David Tennant enters the Dalek Universe to face Mechanoids, Movellans and More (Oh my!)
Four years ago, Doctor Who fandom issued a collective gasp as Big Finish announced that the return of David Tennant. Since then there have been three boxsets of The Tenth Doctor Adventures and a glorious standalone team up with Tom Baker’s Fourth Doctor. While we know further crossovers with the Fifth, Sixth and Eighth Doctors, and even River Song, are in the pipeline. But Doctor Who: Dalek Universe is something else, and possibly the most exciting news of all. While the other releases so far have flitted around the Tenth Doctor’s timeline, sliding in discreetly between television stories, Dalek Universe is a three boxset, nine story, epic. It’s effectively an entire new series of adventures for one of the most popular Doctors of all!
The action kicks off in April next year. That’s when Doctor Who: Dalek Universe Volume One arrives from Big Finish Productions, in association with BBC Studios. Volumes Two and Three of the full cast audio drama will follow in July and October 2021 respectively.
A stunning space opera, Dalek Universe features the epic rematch between the Tenth Doctor and… Davros!
In true Tennant era style, Dalek Universe has an arc plot running through the individual stories, building towards a world shattering finale. The nine hour-long episodes see the Doctor pulled out of his own time. And soon he discovers he’s been sent back to the era before the last great Time War! Here he finds himself battling for survival in a universe full of Daleks, Mechonoids, Movellans… and Davros!
David Tennant described the project as “a big old epic sweep. It reminds me a little bit of those Flash Gordon serials that used to be on the TV during the school holidays when I was a kid.
“Each story has its own self-contained world, but the whole thing has an over-arching momentum. I’ve really enjoyed how varied it is, all within this one story, and the variety of worlds that we go to and environments that we’re in.
“And, as we go through this space opera, to have all these characters brought so clearly to life by a whole range of wonderful actors, it’s been a treat.”
Stranded in Terry Nation’s 41st century, the Tenth Doctor must ally himself with some old friends. But how far can he trust them?
Big Finish Senior Producer, David Richardson said: “What is Dalek Universe? Well it is the first full season of Doctor Who adventures starring David Tennant as the Doctor in over ten years. It is also a huge celebration of the work and imagination of Terry Nation.”
That Nation influence can be seen in the choice of the Doctor’s new companions for Dalek Universe.
“This time the Doctor has no TARDIS for sanctuary and no Rose or Martha or Donna to help… but he is reunited with two faces from the distant past, two serving agents from the Space Security Service. Anya Kingdom (Jane Slavin) betrayed the Doctor in his fourth incarnation – can she make amends? Mark Seven (David Tennant’s Broadchurch co-star Joe Sims) is an artificial man with a mysterious history. Together the trio join forces to try and discover who has pulled the Doctor back in time. And more importantly – how can they help him get back home?”
Some readers with remember Anya as Tom Baker’s companion in The Fourth Doctor Adventures Series Eight. In that eight part storyline, The Syndicate Master Plan, the SSS agent was deliberately left behind by the Doctor. He felt unable to trust her after realizing she’d been using him to complete her own secret mission. But can an older, post-Time War Doctor forgive her? Readers with even longer memories will remember Mark Seven as the heroic android created by Terry Nation to be one of the heroes of the Doctorless Dalek comics and books of the 1960s. But now Mark Seven and the Doctor meet at last!
Doctor Who: Dalek Universe will be available on CD, digital download, and vinyl
The series will be preceded by a special prologue, The Dalek Protocol, starring Tom Baker. The four-part adventure returns the Doctor, Leela (Louise Jameson) and K9 (John Leeson) to the planet Exxilon. But what does it have to do with the Daleks? And what does it mean for the Tenth Doctor’s later troubles?
Each of the three volumes in Dalek Universe will be released as a four-disc collector’s edition box set or download. Each volume will contain three brand-new full cast audio adventures, plus a selection of behind-the-scenes extras.
Doctor Who fans worldwide can now pre-order all three volumes of Dalek Universe, which are available in three formats – collector’s edition CD, digital download or limited edition gatefold triple LP vinyl – exclusively from the Big Finish website from just £19.99.
Big Finish listeners can save by pre-ordering a bundle of the entire series for just £66 (as a collector’s edition box set) or £58 (as a download).
The Dalek Universe triple LP vinyls are strictly limited to a pressing of 1,000 per volume, and can be pre-ordered at £35.99 each, or £99 for the bundle of all three albums, again exclusively at the Big Finish website. Please note: the vinyl editions do not include the behind-the-scenes extras but all pre-orders will come with a free download.
Doctor Who: Dalek Universe
Duration: 240 minutes approx. (per volume)
Released: April, July, October 2021, exclusively from the Big Finish website.
Director: Nicholas Briggs, Ken Bentley
Senior Producer: David Richardson
Executive Producers: Nicholas Briggs, Jason Haigh-Ellery
PRICING (PER VOLUME)
Pre-order: £24.99 (collector’s edition CD) £19.99 (download) from www.bigfinish.com
Pre-order: £35.99 (limited edition triple LP vinyl) from www.bigfinish.com
General release: £34.99 (collector’s edition CD) £29.99 (download)
