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Doctor Who news: Liz Shaw and Sarah Jane Smith will feature in the Third Doctor Adventures next year!

By James Aggas

We look at the Target novelization of Jon Pertwee serial Death to the Daleks. Is the adaptation any more successful than the original?(Photo by Evening Standard/Getty Images)
We look at the Target novelization of Jon Pertwee serial Death to the Daleks. Is the adaptation any more successful than the original?(Photo by Evening Standard/Getty Images) /
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The next volume of audio series Doctor Who: The Third Doctor Adventures will feature two very familiar companions: Dr. Liz Shaw and Sarah Jane Smith!

Since 2015, we’ve been enjoying brand new audio adventures of the Third Doctor thanks to Big Finish. Starring Tim Treloar as the incarnation made famous by Jon Pertwee, The Third Doctor Adventures has been a delightful way of returning to a bygone era, just like many of Big Finish’s Doctor Who audios with previous Doctors.

However, this series has differed from other Doctor-focused series in rather crucial ways. Along with the recast, another way that The Third Doctor Adventures has stood out is how much it’s been focused on one particular TARDIS team.

While Paul McGann’s Doctor has gained many companions over the course of The Eighth Doctor Adventures and Big Finish has jumped around the history of Tom Baker’s Doctor in The Fourth Doctor Adventures, we’ve always seen the Third Doctor paired with Jo Grant (Katy Manning) in these audios. It’s not surprising, especially as Manning is one of the few surviving actresses from that era. But so far, we’ve yet to hear stories set during Season 7 or 11 – when the Doctor had Dr. Liz Shaw and Sarah Jane Smith as his companions, respectively.

Thankfully, that’s going to change next year.

We’ve had many stories on audio with the Third Doctor and Jo from Big Finish. But the next volume of The Third Doctor Adventures will focus on two other major companions.

Image Courtesy Big Finish Productions

The return of Liz and Sarah Jane

It’s just been announced in Doctor Who Magazine that Daisy Ashford and Sadie Miller will star as Liz and Sarah Jane – characters originally played by Caroline John and Elisabeth Sladen, respectively – in two separate stories. The casting is rather fitting: both actresses are the daughters of the original stars.

We got to hear Ashford as Liz back in Volume 5, in which Liz was reunited with the Doctor and even got to meet Jo Grant. She was fantastic to hear in the role, giving her own performance while remaining true to the character.

As for Sadie Miller, we’ve yet to hear her as Sarah Jane. But we’ll get to hear her take on the role in the upcoming Lost Story Return of the Cybermen, based on an earlier version of the script that eventually became Revenge of the Cybermen before it was heavily re-written by script editor Robert Holmes.

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Exploring eras

Script Editor John Dorney gives us an idea of the upcoming volume’s two stories: The Unzal Incursion by Mark Wright and The Gulf by Tim Foley.

"The Unzal Incursion is a very authentic Season 7 style story throwing the Doctor, Liz, the Brigadier and UNIT into a strange training program and its effects. It’s action-packed, with the complex web of betrayal of something like The Ambassadors of Death, and even shares the same opening sting! Writer Mark Wright absolutely nails the tone from the get-go.The Gulf, by contrast, is set on a water world and takes us into Season 11 territory, with the Doctor and Sarah Jane finding themselves amongst artists on an isolated station where suspicious happenings are underway. It’s a dark story with tragic undercurrents – quite literally in fact!"

All of this sounds extremely exciting. Particularly since, while I’ll certainly miss Katy Manning’s performance as Jo, it is nice to move away from that era. In fact, it’s nice to have a box set that represents two very different points in the Third Doctor’s life, one close to the beginning and one much closer to the end.

Doctor Who: The Third Doctor Adventures: Volume 7 will be released in May 2021 on CD and download. You can pre-order it now directly from Big Finish’s website.

Season 13 has begun filming. dark. Next

Are you excited to hear more adventures with Liz and Sarah Jane? Do you think it’s time that the Third Doctor’s era was expanded on in the audios? Let us know in the comments below.

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