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Doctor Who: The Paternoster Gang are getting their own audio spin-off series in 2019!

By James Aggas

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Fans who loved the Paternoster Gang from the Steven Moffat era of Doctor Who, prepare to be excited, as they get their own audio series starting in 2019!

The Paternoster Gang were a pretty popular team from Steven Moffat’s run on Doctor Who. Appearing in several stories on television, the combination of the intelligent and graceful Silurian Madame Vastra, her cockney wife Jenny Flint, and the ever aggressive Sontaran Strax, made for a memorable combination.

It’s strange to think that they had last appeared on television in Peter Capaldi’s first episode, Deep Breath. They were such a brilliant and distinctive team that it’s easy to believe that they were in across the whole of Moffat’s run, rather than just five episodes.

It’s not surprising that fans have been waiting for a spin-off with this team for a long time. While the Moffat era is now over, and thus, the chances of a TV spin-off series have been significantly reduced, fans are still in luck. Because the team are finally getting their own audio spin-off series from Big Finish!

A natural successor to Doctor Who’s greatest spin-off

Honestly, on or off the screen, I can’t think of anyone better to handle such a series than the talented people working at Big Finish. They’ve given us so many great original spin-offs already, including Dalek Empire, Gallifrey and of course, Jago & Litefoot.

This last one is the closest that would match what we’re looking for from a Paternoster Gang series, at least in terms of tone and stories. Jago & Litefoot featured the many adventures of two characters from the Fourth Doctor serial, The Talons of Weng-Chiang.

It was a hugely successful series that ran for thirteen box sets, plus numerous specials and crossovers. In fact, they even encountered one member of the Gang in Jago & Litefoot & Strax!

The series came to an end earlier this year with Jago & Litefoot Forever. So many of us have been eager for something to fill that gap for Victorian sci-fi and horror stories. The Paternoster Gang, while it’s bound to be its own thing, could also fill that gap, at least partially.

Catrin Stewart, Neve McIntosh and Dan Starkey will star in The Paternoster Gang, a spin-off series based on the very popular trio from Doctor Who!

(Image credit: Doctor Who/Big Finish Productions.

Image obtained from: Big Finish Productions.)

Series details

The series begins in April 2019, following on from the whole team’s first appearance in Big Finish in The Eighth of March box set. The first release will be Heritage 1, and will feature the following stories:

"1.1 The Cars that ate London by Jonathan Morris1.2 A Photograph to Remember by Roy Gill1.3 The Ghosts of Greenwich by Paul Morris"

Every single one of these sounds absolutely perfect for the kind of stories that The Paternoster Gang needs to tell. And Big Finish’s description of them in the announcement only makes them sound more exciting. In just the first three adventures, we’ll be getting electronic cars in London, zombies, and ghosts from the future!

In addition to all of that, we’ll also be introduced to a whole new gang: the Bloomsbury bunch! A trio formed from a Sontaran couple and their Silurian servant, it sounds like quite an interesting parallel to the Paternoster Gang. Will they be worthy adversaries for our favorite trio?

Cast reactions

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Unsurprisingly, everyone sounds really excited to work on these upcoming stories. Dan Starkey, who plays Strax, is especially enthusiastic.

"Remain calm, human scum! Strax need no longer sulk and polish his grenades! It’ll be a pleasure to get the gang back together: Big Finish listeners can be assured that we’ll be in full prosthetics and restrictive Victorian tailoring in studio to get right back into the Paternoster Row vibe! Can’t wait to get started!"

And Neve McIntosh, who plays Madame Vastra, is also keen on this series. She also gives us a slight hint of what to expect from the series, too.

"At last our fans will get more adventures with The Paternoster Gang and will find out more about how we came to be!"

So, it sounds like we’ll be getting the early days of the gang, and how they formed into a team after A Good Man Goes to War. That definitely sounds exciting. I really can’t wait for this series to begin!

The Paternoster Gang Volumes 1-4 will be released in April and October 2019, and in March and October 2020. They can be pre-ordered both individually or as a bundle right now from Big Finish’s website.

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Are you excited about this new spin-off? Are you a fan of the Paternoster Gang? Who’s your favorite of the trio? Let us know in the comments below.

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