Klein Returns!
(
24/07/2009)
The Seventh Doctor is to get a new travelling companion… but it’s not someone he would want aboard the TARDIS! Big Finish has announced a new trilogy of
Doctor Who adventures, running from January to March 2010, which sees the return of Nazi scientist Elizabeth Klein, who stole the TARDIS and changed the course of history in the popular story
Colditz.
“
Colditz was actually number 25 in our range of
Doctor Who audio adventures,” says script editor John Ainsworth, “and it’s been exciting to revisit the character over 100 CDs and (for us) eight years later. In that time we’ve had many requests from fans demanding that we bring the character back, so we’re thrilled that Tracey Childs, who recently appeared in the TV series in
The Fires of Pompeii, has returned to the role to challenge the Seventh Doctor, who we find at a point in his life where he is travelling solo.”
“I am, of course, completely delighted to be returning to the role of Klein again,” adds Tracey Childs. “And am overjoyed that those in power have seen fit to bring her back... though frankly how anyone might ever have thought they could get by without my presence is a mystery to me. But maybe playing a megalomaniacal time travelling Nazi physicist is starting to go to my head!”
The first story in the season is
A Thousand Tiny Wings, which is set in the jungles of Kenya during the Mau Mau uprising of the 1950s. It is written by Andy Lane, the man behind the popular
Companion Chronicles Here There Be Monsters and
The Mahogany Murderers, while Ann Bell (Marion Jefferson in
Tenko) guest stars as Sylvia O’Donnell, and Lisa (
Bernice Summerfield) Bowerman directs.
This is followed by an as-yet untitled story by Jonathan Clements, and the trilogy climaxes with
The Architects of History by Steve Lyons, which is set in Earth’s future.
Meanwhile Big Finish has also confirmed the guest cast for its eagerly awaited season of stories set in Stockbridge, the village immortalised in several
Doctor Who Magazine comic strips, and featuring the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa.
The Castle of Fear (October 2009) features Joe Thomas (from the award-winning E4 comedy
The Inbetweeners) as Hubert and actor and impressionist John Sessions (
Doctor Who:
Death Comes to Time) as Roland.
The Eternal Summer (November 2009) includes Mark Williams (
The Fast Show, Arthur Weasley in the
Harry Potter films) as UFO hunter Maxwell Edison and Pam Ferris (
Rosemary and Thyme,
Little Dorrit) as Lizzie Corrigan. Finally
Village of the Damned has Keith Barron (
The Chase,
Doctor Who:
Enlightenment) as Isaac Barclay and Liza Tarbuck (
Linda Green,
Doctor Who:
The Infinite Quest) as Lysette Barclay.