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Gallifrey is the umbrella title of a line of audio plays set in the Doctor Who universe, produced by Big Finish Productions, featuring Louise Jameson as Leela, Lalla Ward as President Romana II, and John Leeson as two K-9 units, Mark I and Mark II. The title refers to the home planet of the Time Lords.
The Whoniverse is the non-narrative name given to the fictional setting of the television series Doctor Who, Torchwood, The Sarah Jane Adventures and Class as well as other related media. The word, a portmanteau of the words Who and universe, has also been used to describe the show's production and fanbase.
Big Finish Productions is a British company that produces books and audio plays based, primarily, on cult science fiction properties. These include Doctor Who, the characters Judge Dredd and Strontium Dog from 2000 AD, Blake's 7, Dark Shadows, Dracula, Terrahawks, Sapphire & Steel, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes character, Stargate, The Avengers, The Prisoner, and Torchwood.
Louise Jameson is an English actress, with a wide variety of television and theatre credits. She is known for her appearances in television series such as EastEnders, Doctor Who, Bergerac, and Tenko.
The first play in the series, Weapon of Choice , was released in 2004. The most recent: Gallifrey: Time War volume 2, was released in March 2019. Two further sets for the Time War series are set for release in 2020 and 2021. [1]
Gallifrey: Weapon of Choice is a Big Finish Productions audio drama based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. The series is set on the Doctor's home planet of Gallifrey.
The series focuses on political struggles within the leadership of the Time Lords, centred on Romana's presidency. In the first series, Romana's progressive policies and desires to open Gallifrey up to the outside universe faces opposition from more conservative cultures. In addition, a terrorist group known as "Free Time", who want to break the monopoly on time travel technology shared among the Time Lords and the few other temporal powers, steals a timeonic fusion device. The inquiry into Romana's handling of the incident reveals a dark secret surrounding the Time Lords' policy of non-intervention.
The second series sees the admission of non-Gallifreyans into the Time Lord Academy, leading to even more tension within the Time Lord political elite. Romana has to deal with Free Time infiltrators as well as an attempted coup by Inquisitor Darkel. In addition, an ancient Gallifreyan evil escapes from the Matrix: Pandora, a megalomaniacal personality who manipulates Romana and others with the goal of regaining life and power. At the end of the second series, Pandora manages to manifest herself in the form of Romana's first incarnation (played once again by Mary Tamm). Both Romanas claim the title of Imperiatrix, absolute ruler of Gallifrey, leading to civil war.
The Matrix, in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who, is a massive computer system on the planet Gallifrey that acts as the repository of the combined knowledge of the Time Lords.
Mary Tamm was a British actress, known for her role as Romana in the BBC's science fiction television series Doctor Who, starring opposite Tom Baker in the 1978–79 story arc The Key to Time.
In the third series, Romana traps Pandora in the Matrix once again, and destroys her by sacrificing the Matrix. After an election fraught with political manoeuvring, one Lord Matthias becomes Lord President. The series ends on a cliffhanger, with Gallifrey on the brink of economic and social collapse as well as in danger of being overrun by a Free Time virus, while most of the cast are trapped with no apparent means of escape.
At the time Big Finish's license forbid them from using aspects of the revived television series, [2] the Gallifrey series does not explicitly acknowledge the events of the Time War. However, in the final chapter of the third series Irving Braxiatel speaks of "rumours out there in the big wide universe — more than rumours, in fact — that something's coming to Gallifrey, something worse than you could possibly imagine".
Irving Braxiatel or Cardinal Braxiatel is a fictional character from the Virgin New Adventures—spin-off novels based on the BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who. He subsequently became a regular character in novels and audio dramas in the Bernice Summerfield universe. In the Big Finish Productions audio dramas he is voiced by Miles Richardson. He is also stated to be the older brother of the Doctor.
Because of these rumours, Braxiatel engineers the removal of the Time Lord biodata archive from Gallifrey, in order that the Time Lords might someday be restored after their planet meets its doom. Former Big Finish producer Gary Russell indicated in the audio interviews for the fourth series that this was a reference to the television series' Time War.
Gary Russell is a British freelance writer, producer and former child actor. As a writer, he is best known for his work in connection with the television series Doctor Who and its spin-offs in other media. As an actor, he is best known for playing Dick Kirrin in the British 1978 television series The Famous Five.
The Time War, more specifically called the Last Great Time War, is a conflict within the fictional universe of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. The conflict pitted the Time Lords against the Daleks and culminated in the apparent mutual destruction of both races, caused by the Doctor.
The fourth series, sees Romana, Leela, K9 Mark II, Brax and Narvin unable to save the Gallifrey they know. Instead, they wander through a collection of truncated time lines, looking for answers in alternate Gallifreys.
A Fifth and Sixth Series was produced. Nicholas Briggs appeared as The Daleks in the latter. [3]
Nicholas Briggs is an English actor, writer, director, sound designer, composer and voice actor predominantly associated with the BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who and its various spin-offs, particularly as the voice of the Daleks and the Cybermen.
The Daleks is the second serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast on BBC TV in seven weekly parts from 21 December 1963 to 1 February 1964. Written by Terry Nation and directed by Christopher Barry and Richard Martin, this story marks the first appearance of the show's most popular villains, the Daleks, and the recurring Skaro people, the Thals. In the serial, the First Doctor, his granddaughter Susan Foreman, and her teachers Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright land in an alien jungle and are captured by the Daleks, a race of mutated creatures who survive off the radiation that remains in the atmosphere after a nuclear war they waged with their enemies. As the group attempt to escape the Daleks, they discover more about the planet and the ensuing war and attempt to broker peace.
Seán Carlsen returned as Narvin in special Intervention Earth with Juliet Landau as Romana and introduces Sophie Aldred as Ace. Stephen Thorne guest star as Omega. [4]
Lalla Ward, Louise Jameson And Miles Richardson returned having remained absent in the previous release, in Enemy Line, with Seán Carlsen and Sophie Aldred continuing their roles. Celia Imrie was introduce as Livia.
Big Finish finally explored the Time War in 2018 with Ward, Jameson, Carlsen, Richardson and Aldred reprising their roles. Nicholas Briggs returned as the voice of the Daleks. Derek Jacobi guest starred as The War Master.
No. | Title | Directed by | Written by | Released |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | "Weapon of Choice" | Gary Russell | Alan Barnes | March 2004 |
2 | "Square One" | Gary Russell | Stephen Cole | April 2004 |
3 | "The Inquiry" | Gary Russell | Justin Richards | April 2004 |
4 | "A Blind Eye" | Gary Russell | Alan Barnes | May 2004 |
No. | Title | Directed by | Written by | Released |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | "Lies" | Gary Russell | Gary Russell | April 2005 |
2 | "Spirit" | Gary Russell | Stephen Cole | May 2005 |
3 | "Pandora" | Gary Russell | Justin Richards | June 2005 |
4 | "Insurgency" | Gary Russell | Steve Lyons | July 2005 |
5 | "Imperiatrix" | Gary Russell | Stewart Sheargold | August 2005 |
No. | Title | Directed by | Written by | Released |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | "Fractures" | Gary Russell | Stephen Cole | May 2006 |
2 | "Warfare" | Gary Russell | Stewart Sheargold | June 2006 |
3 | "Appropriation" | Gary Russell | Paul Sutton | July 2006 |
4 | "Mindbomb" | Gary Russell | Justin Richards | July 2006 |
5 | "Panacea" | Gary Russell | Alan Barnes | August 2006 |
No. | Title | Directed by | Written by | Released |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | "Reborn" | Gary Russell | Gary Hopkins | March 2011 |
2 | "Disassembled" | Gary Russell | Justin Richards | March 2011 |
3 | "Annihilation" | Gary Russell | Scott Handcock & Gary Russell | March 2011 |
4 | "Forever" | Gary Russell | David Wise | March 2011 |
No. | Title | Directed by | Written by | Released |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | "Emancipation" | Gary Russell | James Peaty | February 2013 |
2 | "Evolution" | Gary Russell | Una McCormack | February 2013 |
3 | "Arbitration" | Gary Russell | David Llewellyn | February 2013 |
No. | Title | Directed by | Written by | Released |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | "Extermination" | Gary Russell | Scott Handcock | October 2013 |
2 | "Renaissance" | Gary Russell | James Goss | October 2013 |
3 | "Ascension" | Gary Russell | Justin Richards | October 2013 |
No. | Title | Directed by | Written by | Released |
---|---|---|---|---|
– | "Intervention Earth" | Scott Handcock | Scott Handcock & David Llewellyn | February 2015 |
No. | Title | Directed by | Written by | Released |
---|---|---|---|---|
– | "Enemy Lines" | Scott Handcock | David Llewellyn | May 2016 |
No. | Title | Directed by | Written by | Released |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | "Celestial Intervention" | Scott Handcock | David Llewellyn | February 2018 |
2 | "Soldier Obscura" | Scott Handcock | Tim Foley | February 2018 |
3 | "The Devil You Know" | Scott Handcock | Scott Handcock | February 2018 |
4 | "Desperate Measures" | Scott Handcock | Matt Fitton | February 2018 |
No. | Title | Directed by | Written by | Released |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | "Havoc" | Scott Handcock | David Llewellyn | March 2019 |
2 | "Partisans" | Scott Handcock | Una McCormack | March 2019 |
3 | "Collateral" | Scott Handcock | Lisa McMullin | March 2019 |
4 | "Assassins" | Scott Handcock | Matt Fitton | March 2019 |
No. | Title | Directed by | Written by | Released |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | "Hostiles" [5] | Scott Handcock | David Llewellyn | February 2020 |
2 | "Nevernor" [5] | Scott Handcock | Lou Morgan | February 2020 |
3 | "Mother Tongue" [5] | Scott Handcock | Helen Goldwyn | February 2020 |
4 | "Unity" [5] | Scott Handcock | David Llewellyn | February 2020 |
No. | Title | Directed by | Written by | Released |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | TBA | TBA | TBA | February 2021 [1] |
2 | TBA | TBA | TBA | February 2021 [1] |
3 | TBA | TBA | TBA | February 2021 [1] |
4 | TBA | TBA | TBA | February 2021 [1] |
Romana, short for Romanadvoratrelundar, is a fictional character in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. A Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey, she is a companion to the Fourth Doctor.
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