Doctor Who is reviving a story from one of our favorite Doctors as a Big Finish audio drama. And they’re going through the extra effort of bringing back the original cast members.
Coming to terms with a new Doctor is a challenge that all Whovians, at some point in their lives, confront. It’s a cycle that keeps repeating itself where at first you’ve yet to let go of the previous actor but ultimately end up falling in love with the new one, only for the showrunners to change things up all over again. That being said, and considering the show’s 50 plus year history, if you ask fans to choose the best Doctor, it would either be Tom Baker’s Fourth Doctor or David Tennant’s Tenth, as both have portrayed the Last of the Time Lords in a way as to stand the test of time.
As such, Big Finish has decided to adapt one of the lost episodes of Doctor Who as an audio drama, bringing Baker and the rest of the cast along to recapture the magic of that era. This story, titled “The Doomsday Contract,” was commissioned as a script, but never saw the light of day.
Here’s the official synopsis:
“Earth – a small, insignificant planet. Entirely devoid of intelligent life.
At least that’s according to the legal documents. The Doctor, Romana and K9 find themselves at the centre of a most unusual trial. A intergalactic corporation want to bulldoze the planet for a development project. Only a previous court’s preservation document is standing in their way. The Doctor has been summoned as an expert witness. If he can prove Earth contains intelligent life, the whole world will be saved.
But with a fortune at stake… it was never going to be that simple.”
The story is written by John Lloyd, who at the time was the housemate of Douglas Adams, the creator behind The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. It’s easy to trace Adams’ influence on the story, too, and it’s just as well, since it belonged to a time that Doctor Who didn’t take itself too seriously.
As director Nicholas Briggs puts it:
“The Doomsday Contract is a tremendous example of the best kind of story from that era of Doctor Who where the brief was to veer from overt violence and threat to wit and fun.”
Big Finish will embark on their most ambitious venture later this year with the multimedia “Time Lord Victorious” project, bringing back Tennant, Christopher Eccleston, and even Paul McGann, so it’s good to learn that they’re also trying to pay homage to the Fourth Doctor by reviving one of his lost stories. And we’re definitely excited to hear it.
