Audio Adventures in Time & Space
Audio Adventures in Time & Space, originally just Adventures in Time and Space, was a record label and umbrella title for several subseries of audios with varying levels of legal and narrative ties to the Doctor Who universe.
History
Name origins
It is somewhat unclear when the name originated, or who devised it. Certainly it was coined by the fan group, Audio Visuals, in the mid-1980s. It did not appear on AV covers until the second, 1986 season — though re-issues of the first, 1984 season bore the label retroactively. As the original AV producer, Bill Baggs was certainly in a position to have conceived the name, but it's uncertain that he did. In any case, Baggs began using the title in the late 1990s as the main label for his BBV Productions audio plays. Indeed, several BBV releases were based on old AV plays, and there was a great deal of staff crossover between the two groups. When Baggs co-opted the name, he added the word "Audio" before "Adventures in Time and Space" for clarity, since he had a thriving line of videos at the time.
BBV usage
Audio Adventures in Time & Space was a label used by BBV from 1998 to 2004. It referred to four "seasons" of audio output that featured a wide variety of characters, and indeed was comprised of several different series. Things like The Time Travellers, The Stranger, Zygons, Sontarans, Adventures in a Pocket Universe and others were all released under the label. The fourth season used a radically re-designed cover template which removed the "Audio Adventures in Time & Space" label from the front cover.
Although the overwhelming majority of BBV audio titles were released under this label, not all of them were. Notably the Tom Baker novel, The Boy Who Kicked Pigs, and the Richard Franklin story, The Killing Stone, were firmly not released under this label upon first release, although the 2021 relaunch of the series, now available for download on a revamped BBV website, included The Boy Who Kicked Pigs in its trailer for the Audio Adventures.
On 8 May, BBV announced the start of a fifth series of Audio Adventures in Time & Space, launching with a reading of The Door We Forgot by Bill Baggs, distinct from the previously-released Arcbeatle Press audiobook of the story.[1]
Content
BBV used the label differently than AV. Whereas the AV Adventures in Time and Space had all featured the Doctor in an unlicensed, non-commercial context, BBV didn't have that luxury. As a commercial entity, they had to find some way of delivering a legal product for sale. They took two approaches to solve this problem.
First, they created approximations of characters from televised Doctor Who and hired the same actors to play them. Adventures in a Pocket Universe and so on. Thus a "season" could contain a highly eclectic variety of stories. Colin Baker was not playing the Sixth Doctor in The Stranger. Indeed, between the first and second season, the British Broadcasting Corporation had a stern word with BBV when they felt that the McCoy/Sophie Aldred output was getting too close to the Seventh Doctor and Ace. From the second season forward, therefore, all the McCoy/Aldred releases were relabelled The Time Travellers and their characters were decidedly distanced from their season 1 personas.
Second, they tried to get the permission of one of the original Doctor Who writers to use the species or characters that the writer owned. Most of these stories could then be marketed as taking place within the DWU. The cover to The Choice, for instance, quite legally claims that it is the "return of K9", since permission was obtained from Dave Martin and Bob Baker.
It is only the second type of story that this wiki makes an attempt to cover. However, it is worth noting that the whole of the series was advertised as coming "from the Worlds of Doctor Who"; while only some stories had a legal link to "prove" it, the intent was that all of them took place in the Doctor Who universe. While it might be odd to imagine the Professor and Alice existing, separately from Ace and the Seventh Doctor, within their universe, it is worth remembering that many characters over the years have been introduced who mimick recurring DWU foes while being distinct from them, from the 196Os' comics' Trods (Dalek stand-ins) to Iris Wildthyme's avowed in-universe status as a living parody of the Doctor.
Releases
Season 1
| Title | Author | Series | Licensed elements | Released |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republica | Mark Gatiss | The Time Travellers | N/A | 1998 |
| Island of Lost Souls | ||||
| Prosperity Island | Tim Saward | |||
| The Left Hand of Darkness | Mark Duncan | |||
| The Other Side | ||||
| Guest for the Night | Nigel Fairs | |||
| Cyber-Hunt | Martin Peterson | The Wanderer / Cyberon | Cyberons |
Season 2
| Title | Author | Series | Licensed elements | Released |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Last Mission | Nicholas Briggs | The Stranger Chronicles | N/A | |
| Eye of the Storm | Arthur Wallis | |||
| Ghosts | Nigel Fairs | The Time Travellers | ||
| Vital Signs | Tim Saward | The Wanderer | ||
| Only Human | Mark J Thompson | The Time Travellers | ||
| The Choice | Nigel Fairs | Adventures in a Pocket Universe | K-9 | June 1999 |
| Blood Sports | The Time Travellers | N/A | ||
| Homeland | Paul Dearing | Zygon | Zygons, Skarasen | August 1999 |
| The Search | Mark Duncan | Adventures in a Pocket Universe | K-9 | September 1999 |
| Absolution | Paul Ebbs | Zygon | Zygons | October 1999 |
| The Root of All Evil | Lance Parkin | Krynoid | Krynoids | |
| Silent Warrior | Peter Grehan | Sontarans | Sontarans | December 1999 |
Season 3
| Title | Author | Series | Licensed elements | Released |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cybergeddon | Paul Ebbs | Cyberon | Cyberons | February 2000 |
| Punchline | Rob Shearman[2] | The Time Travellers | N/A | |
| Old Soldiers | Simon Gerard, Colin Hill | Sontarans | Sontarans | |
| Infidel's Comet | Colin Hill, Simon Gerard | N/A | ||
| The Pattern | Mark Duncan | |||
| I Scream | Lance Parkin | The I | The "I" | August 2000 |
| Conduct Unbecoming | Gareth Preston | Sontarans | Sontarans | September 2000 |
| The Rani Reaps the Whirlwind | Pip and Jane Baker | The Rani | The Rani | November 2000 |
| Race Memory | Paul Ebbs | Wirrn | Wirrn, Nerva Beacon | February 2001 |
Season 4
| Title | Author | Series | Licensed elements | Released |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Barnacled Baby | Anthony Keetch | Zygon | Zygons | July 2001 |
| The Eleven Day Empire | Lawrence Miles | The Faction Paradox Protocols | Faction Paradox, Sontarans | October 2001 |
| The Shadow Play | ||||
| The Green Man | Zoltán Déry | Krynoid | Krynoids | March 2002 |
| In 2 Minds | Iain Hepburn | Rutans | Rutans | September 2002 |
| The Quality of Mercy | David A. McIntee | Guy de Carnac | ||
| Sabbath Dei | Lawrence Miles | The Faction Paradox Protocols | Compassion, Peking Homunculi, Sabbath | February 2003 |
| In the Year of the Cat | April 2003 | |||
| Movers | Faction Paradox, the prison planet | December 2003 | ||
| A Labyrinth of Histories | February 2004 | |||
| The Boy Who Kicked Pigs[3] | Tom Baker | N/A |
Season 5
Behind the scenes
- Those wishing to understand more about this wiki's policies towards BBV's Audio Adventures in Time & Space should consult this discussion.
- Due to our valid sources policy, this article concentrates on the usage of "Audio Adventures in Time & Space" by BBV Productions. Those wishing a fuller explanation of this title's long history with Audio Visuals should consult the AV website.
Footnotes
- ↑ BBV Productions on Twitter
- ↑ Credited under the name "Jeremy Leadbetter".
- ↑ Originally released outside the Audio Adventures in Time & Space label but added to the line-up in the 2021 relaunch.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Audiobook reading of a preexisting P.R.O.B.E. short story.
- ↑ Owned and originally produced by Radio Static; added to Audio Adventures line-up in May 2021 through agreement with BBV.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Audiobook readings of preexisting Cyberon prose stories, also featuring P.R.O.B.E.
- ↑ Audiobook reading of a preexisting Faction Paradox short story.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Audio adaptation of the Erimem novel of the same name.
- ↑ Withdrawn shortly after release; no longer listed or available on the BBV website.
- ↑ Actually includes three short stories, but presented as a single product and thus a single entry in the Audio Adventures in Time & Space listing on the BBV website.
- ↑ Previously released as bonus content on the DVD edition of The Stranger: More than a Messiah
- ↑ Although an official entry in the Audio Adventures in Time & Space and The Brigadier Adventures ranges as far as BBV was concerned, this release is not covered on this Wiki due to having been unlawfully released after BBV's license to the character had expired, as reported by Andy Frankham-Allen.
External links
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
