Tenth Doctor / Classic Companions (Sep 2022)

Oh I’m torn about this. On the one hand, yay more Tennant and Time War fallout is a promising hook. On the other, these companions have some of most Big Finish material of any characters. So it feels like going over well-trodden ground and another release seemingly designed around “[x] returns and meets [y]!”.

More Ten is always good, but did they have to pick the 3 most overused companions in the history of BF?

I really wish BF would get over doing "[x] returns and meets [y]" releases.  I'd rather have more original stories with original characters, or if it has to be returnees, then at least a more even spread rather than the same handful popping up all over the place

I'd argue they make sense from a sales standpoint -- I suspect the 10DAs attract a fair few people who don't normally listen to BF, so three popular and recognisable companions make sense.

You also can't really do a story with Adric after he finishes travelling with the Doctor for obvious reasons, and Mel and Peri both currently have ongoing storylines where they start travelling with the Doctor again, so BF might not want to do stories with them before they've tied those up.

Ten meeting some old companions? OH YES!

I did smirk when I saw the lineup because it was inevitable before I even clicked the link to the news article. At the end of the day, the reason we have so many stories with these companions is that they're beloved, long serving and just generally available / up for recording with Big Finish.

I think it'll be a lot of fun. I really like the idea of K9 making his way through the set; Ten & K9 is one of those brilliant pairings we only got brief glimpses of but you watch wearing a big grin. Never mind the Children of Time and Davros and all that malarkey, it's "K9! Out you come!" that steals Journey's End! Well, for me anyway!

It'd be really interesting if they're set during the Doctor's farewell tour. It was a self-indulgent idea to begin with, retconned into something a bit more meaningful in Death of the Doctor, and actually gives scope for some very underplayed character driven stories. Big Finish are really crafting their own era for the Tenth Doctor during his Specials year, the more the merrier I say.

I’m especially disappointed that all of Tennant’s lockdown material seems to come down to this. Out of Time is “Tennant meets Fourth/Fifth/Sixth Doctors and Daleks/Angels/Cybermen”, Dalek Universe is “Tennant meets everything Terry Nation ever came up with”, Ten & River is self-explanatory and this is “Tennant meets the three companions Big Finish have already extensively explored in so many other ranges”. First three 10DA volumes might have just been RTD era style stories, but least they have a semblance of originality. 

I would argue that you can have x meet y releases with original and innovative stories. Just with the 10th Doctor, we have Ghosts and Expiry Dating that just came out, both of which are original and creative stories that start with the hook of 10 and River. The upcoming releases for 10 also include a nine part epic that has him with BF original companions/reoccurring characters, and the news piece for this release makes it clear that these stories are smaller scale character pieces between people who haven’t seen each other in forever.

Also, super excited but lamenting that it doesn’t come out for almost two years! And Axon as well

The announcement also revealed the involvement of the Movellans and Davros and both companions are SSS agents, one of which is lifted wholesale from Nation’s Dalek spin-off concept. Even the concept of Ten ending up in pre-Time War universe has been done before by a novel. I’m willing to be proven wrong and be convinced by reviews of original and experimental stories, but not hopeful from the announcement.

I dunno it just feels like Tennant’s recent material is skewing dramatically towards fan fic concepts. I think the novelty of “[x] meets [Y]!” has just completely worn off on me. So I just kinda shrug at these announcements now, which is a shame as Tennant was my first Doctor. I’ll tap out of this thread now for fear of killing the mood.