Tagged: Big Finish Productions

Gerry Anderson’s Gemini Force 1 Heads To Kickstarter

GF1-logo-trans

Based on concepts and story written by Gerry Anderson, a new adventure series from the creator of Thunderbirds and Space: 1999 will be funded by his fans via a Kickstarter campaign starting September 5th.

Gemini Force One (or GF1) is, as the Anderson Estate describes it, “the story of a secret organization involved in rescues and averting disasters and terrorist events”. Gerry began work on it back in 2008, but was unable to complete development due to his advancing Alzheimer’s Disease, which led to his passing at the end of last year.

The project has been planned as a series of adventure novels, the first of which will be completed by best-selling author MG Harris, writer of The Joshua Files, under the guidance of Gerry’s son Jamie, who is spearheading the project.  Harris has experience with popular science fiction series; she’s just recently completed a new Blake’s 7 adventure for Big Finish Productions.  Television, film and other media development will follow, based on the success of the book series.  The GF1 vehicles, a cornerstone of any Anderson series, will be designed by Andrew Probert
(Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica) and Dominic Lavery (New Captain Scarlet, James Bond, Event Horizon);

GF1 will be fan-funded with a Kickstarter campaign, with the first book scheduled to be completed and released to backers in April of next year, leading up to a full launch in August, coinciding with the 50th anniversary of his most famous series, Thunderbirds..  The campaign will provide the project with the funds for an initial print run, an audio-book edition, and a major media campaign.

The Anderson estate sees the project as a way to reach not only Gerry’s current fans, but a new generation of fans. Gerry lost the rights to many of his series in the 60s and 70s, and as such, never benefited properly as they grew into global cult favorites. With the renewed popularity of young-adult fiction, a new adventure series from such a franchise name seems like a good bet for success all around.

Details of the campaign, including backer awards, are available at www.gerryanderson.co.uk/GF1

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Big Finish Uncovers the Avengers

Audio publisher Big Finish Productions has unveiled the cover to The Avengers – The Lost Episodes: Volume 1. Cover design and artwork by Anthony Lamb.

The first box set, starring Anthony Howell as Keel and Julian Wadham as Steed will be available in January and you can pre-order it now by click here.

About The Avengers – The Lost Episodes: Volume 1–
In 1961 The Avengers burst onto our TV screens, starring Ian Hendry as Dr. David Keel and Patrick Macnee as John Steed. It began with a tragedy – and then pitted Keel and Steed against the underworld over the  course of 26 episodes (of which only two episodes still exist in their entirety).

The Avengers – The Lost Episodes recreates the existing scripts on audio with a full cast of actors. Discover, for the first time in over 50 years, the beginnings of a TV legend…

The Avengers Get a Big Finish Rebirth

Big Finish Productions has announced their latest audio series based on The Avengers.

Press Release:

THE AVENGERS LICENSED

Big Finish Productions is delighted to announce that it has signed a license with STUDIOCANAL to produce full cast audio productions of 12 lost episodes of the classic TV series The Avengers.

Discover the very beginning of this television classic, as we meet John Steed for the first time! Lost for over fifty years, the missing episodes have been lovingly recreated on audio from the original scripts.

The Avengers first launched in 1961, and starred Ian Hendry as Dr David Keel and Patrick Macnee as the elusive and suave John Steed. Beginning with the murder of Keel’s fiancée, and his sworn intent to avenge her death, that first year comprised 26 episodes. Sadly, only two of them exist in their entirety as film prints (Girl on the Trapeze and The Frighteners), while just the first act remains of the opening episode, Hot Snow.

Working from the surviving scripts, Big Finish will be presenting the adaptations in three four-disc box sets. The scripts will be adapted, with minimal changes, by John Dorney, the director is Ken Bentley and the producer is David Richardson. The executive producers are Nicholas Briggs and Jason Haigh-Ellery.

“We are absolutely thrilled to add this wonderful series to our catalogue,” says David Richardson, “and we look forward to faithfully recreating those classic lost episodes. We have two brilliant, high-profile actors for the roles of Dr Keel and John Steed – look out for an announcement of the casting once recording begins in July.”

Patrick Macnee as John Steed

“This opportunity confirms the enduring appeal of this classic TV series and the resonance of the SC collection in the context of British Film and Pop culture,” says John Rodden, General Manager Home Entertainment at STUDIOCANAL.

Volume 1 of The Avengers: The Lost Episodes will be released in January 2014 (and includes a full recreation of Hot Snow), with Volumes 2 and 3 following in July 2014 and January 2015.

Each person who pre-orders will be entered into a draw to win a copy of The Avengers: Series 1 and 2 on DVD box set, containing the remaining three first series episodes.

Learn more about Big Finish and The Avengers here.

Tom Baker To Don The Scarf Once More?

If this is true, the hearts of well over a million Doctor Who fans worldwide are about to beat just a little bit faster.

According to Slice of Scifi, Tom Baker will once again put on his mile-long multicolored scarf to reprise his role as the fourth Doctor in a 50th anniversary episode of the show, teaming up with eleventh Doctor Matt Smith. This is according to “a source close to the show.” Hmmm…

When Baker left the show back in 1981 as the series’ longest-running lead (a record held to this day), he said he wanted to put the part behind him. He was the only living Doctor who didn’t return for the 20th anniversary story, The Five Doctors. However, recently Baker came back to the role in a number of original full-cast audio adventures produced both by the BBC and by Big Finish Audio. The BBC episodes were set in contemporary time, and all co-starred other Doctor Who actors who had worked with Baker.

Is this the truth or is some well-placed hoser just jerking us around? Personally, I wouldn’t put the latter past show runner Steven Moffat – that seems to fit his whimsical public personna. But doing so would pretty much ruin the chances of Baker’s return to celebrate the 50th anniversary, and the BBC has confirmed they, and Steven, have “big plans.”

I hate to say it, but… only time will tell.

 

 

 

Tom Baker Returns Again!

Tom Baker Returns Again!

Well, you just can’t keep a good Doctor down.

76 year-old Tom Baker, the longest-running Doctor to date, will once again return to the role of the fourth Doctor in original adventures – this time for Big Finish’s full-cast audio productions. This follows this year’s Baker’s successful six-hour full-cast audio, Hornets’ Nest, for the BBC.

All Baker requested was total control to create his own stories; Big Finish, having worked with Doctors five, six, seven and eight along, agreed. They’re no fools. Thus far Big Finish has produced several hundred hours of original full-cast adventures featuring the Doctor(s) and one or more of his companions, including spin-off adventures featuring Sarah Jane Smith, the Daleks, UNIT and others.

Rumors continue to persist about Baker someday returning to the hit television show, although if you pay attention to the noise it seems he’s more interested in playing a villain than in appearing as the fourth Doctor in a crossover, although charity events might create that opportunity. Until then, we can listen to his new work and let our imagination do the heavy lifting.

All of this is according to Baker’s website, The folks at Big Finish have yet to confirm or deny.

2 New ‘Dark Shadows’ Audio Dramas

2 New ‘Dark Shadows’ Audio Dramas

In addition to its new audio dramas based on Doctor Who, Big Finish Productions also handles original properties in addition to other licenses. Recently, Big Finish announced two new installments in their ongoing Dark Shadows adventures.

Quentin Collins (David Selby) and Angelique (Lara Parker) take center stage in November’s The Skin Walkers. Set in New York at the turn of the century, “Quentin is stalked by a mysterious cult, hell-bent on harnessing his werewolf powers.”

Next month’s The Path of Fate, “explores Angelique and marks the Big Finish debut of Stephen Mark Rainey, an author familiar to Dark Shadows fans from his acclaimed official novel, Dark Shadows: Dreams of the Dark.

“Series two of the full-cast audio dramas is on track for release in August 2009 and will be our most ambitious Dark Shadows project to date.  It’s a four-part epic, continuing our ongoing stories in grand fashion. We will be recording these new CDs once the last of our current run of Dramatic Readings are released.  The first of the new stories is tentatively called The Banished Creatures and picks up directly from the exciting final scenes of The Rage Beneath.”
 

Iris Wildthyme Back for Second Season in February

Big Finish, the British audio producer, announced this week that four new Doctor Who pastiches will be released featuring their own character, Iris Wildthyme.  She was created by writer Paul Magrs and she’s described as “Bracing the temporal winds in her trusty bus and accompanied by the ever-loyal Panda (a ten inch tall stuffed bear), Iris travels from the depths of space to the gates of Wonderland and beyond. Iris and Panda will bamboozle and befuddle a host of new friends and enemies while always having time to mix a sharp Gin and Tonic.”

Katy Manning, a former companion of The Doctor, will reprise her role as the voice of Iris in this second season of adventures. David Benson also returns as the voice of Panda.

The new season kicks off in February with The Sound of Fear, written by Mark Michalowski. “Iris and Panda encounter the deadly Naxians aboard space station Radio Yesterday, along with Iris’s ex-husband, Sam.”

The second installment, Land of Wonder, from Magrs, features “Iris exiled to Earth and working with top-secret organization MIAOW to investigate dark happenings in the Underground.”

Simon Guerrier writes The Two Irises and “Panda has not only the return of the Naxians to deal with, but there’s a new Iris aboard the bus – an Iris who is decidedly male…”

The concluding escapade will be Mark Margs’ The Panda Invasion. “As San Francisco celebrates the millennium, Iris must save the world from destruction, while Panda faces his evil twin, and all because somebody spilt their gin and tonic…”

Big Finish intends to release the four dramas as single CDs, available monthly beginning in February, or a single box set.

‘Doctor Who’ Season 4, Digital Audio Downloads Announced

‘Doctor Who’ Season 4, Digital Audio Downloads Announced

A variety of "Doctor Who" news hit the ‘Net recently, so here’s a quick wrap-up of some stories "Who" fans might want to keep on their radar:

  • SCI FI Channel has confirmed that Season 4 of "Doctor Who" will begin this April on the network, with Catherine Tate replacing Freema Agyeman as the Doctor’s companion. Tate appeared in an earlier episode of the series titled "The Runaway Bride." Agyeman will appear in the series again midway through the season.
  • SCI Fi Channel also confirmed that the youth-targeted "Who" spin-off series "The Sarah Jane Chronicles" will also begin airing in April.
  • And if you’re the sort who wants to reconnect with some of your favorite Doctors of the past, Big Finish has annoucned that they’ll begin supplying the "Doctor Who" audio plays they’ve been producing since 1999 on CD in a download-friendly MP3 format.

The plays feature popular "Doctor Who" writers such as Paul Cornell and Mark Gatiss, as well as writers familiar to the comics crowd, including Dan Abnett (Nova) and Simon Furman (Transformers). Former "Doctor Who" actors lending their talents to the plays include Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy and Paul McGann.

(Hat-Tip to io9)

A Box Full Of Who

A Box Full Of Who

If you’re a Doctor Who fan given to long drives half-way across the continent (well, hey, I am), here’s a way to pass the time that’s a lot more entertaining that counting cars on the New Jersey turnpike.

Next week, the BBC’s audiobooks division will be releasing a box set of six audiobooks based upon recent novels starring the 10th and current Doctor.

Three of the six were read by David Tennant himself: The Feast of the Drowned by Stephen Cole, The Stone Rose by Jacqueline Rayner, and The Resurrection Casket by Justin Richards. Buffy’s Anthony Head (himself a frequent performer on Big Finish’s Doctor Who audio dramas) reads The Nightmare of Black Island by Mike Tucker. Rounding out the set, The Price of Paradise by Colin Brake and The Art of Destruction by Stephen Cole are read by Doctor Who actors Shaun Dingwall (Pete Tyler) and Don Warrington (The President in The Age of Steel), respectively.

According to the BBC, each adaptation will run approximately two hours. The set will cost about $100.00 U.S., plus shipping from your favorite neighborhood science fiction or comics importer. Amazon.com usually gets these things… eventually.

Sarah Jane’s Back Revealed

Sarah Jane’s Back Revealed

After a successful pilot was aired at the end of last year, the second Doctor Who spin-off, The Sarah Jane Adventures, will begin airing in England the end of this month.

Oriented more towards children the way Torchwood is geared towards adults, the ten-episode season will see the return of various Doctor Who villains, including the Slitheen. The production and writing crew will be the same as that for Doctor Who and Torchwood, masterminded by executive producer Russell T. Davies.

Thus far, Sarah Jane Smith is the only continuing human character from the classic series to return to the new Whoverse. Elisabeth Sladen returns to the role she made famous with Doctors three and four, and in nine original audio dramas from Big Finish Productions.