Big Finish launch their third series of The Ninth Doctor Adventures with Pioneers – starring Doctor Who legend Louise Jameson in a guest role.
Updated 10/05/23: The new series of box sets starring Christopher Eccleston kicks off with a new video promo.
The three stories in Pioneers focus on the ground-breaking human endeavour: in outer space, the Arctic and at the beginning of the beautiful game.
The Ninth Doctor Adventures: Pioneers is out now at Big Finish. It’s available on a collector’s edition 4-disc CD box set + download, or on digital download only. We look forward to bringing you a review soon and you can check out the details below.
The Big Finish Freebie!
The audio producers have also just launched a new run of free stories, plundered from their extensive archive. Each will be available to download for a week and the first stars Christopher Eccleston’s Doctor.
It’s ‘Sphere of Freedom’ by Nicholas Briggs, first released in May 2021 as part of the Ravagers box set.
The weekly Big Finish Freebie can be unlocked by anyone who has registered for a Big Finish account (which is free to create) and played on their free to install listening app.
Louise Jameson joins The Ninth Doctor Adventures on audio
The classic Doctor Who star appears with Christopher Eccleston, but not in her familiar role.
Audio producers Big Finish have released details of the next box set starring Christopher Eccleston. Pioneers, which kicks off the third series of The Ninth Doctor Adventures, celebrates stories of innovation and exploration.
Here’s what to expect from Pioneers:
The Doctor meets many remarkable people on his travels – those at the forefront of innovation and exploration.
From a deep-space colony ship seeking safe haven, to the frozen Arctic wastes, and the foundation of ideas which will touch the lives of millions – the Doctor is there to lend a hand to the human race’s greatest pioneers!
The three stories in the set are ‘The Green Gift’ by Roy Gill, ‘Northern Lights’ by Robert Valentine and ‘The Beautiful Game’ by Katharine Armitage.
‘The Green Gift’ by Roy Gill
Seeking a new home for Callen and Doyle, the Doctor lands on a vast spacecraft: The Greenwood.
The ship is nearing the end of its long journey but what is the price of this voyage? Who is really in charge? And what legacies from Old Earth might be travelling with them?
‘Northern Lights’ by Robert Valentine
The Doctor crashes to Earth and finds himself in the Arctic – but not quite alone. The Aurora Borealis are even more unearthly than usual…
Intrepid explorer Fridtjof Nansen is trying to get home as alien forces close in. The Doctor knows Nansen has a part to play in history – can he save the future?
‘The Beautiful Game’ by Katharine Armitage
The Doctor decides to treat himself and attend the historic meeting which founds the football league. But he arrives a week early!
Instead, he must enlist the help of a hotel maid to battle an obsessive alien before it consumes everything that will ever be connected to the beautiful game…
We’re thrilled to see that, despite a lack of ongoing companions for this Doctor, Roy Gill’s story will continue the tale of Callen and his talking assistance dog/best mate Doyle from the previous story ‘Red Darkness’.
Louise Jameson
Louise Jameson is, of course, famous within the worlds of Doctor Who for playing Leela. After appearing as the savage opposite Tom Baker’s Fourth Doctor on screen, she has reprised the role on audio for Big Finish across various ranges since 2003.
Away from the TARDIS, she has enjoyed a prolific stage and screen career which includes work as diverse as EastEnders, Tenko, Bergerac and Miss Marple. She’s currently in the cast of Emmerdale.
Behind the scenes, Louise Jameson also writes and directs Doctor Who stories for Big Finish too. She’s also starred in Survivors and their revival of her terrifically scary post-DW television series The Omega Factor. Plus, she created and directed the original drama ATA Girl too.
Recently, she also joined Torchwood, playing the boss of the organisation’s 1970s iteration in a two-part tale called ‘Double’.
Interestingly, a companion actor returning to Doctor Who in a different role isn’t without precedent. Jacqueline Hill, who played one of the show’s initial companions Barbara Wright, left the show in 1965. She then returned some fifteen years later to guest star as Lexa in the Tom Baker story ‘Meglos’.
The Ninth Doctor Adventures: Pioneers is up for pre-order at Big Finish. It’s available on a collector’s edition 4-disc CD box set + download, or on digital download only.