When people love something, they often can't get enough of it — that's what leads to fanart, fanfiction, cosplaying, and the like. For Doctor Who fans, many of their favorite characters have had the opportunity for their stories to continue in the form of audio dramas. Big Finish Productions, founded in 1996, primarily produces audiobooks and audio plays, and one IP that they produce is Doctor Who. Collider's Maggie Lovitt recently moderated a panel at MegaCon in Orlando, Florida featuring actors who have all played companions in Doctor Who. Alex Kingston, who played River Song, Freema Agyeman, who played Martha Jones, Billie Piper, who played Rose Tyler, Arthur Darvill, who played Rory Williams, Jenna Coleman, who played Clara Oswald, and Mandip Gill, who played Yasmin Khan, were all in attendance. Lovitt asked, for those that have done audio dramas (everyone except Coleman), what was it like to continue their character's stories?
The actor on the panel who has probably logged the most hours in the Big Finish audio booth is Alex Kingston. Kingston starred on Doctor Who as Professor River Song from Season 4 until the 2015 Christmas Special "The Husbands of River Song." Meeting The Doctor out of order, her character would go on to marry him (Matt Smith's Eleventh Doctor). Kingston has not only lent her voice to solo adventures for River Song The Diary of River Song, but has also starred opposite Doctors her character never met on screen. Fan favorite interactions include Paul McGann's Eighth Doctor and Tom Baker's Fourth Doctor. Kingston says that for the dramas, "I haven't worked with Jodie [Whittaker] and actually I haven't worked with Matt [Smith] on audio with you guys, but I've worked with every other doctor that's alive."
Kingston explains that the Big Finish Production team is "like family now, actually." Taking in sitting with other past companions sitting around her, she says "I was just thinking it would be so great to, you know... do a sort of like a story with all of you, with the companions," to which the audience erupted into cheers. Suffice it to say, that's something both Kingston and fans want. Kingston's upcoming audio drama, The Life and Death of River Song, features a River Song back from the dead, and will actually have her crossing paths with two Classic Who companions, Ace (Sophie Aldred) and Tegan Jovanka (Janet Fielding).
Big Finish Audio Dramas Allow Actors to Reconnect With Their Characters
Image via Fan Expo
Billie Piper also shared her experience with the audio dramas. Piper played the first companion in the rebooted series back in 2005. She played Rose Tyler, companion to the Ninth (Christopher Eccleston) and Tenth (David Tennant) Doctors. At the beginning of the series, Rose was meant to be around 19. Piper, who is 42 now, explains, "At first I think I get really nervous about how I'm gonna revert to, you know, my 21-year-old self." Piper has lent her voice to Big Finish, reprising her role as Rose Tyler in Rose Tyler: The Dimension Cannon among other contributions reuniting with Tennant. Piper says of the environment, "When you're in the room with everyone, it's... it's... it's just a sort of weird muscle memory that comes back. It's just a nice way to connect with everyone, you know, I'm really grateful for them."
Arthur Darvill also said that recording them, especially during the pandemic, was nice. "I was at home under my duvet," he joked. With only having to lend a voice, the convenience seemed to be appreciated by those in attendance who had done it. Darvill did share he had reservations about returning to Rory Williams, initially. "Because I didn't want to dilute... it's so stupid that I was thinking about it, I just didn't want to dilute the thing I was so proud of. The thing that we did, I didn't want anything to take away from that. And then when I got over myself, I did some."
Mandip Gill is newer to the audio drama arena, only just a few years removed from playing Yasmin Khan. She will star alongside Jodie Whittaker in a new series of audio adventures called The Thirteenth Doctor Adventuredebuting later this year. She explains, "I've only done a few, we've got more to come and fingers crossed, so I'm really excited to see where the stories go." Gill explains. "I got to sort of explore parts of my character that I hadn't explored in the BBC show." Whether that's a more overt display of affection towards the Thirteenth Doctor (#Thasmin) or something else, it will only be another few months before fans get to find out.
Freema Agyeman spoke of her experience of bringing Martha Jones to life once again in audio format. She explains there's a different experience when it's contributing to a drama with multiple actors lending their voices versus a solo adventure. She says that it can be overwhelming, but rewarding to do so:
"I can't do 50 accents, so I started trying things and saving and just being like, I don't— we're never getting out of this booth, and the director was so brilliant and was like, you don't have to keep changing your accent. He said people speak at different paces and different tones and at different pictures. You can keep your own voice, but just think about the quality of that person. I thought that was wicked advice and I use that all the time with characterization now actually."
You can watch past episodes of Doctor Who with all of these companions on Max. Stay with Collider for the latest updates.
Doctor Who
Release Date
2005 - 2021
Network
BBC
Directors
Graeme Harper, Euros Lyn, Douglas Mackinnon, Jamie Magnus Stone, Charles Palmer, Rachel Talalay, Joe Ahearne, James Strong, Jamie Childs, Saul Metzstein, Toby Haynes, Wayne Che Yip, Nick Hurran, Richard Clark, James Hawes, Daniel Nettheim, Colin Teague, Keith Boak, Azhur Saleem, Adam Smith, Andrew Gunn, Nida Manzoor, Lawrence Gough, Paul Murphy
Image via Fan Expo
Image via Fan Expo
English (US) ·