Tagged: Big Finish Productions

Gerry Anderson’s Gemini Force 1 Heads To Kickstarter

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Based on concepts and story written by Gerry Anderson, a new adventure series from the creator of Thunderbirds and Space: 1999 will be funded by his fans via a Kickstarter campaign starting September 5th.

Gemini Force One (or GF1) is, as the Anderson Estate describes it, “the story of a secret organization involved in rescues and averting disasters and terrorist events”. Gerry began work on it back in 2008, but was unable to complete development due to his advancing Alzheimer’s Disease, which led to his passing at the end of last year.

The project has been planned as a series of adventure novels, the first of which will be completed by best-selling author MG Harris, writer of The Joshua Files, under the guidance of Gerry’s son Jamie, who is spearheading the project.  Harris has experience with popular science fiction series; she’s just recently completed a new Blake’s 7 adventure for Big Finish Productions.  Television, film and other media development will follow, based on the success of the book series.  The GF1 vehicles, a cornerstone of any Anderson series, will be designed by Andrew Probert
(Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica) and Dominic Lavery (New Captain Scarlet, James Bond, Event Horizon);

GF1 will be fan-funded with a Kickstarter campaign, with the first book scheduled to be completed and released to backers in April of next year, leading up to a full launch in August, coinciding with the 50th anniversary of his most famous series, Thunderbirds..  The campaign will provide the project with the funds for an initial print run, an audio-book edition, and a major media campaign.

The Anderson estate sees the project as a way to reach not only Gerry’s current fans, but a new generation of fans. Gerry lost the rights to many of his series in the 60s and 70s, and as such, never benefited properly as they grew into global cult favorites. With the renewed popularity of young-adult fiction, a new adventure series from such a franchise name seems like a good bet for success all around.

Details of the campaign, including backer awards, are available at www.gerryanderson.co.uk/GF1

Tom Baker To Don The Scarf Once More?

If this is true, the hearts of well over a million Doctor Who fans worldwide are about to beat just a little bit faster.

According to Slice of Scifi, Tom Baker will once again put on his mile-long multicolored scarf to reprise his role as the fourth Doctor in a 50th anniversary episode of the show, teaming up with eleventh Doctor Matt Smith. This is according to “a source close to the show.” Hmmm…

When Baker left the show back in 1981 as the series’ longest-running lead (a record held to this day), he said he wanted to put the part behind him. He was the only living Doctor who didn’t return for the 20th anniversary story, The Five Doctors. However, recently Baker came back to the role in a number of original full-cast audio adventures produced both by the BBC and by Big Finish Audio. The BBC episodes were set in contemporary time, and all co-starred other Doctor Who actors who had worked with Baker.

Is this the truth or is some well-placed hoser just jerking us around? Personally, I wouldn’t put the latter past show runner Steven Moffat – that seems to fit his whimsical public personna. But doing so would pretty much ruin the chances of Baker’s return to celebrate the 50th anniversary, and the BBC has confirmed they, and Steven, have “big plans.”

I hate to say it, but… only time will tell.

 

 

 

Iris Wildthyme Back for Second Season in February

iris-wildthyme-8711333Big Finish, the British audio producer, announced this week that four new Doctor Who pastiches will be released featuring their own character, Iris Wildthyme.  She was created by writer Paul Magrs and she’s described as “Bracing the temporal winds in her trusty bus and accompanied by the ever-loyal Panda (a ten inch tall stuffed bear), Iris travels from the depths of space to the gates of Wonderland and beyond. Iris and Panda will bamboozle and befuddle a host of new friends and enemies while always having time to mix a sharp Gin and Tonic.”

Katy Manning, a former companion of The Doctor, will reprise her role as the voice of Iris in this second season of adventures. David Benson also returns as the voice of Panda.

The new season kicks off in February with The Sound of Fear, written by Mark Michalowski. “Iris and Panda encounter the deadly Naxians aboard space station Radio Yesterday, along with Iris’s ex-husband, Sam.”

The second installment, Land of Wonder, from Magrs, features “Iris exiled to Earth and working with top-secret organization MIAOW to investigate dark happenings in the Underground.”

Simon Guerrier writes The Two Irises and “Panda has not only the return of the Naxians to deal with, but there’s a new Iris aboard the bus – an Iris who is decidedly male…”

The concluding escapade will be Mark Margs’ The Panda Invasion. “As San Francisco celebrates the millennium, Iris must save the world from destruction, while Panda faces his evil twin, and all because somebody spilt their gin and tonic…”

Big Finish intends to release the four dramas as single CDs, available monthly beginning in February, or a single box set.

A Box Full Of Who

collected-2804412If you’re a Doctor Who fan given to long drives half-way across the continent (well, hey, I am), here’s a way to pass the time that’s a lot more entertaining that counting cars on the New Jersey turnpike.

Next week, the BBC’s audiobooks division will be releasing a box set of six audiobooks based upon recent novels starring the 10th and current Doctor.

Three of the six were read by David Tennant himself: The Feast of the Drowned by Stephen Cole, The Stone Rose by Jacqueline Rayner, and The Resurrection Casket by Justin Richards. Buffy’s Anthony Head (himself a frequent performer on Big Finish’s Doctor Who audio dramas) reads The Nightmare of Black Island by Mike Tucker. Rounding out the set, The Price of Paradise by Colin Brake and The Art of Destruction by Stephen Cole are read by Doctor Who actors Shaun Dingwall (Pete Tyler) and Don Warrington (The President in The Age of Steel), respectively.

According to the BBC, each adaptation will run approximately two hours. The set will cost about $100.00 U.S., plus shipping from your favorite neighborhood science fiction or comics importer. Amazon.com usually gets these things… eventually.

Sarah Jane’s Back Revealed

sjs1-2106191After a successful pilot was aired at the end of last year, the second Doctor Who spin-off, The Sarah Jane Adventures, will begin airing in England the end of this month.

Oriented more towards children the way Torchwood is geared towards adults, the ten-episode season will see the return of various Doctor Who villains, including the Slitheen. The production and writing crew will be the same as that for Doctor Who and Torchwood, masterminded by executive producer Russell T. Davies.

Thus far, Sarah Jane Smith is the only continuing human character from the classic series to return to the new Whoverse. Elisabeth Sladen returns to the role she made famous with Doctors three and four, and in nine original audio dramas from Big Finish Productions.

 

Sarah Jane’s Back

sarah5-2513050The second spin-off from the revived Doctor Who teevee series, The Sarah Jane Adventures, has finally completed casting and is now being written.

The show, starring Elisabeth Sladen as former Doctor Who companion Sarah Jane Smith (she co-starred with Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker from 1973 to 1976) plays an investigative journalist with a passion for extra-terrestial stories. Her previous life is only known to a trio of neighborhood children. Whereas the Doctor’s robotic dog K-9 appeared in the pilot, he/it is not expected to have a regular presence in this new series.

The pilot aired in England at the beginning of this year with a somewhat different cast. The Sarah Jane Adventures is oriented towards children in the way Torchwood is oriented towards adults, and is executive produced by Who honcho Russell T. Davies. No air date has been confirmed by the BBC.

Sladen has also played Sarah Jane in eight original full-cast audio adventures by Big Finish Productions.

Superman’s birthmom to Who

Susannah York, the honored British actress who played Lara in Superman The Movie and Superman II (not to mention such classy movies as They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? and The Killing of Sister George), is a featured player in Big Finish’s 96th regular monthly Doctor Who full-cast drama.

Named "Valhalla", the two-hour original full-cast audio drama is another high-energy science-fiction thriller about a planet that is, well, anything but Valhalla. York joins Sylvester McCoy, who of course is playing the seventh Doctor – the last from the original series.

For more information about this and the approximately 150 original Doctor Who audio adventures, check out Big Finish Productions.