Doctor Who: The Monthly Adventures
Audio adventures of the classic Doctors from 1999 to 2021.
Doctor Who: The Monthly Adventures, originally subtitled the Main Range, is a full-cast audio drama series produced by Big Finish Productions from 1999 to 2021. It features the original television actors portraying the Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, and occasionally Eighth Doctors in new adventures. The series holds the Guinness World Record for longest running science fiction audio play series.
Quick Facts
- First release
- July 1999
- Final release
- December 2021
- Total releases
- 275
- Produced by
- Big Finish Productions
- Record
- Guinness World Record for longest running science fiction audio play series (2021)
Facts from the source article.
History
Big Finish Productions, largely composed of fans who had recorded fan audio plays, initially received a licence to adapt some of the New Adventures novels from Virgin Books into audio. This led to a licence for original audio dramas featuring past Doctors, beginning with The Sirens of Time in July 1999. Original writers included Gary Russell, Nicholas Briggs, Justin Richards, and Mark Gatiss; Steven Moffat also contributed but left when the licence did not cover the then-current Eighth Doctor. The Fourth Doctor actor Tom Baker declined to participate, so releases alternated among the Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Doctors. The licence extended to the Eighth Doctor in 2001, though his stories were generally released consecutively rather than in the alternating schedule. After the television revival in 2005, the Eighth Doctor mostly moved to The Eighth Doctor Adventures. Companions from television returned, and in March 2000 the first Big Finish-originated companion, Evelyn Smythe, appeared. October 2000 saw Bernice Summerfield, from the Virgin novels, and November 2000 introduced Frobisher from the comics. Every televised companion except Jackie Lane's Dodo Chaplet has reprised their role.
Theme music
Big Finish's budget at the time could not cover royalties for Dominic Glynn's or Keff McCulloch's versions; Derbyshire's version was used because she was a BBC employee when she made it, so no royalties were owed. Her 1970s theme was also considered more definitive than Peter Howell's 1980–1985 version, and Howell had also been a BBC employee. July 2009's The Company of Friends used a Nicholas Briggs arrangement, and the October–December 2011 trilogy with Mary Shelley used a Jamie Robertson arrangement. From December 2002's Bang-Bang-a-Boom!, which used the correct McCulloch theme for a Seventh Doctor and Mel story, Big Finish could afford era-specific theme tunes. A rare exception was December 2006's Year of the Pig, set between Timelash and Revelation of the Daleks but using the anachronistic Glynn theme instead of the Howell theme from season 22. December 2020's Plight of the Pimpernel, set just before The Trial of a Time Lord, used the Glynn theme, sparking debate among fans over whether the Glynn or Howell theme should have been used.
Continuation
In May 2020, Big Finish announced the Main Range would end with its 275th release, replaced from January 2022 by regular boxsets for each Doctor. The series achieved the Guinness World Record for longest running science fiction audio play series in 2021, though the claim is contestable as Ruby the Galactic Gumshoe by the ZBS Foundation has run sporadically since 1982, with a release as recently as 2025. Big Finish stated the revamp aimed to provide accessible stepping-on points for newcomers and allow more creative freedom in cast combinations, story lengths, and arcs.
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