TruWho Audio Dramas: A Handy Guide

For almost two decades, Classic Who fans disillusioned with the revived series were able to turn to the full-cast audio plays of Big Finish Productions for something more closely resembling the show they know and love. However, since 2015, the company's output has become increasingly corrupted by the forced intrusion of NuWho elements. So, to make it somewhat easier to separate the wheat from the chaff, I've compiled a list of every Big Finish audio drama that's written by Classic Who writers and stars the original main cast. If all you want from Big Finish is a pure recreation of the televised classic series, this list is for you.

The list will be updated as and when eligible new releases become available. I've tried to sort them chronologically, tagging them with the year they likely would have been broadcast had they been televised stories.

A production will only be included on this list if it meets all of the following criteria:
- Must be written by a 1963-1989 contributor
- Must feature the original lead cast from its chosen era
- Must not feature any NuWho references

Of course, being written by a TruWho writer doesn't necessarily guarantee a great story, but it does mean that you can be sure you're getting an authentic experience from the writers and actors responsible for delivering the original series.

Tom Baker:

- Return of the Cybermen (1975) - Gerry Davis
- The Foe from the Future (1977) - Robert Banks-Stewart
- The Valley of Death (1977) - Philip Hinchcliffe
- Night of the Stormcrow (1977) - Marc Platt
- The Abandoned (1977) - Louise Jameson
- The Ghosts of Gralstead (1977) - Philip Hinchcliffe
- The Devil's Armada (1977) - Philip Hinchcliffe
- The Genesis Chamber (1977) -  Philip Hinchcliffe
- The Helm of Awe (1977) - Philip Hinchcliffe
- The Sons of Kaldor (1977) - Andrew Smith
- The Iron Legion (1979) - Pat Mills & John Wagner
- The Star Beast (1980) - Pat Mills & John Wagner
- The Movellan Grave (1980) - Andrew Smith
- The Skin of the Sleek (1980) - Marc Platt
- The Thief Who Stole Time (1980) - Marc Platt

Peter Davison:
- Winter for the Adept (1982) - Andrew Cartmel
- The Star Men (1982) - Andrew Smith
- Spare Parts (1982) - Marc Platt
- Renaissance of the Daleks (1982) - Christopher H. Bidmead
- Time Reef (1982) - Marc Platt
- The Elite (1982) - Barbara Clegg
- Hexagora (1982) - Peter Ling
- The Children of Seth (1982) - Christopher Bailey
- The Cradle of the Snake (1983) - Marc Platt
- The Butcher of Brisbane (1983) - Marc Platt
- Eldrad Must Die! (1983) - Marc Platt
- Mistfall (1983) - Andrew Smith
- Loups-Garoux (1984) - Marc Platt
- Nightmare Country (1984) - Stephen Gallagher

Colin Baker:
- The Nightmare Fair (1986) - Graham Williams
- Mission to Magnus (1986) - Philip Martin
- Leviathan (1985) - Brian Finch
- The Hollows of Time (1986) - Christopher H. Bidmead
- Paradise 5 (1986) - PJ Hammond
- Point of Entry (1986) - Barbara Clegg
- The Song of Megaptera (1986) - Pat Mills
- The Macros (1986) - Ingrid Pitt & Tony Rudlin
- The Guardians of Prophecy (1985) - Johnny Byrne
- Power Play (1986) - Gary Hopkins
- The First Sontarans (1986) - Andrew Smith
- The Ultimate Evil (1986) - Wally K. Daly
- Emissary of the Daleks (1986) - Andrew Smith
- Hour of the Cybermen (1986) - Andrew Smith

Sylvester McCoy:
- The Warehouse (1987) - Mike Tucker
- Night Thoughts (1989) - Edward Young
- Thin Ice (1990) - Marc Platt
- Crime of the Century (1990) - Andrew Cartmel
- Animal (1990) - Andrew Cartmel
- Earth Aid (1990) - Ben Aaronovitch
- The Genocide Machine (1990) - Mike Tucker
- Dust Breeding (1990) - Mike Tucker

Paul McGann:
- Shada (1996) - Douglas Adams
- An Earthly Child (1996) - Marc Platt

Those Lost Stories sure makes me wish we'd seen a lot more stories by Barbara Clegg back in the day.

Thanks very much for going to the trouble of doing this. It sbe very useful if i ever go back to Big Finish.

I was thinking if you were to extend it to include McGann as canon, you'd probably almost be able to add (at a push) The Creed of the Kromon (Richard Martin) and The Silver Turk (Marc Platt).... except for the fact that even there, McGann's companions are all new and non-televised.

Actually I just realized, the 7th Doctor audios The Genocide Machine and Dust Breeding were written by Mike Tucker, who worked on the McCoy era's special effects and model work. So since he was a contributor they could probably go on the list too.

Early big finish is the best yeah since 2015 it is has gone downhill a bit.

They started going downhill around 2007 when Nick Briggs took over the range. Some of their sloppiest, worst nadir releases came out around then (The Dark Husband, Assassin in the Limelight, The Boy That Time Forgot, The Key 2 Time Trilogy, Dalek Empire 4: The Fearless).

It felt like around 2010 they started to get back to quality with the Klein Trilogy, City of Spires, Cyberman 2 and I did enjoy the Lost Stories range.

But that same year they also produced The Four Doctors and made it exclusively a subscribers' special permanently. Meaning it was never going to be possible to get it any other way. It was not going to get a general release six months on. You either had to dance and jump through their hoops to get it or you didn't get it.

It was as if they were saying our loyalty thus far wasn't loyal enough and so we were being penalized by being denied content. It was such an elitist statement. And for me that was the point where they really showed their cold, sickening contempt for their buyers, and I really wish I didn't know that.

By 2014 I was kind of losing interest in them anyway. The Rani Elite and Masters of Earth were a bit on the mediocre side, and it really did feel that the range's best years were behind it.

Once I saw they were bringing in River Song, Ten and Rose and Donna, and other New Who elements, I have to say it killed much of the mystique and reverence the audios used to have to me. Like the range was no longer going to be about the things we hadn't seen and untapped potential, but was now just going to be about crowd-pleasing with New Who characters I hadn't missed at all. The John Hurt War Doctor releases were the only ones I was curious enough to be interested in hearing really.

Beyond that, I can't remember the last time I even listened to a Big Finish. I used to try to listen to as many as I could in a day, whether walking out in the woods or suburbs or by the coast (imagining I was on the exotic worlds of Dalek Empire, Mission to Magnus, Paradise 5, Live 34 or Plague of the Daleks), or on a long train journey (it was quite something being in Manchester Piccadilly or Leeds Central Station and imagining I was in some vast Dalek metropolis), and used to enjoy the feeling of immersing myself in some solid new world and stories that made me think, and really wishing we'd gotten stories and spin-offs like this on TV.

It even used to inspire me to write, and endeavour to make my writing as solid and emotive as I could.

Then they started to become diluted, and they started to become a chore, and they started to become no longer their own little untainted universe, but something far too commercialized. Bringing in new who elements was a bit like filling the worlds I'd imagined in the audios with various McDonalds, Pizza Huts and Taco Bells. It just felt obnoxious and it wasn't the same immersive experience anymore.

I never listened to a single audio drama or big finish or etc

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I lost interest in the main range sometime around No.50, which is ages ago. I think Zagreus was the point when I decided not to renew my next subscription, but I had a few after that before my subscription ran out.
I actually think some of the spin-offs have been BF's best work. Dalek Empire was really good, and showed what could be done with the Daleks not being reduced to the cyphers they became, post Genesis.
Cyberman, I Davros, UNIT, Gallifrey, Sarah Jane Smith, and others were all good extended universe stuff. But eventually it got to the stage where they were releasing so much stuff that I couldn't keep up, and apart from a bit of cherry picking to test stuff out, I've never really gone back.

Excluding non TV companions means you miss out on gems like Jubilee or Chimes.

I liked some of what I heard -Romance of Crime, Night Thoughts, Chimes, Holy Terror, Spare Parts, Marian Conspiracy, All Consuming Fire, some of the Colin lost stories - but the novelty kind of wore off mainly due to my preferring to watch Who rather than just listen to it. Audio drama is just not my bag.
Would love to see some of the above animated, though.

Ronnie wrote:I lost interest in the main range sometime around No.50, which is ages ago. I think Zagreus was the point when I decided not to renew my next subscription, but I had a few after that before my subscription ran out.
I actually think some of the spin-offs have been BF's best work. Dalek Empire was really good, and showed what could be done with the Daleks not being reduced to the cyphers they became, post Genesis.
Cyberman, I Davros, UNIT, Gallifrey, Sarah Jane Smith, and others were all good extended universe stuff. But eventually it got to the stage where they were releasing so much stuff that I couldn't keep up, and apart from a bit of cherry picking to test stuff out, I've never really gone back.

That's pretty much the same deal as myself.

After Zagreus the McGann range lost a lot of it's previous magic.

I randomly dip in and out occasionally, but find it hard to uncover content which holds my attention like the first 50 did.

Rob Filth wrote:

Ludders wrote:I lost interest in the main range sometime around No.50, which is ages ago. I think Zagreus was the point when I decided not to renew my next subscription, but I had a few after that before my subscription ran out.
I actually think some of the spin-offs have been BF's best work. Dalek Empire was really good, and showed what could be done with the Daleks not being reduced to the cyphers they became, post Genesis.
Cyberman, I Davros, UNIT, Gallifrey, Sarah Jane Smith, and others were all good extended universe stuff. But eventually it got to the stage where they were releasing so much stuff that I couldn't keep up, and apart from a bit of cherry picking to test stuff out, I've never really gone back.

That's pretty much the same deal as myself.

After Zagreus the McGann range lost a lot of it's previous magic.

I randomly dip in and out occasionally, but find it hard to uncover content which holds my attention like the first 50 did.

Yes, they started becoming pretty forgettable after the first 50.
Good to see you around, Rob.

The number of stories is the reason I'm sticking to Seventh Doctor titles only and only branching off when needed.

I used a guide to put them in rough chronological order, and with each title on a new row, plus a few full audio books from Audible, it came to six pages in length!

Big Finish has been going for 21 years and yet 2 decades later when people ask to recommend some legitimately great BF's the same handful of stories is mentioned again and again.

Chimes of midnight
Spare Parts
Holy Terror
the Marian Conspiracy...

Basically Big Finish could have gone out of business in 2004 and nothing of value would have been lost.

Why the fuck is this a thing?
Who the fuck is buying this stuff?

I would love to know Big Finish's subscriber demographics and what ranges sell best and worst.

The Brigade Leader wrote:


Why the fuck is this a thing?
Who the fuck is buying this stuff?

I hate her, but she was at least a companion.

The Brigade Leader wrote:Big Finish has been going for 21 years and yet 2 decades later when people ask to recommend some legitimately great BF's the same handful of stories is mentioned again and again.

Chimes of midnight
Spare Parts
Holy Terror
the Marian Conspiracy...

Basically Big Finish could have gone out of business in 2004 and nothing of value would have been lost.

There are others. The Forge stories are good (Project: Twilight/Lazarus /Destiny), and Death in the Family is possibly one of the best written DW stories of all time.

The villain Trilogy is also good: Omega/ Master/ Davros