Doctor Who news: Krilitanes, Monks, and Lupari will feature in Classic Doctors, New Monsters: Faithful Friends

One Doctor Who series from Big Finish that I enjoy for the continuity mashing is Classic Doctors, New Monsters. Across four volumes, we’ve seen Doctors from Classic Who face Weeping Angels, Judoon, Dream Crabs, and many more monsters introduced in the New Series.

This year’s volume, Broken Memories, had two Doctors encounter the Silents. This is a monster that I'd hoped would feature in the series for a long time. Due to their very nature, no matter which Doctors meet the Silents, they wouldn’t remember encountering them (or even know of the organization they’re linked to, the Silence), thus preserving continuity very easily. Broken Memories also used them well, with the Eighth Doctor’s actions leading to consequences that the Seventh Doctor faces.

The next volume, released in Jan 2025, features another monster that I’ve been hoping Big Finish would explore. Along with Series 10’s the Monks and Series 13’s Lupari, Faithful Friends will also feature the Krillitanes.

The Krillitanes

While they’ve only appeared once on television, specifically in Series 2 episode School Reunion, their TV appearance introduced both a sense of history and a fascinating idea. An idea that's practically a gift for expanded media.

While monsters like the Daleks always remain fundamentally the same, the Krillitanes are constantly changing. Not through evolution, but by taking the best bits of the races they conquer. So while School Reunion established that the Doctor had met the Krillitanes before, it also established that when he previously encountered them, they looked humanoid “but with really long necks”.

The cover of Faithful Friends depicts the Krillitanes exactly as they appeared in School Reunion, but don't worry - based on writer John Dorney's description of his two stories - The Krillitane Feint and The Krillitane Relic, specifically - the monsters won't be "appearing" quite like that in the audios.

"The Krillitane are a really fascinating monster, with their unique ability to steal traits from other species, but that also means they’re really challenging to bring back, because by definition they have to be doing something new every time. They can’t even look like they did in School Reunion!"

- John Dorney

Base-under-siege

So despite their appearance on the cover, it looks like this box set will explore other versions of the Krillitane. Versions that encounter the Second and Seventh Doctors, specifically.

"You’ve got a traditional Troughton base-under-siege with a monster on the loose, and the Seventh Doctor meeting an old friend – while with another old friend – but what the Krillitane are up to this time, you’ll have to wait and see…"

- John Dorney

In regards to the other monsters featuring in this box set and how they're involved, we'll have to wait to find out more. But I love the idea of a base-under-siege story with the Second Doctor and the Krillitanes! It sounds delightfully old-school, and it'll be interesting to find out what they look like in this story.

Also, Dorney's description of Seven and his "old friends" has definitely made me curious. One of those friends is likely to be Ray from Delta from the Bannermen, as Sara Griffiths is listed in the cast list playing her old character. But in the cast list, neither Ace (Sophie Aldred) nor Mel (Bonnie Langford) are listed - so who is the Seventh Doctor's other "old friend" in the story? I look forward to finding out.

Doctor Who: Classic Doctors, New Monsters 5: Faithful Friends will be released in Jan 2025 on CD and download from Big Finish's website.