Doctor Who Day: What to listen to on the 57th anniversary

Want to go beyond the TV series for Doctor Who Day? Here are a few audio stories from Big Finish that we recommend checking out.

In celebration of Doctor Who Day – the 57th anniversary of our favorite show – we’ve written a few suggestions on what to watch, including multi-Doctor specials, documentary dramas, and even funny tributes. However, the wonderful thing about Doctor Who is that it’s not just limited to the small screen – it also extends to books, comics, and of course, audios.

For over two decades now, Big Finish has been doing amazing work with their vast number of audio productions. They’ve given us plenty of brilliant adventures of their own, many of which stand out as some of the best stories ever told in Doctor Who, regardless of medium.

With that in mind, it would be a shame to recommend only TV stories to watch and none of the audios. And we do have several audios to recommend. Keep in mind, we’re not simply recommending the very best stories (although one or two such entries may crop up in this list). Just the ones that make for perfect anniversary listening.

Early days

The first story that stands out as a good anniversary listen is The Beginning. Revealing the Doctor’s and Susan’s first-ever trip in the TARDIS, it’s a fascinating glimpse of their earlier travels together. As well as Carole Ann Ford both narrating and performing in character as Susan, we also have Terry Molloy as Quadrigger Stoyn.

A Time Lord mechanic who had been working on the TARDIS when the Doctor and Susan stole it, Stoyn is a far more sympathetic antagonist than Davros – Molloy’s most recognizable Doctor Who role. On top of that, he’s also central to a trilogy of stories that continues in The Dying Light and concludes in Luna Romana. All of these stories – as well as many other Companion Chronicles – are currently on sale now from Big Finish.

For something as fun and hilarious as The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot, The One Doctor is certainly recommended listening. Featuring Christopher Biggins as someone who’s definitely not the Doctor, The One Doctor features a lot of moments that play with or subvert many of the oldest clichés in the series. If you’re looking for an easy laugh, you can’t go wrong with this one.

Featuring many Doctors and a huge number of characters, The Legacy of Time still stands out as an incredible multi-Doctor release.

Image Courtesy Big Finish Productions

Multi-Doctor epics

But of course, one thing we all enjoy – especially on an anniversary – is a good multi-Doctor story. And, since they record stories with so many of the original actors, it’s not surprising to know that Big Finish has given us quite a few multi-Doctor stories over the years.

The first one that springs to mind is The Light at the End – Big Finish’s own celebration of the show’s fiftieth anniversary. Featuring five Doctors in a battle against the Master, it’s an extremely fun story to listen to, especially on a day like this.

It’s not the only major anniversary story that Big Finish has released. Last year, Big Finish celebrated their own Doctor Who anniversary – specifically, twenty years of making Doctor Who audios – with the ambitious box set The Legacy of Time. Featuring six Doctors in six separate but linked stories, it’s an incredible and epic box set that’s highly recommended.

Two Doctors

Of course, if you don’t have six hours to kill today, we do have something shorter. Earlier this year, we finally got to hear Tom Baker and David Tennant’s Doctors meet each other in the special one-hour story Out of Time. Hearing two iconic Doctors together is exactly as fun as you’d expect.

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But if I was to pick a personal favorite multi-Doctor story from Big Finish, then it would have to be last year’s Daughter of the Gods. Featuring the First and Second Doctors (played by Peter Purves and Frazer Hines, respectively), the story explores what happens when two Doctors face a difficult moral decision – and completely disagree about it. It’s also a great example of when we see the Daleks at their worst.

These are only a small selection of the vast number of Doctor Who stories that Big Finish has released over the past twenty-one years. We hope that – whether you’re a regular listener or curious to listen to them for the first time – we’ve provided a few exciting suggestions on what to listen to today.

If you’re a fan of Big Finish’s audios, what will you be listening to? If you’ve yet to try their many audios, which of our recommendations sounds the most exciting to you? Let us know in the comments below.