The Minister of Chance (series)
- You may be looking for the title character or the novelisation.
The Minister of Chance was a series of fantasy stories written by Dan Freedman. The series centered on the eponymous Minister, who was introduced in Freedman's Seventh Doctor webcast Death Comes to Time, and his involvement in court intrigue on the planet Thea.
The eponymous main character, the Minister of Chance, is portrayed and characterised consistently with his debut appearance in Death Comes to Time. Although in this series he was played by Julian Wadham rather than Stephen Fry, initial promotional material for the series explained this by describing him as a "defrocked Time Lord" "now in his second regeneration".[1] The events of Death Comes to Time are alluded to as a tragedy in the Minister's past, and following from the Seventh Doctor's revocation of his TARDIS in that story, the Minister travels through time and space by "the scientific formula for doors".
Synopsis
Now in his second regeneration, defrocked Time Lord The Minister Of Chance finds himself saddled with 'Kitty', an 'assistant' he apparently cannot get rid of - and perilously entangled in the court intrigues and military politics of a forest planet on the brink of war. Sylvester McCoy, Paul McGann and Paul Darrow join Julian Wadham (The Iron Lady) and Lauren Crace (EastEnders) in an audio adventure that will take you to a spectacular world where science is heresy and magic is law...
Stories
Audio
Five audio stories plus prologue were produced and released by Radio Static from 2012 to 2013.[2]
The episodes were later remastered, split into four parts, and re-released as a weekly podcast from 5 October 2020 to 23 February 2021.[3]
The Pointed Hand, a prologue to the series, introduced Paul McGann as Durian and Sylvester McCoy as the Witch Prime.
| # | Title | Author | Featuring | Length | Released |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | The Pointed Hand (third release) |
Dan Freedman | Durian, the Witch Prime | 9 min., 1 sec. | 13 July 2012[nb 1] |
| 1 | The Broken World | The Minister of Chance, Kitty | 35 min., 15 sec. | 13 January 2012 | |
| 2 | The Forest Shakes | 36 min., 47 sec. | |||
| 3 | Paludin Fields | 47 min., 22 sec. | 20 July 2012 | ||
| 4 | The Tiger | 42 min., 33 sec. | 1 March 2013 | ||
| 5 | In a Barque on the River Hex | 51 min., 50 sec. | 17 May 2013 |
Film
A video adaptation of the prologue was released on 17 October 2014[4] to promote a Kickstarter for a full film adaptation of The Minister of Chance,[5] but it ultimately failed to meet its fundraising goal.[6]
Book
On 8 December 2016, Dan Freeman announced on his Kickstarter for the unproduced movie that the series would be made into a novelisation.[7]
On 1 June 2022, Arcbeatle Press released a short webcast on their YouTube channel titled He is Coming…, and on 30 June 2022, The Minister of Chance novelisation was released.
Notes
- Despite the limited size of the audio series cast, it had a substantial overlap with Doctor Who and related productions, including Sylvester McCoy, Paul McGann, Julian Wadham, Lauren Crace, Jenny Agutter, Paul Darrow, Beth Goddard, Tamsin Greig, Peter Guinness, Kemi-Bo Jacobs, Gethin Anthony, Simon Hickson, Mark Lewis, Sophie Aldred, Daniel Easton, Richard Garaghty, James Manley-Buser, Gareth Jones, and George Murphy.
Gallery
- Promotion
Promotional image for the series.
Promotional image for the series.
Promotional image for the series.
Promotional image by Lee Sullivan, released to tie into The Forest Shakes.
Promotional image by Lee Sullivan, released to tie into Paludin Fields.
Promotional artwork by Lee Sullivan, featuring the Second Minister and Kitty.
Promotional image by Lee Sullivan, released to tie into In a Barque on the River Hex.
- Audio Series
A poster for the series.
A poster for the series.
A poster for the series.
Standard series cover.
A variant of the standard cover.
A large version of the standard cover.
A wide version of the standard cover.
- Film
The Minister of Chance logo used in the Prologue.
The Prologue title card.
- MoC film poster.png
A poster for the ultimately unproduced feature-length movie adaptation.
The logo for the unproduced movie.
- Novelisation
The cover of the novelisation of the series.
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External links
Footnotes
Notes
- ↑ Despite being released between episodes 2 and 3, The Forest Shakes and Paludin Fields, this prologue was intended to be listened to before episode 1, The Broken World.
References
- ↑ The Minister of Chance website via the Wayback Machine
- ↑ Minister of Chance at Fourble
- ↑ www.ministerofchance.com
- ↑ The Minister of Chance: Prologue (YouTube, via The Internet Archive
- ↑ iO9: Ex-Doctor Who Spinoff The Minister of Chance deserves a Movie adaptation
- ↑ Kickstarter: The Minister of Chance Movie
- ↑ Kickstarter: We're making The Minister of Chance into a novel!
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