Doctor Who news: Big Finish releasing free audio stories during lockdown

If you have yet to try out Big Finish’s stories, now’s your chance. Starting today with Doctor Who: The War Doctor, Big Finish is releasing free downloads of its audio dramas on a weekly basis.

As you probably know, we’re huge fans of the many audios that have been released from Big Finish Productions over the years. Not only have we had literally hundreds of Doctor Who stories, featuring both Classic and New Series Doctors. But there have also been many spin-offs based on characters and stories from the TV series, including The War Master, Jago & Litefoot and The Paternoster Gang.

If all of that wasn’t enough, there have been many other series based on cult TV shows to enjoy, including Blake’s 7, Survivors and The Prisoner. More than that: they’ve even started releasing their own original series over the past couple of years.

However, with such a high volume of output, it can be daunting for newcomers to know where to begin with Big Finish’s work. What probably doesn’t help is the price. In order to try out Big Finish’s stories, most often, you’ll have to pay for it. It can be very off-putting for potential new listeners to have to pay for something that they don’t know if they’d even like.

Fortunately for them, there’s a lot of Big Finish set to be released for free over the coming weeks…

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The War Doctor

Starting today, Big Finish will be releasing a free story on their website for the next eight weeks. Every week, from across many series, a different title will be available.

The first audio to be released is The Innocent, the first story from Doctor Who: The War Doctor: Only the Monstrous. The series focuses on the incarnation of the Doctor originally introduced in fiftieth-anniversary special The Day of the Doctor, as played by John Hurt. Considering that we had so little of him on-screen, the announcement of his own series, even one on audio, was huge news back in 2015.

The Innocent is a low-key beginning for The War Doctor – particularly as you experience very little of the Time War directly. But it’s still a solid episode and a decent way of establishing some of the key relationships in both the first box set and the overall series. If you listen to and enjoy it, then be sure to check out the rest of The War Doctor, which is on sale now.

The Innocent will be available to download for free directly from Big Finish’s website until Apr 13, when a new free story will be selected. The sale on The War Doctor will end at 23:59 UK time on Apr 12.

Have you been curious about Big Finish? Will you be listening to The War Doctor: The Innocent? Have you listened to his first series already, and if so, what did you think of it? Let us know in the comments below.