In this special episode, Dwayne shares the recording of an interview he conducted with the late Paul Spragg in London on 7th April 2011.
*DISCLAIMER While mention is made of "The Paul Spragg Short Trip Opportunity" during this podcast, as at the time of publication, it has not been officially announced by Big Finish for 2021.
Music: In A Big Country by December
Website: sirensofaudio.com
Spare Parts by Marc Platt
Directed by Gary Russell
Music by Russell Stone
Sound Design by Gareth Jenkins
Recorded March 2002. Released July 2002.
Starring Peter Davison and Sarah Sutton
Guest Starring Sally Knyvette, Derren Nesbitt, Pamela Bins, Paul Copley, Kathryn Guck, Jim Hartley and Nicholas Briggs as the Cybermen.
Ask any group of Big Finish fans what is the best story Big Finish has released and one that will keep being repeated over and over is Spare Parts. It is so good that it is one of only two stories that Russell T Davies had adapted for new Who when he became show runner, although admittedly, it is barely recognisable in the finished product.
It is no doubt with some surprise that Spare Parts only ranked number five in the 5th Doctor Poll conducted by Radio Times. A travesty? Well, many would argue that fifth place is still a strong finish. Big Finish fans may assess it should have been number one, but are there reasons that the thousands who voted, many of whom are outside the general Big Finish fan circles, didn’t place it number one?
So firstly, why is it so loved by the Big Finish family?
Well it’s an origin story. It’s Genesis of the Daleks but for Cybermen. It’s what the keen Doctor Who fans always wanted. The story of Mondas and the reason why a race of humans would let themselves become emotionless monsters. This alone makes the story extremely popular.
Mind you it is a story that is told particularly well. Marc Platt who wrote one story for the classic series, Ghostlight, and was one of the few authors who transitioned from classic who, to novels to Big Finish. His writing is always distinctive, slightly kooky, exploring complex themes and often told in convoluted ways. Having written over twenty stories now for Big Finish, this was only his second venture following the successful Loups-Garoux. Marc manages to create an epic story, of a planet slowly surrendering itself to its fate through the eyes of a single family. This family mirror the values, the fears and the destruction of all Mondasians.
The Hartley family are so effective in conveying the decay of society and brilliantly realised by great, naturalistic acting of Paul Copley as Dad, trying to hold what is left of his family together, Jim Hartley as Frank, headstrong son who is convinced he knows best and Kathryn Guck playing Yvonne who health slowly decays and finally creates one of the saddest scenes in the story. These three characters are the voice pieces of the different elements of the Mondas society showing us their values, their hopes and their fears. The normality of the family is contrasted by the unusual Sisterman Constant as played by Pamela Binns. Every story needs a villain, and Constant provides that role. Though as the story progresses you realise that she is just as deceived and lost as the other poor souls on the planet.
Star casting goes to Sally Knyvette, best known to Blake’s 7 fans as Jenna Stanis, who plays the creator of the Cybermen, Doctorman Allen. But unlike the evil creator of the Daleks, Davros, Allen is naïve rather than evil. Her desire is to save her race but through her trials and experiments she condemns her people and herself to emotionless slavery and begins to be a scourge on all of the universe.
Peter Davison and Sarah Sutton make the perfect pairing for this adventure. Both this incarnation of the Doctor and Nyssa has such vulnerable sides to their characters and a desire to help, that as options are removed from their hands you see their hopelessness of the growing situation. Nyssa’s closeness to the Hartley family leads her to suffer great grief, especially with the fate of her friend Yvonne.
And so the Cybermen. Nicholas Briggs brings us another star turn and demonstrates why, when the Cyberman return to the new series of Doctor Who, he is the only one who could bring them back. This time realising the high pitched, sing song Mondasian Cybermen first encountered in the Tenth Planet. He plays various roles that become more menacing and finally take over from the humans who they originally were. But like Tenth Planet, the lead Cyberman still has a name, Zheng, betraying his human roots.
So, there is much to love about this story. But the reason why so many fans love it may also be the reason it didn’t make number one in the poll. It is dark. Very dark. It is more of a political thriller than an action adventure. There are no huge battles and there is no evil villain. And throughout the story is total foreboding. It has a huge downbeat ending, so loved by fans but not so much by the general public. And also Cyberman aren’t Daleks. And when it comes to the battle between Cyberman and Daleks and what people love – Daleks win.
So Spare Parts is number 5 on the list. Does that change how great it is? Or how fans will view it? No way. But it does let a couple of other great stories get noticed that hadn’t been recognised by fans before. For many I think Spare Parts will still be viewed as the best that Davison has to offer.
Philip Edney
Six versus Eleven!
Story and cast details are today revealed for this one-off series, in which the Doctor is pushed to his very limits when facing off against one of his own kind.
The scene is set for the ultimate Time Lord showdown, as Colin Baker’s Sixth Doctor faces Mark Bonnar’s the Eleven in three brand-new full-cast Doctor Who audio adventures, due for release in September 2021.
First introduced as an adversary in the Eighth Doctor’s Doom Coalition series, the deranged, murderous Time Lord, the Eleven, retains the personalities of his previous regenerations and uses them to create chaos across galaxies.
As previously announced, Miranda Raison returns as the Doctor’s companion, Mrs Constance Clarke, and Lucy Gaskell makes her Big Finish debut as mutant alien and companion to the Eleven, Miskavel.
Doctor Who – The Sixth Doctor Adventures: The Eleven is available to pre-order now from www.bigfinish.com.
The three terrifying tales are as follows:
One for All by Lizzie Hopley
The people of Molaruss are in two minds – quite literally! A world of duo-minds inside single bodies offers a unique opportunity to the Eleven, and his new wife, the mutant alien Miskavel.
Meanwhile the Doctor and Constance discover a derelict TARDIS, but are they walking into a trap?
The Murder of Oliver Akkron by Nigel Fairs
The Global President of Molaruss has been assassinated. The authorities believe they have the killer in custody – but which of his personalities did the deed?
The truth will emerge in the recollections of a madman – but there is more than one side to every story…
Elevation by Chris Chapman
Molaruss has a new ruler: the wise and benevolent Eleven - alongside his loving consort Miskavel – his many minds guiding every aspect of successful government.
But the Eleven has a plan to elevate his people to a new level of consciousness. And he cannot resist inviting the Doctor and Constance to witness his ultimate triumph…
The cast for this box set is completed by Glen McCready (Missy, Callan), Simon Slater (The Bill, Sherlock Holmes), Anjella Mackintosh (The Ninth Doctor Adventures, Counter-Measures), Annabelle Dowler (The Diary of River Song, The Robots), and Big Finish newcomers Luke Barton and Eva Savage.
Of the Eleven, Colin Baker said: “As a Time Lord, he’s a fascinating character – yes, he’s got one or two nice elevenths, but he’s also got a couple of really unpleasant ones. When the Doctor encounters him, he has to deal with a man who makes other villains look quite calm!”
“Mark Bonnar is terrific, playing eleven characters, sometimes in one scene, all talking to each other and remembering which is which. Actors love that kind of thing. In this box set, everyone is having a great time and it’s been lovely listening to them – they've done it superbly!”
Miranda Raison added: “This was really, really fun – it's a gift for any actor. Mark was amazing, playing such an extraordinary character – I kept on thinking it was somebody else! He'd come in and say something, then come in as somebody else and I'd realise that it was still him.”
“Constance and the Doctor are quite a good foil for each other. They've got quite a similar sensibility but, at the same time, she finds him chaotic. The going-backwards-and-forwards-in-time and the “let’s see how it goes!” attitude is not how her mathematical mind works, and yet they do work well together!”
DOCTOR WHO – THE SIXTH DOCTOR ADVENTURES: THE ELEVEN
Duration: 180 minutes approx.
Released: September 2021, exclusively from the Big Finish website.
Director: Ken Bentley
Producer: David Richardson
Script Editor: Matt Fitton
Written by: Lizzie Hopley, Nigel Fairs, Chris Chapman
Executive Producers: Nicholas Briggs, Jason Haigh-Ellery
We are joined by the delightful Sophie Aldred to chat about her career, her time in Doctor Who on TV, her role in fan productions, reprising Ace for Big Finish audios and the recent release of her audiobook version of Doctor Who: At Childhood's End.
Thanks Sophie, it was a pleasure speaking with you.
We played clips from the following stories:
Doctor Who: Colditz (Guest starring David Tennant)
Doctor Who: Protect and Survive
Doctor Who: Nightshade (Full Cast Novel Adaptation)
Doctor Who: At Childhood's End (Audiobook)
Philip recommends Doctor Who: At Childhood's End (Audiobook)
Dwayne recommends The Lone Centurion Volume 1 (Big Finish Productions)
Dwayne's background artwork by Jeff Goddard
Subscribe to The Sirens of Audio on YouTube
Theme music by The Jackpot Golden Boys
Email: sirensofaudio@gmail.com
Website: sirensofaudio.com
Twitter: @AudioSirens
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Clips and music are copyright BBC and Big Finish. No infringement is intended.
Just when we thought we couldn't wait for Bayban to return later this year, it’s a meeting of criminal minds in The Worlds of Blake’s 7: Avalon 2, set for release in June 2021.
And....
Surprise! It's Bayban, back a little earlier than you might have been expecting. As a juicy appetiser to his own box set, due for release in December 2021, the man at the top of the Federation's most wanted list (after Blake, of course) bursts back onto audio in an audacious adventure with an uneasy ally – Avalon.
The Worlds of Blake’s 7 – Avalon 2 is now available to pre-order as a collector's edition CD or digital download, exclusively at www.bigfinish.com.
Thieves, killers, mercenaries and psychopaths all feature in the climactic box set of the Avalon saga. The closing episode, Heart of Ice, also features the return of two fan favourites. Stephen Greif reprises his role as scheming strategist Travis, a role which he has played on television and audio, and Hugh Fraser returns as the Federation President, whom he has voiced since the 2014 audio adventure Cold Fury.
And in Bayban’s Bounty, Colin Baker returns as the rebel whose reputation for straightforward mayhem is second to none. He first appeared in the television episode City at the Edge of the World, and is now brought back to life in these full cast audio dramas.
The three tales in the second box set are as follows:
Bayban’s Bounty by Niel Bushnell
A sacred stone might inspire revolution on a recently subjugated planet – if Avalon can only retrieve it from a high-security prison.
She enlists the help of the Vankberg Vault’s only escapee, the madman at the top of the Federation’s Most Wanted list…
Mercenary by Christopher Cooper
Funding a crusade isn’t easy, and one of Avalon’s debts has just come due.
She and Madison undertake a dubious mission, in the company of an even more dubious gun-for-hire, a man who has betrayed them once before…
Heart of Ice by Steve Lyons
What is the Federation President doing on a frozen backwater world? Avalon is determined to uncover the secret buried in Cryonax’s mines.
By the time she realises that Travis is setting a trap, it might just be too late…
As previously announced, Olivia Poulet returns as the rebel leader who first appeared in the TV episode Project Avalon, originally played by Julia Vidler. Olivia took on the role of Avalon in the 40th anniversary audio special Blake's 7: The Way Ahead in 2018.
Actor Colin Baker said: “Bayban the Beserker, Bayban the Butcher, Bayban the Bold, Bayban the Bad, Bayban the Everything Beginning with B apart from Benevolent! The scenery-chewing Bayban is deemed worthy of another outing.
“He’s good at what he does, he’s strong, he’s powerful, he has a will to endure, and so far, he endures!”
Producer John Ainsworth added: “Part of the way we constructed these Avalon stories was that we could have guest appearances by the surviving cast of the television show as well as guest actors.
“The Bayban episode with Colin Baker was huge fun to do, as was the episode with Stephen Greif as Travis – and of course there will be many opportunities in the future for other characters to make surprise appearances!”
The Worlds of Blake’s 7 – Avalon 2 is available to pre-order as a collector's edition CD or digital download, exclusively from the Big Finish website.
The Worlds of Blake’s 7 – Avalon 1 is also due for release in May 2021.
Big Finish listeners can save money by pre-ordering both volumes together in a bundle.
Rory is set to switch the Roman robes for the glistening armour of the Knights of the Round Table.
The Lone Centurion is back in Volume Two: Camelot, set for release in July 2022.
This second volume of full-cast audio adventures finds Rory Williams in the court of King Arthur, where wizardry and quests await him, all whilst he protects the Pandorica. This box set also features Hugh Skinner (W1A, Mamma Mia 2: Here We Go Again) as Sir Lancelot, Luyanda Unati Lewis-Nyawo (Devs, The War Master) as Queen Guinevere, Sam Stafford (The Box of Delights, Philip Hinchcliffe Presents) as King Arthur and Richard Clifford (It’s A Sin, The Crown) as Merlin.
The cast are completed by Barnaby Edwards (Gallifrey, Sherlock Holmes), Rosie Baker (Torchwood, The Sixth Doctor Adventures), Harley Viveash (The Robots, Cicero), Maanuv Thiara (Line of Duty), Henry Nott (The War Master, Cicero) and Tom Alexander (UNIT, The Eighth Doctor Adventures).
The Lone Centurion – Volume Two: Camelot is now available to pre-order as a collector's edition CD or digital download at www.bigfinish.com.
Rory Williams – the Lone Centurion. A man trapped in a body not his own and stranded in history. His one job is to guard the Pandorica, the tomb of his fiancée. But life gets in the way, even when you're immortal.
The Once and Future Nurse by Alfie Shaw
Camelot is in trouble. Lancelot is wounded and Merlin warns that dark times are ahead. The wizard’s convinced the solution lies in the mythical Pandorica. Meanwhile, Lancelot owes his life to a humble servant named Rory.
The Glowing Warrior by Tim Foley
Arise Sir Rory! Every new knight must embark upon a quest, and soon Sir Rory (and his noble squire Lancelot) head out to solve the mystery of the Glowing Knight and save a damsel in distress. But are they walking into a trap?
The Last King of Camelot by Kate Thorman
Camelot is under attack. Arthur and Guinevere have fled and Merlin's direst prophecies have come true. Can Rory prevail before the kingdom falls?
Director and producer Scott Handcock said: “It was lovely reintroducing Rory to the Doctor Who universe in the first volume of The Lone Centurion and now we follow the character a few centuries on to his adventures in Camelot. It’s a brilliant backdrop for an alternative-timeline universe. We get to play with the legend of King Arthur and have assembled a brilliant supporting cast alongside our other Arthur (Darvill) including Sam Stafford, Luyanda Unati Lewis-Nyawo, Richard Clifford and a scene-stealing performance from Hugh Skinner as Lancelot!”
The Lone Centurion – Volume Two: Camelot is now available to pre-order as a collector's edition CD or digital download), exclusively from the Big Finish website.
Big Finish listeners can save money by ordering both volumes of The Lone Centurion: Rome & Camelot together in a bundle.
We’re time-travelling back to 1981 for the second audiobook in the Doctor Who – The Audio Novels range, set for release in January 2022.
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| Matthew Watterhouse (c) Tony Whitmore |
Best known in the Doctor Who universe as Alzarian maths whizz Adric, Matthew Waterhouse narrates his own audiobook, Watchers, which finds the Fourth Doctor and his boy companion trapped in the Time Vortex. With time running out, they encounter one of the Doctor’s most terrifying foes – and in the shadows, someone is watching...
This enhanced audiobook of over seven hours takes place between two 1981 Doctor Who television stories, The Keeper of Traken and Logopolis. It also features specially composed music and sound effects, plus a guest appearance by Nicholas Briggs as the voice of the Daleks.
Doctor Who – The Audio Novels: Watchers is now available to pre-order as a digital download exclusively from www.bigfinish.com.
When the TARDIS is trapped in the Vortex, the Doctor and Adric realise that there is something immensely powerful that is draining time itself from the universe.
The wrecks of other time ships – the products of countless experiments in time – exist in a fused cluster in the Vortex. None of them can escape and many of their crews are dead. As the Doctor tries to free the TARDIS, he and Adric encounter threats from other groups, desperate to escape, including a hostile reptile species, mechanically enhanced cyborgs – and Daleks!
But there is someone from the Doctor's own world who is watching.
Someone who will prove useful when this Doctor reaches the end of his life…
Producer David Richardson said: “I’m always excited by brilliant story ideas, and when Matthew delivered his pitch for Watchers I was hugely excited indeed. The script truly delivered on that – Matthew has created the most brilliant story world, with rich, interesting and bold characters and breathtaking visuals. We’ve all wanted to see where the Doctor and Adric headed after Traken – and now we can, as the TARDIS lands within the vortex itself and the preparations begin for the Doctor’s end.”
Writer and narrator Matthew Waterhouse added: “It’s been very exciting to do this project. When we decided we were going to do a novel set in the second half of Tom Baker’s last year, specifically between The Keeper of Traken and Logopolis, I wanted to write something that would fit with the tone of that season – that slightly minor-key, mournful quality – something that fits in to that spirit.”
Doctor Who – The Audio Novels: Watchers is now available to pre-order as a digital download exclusively from the Big Finish website.
