The Tenth Doctor

It's been quite a time; the last several weeks of my ongoing audio odyssey have provided some amazing and extraordinary experiences - and I use the word 'extraordinary' as someone who fervently believes that any 'artist' caught in the act of lazily using it to describe anything and everything, should be heavily fined by the Acting Police - so be assured that if I'm employing the word here, it's because events have indeed been extraordinary.

And here's why; not only have I recently had the immense honour of working with one of my professional heroes, Sir John Hurt, but last week, also had the great pleasure of working with a couple of Doctor Who icons, whose work both inside and outside the series, I admire very much, viz - David Tennant and Catherine Tate - oh yes!!!

News of the Tenth Doctor audio series we've been recording has been released today and here are some details from Big Finish, along with some fabulous artwork. Incidentally, I'm delighted that my character - octopus and chief villain Gully - features quite prominently in the artwork...

David Tennant portrayed the Doctor on screen from 2005 until 1 January 2010, returning to play alongside Matt Smith and John Hurt in the 50th Anniversary special The Day of the Doctor in 2013. Catherine Tate made her debut as Donna in December 2006, and after a series and two festive specials she made her last appearance alongside David on 1 January 2010. Their on-screen partnership is generally regarded as one of the great high-points of the enduring science fiction phenomenon.

Technophobia by Matt Fitton

When the Doctor and Donna visit London’s Technology Museum for a glimpse into the future, things don’t go to plan.

The most brilliant IT brain in the country can’t use her computer. More worrying, the exhibits are attacking the visitors, while outside, people seem to be losing control of the technology that runs their lives.
Is it all down to simple human stupidity, or is something more sinister going on?

Beneath the streets, the Koggnossenti are waiting. For all of London to fall prey to technophobia...

 Time Reaver by Jenny T Colgan

Calibris. The spaceport planet where anything goes. Where anyone who doesn't want to be found can be lost, and where everything has its price. Where betentacled gangster Gully holds sway at the smugglers’ tavern, Vagabond’s Reach.

The alien Vacintians are trying to impose some order on the chaos. Soon the Doctor and Donna discover why. An illegal weapon is loose on the streets. A weapon that destroys lives… Slowly and agonisingly.
The Time Reaver.

 Death and the Queen by James Goss

Donna Noble has never been lucky in love.

So when, one day, her Prince does come, she is thrilled to have the wedding of all weddings to look forward to. Though the Doctor isn’t holding his breath for an invitation. And her future mother-in-law is certainly not amused.

But on the big day itself, Donna finds her castle under siege from the darkest of forces, marching at the head of a skeleton army.

When it looks like even the Doctor can’t save the day, what will Queen Donna do to save her people from Death itself?

David Tennant The Doctor   Catherine Tate Donna Noble

Technophobia

Niky Wardley Bex   Rachael Stirling Jill Meadows   Chook Sibtain Brian   Rory Keenan Kevin

Jot Stevens Lukas

Time Reaver

Alex Lowe Soren   Sabrina Bartlett Cora   Terry Molloy Rone   John Banks Gully   Dan Starkey Dorn

Death and the Queen

Blake Ritson Rudolph   Alice Krige Queen Mum   Beth Chalmers Hortense   Alan Cox Death

Other roles played by the cast

 Doctor Who: The Tenth Doctor Adventures is produced by David Richardson,

 script edited by Matt Fitton and James Goss 

and directed by Nicholas Briggs

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So just to round off for now; my audio narration of The Bible is well underway and indeed, should be completed sometime in the next couple of weeks. This week, I'm also off to Games Workshop again to record further adventures of Ramus, in the Realmgate Wars series, which I'm very much looking forward to. Further details of all these projects will be released and published as they become available and I'm sure there'll be much more artwork to drool over.

Coming soon:

Series 3 of Survivors next month and The War Doctor the month after, along with further releases from The Age of Sigmar - phew!

...all for now, more just as soon as it happens!

Doctor Who: Doom Coalition

"Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends, we're so glad you could attend, step inside, step inside!"...

And coming very soon to a galaxy near you, Doctor Who: Doom Coalition. So what's it all about?

Starring Paul McGann, Nicola Walker and Hattie Morahan, this brand new set of four-adventures sees the Eighth Doctor drawn back to Gallifrey to face The Eleven (Mark Bonnar) – a Time Lord criminal who retains each of his personalities every time he regenerates.

The new story will see the Eighth Doctor and Liv cross paths with new companion Helen Sinclair. Together, they'll journey from Sixties London to Renaissance Italy and a meeting with famed astronomer Galileo Galilei (John Woodvine).

It all comes down to a stunning showdown with the Eleven – one that will have dire consequences for the Doctor across the series!

You'll have to trust me on this, but unless I've hit the digital cutting room floor, I am actually in this series, although I'm probably not going to be credited. I'll have to give it a forensic listen, but it might be fun just not to mention specifically what my contribution to the whole thing really was; bit of mystery, bit of surprise perhaps...?

In any case, it should be a fantastic production and I'm very much looking forward to its release on Monday 12th October - yes, Monday! Hope you enjoy, hope I'm in it! 

...all for now, more just as soon as it happens!

Lurid, Cute and Monstrous?

A couple of quick updates:

This morning, Big Finish announced the beginning of a very exciting series of audio dramas featuring the superstar actor, Sir John Hurt, who is playing The War Doctor. I am beyond thrilled to be involved in this series and very keen to listen to the first box set when it's released in December. In the meantime, here are some details of what's in store, with much more to follow...

In December 2015, the Time War will rage and only one man can save us. 

John Hurt is The War Doctor!

John Hurt, the world-renowned star of film and television, is returning to the role of The War Doctor, in twelve full-cast Doctor Who audio plays.

The War Doctor was introduced for Doctor Who’s Fiftieth Anniversary, and played a key part in the record-breaking television special The Day of the Doctor, alongside David Tennant and Matt Smith’s Doctors. He is the secret incarnation of the Time Lord — but he has shunned the title ‘Doctor’ in order to fight in the Time War against the Daleks.

“I have been a huge fan of John since first seeing him in the repeats of I, Claudius in the 1980s and in his Oscar-nominated role as the eponymous The Elephant Man,’ says Big Finish executive producer Jason Haigh-Ellery. ‘Watching his performance in The Day of the Doctor I did find myself fantasising that some far off day we might have the chance to work with him on the audio adventures of Doctor Who and now two short years later it’s happened! John wove a fantastic character together from a great script by Steven Moffat. Now we have the chance to get to know that character more and hear John stretch in the role. We’re all in for a hell of a ride as the War Doctor engages in battle. But who are the greater threat - the Daleks or the Time Lords?”

The audio adventures of The War Doctor will be told over four box sets, each containing three linked hour-long episodes. The first box set is entitled Only The Monstrous, and is written and directed by Nicholas Briggs, whose many successes for Big Finish include the BBC Audio Award-winning masterpiece Doctor Who: Dark Eyes.

“The story of the Doctor who refuses to call himself the Doctor in order to do the unthinkable upon the ultimate battlefield — all of space and time — was irresistible to me,” says Nicholas. “Such a deeply disturbing and engaging character created by the formidable talents of writer Steven Moffat and actor John Hurt. It’s such a privilege to be working on this.”

The cast of The War Doctor also includes Jacqueline Pearce, who plays Time Lord Cardinal Ollistra — an arch manipulator who is waging the Time War against the Daleks. Jacqueline’s work includes The Avengers, Callan, Doctor Who: Death Comes to Time, Moondial and Russell T Davies’ Dark Season, and she is known to many science fiction fans for her role as Servalan in the cult classic Blake’s 7.
Only The Monstrous will be released in December 2015, and will be followed in February 2016 by the second volume, Infernal Devices, which is written by John Dorney, Phil Mulryne and Matt Fitton. Volumes Three and Four are currently in pre-production.

“What an utter privilege it is to work with such an iconic actor, playing such a brilliantly devised role,” says producer David Richardson. “This is Doctor Who at its darkest — the era in which our hero casts aside his core values in order to try and save the galaxy in its most terrible hour. We promise bold and brilliant story-telling with gripping character drama, and epic and cinematic audio productions.”

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In August, audible.co.uk released the audio book version if Adam Thirlwell's novel, Lurid&Cute which I narrated. Here are some details:
  
Shortlisted for the 2015 Goldsmiths Prize

This yarn takes place in the suburbs of a giant city. In Brasilia they’re coming off their night shift, in Tokyo they’re having their first whisky sours – that’s what’s happening elsewhere in the world when our hero wakes up. Together with his wife and dog, he lives at home with his parents. He has had the good education and, until recently, the good job. In other words, the juggernaut of meaning was not parked heavily on our hero’s lawn.

But then the lurid overtakes him – and whether this lurid tone is caused by our hero’s new unemployment, or his feelings for a girl who is not his wife, or the return of his old friend Hiro, it’s hard to say. What’s definite is that a chain of events begins that feels to those inside it, narcotic and neurotic, like one long and terrible descent – complete with lies, deceit, and chicanery; one orgy, one brothel, and a series of firearms disputes.

While if you start to notice minute doubles and repeats, or wonder if what you took as some trick of perspective might in fact be a kink of reality, perhaps that shouldn't be so much of a surprise... For very possibly this suburban noir as the story of a woebegone and global generation – and our hero, the sweetest narrator in world literature, may well also be the most fearsome.

...all for now, more just as soon as it happens!