Call him what you want, just don’t call him the Doctor. John Hurt’s incarnation of the rogue Timelord first appeared in the Doctor Who fiftieth anniversary special. This incarnation was kept a secret due to his actions used to end the Time War, so much so that the Doctor himself didn’t even remember. But now the secret is out, and Big Finish is bringing us the story of the War Doctor doing the unthinkable.
“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 War Doctor’s story will be told through four box sets of audio adventures, featuring the talents of John Hurt reprising his role as the War Doctor, and Jacqueline Pearce as the villainous Time Lord Cardinal Ollistra, an “arch manipulator who is waging the Time War against the Daleks”. Pearce is no newb to sci-fi, having played Servalan on Blake’s 7, and she has worked with Big Finish many times on such mainstays as The Avengers, Doctor Who: Death Comes to Time, and Russell T Davies’ Dark Season.
The first audio drama, Only the Monstrous, is written and directed by Nicholas Briggs, who not only voices the Daleks on Doctor Who, but has also written and directed some of Big Finish’s most beloved audios including the BBC Audio Award-winning 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.”
Only the Monstrous comes out in December, and is followed by Infernal Devices in February. Volumes three and four are currently in production. These dramas will fill in the gaps between the Seventh and Eighth Doctors, and give fans a glimpse of the Time War.
“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.”
Big Finish has done phenomenal work with all of their Doctor Who adventures, most notably elevating the Eighth Doctor from forgettable one-shot regeneration in the 1996 television movie to fan-favorite among Whovians. Can lightning strike twice?
2017 also sees an Eighth Doctor prequel box set following the early stages of the Time War starring Paul McGann as the Doctor, as well as characters introduced in the War Doctor dramas. All four Doctor Who: The War Doctor box sets are available now for pre-order on CD or digital download from the Big Finish website, as is the Eighth Doctor: The Time War set.