The Legacy of Time (audio anthology)

The Legacy of Time — 2019
Main character:	Third Doctor Fourth Doctor Fifth Doctor Sixth Doctor Seventh Doctor Eighth Doctor
Key crew
Executive producers:	Nicholas Briggs, Jason Haigh-Ellery
Producer:	David Richardson
Script editors:	Guy Adams Matt Fitton
Music:	Howard Carter, Nicholas Briggs
Sound design:	Howard Carter
Covers by:	Tom Webster
Series details
Released:	17 July 2019
Publisher:	Big Finish Productions
Production codes:	BFP20LEGACY
Physical ISBN:	ISBN 978-1-78703-648-2
Digital ISBN:	ISBN 978-1-78703-649-9
Released as:	8 CD boxset
More info
Main Vortex coverage in issues:	125
Official trailer
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Prequel scene
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Official audio trailer
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Big Finish anniversary releases
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Legacy: Special Releases
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Special Releases
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Next →	Peladon

The Legacy of Time was a special anthology released on 17 July 2019 to celebrate twenty years of Big Finish Productions making Doctor Who stories on audio.

Marketed as the biggest audio crossover event ever, with David Richardson saying it was "quite possibly the biggest Doctor Who story we have ever told at Big Finish", it featured nine incarnations of the Doctor, as well as Bernice Summerfield, River Song, Romana II and Leela, both the 1970s and 2010s UNIT teams, and Counter-Measures.

Publisher's summary

An epic six-part adventure celebrating 20 years of Doctor Who at Big Finish!

Time is collapsing. Incidents of chaos and devastation are appearing throughout the lives of one Time Lord and his many friends – all fallout from one terrible disaster. From Earth's past and present to timeless alien worlds, from the cloisters of Gallifrey into the Vortex itself... The Doctor must save universal history – and he needs all the help he can get.

1. Lies in Ruins by James Goss

On a strange ruined world, a renowned archaeologist opens an ancient tomb. Only to find another archaeologist got there first. Professors Summerfield and Song unite to solve a mystery. Then the Eighth Doctor arrives, and things really become dangerous. Because their best friend isn’t quite the man River and Benny remember...

2. The Split Infinitive by John Dorney

A criminal gang appears to have recruited a member with time-bending powers. It’s a case for the Counter-Measures team – in the 1960s and the 1970s! The Seventh Doctor and Ace have their work cut out to save the day twice over, and make sure Gilmore, Rachel and Allison don’t collide with their past, or their future.

3. The Sacrifice of Jo Grant by Guy Adams

When pockets of temporal instability appear in a Dorset village, UNIT are called in. Soon, Kate Stewart and Jo Jones find themselves working alongside the Third Doctor, while Osgood battles to get them home. But this isn’t the first time UNIT has faced this threat. Only before, it seems that Jo Grant didn’t survive...

4. Relative Time by Matt Fitton

Disaster strikes inside the Time Vortex, and the Fifth Doctor is thrown together with someone from his future... someone claiming to be his daughter! Kleptomaniac Time Lord, the Nine, believes it’s his chance to steal something huge. But Jenny just wants her dad to believe in her.

5. The Avenues of Possibility by Jonathan Morris

DI Patricia Menzies is used to the strange, but even she is surprised when the eighteenth century itself falls onto her patch. Fortunately, she has the founders of modern policing to help with her enquiries. And when the Sixth Doctor and Charley arrive, they find armed and hostile forces trying to change Earth history forever.

6. Collision Course by Guy Adams

Fallout from the temporal distortions has now reached Gallifrey. To find the cause, Leela and Romana remember travels with the Fourth Doctor to the same world, at different times. The enemy is revealed, and it may take more than one Doctor to prevent the destruction of everything!

Stories

Title	Author	Director	Doctor	Featuring	Released	Pr. code
Lies in Ruins	James Goss	Ken Bentley	8th	River, Benny	17 July 2019	BFP20LEGACY
The Split Infinitive	John Dorney		7th	Ace, Ian, Rachel, Allison, Toby
The Sacrifice of Jo Grant	Guy Adams		3rd	Jo, Kate, Osgood, Allison, the Brigadier
Relative Time	Matt Fitton		5th	Jenny, the Nine
The Avenues of Possibility	Jonathan Morris	Helen Goldwyn	6th	Charley, Patricia Menzies
Collision Course	Guy Adams	Ken Bentley	4th	First Doctor, Second Doctor, Third Doctor, Fifth Doctor, Sixth Doctor, Seventh Doctor, Eighth Doctor, Tenth Doctor, Benny, Leela, Romana II

Notes

• The anthology had been in production for three years prior to its release.
• The Limited Edition of this release was limited to 4000 physical copies.
• This anthology, along with its cover and story details except for Relative Time, was announced on 20 August 2018. Details for Relative Time were left as "Episode four by Matt Fitton (to be confirmed)". The cover also did not include Jenny.
  • It was on 12 November 2018 that the title, and story and cast details, of Relative Time, as well as Jenny's inclusion in this anthology and her meeting the Fifth Doctor to battle the Nine, were announced, along with an updated cover that included her.
  • A Big Finish news article released on 1 January 2019 about their future 2019 releases used a textless version of the original cover without Jenny. A textless version of the original cover without her was also published by Tom Webster on 22 August 2018 on his Twitter.
• Katy Manning was originally credited as Jo Grant. After the April 1 2019 Big Finish website redesign, she was incorrectly credited as Iris Wildthyme. By 5 April 2019, this was corrected, and she was credited as Jo Jones.
  • Sometime between 6 December 2022 and 27 January 2023, this credit was changed from "Jo Jones" to "Jo Jones (Jo Grant)", and has remained as that since.
• During the 2019 Big Finish Day on 22 June, the first story, Lies in Ruins, was played to audience members. Additionally, Lies in Ruins was broadcast on the Doctor Who YouTube channel as part of Big Finish's 20th anniversary celebrations of making Doctor Who audios on 21 July.
• Big Finish's servers experienced a huge demand of downloads for this anthology upon its release.
• Tom Saunders created the promotional video trailer for this anthology. He also provided the TARDIS renders for the livestream on the Doctor Who YouTube channel that was part of Big Finish's 20th anniversary celebrations.
• A day after its release, a prequel was uploaded to Big Finish's social media. This scene was exclusive to their social media and is not included in the anthology, and was recorded specially for #BigFinish20at20.
• A competition was announced on 19 July 2019 for entrants to win a copy of The Legacy of Time. Entrants had to follow the Big Finish twitter account, and tweet a video of themselves saying what their favourite Big Finish Doctor Who story was and why, with the hashtag, #BigFinish20at20. It was for UK residents only, and was open from 12:00 BST 19 July to 14:59 BST. There would be two winners, who would each receive a CD copy, along with a download copy. The CD copies would have been of the Limited Edition as that was the only one which existed at the time.
• By 22 July 2019, "very much" less than 500 physical copies of the Limited Edition version remained.
• On 22 August 2019, the Limited Edition became out-of-print, but the digital version of said edition remained available for purchase. On 4 September 2019, a Standard Edition was made available for purchase on CD and download that was without the two hours of behind-the-scenes content. At some point by 19 September 2024, it was out-of-print. It remains available digitally.
• On 14 November 2019, Big Finish tweeted that six copies of The Legacy of Time were being given away to celebrate Paul McGann's 60th birthday. Entrants would have to tweet a happy birthday message to McGann with the hashtag, #McGann60. Six winners would be selected, and each would receive a CD copy of the Standard Edition. It was open to UK residents only, and was open from 13:00 BST on 14 November to 14:59 BST on 15 November 2019.
• A fan art competition was announced on 23 November 2019. Entrants were accepted "no matter what medium they work in" and had to create an alternative cover for The Legacy of Time. They had to either follow the Big Finish account on Twitter and tag them in a tweet of their artwork, including the hashtag, #LegacyOfTime; or 'like' the Big Finish Productions Facebook page, and post a photo of their artwork on the Big Finish Productions Facebook wall, with #LegacyOfTime in their post. It was for UK residents only, and was open from 12:00 GMT on 23 November to 12:00 GMT on 9 December 2019. The winner would receive a copy of every 2020 Big Finish release, and an extra bundle/selection of Big Finish 2019 releases.
  • The winner, Colin Smith, was announced on 22 March 2020, in both a Big Finish news article and the episode of the Big Finish Podcast released later the same day. The news article stated that, "It was a very difficult choice but, ultimately, Colin's artwork was selected because of its ability to sum up the excitement and adventure of 20 years of Doctor Who audio at Big Finish".
  • The announcement of the competition stated that the judging panel included Ben Morris. The later announcement of its winner, along with the Big Finish Podcast episode, revealed that Nicholas Briggs and Mark Plastow were also judges.
    • Briggs was acquainted with Colin Smith as Colin provided the cover art for his podcast, The Benji and Nick Show, with Benji Clifford. Briggs explained "there was no personal bias here, except that his artwork was very good". All the judges attached votes independently to the competitions entries - each judge giving entries first, second, third place, and so on - and Colin had the most votes. Briggs didn't see any of the names of those who submitted the artworks and only later discovered it was Colin. He was worried "it would look like a sort of conflict of interest" due to Colin's contributions to The Benji and Nick Show, but Steve Berry assured him by saying, according to Briggs, "'You know, Nick, you've been doing this for 20 years. The chances of you knowing a fan artist are quite high".
    • Steve Berry also stated in the winner announcement, "I can only apologise to all the other entrants for the length of time it has taken us to announce a winner for this competition but we wanted to make sure the result was decided 100% fairly."
  • Big Finish's tweets encouraging entries used a different promotional artwork than that included in the article announcing the competition.
• Daughter of the Gods, in the sixth series of The Early Adventures released 13 November of the same year, also served in part to mark Big Finish's 20-year Doctor Who milestone.

Gallery

• 

  Limited Edition cover.

• 

  Old cover without Jenny.

• 

  Textless cover art.

• 

  Old textless cover art without Jenny used in the 'Big Finish 2019 Celebrations' news article.

• 

  Old textless cover art without Jenny tweeted by Tom Webster.

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  Textless Standard Edition cover.

• 

  Limited Edition packshot.

• 

  Poster for the fan art competition used in the announcement article.

• 

  Poster for the fan art competition used in tweets by the Big Finish twitter account.

• 

  Colin Smith's winning entry.

External links

• Official The Legacy of Time (Standard Edition) page at bigfinish.com
• Official The Legacy of Time (Limited Edition) page at bigfinish.com