Why You Need to be Listening to The Lost Stories

Big Finish are currently offering a number of stories free from their back catalogue to enjoy. So, over the next few weeks, I'll give you a review of the individual episode in question, as well as some reasons why you should be listening to the range or series the story hails from in full. We relaunch the series with - The Lost Stories...

The CD cover for "The Nightmare Fair", designed by Alex Mallinson.

Between 2009 and 2013, Big Finish brought 30 Doctor Who stories that were proposed at various points between 1963 and 1990 to life in a range referred to as The Lost Stories. Originally starting with the stories that were planned to make up Doctor Who's 23rd season before the hiatus of 1985 forced a rethink of plans, the range soon expanded to include stories as diverse as: the stories that would have made up the show's 27th season in 1990, had the show not been cancelled, the story originally planned to conclude the show's 14th season in place of "The Talons of Weng-Chiang", and even the story originally considered for the show's second slot back in 1963-1964. Because of this, you can imagine that there is a vast range of stories featuring all of the first seven Doctors, and there is something for fans of every era.

The CD cover for "Point of Entry", designed by
Alex Mallinson.

"The Nightmare Fair" was the first ever Lost Story, and was released in November 2009. In it, the Sixth Doctor and Peri visit Blackpool, ostensibly for a holiday. However, there's a space/time anomaly in the Pleasure Park, people are going missing around the park, and an old foe of the Doctor's is waiting, planning his revenge. Out of all the Lost Stories Big Finish have tackled, "The Nightmare Fair" is probably the one that we have known the most about since its cancellation. Discussion about it was heavy before the story's cancellation, due to the location of the story (it was planed that the team would be filming at the Pleasure Beach theme park itself), author Graham Williams novelised the story for Target Books in 1989 and a fan-made audio drama was released in the early 2000's, adapting the story. This version, however, is pretty much definitive, and, while the story itself is not a patch on the sterling work Big Finish have done with the Sixth Doctor, it does show that, had this been made at the time, it probably would have been one of the better stories in his era. Resurrecting the Celestial Toymaker may have been the kind of fan-pleasing nostalgia that 80's producer John Nathan-Turner could have been accused of indulging in, but, actually, it does make a lot of sense, as this was a villain who had a lot of potential that wasn't really tapped into in his debut story. While his plan is very much standard-Doctor-Who-villain-plan, Williams does provide some ruminations on the character that make him out to be much more misguided than that which we have seen previously. But, for the most part, "The Nightmare Fair" is your standard, down-the-line average classic Doctor Who story. And, while it isn't adventurous or daring, it is at least fun, and certainly conjures up that era of mid 80's Doctor Who really well. Colin Baker recreates the rather more fractious and grumpy Sixth Doctor that isn't really seen throughout many of the Big Finish audios set post-"Trial of a Time Lord" well, although his relationship with Nicola Bryant's Peri doesn't reach quite the same level of bickering and arguing as seen on the TV in the 1980's, thankfully. The guest characters aren't quite as well developed as those that populate your standard Big Finish audios, and there's more descriptive dialogue to convey the more visual elements of the script. However, that's to be expected, and you have to remember that this is less of an audio drama, and more of a historical document. The music and sound design from Big Finish mainstay Jamie Robertson helps a lot with this, as it sounds exactly like the kind of thing that the BBC Radiophonic Workshop would have cooked up for a story like this. "The Nightmare Fair" will not be the most novel or exciting experience for even fans new to Doctor Who at Big Finish. However, if you want a chance to see what the 'lost' Season 23 might have looked like, "The Nightmare Fair" is a good example of that. It's by no means the most novel or exciting story, but what it does do is recreates the feeling of classic Doctor Who for 2 hours with a fun and light story. If you're a fan of the Sixth Doctor's era, you'll find a lot to like here.

The CD cover for "Earth Aid", designed by Alex
Mallinson.

And, if you enjoyed "The Nightmare Fair", then here is a list of 3 reasons why you need to be listening to the rest of The Lost Stories:

1. The Chance to See Lost Pieces of History:    The major appeal of a range like the Lost Stories is that it offers fans a window into a world where different stories from the ones we are familiar with made it to the screen. There's a lot of what if's with a range like this, and, as such, these stories aren't just good adventures, but also offer some insight into the period of Doctor Who history they would have been made in. The Seventh Doctor stories, for example, take the stories that were lined up to be part of the Season 27 that didn't end up taking place due to the show's cancellation: "Thin Ice", for example, would have been Ace's departure story, while the next story, "Crime of the Century" sees new companion Raine joining the TARDIS crew. The aborted Season 23, meanwhile, has the Sixth Doctor facing off against the Celestial Toymaker, Sil and the Ice Warriors (in "Mission to Magnus") and the Tractators (in "The Hollows of Time"). "The Fourth Doctor Box Set" contains two stories from two titans of the early Fourth Doctor years: Robert Banks Stewart and Philip Hinchcliffe, while two of the First Doctor Lost Stories hail from the very early days of Doctor Who. All these different stories are example of directions the show could have taken, had history played out differently. Even some of the stories that aren't tied to key events in the show's history, like the three Fifth Doctor stories or some of the Second Doctor adventures like "The Rosemariners" or "The Queen of Time", show slightly alternate views on the show we love.

The CD cover for "The Elite", designed by Alex
Mallinson.

2. Pitch-Perfect Recreations of the Era:                 Of course, it isn't just the scripts themselves that sound 'of the era'. The production on these stories, right down to the acting and sound effects, is often so good, that you swear that Dick Mills has been involved in their production. The team who work on these Big Finish audios is absolutely dedicated to ensuring they sound exactly like the era they hail from, and, more often than not, they nail it so much that you'd swear that this was a story that the BBC accidentally junked back in the day, and that we only have the soundtrack for. Some of the most notable examples of this peerless work are the aforementioned "Nightmare Fair". the First Doctor epic "Farewell, Great Macedon", the time-twisting Fourth Doctor story "Foe From the Future" and the sequel story to 1981's "The Keeper of Traken", "The Guardians of Prophecy". But, for my money, the best recreation of an era in terms of music and sound design has got to be the work of Fool Circle Productions on the 2011 Fifth Doctor adventure "The Elite". It is actually quite disturbing just how much the music for this story sounds like the type of scores that Peter Howell, Paddy Kingsland and Roger Limb, together with the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, produced for the stories of the early 1980's. It just sounds so right, and the soundscape backs that up with effects that counjure up that era pitch-perfectly. Occasionally, they have an off-day (I'd argue that the scores for the Seventh Doctor 1990 season don't really sound like the sort of music that Keff McCulloch or Mark Ayres would have composed back in the day, but maybe they were deliberately trying for something different), but, for the most part, the post-production work really makes these tales what they are, and they all aid the effect of recreating the tone and style of a particular era of Doctor Who.

The box-set cover for "The Lost Stories: The
Fourth Doctor Box Set", designed by Alex
Mallinson.

3. When the Lost Stories Really Push the Boundaries:                                                                                The main appeal of the Lost Stories is, of course, their evocation of bygone days of Doctor Who. However, where some of the strongest material is often to be found is in those stories that occasionally push the boundaries even further than the TV series would have done had they been made at the time. This can be in a number of areas: be it horror, scope and spectacle, or even in emotional content. While these Lost Stories are slightly rarer, those that do push the boundaries are even more effective than a 100% authentic piece. Some prime examples include "The Foe From the Future" and "The Valley of Death" from "The Fourth Doctor Box Set", which have such a scale and a size to them that you would never have seen on screen, because they could never have afforded it; "Point of Entry" and "Leviathan" from the lost Season 23, which would never have gone as far as they do with regards to horror and violence; and "Nightmare Country" and "The Children of Seth" for the Fifth Doctor, which are simply far too meta-textual and 'out-there' for Doctor Who of the early 80's, even alongside "Warrior's Gate" and "Kinda". However, the one I want to focus on the most is "The First Sontarans" by "Full Circle" writer Andrew Smith. Shelved in the mid 1980's to make way for "The Two Doctors", this was made by Big Finish as part of the second batch of Sixth Doctor releases in 2012. And it has exactly the same emotional heart as any episode of the New Series. I doubt whether that would have been the case at the time, but it doesn't matter what the story would have done at the time in this case. "The First Sontarans" is such an exceptional production, because it doesn't do what the TV show would have done at the time, and it is probably my favourite Lost Story for that reason alone.

The CD cover for "The Ultimate Evil", designed by Ryan Aplin.

The Lost Stories are a range well worth getting into if you enjoy exploring the vast, rich tapestry of Doctor Who's history. If you want to see all the different stories that could have been made in place of the ones we know and love, then this is the range for you. Even if you just want stories that sound like they belong in the era of the Doctor they star, then the Lost Stories will hold a great interest to you. Full of treats, rare gems and even the odd clunker (I mean, some of these Lost Stories were lost for a reason...), this range has the vast variety of the Classic Series at it's finest. And there's really no higher compliment than that.

Until the 17th of August 2020, you can get part 1 of "The Nightmare Fair", from the Lost Stories range, from Big Finish completely free. You can find it here:

https://www.bigfinish.com/releases/v/doctor-who-the-nightmare-fair-part-1-2332

You can also save up to 60% on the first series of The Lost Stories & "The Lost Stories: The Second Doctor Box Set" until the 17th of August 2020 too. You can find a full list of the titles here:

https://www.bigfinish.com/collections/v/weekly-deals

Happy listening!

All pictures copyright to the BBC/Big Finish Productions. Thank you very much for reading.