Doctor Who: Could an Animated Big Finish Series Work?

I have been a big fan of Big Finish’s work for a few years now. Their stories are consistently well written, the performances are always great to listen to, and the post-production really helps to draw you into their worlds through great sound effects and music. Even their spin-off series are fantastic, such as Dalek Empire, I, Davros, and my personal favourite, Jago & Litefoot.

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However, one drawback to being a fan of Big Finish is trying to find people to discuss such excellent stories with. I’ve spoken with many, many fans over the New Series on television, and quite a few over the Classic Series, as well, but it’s very difficult to find a fellow fan who enjoys listening to Big Finish.

There have been a few key reasons for this. One possible problem is the medium: for some people, it takes an awful lot of concentration listening to an audio story compared to a television one. While I don’t have a problem with listening to Big Finish’s stories in the slightest, for a lot of people, it seems that a key visual element is needed.

There’s also a much more significant reason why there’s a far greater audience for the TV series than for Big Finish’s stories: money. In the UK, at least, you can watch Doctor Who for free, and even though in America, you can watch the show for a monthly fee on either cable or Netflix, these costs are still significantly lower than, say, a 2 hour Big Finish story for £15 each month. Unsurprisingly, even with discounts offered from subscriptions and bundles, it can be off-putting for a lot of fans to spend so much money on a series that arguably they can watch for free on television.

However, there is one key way Big Finish could be able to solve both of those key problems: animation, or more specifically adding animation to some of their already existing stories. It would be considerably cheaper to make than simply adapt the stories into live action, especially with the voice acting already completed. With some of the more epic-scale series like UNIT: Dominion and Dark Eyes, it would also be more cost-effective than trying to make CGI visuals convincing enough for live action.

This could still come with potential problems, however. As an independent company, Big Finish would be unable to fund for animation by themselves. There would have to be enough interest from an outside company willing to pay for animated related costs, and the big question is, is there enough demand for that to be a likely option? Currently, I’m not too sure.

However, it’s not an option that looks completely impossible: the earlier Big Finish stories ‘Real Time’ and ‘Shada’ were partially animated web-casts back in 2002 and 2003 respectively, and there was also the fully animated, non-canon series ‘Scream of the Shalka’ which featured Richard E. Grant as the Doctor in 2003.

There have also been missing episodes where the surviving soundtracks have been given animation for DVD releases, such as ‘The Invasion’ and ‘The Tenth Planet’, so providing animation to already existing material certainly wouldn’t be new.

If there was enough interest for an animated version of Big Finish’s stories, I personally believe it could work brilliantly. While some of my favourites wouldn’t be adapted because they’re entirely designed for audio (‘Scherzo’ and ‘The Natural History of Fear’ spring to mind, for completely different reasons), there’s an even greater number that could still work with a visual attached. While I’m more than happy listening to Big Finish’s current output, I would love for their excellent work to reach a wider audience, especially those looking for more Eighth Doctor stories, and an animated TV series could be their best option.

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