We here at Basic Stuff know that one can get carried away by a new, shiny fandom every so often, trailing from shows to books to movies every few months or years and enjoying the fruits and friendships each community has to offer. We also know that everyone has a fandom or two that they call home and for many of us, that’s Doctor Who.
So we were sitting around Basic Stuff central being nostalgic about the 2005-2010 Doctor Who era (Classic Who fandom, please excuse our youth) when the thought assailed us. Who said we can’t go home again?
To be sure, Doctor Who is still running, with Series 12 in the works for 2020, and we’ve been enjoying the Thirteenth Doctor’s stories so far. That said, some of us fell off the horse a couple of years ago and have never managed to quite get back into the Whovian state-of-mind in the post-Tennant era. That’s where the Big Finish Audio Dramas come in. Big Finish has been producing licensed Doctor Who stories (that means they’re for the most part canon-ish) for 20 years, but it was only in 2015 that they received permission to produce “New Who” stories, featuring the Ninth Doctor and beyond.
What is so Special about Big Finish?
The best part about Big Finish Audio Dramas is they are full cast, many featuring the voices of actual Doctor Who cast members such as Tom Baker, Alex Kingston, David Tennant, Billie Piper, Catherine Tate, and John Barrowman reprising their roles in brand new adventures. These stories take us where the show didn’t, couldn’t, or hasn’t yet.
So, back to our Doctor Who fandom re-immersion mission (a.k.a. Operation: Back to Who). Because we here at Basic Stuff can’t hide our love for David Tennant if we had all the cloaking devices in the multiverse, we decided to check out what stories Big Finish had for the Tenth Doctor first. We were pleased to find out that there were a lot to choose from, but we were most curious to see if there were any stories featuring a familiar new someone we last saw at a beach in Norway at the end of “Journey’s End.”
We won’t heavily spoil these stories, but if you’re still new to Doctor Who, be aware these take place after the Season 4 finale, “Journey’s End.” So you know, spoilers!
Doctor Who – Short Trips:
“The Siege of Big Ben” and “Flight Into Hull!”
Big Finish Productions
Written by Joseph Lidster
Performed by Camille Coduri (Jackie Tyler).
While there are a myriad of story formats produced by Big Finish, we dipped our toes in with a pair of “Short Trips” or half-hour audio stories. Although not strictly a two-parter, the stories are directly linked and continuous. Both stories are set in “Pete’s World” (the alternate universe featured in Doctor Who Season 2 and 4) some undetermined amount of time after the events of “Journey’s End” and are set up as conversations between Jackie Tyler (the mother of Rose Tyler) and her best friend Beryl.
Camille Corduri’s narration (who is reprising her role as Jackie Tyler) was like coming back home to the Tyler’s for a cup of tea and a bit of gossip – warm and engaging. While these stories don’t feature the voice of the man himself (don’t worry, we plan to get to those later), we were really excited to get some insight into the Meta-Crisis Doctor. Did he suffer any ill effects, like Donna did? Are him and Rose still together? Is he really The Doctor? We get answers to most, if not all, of our questions and we can only hope we’ll get more stories set in this ‘verse.
In each of these stories, the usual peril is set to the tone of Jackie’s uncertainty about this new Doctor, as she struggles with her memories of the man she knew and the familiar stranger that is now part of her family. We find out many interesting tidbits about life in Pete’s World, like the fact that there is no Eastenders and that the entire Tyler clan (including the Doctor) work for UNIT, which has subsumed other alien defense organizations like the Preachers and Torchwood.
But the most interesting things we can glean from these short stories are about the Meta-Crisis Doctor himself – as the show did not give us much more than a hint of what this Doctor was like – and Jackie Tyler’s stories suggest that he’s just figuring that out for himself. And, admittedly, he’s being a bit of a “grumpy prawn” about it, which Jackie attributes to him being “born in battle.”
“And [the Doctor] says, ‘Jackie Tyler, we’re under attack!’
And he says it like it’s the best news he’s had all day.”
– Jackie Tyler, “The Siege of Big Ben”
We also find that aside from a bit of an attitude (which might have to do with his biological relation to Donna Noble) and some issues with impulsivity and danger-seeking (which is just 100% unadulterated Doctor), Jackie also suspects that he is unhappy with his relatively normal family life, free of time and space travel. She even goes so far as to say she thinks he’d “dump Rose if he had the chance to get away.” Ouch.
The Doctor, as we well know, definitely needs a companion. More importantly, however, he needs to listen to that companion – and, in this case, it’s Jackie Tyler’s turn to remind the Doctor of who he is and that there is always another way. But despite saving the day together, “The Siege of Big Ben” ends with Jackie being quite displeased with the Doctor’s cold and unforgiving solution to their problem, admitting that she isn’t sure she likes this new Doctor. Luckily, Big Finish doesn’t leave us there and we have another short story from Jackie’s perspective called “Flight Into Hull!”
“And you know what he says to me? He starts shouting about me not understanding the bigger picture […] about how I’m just a silly little human! Well, at least I know what I am, Doctor; at least I know who I am!”
– Jackie Tyler, “Flight Into Hull!”
It appears the ongoing tensions have pushed Rose and Pete Tyler into action, tricking the Doctor and Jackie into taking a zeppelin trip all on their own to work out their issues. This plan seems to be failing spectacularly and some hurtful things are said before a familiar face from yet another universe boards the zeppelin with some nefarious plans. Without giving too much away, one of our favorite moments was Jackie refusing to be bullied and reminding everyone that despite not being a scientific genius, she is a hard-working woman, a caring person, and the mother of one of the most spectacular women in the multiverse.
When things look dire, the Doctor does what he always does and tries his best to save as many people as he can. It’s a heart-wrenching moment for the two of them as Jackie realizes that the Doctor is facing the possibility of a real death for the first time in his very long life. And, reader, we had to hit pause and grab our Kleenex because when the Doctor cries, we cry. You’ll want to hear his eleventh-hour confessions yourself, especially if you were curious about the relationship status of this sassy, more human Doctor and one Rose Tyler. But suffice to say that at the end of this wild ride, Jackie has exactly what she wished for – she has her friend the Doctor at her side.
“So, we’re mates, yeah?
‘Oh, yes, Jackie Tyler, we’re mates.’”
– The Doctor and Jackie Tyler, “Flight Into Hull!”
These two stories were released last summer (I know; we can’t believe we’ve been sleeping on these!) and definitely left us thirsting for more. A full-cast audio story starring David Tennant as the Meta-Crisis Doctor is absolutely 100% necessary. But in the meantime, we hope you join us here as we dig deeper into the Big Finish Audio archives and burrow further into our fandom roots with fic recommendations, artists spotlights, and a full series rewatch. Stay tuned as we continue Operation: Back to Who.