Doctor Who: The Sixth Doctor and Peri: Volume One announced!

In August 2020, a brand new Doctor Who box set will be released featuring new stories with the Sixth Doctor and Peri – set after their original travels together on television!

I have been waiting five years for this.

In 2014, a trilogy of Doctor Who audio stories was released by Big Finish Productions. All of these stories featured the Sixth Doctor and Peri. Nothing unusual about that – in fact, we’re in the middle of a trilogy featuring these characters right now.

But while the trilogy this year has been set during their original travels together, the earlier trilogy gave them stories firmly set after that era. After Peri’s off-screen departure in The Trial of a Time Lord, the Doctor spent a long time travelling with other companions. Eventually, he decided to go back to her in The Widow’s Assassin, and after a very complicated adventure, Peri started travelling with the Doctor again.

That’s the condensed version, leaving out a lot of key details. One particularly major details is that the Doctor found out something about Peri in the first story. Something that she doesn’t know. Something that he still hasn’t told her about. It’s a major loose end that has yet to be resolved, so I was admittedly disappointed when I learned that the Sixth Doctor and Peri trilogy this year wasn’t continuing that storyline. Especially as it had been five years since we had last heard them together.

Thankfully, that’s going to change next year.

Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant will return next year for four more adventures!

(Photo credit: Doctor Who/Big Finish Productions.

Image obtained from: Big Finish Productions.)

What to expect

The Sixth Doctor and Peri: Volume One will continue where the 2014 trilogy left off, focusing on their travels together after they’ve been reunited. We’ll be getting stories featuring these characters in a slightly different format: whereas their adventures on television and audio have usually been told in serials, in this box set, there are four individual stories that are just an hour long each.

Producer and director Scott Handcock sums up how long the fans have wanted this.

"Ever since the Sixth Doctor and Peri were reunited in The Widow’s Assassin back in 2014, listeners have wanted a continuation of their post-Trial of a Time Lord adventures together. And so now, to commemorate twenty years of Doctor Who at Big Finish, they’re getting a new collection of stories spanning the cosmos."

As for the stories themselves, here are the announced details for this exciting box set.

"1. The Headless Ones by James Parsons & Andrew Stirling-BrownWhen a distress call from an unknown source threatens to rip the TARDIS from the vortex, the Doctor and Peri arrive in nineteenth-century Africa hoping to find the cause of the disturbance. Instead, they meet a British expedition searching for a long lost tribe: the B’lemyae… better known to the locals as ‘the Headless Ones’.2. Like by Jacqueline RaynerOn the Earth colony world Rusina, the populace strive to be popular. Likes lead to promotion, dislikes lead to demotion – and more recently, something worse. So when the Doctor investigates the truth behind their subscriber-led society, he finds himself about to become very unpopular indeed.More from Winter is ComingFor All Mankind finally gives us information in Episode 405, “Goldilocks”Watch a stunning VFX breakdown of The Wheel of Time season 2Of course Steve Toussaint (Corlys Velaryon) thinks Eve Best (Rhaenys Targaryen) should rule WesterosConfirmed: The Last of Us season 2 will air in 2025Final season of Star Trek: Discovery will have “a lot of action, a lot of adventure, a lot of fun”3. The Vanity Trap by Stuart ManningMyrna Kendal used to be a Hollywood film star. Now she spends her life reminiscing on chat shows but there is always one unfinished film she refuses to talk about… at least until the TARDIS interrupts a TV interview, and the Doctor and Peri’s appearance stirs up long-forgotten memories.4. Conflict Theory by Nev FountainConcerned by the Doctor’s increasing over-protectiveness, Peri presents him with an ultimatum: either they seek counselling or she leaves the TARDIS permanently. Reluctant to lose one of his closest friends, the Doctor seeks out one of the finest psychoanalysts in the universe: Dr Sigmund Freud."

The last one is especially exciting. Not only does the story sound intriguing, but it’s written by Nev Fountain – not only a brilliant writer in general, but also a writer who’s given us some of the very best stories with Peri in any medium. Both Peri and the Piscon Paradox and The Widow’s Assassin are absolute must listens, so knowing he’s written this box set’s finale is extremely exciting news. Will Peri find out what the Doctor knows during this story, or indeed in any of the others? We can’t wait to find out.

Doctor Who – The Sixth Doctor and Peri is available to pre-order on CD and download now from Big Finish. It will be released in August 2020, so sadly we’ve got another long wait ahead of us. But I’m sure it’s going to be worth it.

Are you a fan of the Sixth Doctor and Peri? Have you been enjoying their current stories this year? Did you enjoy their post-Trial stories back in 2014? Let us know in the comments below.