5. Doctor Who: Once and Future: The Martian Invasion of Planetoid 50

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Doctor Who - Once and Future

Released September 2023

Written by Jonathan Barnes

Starring David Tennant Michelle Gomez

From US $11.04

About
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Backstage
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Production Credits

This title was released in September 2023. It will be exclusively available to buy from the Big Finish website until 30 November 2023, and on general sale after this date.

The Time War. The Doctor has been injured and brought to a Time Lord field hospital. His body glows with energy, but this is no regeneration into a future form - instead, the Doctor’s past faces begin to appear as he flits haphazardly between incarnations…

Staggering to his TARDIS, the Doctor sets out to solve the mystery of his ‘degeneration’. Who has done this to him? How? And why? From the Earth to the stars, across an array of familiar times and places, he follows clues to retrace his steps, encountering old friends and enemies along the way. Tumbling through his lives, the Doctor must stop his degeneration before he loses himself completely...

The First Doctor arrives in Victorian London amid a Martian invasion. But he discovers all is not what it seems when Missy appears...

Soon, the Doctor is propelled into a future incarnation - the Tenth - but he is not alone in battling Missy and her Martian invaders. The Paternoster Gang - Madame Vastra, Jenny Flint and Strax - are also here to assist. But can they offer the Doctor any help in solving his own degeneration mystery?

Recorded on: 10 October 2020

Recorded at: Remote recording

Series producer David Richardson said: “I feel privileged to have produced this very special episode, and the recording session was very special too.

“To have all of these wonderfully rich characters together was a treat, and to have David Tennant and Michelle Gomez going head-to-head was joyous. Michelle loves to play with the script, and she improvised beautifully – and David took her improvisations and matched her.

“During the recording I wondered how much might make it to the edit, but it’s all there within the final scenes. Joyous – I’ve used the word again. I’ve no other way to describe it.”

Writer Jonathan Barnes said: “I always try to include a personal element in my stories so I was pleased to be able to write a sort of love letter to the work of HG Wells as well as the required ingredients.

“It’s a commentary on fandom too in some ways. The Doctor lands on a planet which seems to have been remodelled as an exact replica of the fictional London in Wells’s War of the Worlds... but who could be responsible for such devilry? Well, check out the front cover!

“Hopefully there are a few a surprises along the way too...”