Big Finish have produced some incredibly memorable spin-offs and additional ranges in their time producing Doctor Who audio plays. From the regular Companion Chronicles series’ to one off specials such as Love and War, from the long running Jago & Litefoot to series’ that only managed one season such as UNIT, Big Finish have shown a willingness to diversify and experiment in producing entertaining and unique audio.

With The Companion Chronicles coming to an end and with Gallifrey and The Lost Stories having ended not long ago, being replaced by The Early Years and new ranges and specials such as Charlotte Pollard, The Fourth Doctor by Gareth Roberts and the still quite new Counter Measures, it seems a new time for Big Finish’s output is dawning. So we ask what more could we ask for? What other new series’ would we like to see from the company, while staying inside the “no new series” rules…? Here’s our top five:

The Vault

The cliffhanger to Mastermind will be resolved in The Worlds of Doctor Who later this year

Charlie Sato and Ruth Matheson, two officers assigned to the highly secret UNIT vault, have appeared in two Companion Chronicles from Big Finish - Tales from the Vault and Mastermind, both very well received. With the cliffhanger ending to Mastermind set to be resolved in The Worlds of Doctor Who later this year, the potential for a full series of adventures surrounding the vault is certainly there (assuming they don’t die of course!).

Envisioning Doctor Who meets Warehouse 13, the Vault would see Daphne Ashbrook and Yee Jee Tso reprise their roles over four linked adventures each series, potentially joined by commanding officer Mike Yates (Richard Franklin) who guest stars in The Screaming Skull, the vault located section of The Worlds of Doctor Who. With a vault full of alien artefacts the possibilities are endless, but would probably require the duo to get out above ground a little more!

Peladon

2009’s Prisoner of Peladon told of the Doctors true second visit to the world

Taking it’s cue from the successful Gallifrey series, Peladon would be an intergalactic political thriller, dealing in Federation politics and feudal disputes, delving deeply into this most interesting and unique of alien cultures. With the Ice Warriors now back on our TV screens and a distinct lack of Pertwee goodness in the Big Finish scheduling, the addition of Peladon would not only serve to rectify something of that issue, it would stand as a worthy replacement for Gallifrey.

David Troughton has worked with Big Finish before, notably on the The Prisoner of Peladon and a series of plays charting the time between Curse and Monster and leading toward Prisoner is certainly not beyond the bounds of possibility. Add in Alpha Centuri, a few proper hissing Ice Warriors (and of course Aggedor) and you’re almost set to go… why not throw in a few extra houses, devious medieval Peladon plotting and juicy murders to create Doctor Who‘s answer to Game of Thrones?

Each episode would have to be called The something of Peladon though, it’s just the law.

Terrance Dicks Presents…

The Pertwee era is a real problem for Big Finish as this website has touched on before, through no fault of their own. With the twin greats of Jon Pertwee and Nicholas Courtney no longer with us, those two most evocative figures of the era are sorely missed and with Caroline John and Elizabeth Sladen also sadly deceased the available talent lays squarely at the feet of Katy Manning and Richard Franklin. While both supremely talented and the First and Second Doctor eras survive on a small talent pool, it can become repetitive to hear the same talent over and over and possibly something that should be limited to the occasional special release, particularly with nobody else to add to the mix unlike with Hartnell’s and Troughtons.

Yet the release of The Mega showed that this team can bring their era straight back to life with the right material (The Mega being an unused script from Brian Hayles) which is why we suggest Terrance Dicks presents.

In the mould of the forthcoming Philip Hinchcliffe presents… which seeks to truly evoke Tom Baker’s time on the show, the Terrance Dicks version would take the same outline and apply it to Pertwee, Dicks being paired with an author familiar with Big Finish’s work to produce a pair of new adventures for the Pertwee Years (a pity Mark Gatiss is a little busy these days!) with the help of Katy and Richard. The result would hopefully be evocative of the era and add a needed level of authenticity to a period that is increasingly hard to produce.

Plus who doesn’t want to see something else from Uncle Terry? (hush whoever mentioned Warmonger!)

Comic Tales

The Ratings War starring Beep the Meep was given away free with issue 313 of Doctor Who Magazine

Big Finish have touched on the world of comics before, notably with their 2000AD range many moons ago. They’ve also very briefly touched on Doctor Who Weekly and Beep the Meep before… But what about an entire series?

Recreating a comic book in an audio or visual medium is no easy task, probably even harder without the visual element, yet Big Finish have proved their success in the area with the aforementioned 2000AD and have only gotten better since. There is no end of comic book fans and writers amongst the Doctor Who writing community and this would surely be something met with enthusiasm and nostalgia by both crew and fans alike.

Seriously, who wouldn’t buy a first series box set containing The Iron Legion and The Star Beast starring Tom Baker? Or a Stockbridge set starring Peter Davison?

The New Adventures/The Missing Adventures

With the release of Love and War and the forthcoming The Highest Science and Romance of Crime/English Way of Death sets, Big Finish have shown a new willingness to adapt the 1990s novels for singular releases and as sets, having previously stated being against such a move.

This is where Big Finish began after all, with adaptions of firstly the Bernice Summerfield novels and the (minus the Doctor) Birthright and Just War. So is it time to adapt the ranges en masse? While it would be too much to have one a month, further sets would be highly desirable rights permitting, adapting the stories to fit the modern established continuity and finally fully bridge the gap between Survival and the TV Movie, clearly up something of the tangled continuity in-between.

How about a Timewyrm set? Or Cats Cradle? The New Adventures range could easily be broken down into these mini-sets, adding the likes of the alternate universe arc and psi-powers arc before closing the range with an adaption of Lungbarrow (good luck reconciling that with everything that’s come after!). While the Missing Adventures would be harder to link together and are arguably less well remembered, there’s certainly room for a number of the highlights to be released in the same vain as the forthcoming Gareth Roberts set.

So there you have it, our favoured five possible spin-offs… What’s your own ideas for the range? Let us know in the comments or our forums, linked below.