Big Finish Announces 50th Anniversary Special

By Christian Cawley, January 9, 2013 - Big Finish, Doctor Who - 3 comments

Big Finish has announced some early details of their 50th anniversary Doctor Who special, a multi-Doctor, multi-companion extravaganza by Nicholas Briggs called The Light at the End.

Big Finish casts Doctor Who legends for 50th anniversary special

November 23rd 1963 proves to be a significant day in the lives of all eight Doctors…

It’s the day that Bob Dovie’s life is ripped apart…

It’s also a day that sets in motion a catastrophic chain of events which forces the first eight incarnations of the Doctor to fight for their very existence. As a mysterious, insidious chaos unfolds within the TARDIS, the barriers of time break apart…

From suburban England through war-torn alien landscapes and into a deadly, artificial dimension, all these Doctors and their companions must struggle against the power of an unfathomable, alien technology.

From the very beginning, it is clear that the Master is somehow involved. By the end, for the Doctors, there may only be darkness.

Writer, director and executive producer Nicholas Briggs revealed his thinking behind the story:

We wanted to do a proper, fully-fledged multi-Doctor story for this very special occasion“and it’s wonderful that all the surviving Doctors threw themselves behind the project so enthusiastically. That’s not to say the first three Doctors don’t appear – we wanted to pay homage to the whole history of the classic series.

Alongside the various companions listed above, there’s another Masterful surprise in store, according to David Richardson:

Geoffrey Beevers is back to create mayhem as the Master, and there will be a number of appearances from some much-cherished old friends from the TV series…

Set for release in November (of course) The Light at the End will be released in two different versions:

A five-disc limited special edition includes the two-hour story and two hour-long documentaries. Also included is The Revenants, a Companion Chronicles tale performed by original companion William Russell. The special edition comes in beautiful special packaging, including a number of exclusive professionally photographed images of the cast. (£40 CD, £35 download).
A standard edition – two disc version of the full story (£14.99 CD, £12.99 download).

Full details can be found at www.bigfinish.com!

Tagged: 50th anniversary, Ace, Big Finish, Charlotte Pollard, Colin Baker, Companion Chronicles, Doctor Who, Eighth Doctor, Fifth Doctor, Fourth Doctor, Geoffrey Beevers, Ian Chesterton, India Fisher, Leela, Louise Jameson, Nicholas Briggs, Nicola Bryant, Nyssa, Paul McGann, Peri Brown, Peter Davison, Sarah Sutton, Seventh Doctor, Sixth Doctor, Sophie Aldred, Sylvester McCoy, The Light at the End, The Master, The Revenants, Tom Baker, William Russell

About the author

Christian Cawley

A long-term Doctor Who fan, Christian grew up watching the show and has early memories of the Graham Williams era. His favourite stories are Inferno, The Seeds of Doom and Human Nature (although The Empty Child, Blink and Utopia all come close). When he’s not bossing around the news team, Christian is a freelance writer specialising in mobile technology and domestic computing, and enjoys classic rock, cooking and spending time in the countryside with his wife and young children. You can find him on Twitter, Facebook and Google+.

3 thoughts on “Big Finish Announces 50th Anniversary Special”

BOJAY January 9, 2013 at 9:52 pm

And I neglected to note, India Fisher’s Charley is going to be in this! YES!

Reply
Ian January 10, 2013 at 7:44 am

Does this mean the chances of a multi Doctor story on TV is less likely?

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BOJAY January 10, 2013 at 1:31 pm

I don’t think so more or less. Big Finish has done several multi-Doctor stories with Doctors 5-8, and now 4-8, as they have a license from the BBC to use these Doctors and their companions (save the TV Movie companions). If the BBC were planning on doing one it could include Doctors 9-11 as well, as Big Finish is not licensed to use any Doctors 2005 and to current. So BBC could incorporate all 11 Doctors in anyway they chose, and something along those lines could still happen. Big Finish stories, being audioplays, erases the complications of the older actors who’ve portrayed the Doctor having aged. Realistically, only Doctors 8-11 could viably appear on screen, at least without the use of CGI, or questionable rationale within a story as to why some of the Doctors appear older.It won’t be very long now before we find out. I’m pleased we’re getting this in the meantime.

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