The Companion Chronicles

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The Companion Chronicles was a monthly Big Finish Productions audio series that ran for 80 releases across eight seasons between 2007 and 2014, and then periodic box set releases thereafter.

The general, but not invariable, ambition of the series was to tell stories using the companions of the first four Doctors. The typical release in the range used just two actors, a musical score, some foley work and sound design — meaning that the end result sat somewhere between an audio book and a full-cast drama.

Overview

Concept

Originally, the concept was to produce talking books featuring the companions of the first four incarnations of the Doctor who were unavailable to take part in the main range. While the range has remained primarily focused on companions who appeared earlier than season 19, most releases in the range have not been true "talking books". In fact, all but one release — The Stealers from Saiph — use the convention of at least two characters in conversation with each other. Most have a sound design worthy of any title in the main range. On rare occasion the range has moved away from its titular concern to feature characters — like Sara Kingdom, King Peladon and Henry Gordon Jago — who are more commonly considered "prominent guest stars" or "allies".

Format and structure

In general, Companion Chronicles have a fairly standard format. They are usually two, approximately 25 minute long episodes divided by a single cliffhanger, barring special double length releases released regularly each season from the fourth onwards. The part of the story that has to do with the Doctor is almost always told in flashback, as a recollection of a past adventure. Thus, the central character of the piece (i.e., the companion) is often depicted in two time periods. That is, there is typically an "older" version of the companion who recounts the adventure with the Doctor, and the "younger" version of the character, who is as he or she appeared on television.

The actor not portraying a companion is used in a variety of ways to allow stories in the range to have markedly different structures. Some common narrative uses for the second actor are:

Sometimes, the interrogator is revealed to be the principal adversary, as in Mother Russia or Frostfire; sometimes the listener knows the interrogator is the adversary right from the start, as with The Catalyst. In any case, the relationship between ex-companion and interrogator is usually a pretty obvious "framing device", which takes up a clear minority of the runtime of the release. However, in a few rare cases, as with the Home Truths trilogy, the interrogator is a co-star equal with the featured character and is given a a proper story with the "present day" companion woven into the companion's recollections of the Doctor's TARDIS.

The 2011 release Tales from the Vault was a departure from the "enhanced audiobook" format, being effectively a straight audio drama (albeit still one with a limited cast) that incorporated interviews with various companions.

Preview art for the first series by Ben Wilsher from DWM 381

Continuity

A few of the plays tie in to others in the Big Finish Doctor Who range. The Darkening Eye is a prequel to The Death Collectors; Night's Black Agents explicitly occurs between City of Spires and The Wreck of the Titan; the Leela trilogy which begins with The Catalyst relies to some degree on the listener's knowledge of the Gallifrey audio series; and The Prisoner's Dilemma occupies a complicated narrative space, tying together the Virgin New Adventures with Big Finish's Key 2 Time series.

All the plays add to the their main characters' televised continuities. Some detail an adventure that adds little to their lives; for instance, Mother Russia gives Steven an adventure in Napoleonic Russia between the main narrative of The Gunfighters and its conclusory scenes, which lead into The Savages. Even the interchange with his interrogator is set within the main story. Thus, Steven gains merely another adventure that fits neatly in his established, televised timeline.

By contrast, other plays expand greatly on the known fates of their principal character/s. For instance, the trilogy of stories featuring Sara Kingdom, the main narratives of which take place between episodes of The Daleks' Master Plan, reveals that she had other adventures with Steven and the Doctor besides the quest for taranium which was the central plot of her televised adventure. More significantly, the trilogy also gives Sara, or at least her consciousness, a thousand-year-lifespan, a way to have met a different incarnation of the Doctor and thus a second chance to travel in the TARDIS.

Most plays settle somewhere between these two extremes. Thanks in part to the typical interrogative "framing device", most of the plays reveal something about the lives of the Doctor's companions after leaving him. In the very first Companion Chronicle, for instance, Vicki is shown to have remained with Troilus and to have had a large family. Equally, the series shows that Susan Foreman stayed with David Campbell, Jo Jones continued her globe-trotting life with Dr. Clifford Jones and Victoria settled down to raise a family.

List of stories

Season 1

# Title Author Doctor Featuring Released
1 Frostfire Marc Platt First Doctor January 2007
2 Fear of the Daleks Patrick Chapman Second Doctor January 2007
3 The Blue Tooth Nigel Fairs Third Doctor January 2007
4 The Beautiful People Jonathan Morris Fourth Doctor January 2007

Season 2

# Title Author Doctor Featuring Released
5 Mother Russia Marc Platt First Doctor October 2007
6 Helicon Prime Jake Elliott Second Doctor November 2007
7 Old Soldiers James Swallow Third Doctor December 2007
8 The Catalyst Nigel Fairs Fourth Doctor January 2008

Season 3

# Title Author Doctor Featuring Released
9 Here There Be Monsters Andy Lane First Doctor July 2008
10 The Great Space Elevator Jonathan Morris Second Doctor August 2008
11 The Doll of Death Marc Platt Third Doctor September 2008
12 Empathy Games Nigel Fairs Fourth Doctor October 2008
13 Home Truths Simon Guerrier First Doctor November 2008
14 The Darkening Eye Stewart Sheargold Fifth Doctor December 2008
15 The Transit of Venus Jacqueline Rayner First Doctor January 2009
16 The Prisoner's Dilemma Simon Guerrier Seventh Doctor January 2009
17 Resistance Steve Lyons Second Doctor March 2009
18 The Magician's Oath Scott Handcock Third Doctor April 2009
19 The Mahogany Murderers Andy Lane None May 2009
20 The Stealers from Saiph Nigel Robinson Fourth Doctor June 2009

Season 4

# Title Author Doctor Featuring Released
21 The Drowned World Simon Guerrier First Doctor July 2009
22 The Glorious Revolution Jonathan Morris Second Doctor August 2009
23 The Prisoner of Peladon Cavan Scott & Mark Wright Third Doctor September 2009
24 The Pyralis Effect George Mann Fourth Doctor October 2009
25 Ringpullworld Paul Magrs Fifth Doctor November 2009
26 Bernice Summerfield and the Criminal Code Eddie Robson Seventh Doctor January 2010
27 The Suffering Jacqueline Rayner First Doctor February 2010
28 The Emperor of Eternity Nigel Robinson Second Doctor March 2010
29 Shadow of the Past Simon Guerrier Third Doctor April 2010
30 The Time Vampire Nigel Fairs Fourth Doctor May 2010
31 Night's Black Agents Marty Ross Sixth Doctor May 2010
32 Solitaire John Dorney Eighth Doctor June 2010

Season 5

# Title Author Doctor Featuring Released
33 The Guardian of the Solar System Simon Guerrier First Doctor July 2010
34 Echoes of Grey John Dorney Second Doctor August 2010
35 Find and Replace Paul Magrs Third Doctor September 2010
36 The Invasion of E-Space Andrew Smith Fourth Doctor October 2010
37 A Town Called Fortune Paul Sutton Sixth Doctor November 2010
38 Quinnis Marc Platt First Doctor December 2010
39 Peri and the Piscon Paradox Nev Fountain January 2011
40 The Perpetual Bond Simon Guerrier First Doctor February 2011
41 The Forbidden Time David Lock Second Doctor March 2011
42 The Sentinels of the New Dawn Paul Finch Third Doctor April 2011
43 Ferril's Folly Peter Anghelides Fourth Doctor May 2011
44 The Cold Equations Simon Guerrier First Doctor June 2011

Season 6

# Title Author Doctor Featuring Released
45 Tales from the Vault Jonathan Morris July 2011
46 The Rocket Men John Dorney First Doctor August 2011
47 The Memory Cheats Simon Guerrier Second Doctor September 2011
48 The Many Deaths of Jo Grant Cavan Scott & Mark Wright Third Doctor October 2011
49 The First Wave Simon Guerrier First Doctor November 2011
50 Beyond the Ultimate Adventure Terrance Dicks Sixth Doctor December 2011
51 The Anachronauts Simon Guerrier First Doctor January 2012
52 The Selachian Gambit Steve Lyons Second Doctor February 2012
53 Binary Eddie Robson Third Doctor March 2012
54 The Wanderer Richard Dinnick First Doctor April 2012
55 The Jigsaw War Eddie Robson Second Doctor May 2012
56 The Rings of Ikiria Richard Dinnick Third Doctor June 2012

Season 7

# Title Author Doctor Featuring Released
57 The Time Museum James Goss First Doctor July 2012
58 The Uncertainty Principle Simon Guerrier Second Doctor August 2012
59 Project: Nirvana Cavan Scott and Mark Wright Seventh Doctor September 2012
60 The Last Post James Goss Third Doctor October 2012
61 Return of the Rocket Men Matt Fitton First Doctor November 2012
62 The Child Nigel Fairs Fourth Doctor December 2012
63 The Flames of Cadiz Marc Platt First Doctor January 2013
64 House of Cards Steve Lyons Second Doctor February 2013
65 The Scorchies James Goss Third Doctor March 2013
66 The Library of Alexandria Simon Guerrier First Doctor April 2013
67 The Apocalypse Mirror Eddie Robson Second Doctor May 2013
68 Council of War Simon Barnard & Paul Morris Third Doctor June 2013

Season 8

# Title Author Doctor Featuring Released
69 Mastermind Jonathan Morris None July 2013
70 The Alchemists Ian Potter First Doctor August 2013
71 Upstairs Mat Coward First Doctor September 2013
72 Ghost in the Machine Jonathan Morris Third Doctor October 2013
73 The Beginning Marc Platt First Doctor November 2013
74 The Dying Light Nick Wallace Second Doctor December 2013
75 Luna Romana Matt Fitton Fourth Doctor January 2014
76 The Sleeping City Ian Potter First Doctor February 2014
77 Starborn Jacqueline Rayner First Doctor March 2014
78 The War To End All Wars Simon Guerrier First Doctor April 2014
79 The Elixir of Doom Paul Magrs Eighth Doctor May 2014
80 Second Chances John Dorney Second Doctor June 2014

Season 9

# Title Author Doctor Featuring Released
81 The Sleeping Blood Martin Day First Doctor June 2015
82 The Unwinding World Ian Potter First Doctor June 2015
83 The Founding Fathers Simon Guerrier First Doctor June 2015
84 The Locked Room Simon Guerrier First Doctor June 2015

Special releases

# Title Author Doctor Featuring Released
* The Three Companions Marc Platt Serialised over 12 chapters beginning with AUDIO: The Magic Mousetrap in April 2009
* The Mists of Time Jonathan Morris Third Doctor 19th August 2009

(free download with DWM 411)

* Freakshow Mark Morris Fifth Doctor 4th March 2010

(free download with DWM 419)

* The Companion Chronicles: The Specials
(box set compilation of The Three Companions, The Mists of Time, Freakshow)
Various Various
  • Various
August 2011
* The Revenants Ian Potter First Doctor 31st May 2012

(free download with DWM 448)

External links