Big Finish Productions

Big Finish Productions are a British company that produce audio plays based on British cult science fiction properties. They are best known for their Doctor Who line; other properties include 2000 AD characters Judge Dredd and Strontium Dog, The Tomorrow People, Sapphire and Steel and Dalek Empire.

The Managing Director of the company is Jason Haigh-Ellery, with Gary Russell as the producer of the Doctor Who audios.

The company name, "Big Finish", comes from the title of an episode of Press Gang.

Doctor Who

The Doctor Who audio plays feature four of the surviving lead actors (Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy and Paul McGann) as well as many of the regular supporting actors over the many years of the programme. Tom Baker, the other surviving Doctor, has declined invitations to participate in the plays. Even the late Jon Pertwee's voice is featured in the 40th Anniversary story Zagreus. His part in the story was pieced together from snippets of dialogue (from the fan-produced Doctor Who video "Devious") recorded prior to his death.

McGann, who appeared as the Doctor in a 1996 telemovie but never got a television series of his own, stars in an ongoing series of audio adventures, which has just concluded its third "season".

The audio plays have also introduced their own companions. These include Professor Evelyn Smythe (played by Maggie Stables), Erimem (Caroline Morris), and Charley Pollard (India Fisher). The character of Professor Bernice Summerfield, from the spin-off novels, has also appeared, and stars in her own line of audio plays, written by a number of authors including her creator Paul Cornell.

A number of new villains have also been introduced, which include Nimrod, the deputy director of a United Kingdom "black ops" military research establishment known as the Forge. Thus far, Nimrod and the Forge have appeared in two Doctor Who audios, namely Project: Twilight and Project: Lazarus, both written by Cavan Scott and Mark Wright. Other writers for Big Finish include Rob Shearman and The League of Gentlemen's Mark Gatiss, who are also writing for the 2005 relaunch of the Doctor Who television series.

Big Finish has said that the new series will not impact much on the audio plays, save that the current grouping of Eighth Doctor adventures into "seasons" will cease and future releases starring McGann will be folded into the regular releases featuring previous Doctors. Big Finish's license has been extended to 2007.

Former adversaries of the Doctor who have reappeared in the audio plays include the Master, the Cybermen and the Daleks. The Nimon and Silurians have also made appearances.

Big Finish also publishes a series of short story anthologies taking place in the Doctor Who universe under the overall title of Short Trips.