After Doctor Who fell from favour at the BBC in 1985, it returned from hiatus in a truncated season comprising a mere fourteen episodes, back in the native 25 minute format.

When Doctor Who began its format was very fluid, with stories ranging from comedy to space opera. The TARDIS was more unpredictable and certainly not invulnerable, and most importantly the Doctor was clearly making it all up as he went along.

‘Night of the Whisper’ is a rare thing indeed, a non-televised adventure for the Ninth Doctor.

Other than the half a dozen novels and handful of comic strip appearances that appeared at the time, Christopher Eccleston’s short stint as the Time Lord has not seen much expansion. AudioGO tend to make audio adventures for the incumbent Doctor and Big Finish’ license precludes anything pre-2005.

August brings the ‘Destiny of the Doctor’ series to the Eighth Doctor. While there have been various companions to draw on for other eras of the show, choices are rather limited here with Paul McGann’s single television outing. Luckily the job can fall to one of his audio companions.

Written and read by voice of the Daleks and Big Finish exec Nicholas Briggs, ‘The Dalek Generation’ features the Doctor travelling solo, presumably post-Ponds and prior to ‘The Snowmen’.

The fifth tale in this anniversary sequence of stories, ‘Smoke and Mirrors’, is quite definitely grounded in Peter Davison’s first series with the Doctor again failing arrive at Heathrow Airport in favour of answering the summons of an old friend. In fact, there are enough in-story continuity references to site the tale firmly between ‘Kinda’ and ‘Earthshock’.