Doctor Who: Big Finish celebrate Forty years of the Fifth Doctor

Posted Filed under

It’s been four decades since Peter Davison visited Castrovalva.

Never ones to miss a good anniversary, Doctor Who audio producers Big Finish have released the first of two celebratory volumes to mark Peter Davison’s 40th anniversary as the Doctor.

The actor, best known at the time for playing Tristan Farnon in All Creatures Great and Small, made his full debut as the Doctor in Castrovalva, which aired in January 1982. He took over from Tom Baker, who had played the part for the preceding seven years.

To celebrate this milestone, Forty will see the Fifth Doctor moving within his own timestream, dropped into different parts of his era. As well as being paired with familiar companions Nyssa, Tegan and Adric, he’ll also encounter some familiar enemies too… the Cybermen and the Ice Warriors.

The two stories in the first volume are:

Secrets of Telos by Matt Fitton

Professor Parry’s expedition to the tombs of Telos was hardly an unmitigated success. The handful of survivors limp home in a spaceship… unaware that the deadly peril they faced from the Cybermen is not yet banished. 

Into this situation stumble the Fifth Doctor and his friends Nyssa and Tegan – and they’re soon in a deadly fight for their lives. 

Except things aren’t quite that simple – something odd is happening to the Doctor. He’s suddenly in a different part of his own timeline inhabiting his future self with no idea of why or how this has happened. 

Who is bouncing him through time? And what could they possibly want?

God of War by Sarah Grochala

The Doctor is still being jolted through his own timeline, and has now found himself with Nyssa, Tegan and Adric in ninth century Iceland near a Viking settlement on the edge of a volcano. A settlement whose leader has just found a god in the ice. 

The TARDIS crew are soon in a battle with the fearsome Ice Warriors. There are a lot of lives to save… and not just those of their new friends. 

The Doctor’s about to find that his biggest battle may be with his own conscience.

Check out the video trailer:

As well his Doctor Who castmates, Davison is reunited by a pair of familiar names from his television career too; his All Creatures co-star Christopher Timothy and Barbara Flynn, who worked with Davison on his post-Doctor Who series A Very Peculiar Practice. Flynn, of course, has just starred in the recent Jodie Whittaker six-parter, Flux.

There are comments from the main cast, as well as producer David Richardson up on the Big Finish site. You can order Doctor Who: The Fifth Doctor Adventures: Forty Volume 1 as either a download or collector’s edition 3CD box set.

The Forty storyline will continue in Volume 2, which is scheduled for release in September 2022. Story details remain under wraps, but we know the Doctor will face another old enemy in The Auton Infinity. Mark Strickson (Turlough) and Jon Culshaw (The Brigadier) are also in the mix too.

We look forward to bringing you a review of Forty Volume 1 in due course.