Next year, Big Finish will release Doctor Who: The Eleventh Doctor Chronicles Volume 2, featuring four full-cast dramas starring Jacob Dudman as the Doctor!
For the past couple of years, Big Finish has been telling new stories of the Ninth, Tenth, Eleventh, and Twelfth Doctors in Doctor Who: The Doctor Chronicles. While Big Finish mainly focuses on audio dramas told with a full-cast, The Doctor Chronicles have previously taken the form of enhanced audiobooks – one person on narration duties, plus one other guest cast member.
The main reason for this is that it allows Big Finish to tell narrated stories of New Series Doctors or companions without the original actors involved. Naturally, we’re still waiting for Matt Smith to return to his old role of the Eleventh Doctor on audio, but in the meantime, we’ve had The Eleventh Doctor Chronicles to enjoy.
The first box set was released back in Aug 2018, and featured Jacob Dudman handling the narration. This was a fitting choice, especially as his impression of Matt Smith’s Doctor is genuinely uncanny. So it’s not surprising that a second box set has been announced by Big Finish. However, this volume puts a bold new twist on the format…
Jacob Dudman will be voicing Matt Smith’s iconic Eleventh Doctor once more – but with a twist…
Courtesy BBC
A change of format
Sep 2021 will see the release of Doctor Who: The Eleventh Doctor Chronicles Volume 2. Once again, Jacob Dudman’s vocal talents return for this volume. But not for an “enhanced audiobook” this time. Instead, Volume 2 will feature four full-cast stories: The Evolving Dead by Doris V Sutherland; The Day Before They Came by Daniel Blythe; The Melting Pot by Christopher Cooper, and A Tragical History by Tessa North.
Unsurprisingly, Jacob Dudman is extremely excited about this opportunity.
"I’m thrilled to be stepping into the role of the Doctor for these full-cast audio adventures! As a fan, it’s really exciting that Big Finish has made this move into creating an Eleventh Doctor full-cast range, and I will give it my absolute all to do the character justice."
This is a huge departure for the format, and a bold choice for Big Finish to make. It’s not that they haven’t told full-cast stories with explicitly recast Doctors before. They’ve seen a great deal of success with The Third Doctor Adventures starring Tim Treloar, and just last month, they announced the major upcoming series The War Doctor Begins starring Jonathan Carley in the lead role.
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A bold move
However, in those cases, there’s a key reason why those Doctors have had to have been re-cast: the actors are no longer with us. In the case of the Eleventh Doctor, Matt Smith is still very much alive. However, he’s also extremely busy, and the fact that Big Finish will be making full-cast stories without him is more than a little suggestive.
So while it would be a joy to hear Smith join his fellow Doctors on audio, we shouldn’t expect his return to his old role any time soon. (Once upon a time, I’d have said that only Eccleston seemed less likely to play the Doctor again, even on audio. Of course, that all changed back in August.) Still, while this is a huge move for Big Finish, I’ll certainly be keeping an open mind when I listen to it next year.
Doctor Who: The Eleventh Doctor Chronicles Volume 2 will be released on CD and download next year in September. You can order it directly from Big Finish’s website.
How do you feel about this major recasting news? Do you think Big Finish shouldn’t have made such a bold choice to move from audiobooks to full-cast stories with the Eleventh Doctor? Or do you think it’s the right move for them to do? Let us know in the comments below.