Doctor Who and Big Finish: A history of their special limited releases

As well as a two-disc release, The Light at the End was given a limited edition five-disc box set – one that would be the first of many for Big Finish…

(Photo credit: Doctor Who/Big Finish Productions.

Image obtained from: Big Finish Productions.)

With the huge success of The Legacy of Time, we look back on Big Finish’s many limited edition Doctor Who box sets. What started it, and which ones are worth checking out?

Before the epic Doctor Who box set The Legacy of Time was announced over a year ago by Big Finish, I suspected that there would be something big released to celebrate their twentieth anniversary. Well, perhaps not suspected so much as hoped. After all, there wasn’t a major story released to celebrate their tenth anniversary.

There were some major things that Big Finish did – resolving a major arc for the Sixth Doctor and Charley; an anthology release focused on the Eighth Doctor and some of his companions in other media; a sequel to The Key to Time arc etc. But to be honest, all of these are the kind of things that Big Finish does on a regular basis.

The most significant change that Big Finish did in 2009 was move from telling individual stories with different Doctors and companions every single month to switching to “seasons”. These would usually consist of three stories, usually focusing on just one Doctor but sometimes telling an arc across three different incarnations. But there was no release that was specifically designed to celebrate ten years.

Anniversary releases

However, when the twentieth anniversary year started to get closer and closer, a special release to celebrate it started to look a lot likelier. Especially after The Light at the End.

Released back in 2013, The Light at the End was a very special story designed to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary year of the television series. Featuring all the Classic Doctors and many companions, it was an amazing release.

It also started the tradition of Big Finish releasing the limited edition box set. While a two-disc standard edition was released, Big Finish also released a five-disc edition, containing not just the story, but a bonus behind-the-scenes disc, as well as a documentary covering the history of Big Finish and even a bonus story.

The biggest clue was what we got the very next year: The Worlds of Doctor Who. A box set told across four episodes, each of the first three stories were set in one of Big Finish’s many spin-offs – specifically, Jago & Litefoot, Counter-Measures and the UNIT Vault team from The Companion Chronicles – while the last one was a typical Doctor Who adventure featuring the Sixth Doctor.

The fact that Big Finish had celebrated their fifteen year anniversary with something as ambitious as a multi-series crossover was promising enough. After all, if they could do something that big to celebrate one and a half decades, what did they have planned for celebrating two whole ones?

While the TV series did Colin Baker’s Doctor a disservice with his regeneration, Big Finish have given him a worth send-off on audio.

(Image credit: Doctor Who/Big Finish Productions.

Image obtained from: Big Finish Productions.)

A long overdue swan song

Before then, of course, we had other special limited releases. In 2015, we had The Sixth Doctor: The Last Adventure, a long overdue regeneration story for Colin Baker’s Sixth Doctor. While his Doctor regenerated at the start of Time and the Rani, no explanation had been given for the Sixth Doctor’s “death” – something that Big Finish wanted to correct.

More than that: they wanted to celebrate the brilliance of Colin Baker and his time at Big Finish. On television, his Doctor arguably wasn’t one of the most popular, and went through one of the more difficult times of the television series.

But on audio, his Doctor truly shined – given a rich amount of character development and wonderful stories, Colin truly proved himself at being a magnificent Doctor. It was only fitting that he was given an epic regeneration story on audio – against the Valeyard, the Doctor’s darker side and one of Six’s more significant enemies, no less!

Two other limited edition box sets released that same year were part of the Novel Adaptations range. With both box sets, it was possible to get the stories individually in a standard release, but of course, along with nice packaging, there would also be a whole disc of bonus interviews included too.

This was especially appealing about the second Novel Adaptations box set, as it featured a lengthy interview with Russell T Davies, whose Seventh Doctor story Damaged Goods was included in the box set. Along with faithfully adapting the story, this adaptation also included mentions of both the Time War and Torchwood, which leads us neatly to…

The New Series

2015 was a major year for Big Finish. It was the year that they finally got the license for New Series material, and were able to use characters such as River Song, Kate Stewart, Strax and so many others for their stories. And of course, they got to tell stories with New Series Doctors.

But while there have been many special releases and spin-offs during that time featuring New Series Doctors and characters, there have been very few limited releases. In fact, the only limited releases that firmly focus on the New Series are The Tenth Doctor Adventures box sets.

Released in 2016, 2017 and 2019, these box sets have proved to be very popular. In fact, while it’s still possible to get almost all the limited edition box sets focused on the Classic Series, (the one exception to this we’ll get to shortly,) the original release of The Tenth Doctor Adventures: Volume One completely sold out within a year.

It’s not surprising – David Tennant has always been a hugely popular Doctor, and his return to his old role was a huge draw for many New Series fans. It’s still possible to get the episodes that the box set featured – either individually or as a standard edition box set physically, or even as a download-only copy of the original release with a bonus documentary included.

The biggest release yet

The past couple of years have been a little quiet when it comes to the limited editions. We’ve had many major stories from Big Finish – ranging from the beginning of the Time War to Derek Jacobi returning as the War Master in his own series. But hardly any of them have been given the limited edition treatment.

With one major exception.

Just a couple of months ago, Big Finish released The Legacy of Time, a huge six hour box set designed to celebrate the company’s twentieth anniversary of making Doctor Who on audio. Fittingly, Legacy merged key aspects of its earlier anniversary releases, The Light at the End and The Worlds of Doctor Who. The box set not only included many Doctors, but also connected directly to many of its spin-offs, too.

This was quite a major release for Big Finish, so it’s unsurprising that they decided to give it the limited edition treatment. Equally unsurprising is how quickly it sold out. Featuring multiple Doctors and a huge mix of both Classic and New Series characters, this was a box set that was going to appeal to nearly the whole of Doctor Who fandom in one way or another.

However, if you missed out on this initial release, don’t worry. Like all of Big Finish’s limited editions, the downloadable copy is still available to buy on their website, and a new standard edition has recently been released.

Recommendations

In the meantime, many limited editions are still available. Personally, there are several ones in particular that I’d recommend. There’s the fiftieth anniversary story The Light at the End, for one. This does have a standard two-disc edition that’s also available, but with two hours of Big Finish documentaries, plus a bonus Companion Chronicle story, it’s worth the upgrade.

The Sixth Doctor: The Last Adventure is a fantastic celebration of Colin Baker’s Doctor, and gives him the long overdue regeneration story that he truly deserved. Lastly, the limited edition release of Damaged Goods/The Well-Mannered War is worth getting, especially directly from Big Finish. As mentioned, that includes an interview with Russell T Davies, which is even longer in the extended edition that comes free on download.

The limited edition releases might be expensive, but they also show just how much love and care Big Finish put into their work. That, plus they look really nice on the shelf. These are of course mainly designed for collectors, but when a story is really special, sometimes, it’s worth paying just that little bit more.

Next. River Song – Why I enjoy her much more on audio. dark

Have you bought any of Big Finish’s limited edition Doctor Who box sets? Which one do you consider to be an essential collector’s item? Are there any existing stories that you’d like to see given a special edition release? Let us know in the comments below.

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