The Nest Cottage Chronicles
The Nest Cottage Chronicles was a 2015 box set collecting the Hornets' Nest, Demon Quest, and Serpent Crest audio series. It also featured several behind the scenes features compiled by Neil Gardner, including studio outtakes and a 2009 interview with Tom Baker.
Publisher's summary[[edit] | [edit source]]
Tom Baker stars as the Fourth Doctor in 15 full-cast audio dramas written by Paul Magrs, plus bonus features exclusive to this edition.
In Hornets' Nest, when former UNIT captain Mike Yates is reunited with a ghost from the past, he and the Doctor are soon united in battle once more, against alien insects intent on global domination. In Demon Quest, a key component from the TARDIS disappears, exchanged for a bag containing four curious objects. Each one is a clue, and so the Doctor and Mrs. Wibbsey embark on a chase through Time. Finally, in Serpent Crest, the Doctor acquires a Skishtari egg, whose powers are both wondrous and deadly. When the village of Hexford comes under attack, Mrs. Wibbsey and Mike discover that two Doctors aren’t necessarily better than one.
With Susan Jameson as Mrs. Wibbsey and Richard Franklin as Mike Yates, these thrilling adventures also feature Michael Maloney, Rula Lenska, Samuel West, Jan Francis, David Troughton, Michael Jayston, Simon Shepherd, Sophie Ward, Andrew Sachs, Nerys Hughes, and many others. Also included in this edition are a previously unheard interview with Tom Baker, outtakes from the original studio sessions, promotional trailers, and a PDF booklet featuring sleeve notes by writer Paul Magrs.
Stories[[edit] | [edit source]]
| # | Series | Title | Released |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hornets' Nest | The Stuff of Nightmares | 11 June 2015 |
| 2 | The Dead Shoes | ||
| 3 | The Circus of Doom | ||
| 4 | A Sting in the Tale | ||
| 5 | Hive of Horror | ||
| 6 | Demon Quest | The Relics of Time | |
| 7 | The Demon of Paris | ||
| 8 | A Shard of Ice | ||
| 9 | Starfall | ||
| 10 | Sepulchre | ||
| 11 | Serpent Crest | Tsar Wars | |
| 12 | The Broken Crown | ||
| 13 | Aladdin Time | ||
| 14 | The Hexford Invasion | ||
| 15 | Survivors in Space |
Notes[[edit] | [edit source]]
- Besides the fifteen discs each covering a story of the series, a sixteenth bonus disc was included, containing the following:
- Tracks 1-2: In Studio: Hornets' Nest
- Tracks 3-4: In Studio: Demon Quest
- Tracks 5-6: In Studio: Serpent Crest
- Track 7: The Doctor Sings
- Track 8: Audio trailer: Hornets' Nest
- Track 9: Audio trailer: Demon Quest
- Track 10: Audio trailer: Serpent Quest
- Track 11: 4 promotional shorts for Hornets' Nest (Soundtrack taken from video recording)
- Tracks 12-19: Tom Baker in conversation with Michael Stevens, 1 September 2009
- Track 20: Tom Baker in his own words for Demon Quest (Soundtrack taken from video recording)
- 3 PDFs containing the original cover art for Hornets' Nest, Demon Quest and Serpent Crest.
- Author Paul Magrs joked on Gallifrey Base that the fourth set would have been called Mrs Wibbsey's String Vest.[1]
- Actor Tom Baker was notoriously reluctant to return to his role as the Fourth Doctor, and The Nest Cottage Chronicles was his first foray back into Doctor Who. Following the February 2011 announcement that Baker would be joining Big Finish Productions,[2] AudioGO ceased its production of Fourth Doctor stories, and the last Nest Cottage audio was released later that year. However, the story of Nest Cottage continued after the series' explicit end.
- In December 2013, Paul Magrs serialised a short story on his blog called Mrs Wibbsey's Festive Diary,[3] in which Wibbsey reminisced about how it had been two years since the Master of Nest Cottage had visited her; this story was later republished, renamed Mrs Frimbly's Festive Diary, in the anthology Christmassy Tales. In Magrs' 2016-17 Bafflegab Productions audio series Baker's End, "Mrs Frimbly", played by Wibbsey actress Susan Jameson, returned as housekeeper to the Master of Baker's End, played by Baker.
- Finally, beginning in 2018, BBC Audio returned to Nest Cottage, with Wibbsey and the Fourth Doctor reuniting in The Thing from the Sea and The Winged Coven. Wibbsey returned again in the 2022 Beyond the Doctor story The Penumbra Affair.
External links[[edit] | [edit source]]
Footnotes[[edit] | [edit source]]
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