New (non-Big Finish) spinoff audio series announced

[23skidoo]

Here's one that seems to have skipped notice - I happened to spot it while checking out a DW blog i don't normally read, rather than the usual news pages.

Paul McGann, Sylvester McCoy, Jenny Agutter of Logan's Run and Paul Darrow of Blake's 7, among others, are currently making a new audio drama series (apparently intended for iTunes-only distribution) called The Minister of Chance. It's the latest in a long line of what I call "arm's length" spinoffs*, which are projects featuring characters introduced in Doctor Who expanded universe stories, but not the TV series itself. The list includes Time Hunter, Iris Wildthyme, Faction Paradox, The Sleeze Brothers (remember them?), Miranda (the Doctor's adopted daughter, featured in the BBC novel Father Time and then a comic book series that ran about 3 issues in the 90s), and the longest-running of them all, Benny Summerfield.

The Minister of Chance is based on a character created for the 2000-2001 webcast Death Comes to Time. He was originally played by Stephen Fry but another actor is now playing the role.

Here's the blog where I first read about this. It's a bit convoluted:

http://www.shadowlocked.com/201101221325/news/the-minister-of-chance-a-new-doctor-who-spin-off.html

I went to the official website where you can find more pictures of the cast recording the shows, and details about the 3 episodes they've made so far (which have yet to go on sale). The production credits are hidden away, but the producer/director of Death Comes to Time is the writer of the new series. At first I thought this might be another Big Finish series, but this seems to be unconnected to them.

http://ministerofchance.com

Those who might think the Whoniverse only extends to DW, Torchwood, Sarah Jane, K-9 & Co. and novels and audios directly based on them might find it interesting to delve into how complex the "expanded universe" is for Doctor Who. I was doing some reading and I had no idea the Sleeze Brothers of all things was a spin-off (If you don't know what I'm referring to, it was a comic book published by Epic Comics in the 1980s, but the characters were introduced in the Doctor Who Magazine comic strip.)

Alex

* Another term I've heard is NCIS-style spinoff, when a spinoff is created based upon characters appearing only once on the parent show (JAG, in this case). Besides the non-TV spinoffs, there's also been the Kaldor City audio drama series, spun-off from "Robots of Death", and Big Finish is in the midst of an ongoing series featuring Jago & Litefoot from "The Talons of Weng-Chiang".

 

[Allyn Gibson]

Dan Freedman always intended to come back to the Minister. There was talk of a television series at one time.

I don't know who I'd cast to fill Fry's shoes. So much of what made the Minister work was Fry's delivery. I know the article says Julian Wadham is picking up the role, but I just can't imagine someone else as the Minister. (And yes, I realize that the Minister is a Time Lord and he can regenerate, but still. We're talking about Stephen bloody Fry.)

Death Comes to Time had a number of very interesting ideas, the Minister among them. I was very intrigued by the god-like powers the Time Lords wielded in DCTT, and the whole mythological feel of the story made it quite unique. If this new Minister project can maintain that kind of feel, I may be able to overcome my sorrow at the recasting of the Minister.

There's another idea from DCTT I'd like to see return. I've always hoped that someone, anyone would pick up the seventh Doctor's companion Antimony and use the character.

 

[ClayinCA]

Recasting Stephen Fry, eh? Too bad Hugh Laurie's probably not available...

 

[Stevil2001]

Without Stephen Fry, I can't say I'm very interested. Didn't thinly veiled knockoffs of the Doctor die out with BBV, anyway? The thing about the Minister was that he let himself feel what the Doctor wouldn't, and that was great, but I think the new series has made that redundant-- we've seen the Doctor do all that stuff now.

 

[ClayinCA]

Without Stephen Fry, I can't say I'm very interested. Didn't thinly veiled knockoffs of the Doctor die out with BBV, anyway? The thing about the Minister was that he let himself feel what the Doctor wouldn't, and that was great, but I think the new series has made that redundant-- we've seen the Doctor do all that stuff now.

Yeah, I agree with all of that. It's like when Big Finish came along, I remember thinking, "Well, I guess that's it for those 'Professor & Ace'/'Dominie & Alice' audios." There just didn't seem to be much point, and I don't think there's much point now, unless Friedman's going to do something radically different.

 

[diankra]

I like the Minister, but don't really see of doing more with him if Stephen Fry isn't playing him.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

The first episode is now available for purchase from the website.

It's solid.

If you liked Death Comes to Time to any extent, this is well worth downloading.