14B. Doctor Who: The Fourth Doctor Adventures Series 14: The Ruins of Kaerula

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Doctor Who - The Fourth Doctor Adventures

Released June 2025

Written by Phil Mulryne Tim Foley

Starring Tom Baker Louise Jameson

From US $27.12

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This title was released in June 2025. It will be exclusively available to buy from the Big Finish website until 31 July 2025, and on general sale after this date.

Time travel can always bring complications. The Doctor, Leela and K9 find themselves at different ends of strange temporal effects - from two time zones on the same planet to two locations that couldn't be more different. But the peril they find in all of these places is the same.

14.3 The Remains of Kaerula by Phil Mulryne
When a time anomaly brings the TARDIS down on the planet Kaerula, the Doctor and his companions set out to investigate. They soon meet two escapees from a nearby containment camp, who warn them of mysterious cave creatures.

While Leela and K9 venture deep into the caves, the Doctor must broker a peace between the Kaerulans and the Rems... but on this occasion, time may not be on his side.

14.4 The Ruins of Kaerula by Phil Mulryne
The TARDIS crew have attempted to depart Kaerula, only for an experiment gone awry to drag them back to an earlier point in the world's history.

Now stranded, the Doctor, Leela and K9 encounter very different versions of people they’d only just met, and must deal with the consequences of their own actions. And the experiment has brought something else to this planet - something terrifying and deadly.

14.5 Cry of the Banshee by Tim Foley
The Brigadier uses the Time-Space Telegraph to summon the TARDIS to a stormy Geneva, where a World Peace Conference has been interrupted by a mysterious death. The Irish delegate has died of fright... after seemingly being visited by a Banshee.

Tracing the source of the attack, the Doctor takes the Brigadier, Leela and K9 to a thirtieth-century space station orbiting Jupiter, with a boggy marsh for an interior. Deep within the station lie the answers to the puzzle... as well as secrets and dangers best left undiscovered.

Brigadier Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart © Haisman & Lincoln and used under licence.
With thanks to Hannah Haisman and Candy Jar

**Please note: the collector's edition CD boxset is strictly limited to 1,500 copies**

Recorded on: 14 January 2019, 8 December 2020, 2 and 18 March 2021, 28 May 2021

Recorded at: Audio Sorcery and Remote Recording

On bringing the Brigadier into the Fourth Doctor Adventures range, actor Jon Culshaw said: "The Fourth Doctor and Leela's era had a wonderful gothic quality about it, a Hammer Horror sense, with Leela being a hero - there was never a companion like Leela with that fire of a warrior.

"With the joys of Big Finish, we have these well-loved characters who didn't meet in the TV programme, but they do now. It's lovely to play the Brigadier with Leela. He would have really admired her warrior spirit."

Writer Tim Foley added: "When I was asked to write a story with the Brigadier meeting Leela, I thought it was a very interesting idea to have two very different warriors and soldiers coming together. And then I had the idea to put the Brigadier in space, dislocate him from what he knows - give him a TARDIS adventure, effectively."

Writer Phil Mulryne said: "This is such a classic TARDIS team and it is a privilege to write for them. Leela and K9 are at opposite extremes of the Doctor's personality, which can provide great stories and lots of fun dynamics.

"We didn't want to do a conventional four-parter, but thought it might be fun to have two linked two-part stories, with some slightly timey-wimey element, which classic Doctor Who definitely did sometimes - City of Death has a lot of that. And that's why we ended up with this idea of the first story taking place after a great disaster, dealing with the consequences of it, and then going back and letting us see more of the crisis actually occurring."

Producer David Richardson said: "Cry of the Banshee is another script from the magnificent Tim Foley, which was recorded almost five years ago, and guest stars Jonathon Carley - this was the day he auditioned for the War Doctor! – and Jaye Griffiths – long before she was cast as the Eighth Doctor’s companion Audacity."

Lead actor Louise Jameson described the opening episode: "I love this script. It's beautifully crafted, it works on the grand and on the minutiae. We've got the us and them of society, but we've also got the triangle of K9, the Doctor and Leela, maintaining their personalities very clearly throughout the adventures. And there's several cliffhangers - you're left holding your breath at least five times!"

John Leeson, voice of K9, added: "It's a very environmentally based script and it shows us ourselves, because the world is pulling itself apart around us, more than it ever has before. And the way that science fiction treats it is to put it on a plane where it can be seen at a distance and recognised for what it is, in rather a dramatic fashion.

"In terms of the part K9 is playing in this storyline, it's simple devotion to duties as defender and protector of the Doctor, as a scientific advisor. It's been tremendous for me over the years to have played this character, because he's been everywhere and done pretty well everything. A Time Lord’s best friend!"