Doctor Who news: The First Doctor will meet Shakespeare in 2021
By James Aggas
The Doctor and his companions will meet the legendary playwright William Shakespeare in a brand new Doctor Who audio out in Apr 2021!
One particularly enjoyable range of audios for fans of Doctor Who in the Sixties is The First Doctor Adventures. Starring David Bradley as the First Doctor, Jamie Glover as Ian, Jemma Powell as Barbara and Claudia Grant as Susan, the series perfectly replicates the style of storytelling seen in the series’s first-ever season. More than that – they offer an exciting take on the show that feels both fresh and respectful.
Next year, we can look forward to two more exciting stories featuring the original TARDIS team. To be released in Apr 2021, The First Doctor Adventures: Volume 5 will feature two brand new stories: The Hollow Crown by Sarah Grochala and For the Glory of Urth by Guy Adams.
The latter story should be a highly enjoyable listen, especially since Guy Adams has proven how well he can write sci-fi for the First Doctor with the excellent audio story Tick-Tock World. But The Hollow Crown might be even more exciting, for several reasons.
Firstly, it’s another pure historical – something this range has handled extremely well, giving us strong stories such as The Great White Hurricane, The Barbarians and the Samurai, and Last of the Romanovs. Secondly, it’s written by Sarah Grochala, a relative newcomer to Big Finish who wrote the excellent audio Do No Harm for this month’s release The Robots 2, so I’m already eager to hear more from her. And lastly, because it features an early meeting between the Doctor and William Shakespeare…
Most recently, the original TARDIS team has been reunited with the Daleks and saw the last days of the Romanovs. Where will they go next?
(Image Courtesy Big Finish Productions)
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A strong team
Unsurprisingly, David Bradley is very happy to be working with this particular cast again.
"I like this team; Jamie, Jemma, Claudia and me, we work well as a group. And we work well socially as a group. We just like each other. We seem to have a shared sense of humour and it’s the perfect balance, really. I think this business works best when you take the work seriously but not yourself."
It’s certainly something that comes through in the audios. While they don’t sound exactly like the original cast members, they capture the same magic perfectly, at least. Listening to these stories feels just like watching those early episodes when the show was still finding its feet and really felt like it could go anywhere. So to say that we’re looking forward to the next volume is definitely an understatement.
Doctor Who: The First Doctor Adventures: Volume 5 will be released on CD and download in Apr 2021. You can pre-order it right now directly from Big Finish’s website. And if you haven’t already, make sure to give volume 4 a listen. Released earlier this year, it’s a fantastic release that sees the TARDIS team Return to Skaro before encountering a horrific historical crime in Last of the Romanovs.
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Are you excited about the next volume of The First Doctor Adventures? Have you enjoyed any of the previous volumes in the series? Where do you think Big Finish should take this TARDIS team next? Let us know in the comments below.