News Big Finish announces 20th anniversary special, "The Legacy of Time"

[The Nth Doctor]

Big Finish announced today their upcoming 20th anniversary special, The Legacy of Time. Looks like they're packing everything in:

River and Benny finally meet!

The long-awaited return of Menzies!

Kate Stewart travels back in time and meets The Third Doctor and Jo!

More Romana and Leela!

And so much more!

In 2019 Big Finish will celebrate 20 years of creating Doctor Who stories on audio, and it’s doing so in style with The Legacy of Time – the biggest audio crossover event ever! Six hour-long stories see characters from the entire history of Doctor Who crossing paths – some for the very first time – Classic and New Series Doctor Who will collide!

Professor River Song (Alex Kingston) meets her predecessor, another time-travelling archaeologist, Professor Bernice Summerfield (Lisa Bowerman). Kate Stewart (Jemma Redgrave) travels back in time to classic UNIT and meets the Third Doctor (voiced by Tim Treloar) and Jo Grant (Katy Manning).

As 2018 is also the 30th anniversary year of their first appearance in Remembrance of the Daleks, the Counter-Measures team will be reunited with the Seventh Doctor(Sylvester McCoy) and Ace (Sophie Aldred). And the Sixth Doctor (Colin Baker) and his companion Charlotte Pollard(India Fisher) once again meet Detective Inspector Patricia Menzies (Anna Hope) in a police procedural like no other!

Plus we go to Gallifrey, and elsewhere we enter the Time War. Doctors will meet, and there will be Easter Eggs aplenty.
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I'm definitely pre-ordering this right away. July can't come soon enough!

 

[Allyn Gibson]

Interesting.

 

[Christopher]

Wow. I hadn't realized we were 5 years further away from "Remembrance of the Daleks" than it was from "An Unearthly Child."

 

[StCoop]

Other 20th Anniversary releases include the long-awaited adaptation of some of the early DWW comic strips, some New New Adventures (as opposed to more novel adaptations) and Catherine Tate let slip that she and Tennant will be recording some more stories as well. (You could almost hear Nick Briggs ripping out what little hair he had left after Michelle Gomez let slip about her boxset a while back.)

 

[Allyn Gibson]

Other 20th Anniversary releases include the long-awaited adaptation of some of the early DWW comic strips,

Don't tell me "The Iron Legion," the most reprinted Doctor Who comic strip ever, is getting the Big Finish treatment.

I guess if I have a dream anniversary Big Finish project, it would be for Briggs to revisit Dalek Empire and retcon that into the Time War. Don't we all want to hear Nick Briggs screaming, Dalek-voiced, "Susan Mendes!" one more time?

 

[The Nth Doctor]

Other 20th Anniversary releases include the long-awaited adaptation of some of the early DWW comic strips, some New New Adventures (as opposed to more novel adaptations) and Catherine Tate let slip that she and Tennant will be recording some more stories as well. (You could almost hear Nick Briggs ripping out what little hair he had left after Michelle Gomez let slip about her boxset a while back.)

I heard about the comic strip adaptations, but I hadn't heard about Tennant and Tate teaming up again. That's excellent news and makes up for the lack of Tennant in The Legacy of Time.

 

[Emperor-Tiberius]

I heard about the comic strip adaptations, but I hadn't heard about Tennant and Tate teaming up again. That's excellent news and makes up for the lack of Tennant in The Legacy of Time.

Or you could argue, that it could end up being part of the celebrations. Anything goes, right?

 

[The Nth Doctor]

Perhaps so. They could be worked in as a surprise cameo somewhere in the six stories, which could easily be done while Tennant and Tate are recording their own box set.

 

[kirk55555]

So, I'm assuming at some point they'll have Nicholas Briggs voicing all The Doctors, even the 13th, in a single scene, right?

(Note: This is a joke, don't get pedantic about BF not having the rights to write Fanfiction for every Doctor)

 

[The Nth Doctor]

That would be silly since Nicholas Briggs has never voiced any of the Doctors.

 

[Mark_Nguyen]

Nine?

Mark

 

[Mr Soak]

Debatable. It was a narrated story, with one other voice. Briggs read everything except the second voice.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

On Twitter yesterday David Richardson said that Big Finish has been working on The Legacy of Time for two years. And then I started to wonder if there's some John Hurt recordings they might use, much as Zagreus used Jon Pertwee dialogue from an unfinished fan film.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

Nine?

Debatable. It was a narrated story, with one other voice. Briggs read everything except the second voice.

Yeah, that's true, Briggs did technically voice The Ninth Doctor. Either way, it's still a silly notion that Briggs would eventually voice all of the Doctors.

On Twitter yesterday David Richardson said that Big Finish has been working on The Legacy of Time for two years. And then I started to wonder if there's some John Hurt recordings they might use, much as Zagreus used Jon Pertwee dialogue from an unfinished fan film.

Oh, that's an interesting thought. I don't want them to dig too deeply into that limited resource but I've been also wondering how they'll how handle Jago & Litefoot. The series is a huge part of Big Finish's Doctor Who catalog and it'll feel weird not having them involved in this story, especially since they were involved in the first mega crossover. It would be wonderful to hear Trevor Baxter one last time but they should only do it if there is indeed unused audio that fits the story and not just as a gimmick. Mind you, there are plenty of people who thought the Pertwee dialogue from Devious used in Zagreus was a gimmick (especially considering it was hard to make out his voice) but I was never bothered by it.

 

[kirk55555]

That would be silly since Nicholas Briggs has never voiced any of the Doctors.

Except Nine, like others have pointed out. I'm surprised its just that one. Sure, he's a godawful voice actor from what I've heard of him (don't even mention him voicing Daleks, literally anyone can voice a Dalek, its all in the voice changing technique), but most fanfic writers like being involved in what they're writing, so I'm sure he'll be putting on more awful Doctor impressions when he can.

But honestly, any group that can produce fanfiction for so long deserves to celebrate their anniversary. I hope the stuff they point out is something their fans enjoy, regardless of its relevance to the actual DW franchise.

 

[StCoop]

And other 20th Anniversary release has been revealed thanks to an actor's CV. Paul McGann and Sheridan Smith have recorded a new boxset.

 

[Emperor-Tiberius]

More Lucie stories? That's awesome!!!

 

[The Nth Doctor]

Hell yeah! I really miss Lucie!

 

[Emperor-Tiberius]

You'd think Big Finish, who do in-between stories for a living for the Fifth and Tenth Doctors, would've done so for the Eighth.

I wouldn't be against more Eight-Charley, even if C'Riz.

 

[Steve Roby]

And other 20th Anniversary release has been revealed thanks to an actor's CV. Paul McGann and Sheridan Smith have recorded a new boxset.

Well, that's excellent news. The Eighth Doctor and Lucie Miller stories are some of my favourite Big Finish.

ETA: tweeted by Nicholas Briggs with the message "I'd like to completely deny this factually inaccurate rumour!" Some people are guessing that the woman is actually India Fisher.