Big Finish has announced a new range of Doctor Who boxsets for 2016, featuring heroes and monsters from the show’s modern era.

The releases will include the return of Alex Kingston as River Song for brand new adventures.

Doctor Who: Doom Coalition 2 will see River encounter the Eighth Doctor (Paul McGann), alongside Liv Chenka (Nicola Walker) and Helen Sinclair (Hattie Morahan).

Producer David Richardson teased: “The idea of River meeting previous Doctors was actually proposed by Steven Moffat and it’s just irresistible, isn’t it? Alex embraced the idea of returning to the role, and so she will be starring in no less than two box sets next year. And yes, we are still pinching ourselves!”

Kingston will then be back again in Doctor Who: The Diary of River Song. The epic four-hour adventure will take River “across space and time, seeking out the secret rulers of the universe”.

Paul McGann will reprise the role of the Eighth Doctor in the boxset’s final episode.

Doctor Who: The Churchill Years will feature the return of Ian McNeice (‘Victory of the Daleks’, ‘The Wedding of River Song’) as Winston Churchill.

The four-hour saga sees Winston relate a number of encounters with the Ninth, Tenth and Eleventh Doctors in his memoirs, battling alien incursions, metamorphosing creatures… and a Dalek!

Guest actors will include Danny Horn as Kazran Sardick in a story taking place within 2010’s Christmas special, ‘A Christmas Carol’.

Executive producer Nicholas Briggs commented: “Ian has played Churchill in just four episode on TV, and yet it feels like it was many more. It was such a brilliant, definitive performance, and how wonderful that we will be continuing Churchill’s adventures with the Doctor on audio.”

Lastly, Doctor Who: Classic Doctors, New Monsters is a brand new, four-story run featuring the Fifth, Sixth, Seventh and Eighth Doctors facing a new generation of monsters.

Peter Davison takes on the Weeping Angels, Colin Baker encounters the Judoon, Sylvester McCoy will meet the Sycorax… and Paul McGann will face a new clone batch of Sontarans on the edge of the Time War….

Executive producer Jason Haigh-Ellery commented: “It’s the ultimate mash-up and we have some great scripts lined up for these landmark stories. There is no doubt that 2016 is going to be a brilliant year for Big Finish!”

All four boxsets will be released next year – starting with Doom Coalition 2 in February 2016 – and are available to pre-order today from the Big Finish website.

> Buy Season 8 on DVD on Amazon.

> Buy Season 8 on Blu-ray on Amazon.

Season 9 has been filming in Cardiff since January and will begin on BBC One in September.

> Here’s everything we know about Season 9 so far.

Are you looking forward to next year’s Big Finish adventures? Let us know below…