Doctor Who news: Christopher Eccleston returns to his iconic role as production begins on the Ninth Doctor Adventures!
By James Aggas
Christopher Eccleston returns to play the Ninth Doctor for the first time in 15 years, as production begins on his brand new Doctor Who audio series from Big Finish!
We’ve known that he’s been coming back for a while. Now, it’s officially confirmed that production has begun on Doctor Who: The Ninth Doctor Adventures. With Christopher Eccleston playing his iconic role for the first time in over 15 years, anticipation is high for Big Finish’s upcoming audio series.
It’s almost surprising that production for the series is only starting now, for two reasons. First, Big Finish tends to announce things when they’ve already started if not completed production already. For example, while we’ve been waiting for the upcoming multi-Master story Masterful for over a year, Big Finish had already recorded scenes with Derek Jacobi and John Simm when they announced it back in Dec 2019!
This brings me to the second reason why it’s surprising. While The Ninth Doctor Adventures was announced back in August, we can look forward to the first box set being released in May 2021 – just 5 months away! Then again, Big Finish has been able to release stories barely a month after they were recorded, even on lockdown, so we know that they can work extremely quickly, at least.
Regardless, the fact that production has definitely begun is hugely exciting – especially as we now know a couple more details about this upcoming series…
He's back! https://t.co/I4XiXBpcrL pic.twitter.com/YMIHwRMS6Y
— Big Finish Insider (@bigfinish) December 14, 2020
Hints and clues
In the newly released image (revealed in the tweet above), three things stand out. One is that the first box set has a subtitle – Ravagers. We know that each box set will have three episodes each. Could this be a three-part story? Or at least, three stories linked by a major arc?
The second thing that stands out is the first episode’s title – Sphere of Freedom. This could mean the return of the Sensorites, who originally appeared in the first season back in 1964. Not only is their world known as the Sense Sphere, but they returned earlier this year for the audio spin-off series Susan’s War, specifically in the episode Sphere of Influence. (It could be a reference to the Ood, who live on the nearby Ood Sphere, but considering that the Doctor doesn’t meet them until his next incarnation, the Sensorites seem likelier.)
Before Rose?
Lastly, while we can see the Doctor listed on the script’s first page, we can’t see Rose. That strongly suggests that we shouldn’t be expecting to hear her in this episode, perhaps even the whole of the first volume. That doesn’t confirm anything for later volumes, but it does suggest that we’ll be hearing the Ninth Doctor before his TV adventures.
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This is extremely exciting. There’s definitely a lot of potential for exploring the Ninth Doctor’s early adventures. In fact, what would be a really exciting way to kick this series off would be to give him a “new Doctor” story – an episode set immediately after his regeneration from John Hurt’s War Doctor in The Day of the Doctor.
Each of the New Series Doctors has been given a post-regeneration story, (even the War Doctor is getting one in next year’s series The War Doctor Begins,) so it’ll be great for the Ninth Doctor to get the same kind of story. Something that explores how he gets used to his new life, especially so soon after the Time War.
Regardless of what happens, this is an exciting box set to look forward to. You can pre-order it on CD, download, or even vinyl from Big Finish’s website.
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Are you excited about the Ninth Doctor’s return? What do you want to happen in his upcoming series? Let us know in the comments below.