I would be interested in stories of a much younger War Doctor, set much earlier in the Time War. Recasting the War Doctor in that way would be different than recasting any of the other Doctors; there would be more freedom for the actor (and the writers) to shape the character since this would be a very different -- and unseen -- period of the character's life, instead of trying to fit the recast actor into an established period.

That said, I -- and no doubt many others -- hoped Hurt would have many more years to record War Doctor audios. I dreamed once of a boxed set of stories with the War Doctor teaming with the fourth Doctor (just imagine Hurt and Baker chewing the scenery together!), the War Doctor and River, even the War Doctor and Iris Bloody Wildthyme (just because it would be weird).

 

[Steve Roby]

Should be fun reading the reactions on Gallifrey Base, given how many people there seem fed up with Briggs putting himself front and centre so often.

 

[Csalem]

As for John Hurt -- and this may be too soon to suggest this -- I think the War Doctor could be recast. We know the War Doctor lived a very long time -- he was young and scruffy in "Night of the Doctor," and old and craggy in "Day of the Doctor." (I forget which 1970s Hurt production they took the image of the young War Doctor from.) .

It was from The Ghoul from 1975.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

As for John Hurt -- and this may be too soon to suggest this -- I think the War Doctor could be recast. We know the War Doctor lived a very long time -- he was young and scruffy in "Night of the Doctor," and old and craggy in "Day of the Doctor." (I forget which 1970s Hurt production they took the image of the young War Doctor from.) I would be interested in stories of a much younger War Doctor, set much earlier in the Time War. Recasting the War Doctor in that way would be different than recasting any of the other Doctors; there would be more freedom for the actor (and the writers) to shape the character since this would be a very different -- and unseen -- period of the character's life, instead of trying to fit the recast actor into an established period.

This would be the only case where I would be comfortable with a recast of The War Doctor, either in short term or long term.

That said, I -- and no doubt many others -- hoped Hurt would have many more years to record War Doctor audios. I dreamed once of a boxed set of stories with the War Doctor teaming with the fourth Doctor (just imagine Hurt and Baker chewing the scenery together!), the War Doctor and River, even the War Doctor and Iris Bloody Wildthyme (just because it would be weird).

Damn, any one of those ideas would be amazing. Too bad we didn't get to see them.

Should be fun reading the reactions on Gallifrey Base, given how many people there seem fed up with Briggs putting himself front and centre so often.

The animosity against Briggs is one of the few things in the Big Finish forum I don't like, but I would be lying if such animosity didn't rub off on me a little. Especially in regards to his writing.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

It was from The Ghoul from 1975.

This StackExchange thread suggests Crime and Punishment. Which makes more sense, as it was a BBC production. Looking at photos of Hurt from The Ghoul and Crime and Punishment, I'm leaning a little more toward C&P.

This would be the only case where I would be comfortable with a recast of The War Doctor, either in short term or long term.

Believe me, I don't suggest recasting the War Doctor lightly. Hurt's death hit me in the way that David Bowie's death hit many people I know last year. I burst into sobbing fits more times than I'd like to admit that weekend.

But we know the War Doctor had a very long life -- personally, I think when he says he's 800 in "Day," he means that he's been that incarnation for 800 years, restarting his count from "Doctor no more," and subsequent Doctors kept the new numbering because it reminded them (subconsciously) of what they'd done -- but every official project with him we've seen -- the War Doctor audios, Four Doctors, Eleventh Doctor Year Two, Engines of War -- has been set near the end of his life. (I'm leaving out the charity anthology Seasons of War since it's not official.) The writer in me says, "There's a lot of territory there to play with." What were his early years as "the Warrior" like?

Damn, any one of those ideas would be amazing. Too bad we didn't get to see them.

I know. *sigh*

I've found it weirdly easy to come up with War Doctor stories. It's not that he's a fundamentally different character -- the whole point of "Day of the Doctor" is that the War Doctor was always the Doctor, even if he couldn't see it for himself. It's that he's the one that's a blank slate with the shape and voice of one of the finest actors who ever lived.

Like, literally, at this moment, the idea struck me -- The War Doctor, in Shakespeare's time, has to step in at the last moment and perform Shakespeare's Richard III on its premiere when Richard Burbage falls violently ill with dysentery caused by a Dalek agent. I could write that as a story. It would be fun! Heck, this morning, before I had my morning cup of coffee, I wrote a War Doctor drabble (a story of exactly 100 words).

Dayton Ward has said he could write War Doctor novels forever. When Timothy Zahn was a Farpoint a few years ago and said he wanted to write a Doctor Who novel, I could so easily imagine him writing a War Doctor novel.

He's not the Doctor gone bad. He's not the fallen Doctor. He's the lost Doctor. He's the Doctor who hurts. (Pun completely unintentional.) He's the Doctor who carries the weight of the universe on his shoulders. And there's something refreshing and different about that. It's an appealing characteristic.

The animosity against Briggs is one of the few things in the Big Finish forum I don't like, but I would be lying if such animosity didn't rub off on me a little. Especially in regards to his writing.

Let me state that the one and only cosplay I've ever done is the Nick Briggs Doctor from the Audio-Visuals. The hardest part was finding the jacket. Otherwise, it was stupidly simple to pull together.

As a writer, I think Briggs is, at worst, functional. I don't have any problems with him as an actor (though I think his Sherlock Holmes is a bit mannered and by-the-numbers). He has a very good radio voice, so for these boxed sets, which he's only performing, not writing (so far as we know), I'm absolutely confident he'll do a bang-up job.

Maybe he does assign himself work, maybe there is the perception that he assigns himself the high profile assignments, but in his position he has that right. More importantly, his work ethic is phenomenal and he's a safe pair of hands at the helm of an important license. I don't begrudge him the position he's in or the headaches he has from the work that he oversees. At the end of the day, he's keeping the BBC happy, he's keeping his company profitable, and people are buying his (and his company's) output. Gallifrey Base's "Oh no, not Briggs, not again" doesn't matter in the long run. Or even the short run. It's just the chirping of a small subset of fandom.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

Believe me, I don't suggest recasting the War Doctor lightly. Hurt's death hit me in the way that David Bowie's death hit many people I know last year. I burst into sobbing fits more times than I'd like to admit that weekend.

But we know the War Doctor had a very long life -- personally, I think when he says he's 800 in "Day," he means that he's been that incarnation for 800 years, restarting his count from "Doctor no more," and subsequent Doctors kept the new numbering because it reminded them (subconsciously) of what they'd done -- but every official project with him we've seen -- the War Doctor audios, Four Doctors, Eleventh Doctor Year Two, Engines of War -- has been set near the end of his life. (I'm leaving out the charity anthology Seasons of War since it's not official.) The writer in me says, "There's a lot of territory there to play with." What were his early years as "the Warrior" like?

I've found it weirdly easy to come up with War Doctor stories. It's not that he's a fundamentally different character -- the whole point of "Day of the Doctor" is that the War Doctor was always the Doctor, even if he couldn't see it for himself. It's that he's the one that's a blank slate with the shape and voice of one of the finest actors who ever lived.

Like, literally, at this moment, the idea struck me -- The War Doctor, in Shakespeare's time, has to step in at the last moment and perform Shakespeare's Richard III on its premiere when Richard Burbage falls violently ill with dysentery caused by a Dalek agent. I could write that as a story. It would be fun! Heck, this morning, before I had my morning cup of coffee, I wrote a War Doctor drabble (a story of exactly 100 words).

Dayton Ward has said he could write War Doctor novels forever. When Timothy Zahn was a Farpoint a few years ago and said he wanted to write a Doctor Who novel, I could so easily imagine him writing a War Doctor novel.

He's not the Doctor gone bad. He's not the fallen Doctor. He's the lost Doctor. He's the Doctor who hurts. (Pun completely unintentional.) He's the Doctor who carries the weight of the universe on his shoulders. And there's something refreshing and different about that. It's an appealing characteristic.

That ripeness for storytelling and the long life of that incarnation is the reason why I would be open to such a recasting. Someone who can emulate the early years of John Hurt's career.

Hell, one of my biggest criticisms of the two box sets I've listened to (I haven't gotten the other two yet) is the limited scope. They feel like they're near the end of that incarnation and building up to the impending climax. I don't necessarily need dark and gutsy actions by The War Doctor as others may have criticized those box sets on, but I would be quite interested what he was doing over the long course of the battle. Show how and why he's so weary and not just because it's an endless war.

As a writer, I think Briggs is, at worst, functional. I don't have any problems with him as an actor (though I think his Sherlock Holmes is a bit mannered and by-the-numbers). He has a very good radio voice, so for these boxed sets, which he's only performing, not writing (so far as we know), I'm absolutely confident he'll do a bang-up job.

I think that's part of the reason why so many people are critical of him. 90% of his stories are, as you said, merely functional, but because he has written so many scripts in general. his decidedly middle-of-the-road storytelling output becomes overwhelming in comparison to the rare gem like Creatures of Beauty or Embrace the Darkness. Especially in comparison to other writers who have the reverse output like John Dorney, Matt Fitton, James Goss, or Jonathan Morris.

Maybe he does assign himself work, maybe there is the perception that he assigns himself the high profile assignments, but in his position he has that right. More importantly, his work ethic is phenomenal and he's a safe pair of hands at the helm of an important license. I don't begrudge him the position he's in or the headaches he has from the work that he oversees. At the end of the day, he's keeping the BBC happy, he's keeping his company profitable, and people are buying his (and his company's) output. Gallifrey Base's "Oh no, not Briggs, not again" doesn't matter in the long run. Or even the short run. It's just the chirping of a small subset of fandom.

Yeah, that I don't begrudge him for any of that. That being said, I was annoyed with The Light at the End, where he went from "I don't see the need for such as special" to "I have to be the person to write it!"

 

[Allyn Gibson]

Yeah, that I don't begrudge him for any of that. That being said, I was annoyed with The Light at the End, where he went from "I don't see the need for such a special" to "I have to be the person to write it!"

I wonder if that was a function of time. What I mean by that...

Light at the End was written in late 2012 and recorded either then or early 2013. (The trailer dropped at Valentine's 2013, before "Day of the Doctor" even started filming, as I remember listening to the trailer at Farpoint that year.) It came together when Moffat wasn't even sure what he was doing for the anniversary, and the best that Briggs may have known from Moffat was a vague, "You can do that because I'm probably not doing that." (By "that" I mean, getting all of the Doctors they had access to together for one story.) Then it became a function of writing a script that five Doctor actors were satisfied with, then rewriting it when and where the actors weren't happy. In other words, the same process of writing and rewriting that Terrance Dicks went through in 1983, and it was probably easier and quicker for Briggs to do it himself than have someone else do it. So when Briggs said, "I have to be the person to write it!" it doesn't necessarily mean he wanted the job for himself; it may simply mean that if he didn't do it, it wouldn't get done.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

I wonder if that was a function of time. What I mean by that...

Light at the End was written in late 2012 and recorded either then or early 2013. (The trailer dropped at Valentine's 2013, before "Day of the Doctor" even started filming, as I remember listening to the trailer at Farpoint that year.) It came together when Moffat wasn't even sure what he was doing for the anniversary, and the best that Briggs may have known from Moffat was a vague, "You can do that because I'm probably not doing that." (By "that" I mean, getting all of the Doctors they had access to together for one story.) Then it became a function of writing a script that five Doctor actors were satisfied with, then rewriting it when and where the actors weren't happy. In other words, the same process of writing and rewriting that Terrance Dicks went through in 1983, and it was probably easier and quicker for Briggs to do it himself than have someone else do it. So when Briggs said, "I have to be the person to write it!" it doesn't necessarily mean he wanted the job for himself; it may simply mean that if he didn't do it, it wouldn't get done.

Hm, fair points. I can see that being the case as you've laid out.

Don't get me wrong, I quite enjoyed The Light at the End, probably more than most people, but his behind-the-scenes interviews about the production of the story rubbed me the wrong way.