As reported by The Radio Times, Paul McGann, the actor who played the eighth Doctor in Doctor Who, will once again be reprising his role in a new audio drama box set produced by the iconic Big Finish Productions. The box set, titled “Deadly Strangers”, will feature an array of new stories, all led by McGann’s Time Lord, and will feature stories by Lisa McMullin and the pairing of Lauren Mooney and Stewart Pringle. The box set is already available to pre-order as a collector’s edition 3-disc CD box set or as a digital download.
Most interestingly, the box set features McGann reteaming with Matthew Jacobs in a story titled “Puccini and the Doctor”, which will see Tim McInnerny return to the franchise as the voice of the beloved composer, with companions Charley Pollard (India Fisher) and Lady Audacity Montague (Jaye Griffiths) joining for all three stories. Jacobs famously penned the 1996 Doctor Who movie which saw McGann make his one-and-only full-length appearance as the titular Time Lord, with Jacobs not having returned to the franchise since. Now, after almost 30 years, he is back, and, as cited on The Radio Times, is very excited about it. Jacobs said:
“This is the first time I’ve written a Doctor Who adventure since 1996. The Doctor is such an integral part of my life, so it’s been fascinating over the years to see it grow and grow. Paul has kept the Doctor alive at Big Finish in a marvellous way and he has become so much more sophisticated as a character than when we were starting. I was over the moon when script editor Matt Fitton asked me to put together a story. We discussed that this version of Paul’s Doctor is a bit closer to the TV movie Doctor – inquisitive, not as embittered as he gets through the Time War.”
The Fifteenth Doctor and Ruby Sunday Will Also Have Their Own Audio Adventures
As revealed on August 20, it won’t just be McGann’s eighth Doctor getting the audio drama treatment, with the most recent Time Lord/companion combination also coming to fans’ ears very soon. The Fifteenth Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) and Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson) will be officially starring in two brand-new Doctor Who audiobook adventures, with the release date set for November 7, 2024. The first is titled “On Ghost Beach” and is read by Susan Twist, with the second titled “Sting of the Sasquatch” and is read by Genesis Lynea.
Paul McGann’s eighth Doctor will be reprising his role in a new audio drama box set. You can catch all episodes of the latest season of Doctor Who on Disney+.