February 9th, 2015
32 comments
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Big Finish UNIT The New Series – Extinction
Available to order from www.bigfinish.com
Big Finish is delighted to announce that Kate Stewart and her UNIT team from the Doctor Who TV series will be starring in a brand new series of audio dramas, in a licensing deal with BBC Worldwide.
Kate is the daughter of Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, and Head of Scientific Research at the Unified Intelligence Taskforce, which investigates and confronts alien attacks on the planet Earth. The role is portrayed by Jemma Redgrave (Dracula, Frankie, Cold Blood) who has appeared opposite Matt Smith and Peter Capaldi on television, and returns for the audio series.
“We’re thrilled that Jemma is on board for our brand new UNIT adventures,” says series producer David Richardson, “and we feel privileged to work within the universe of New Series Doctor Who for the first time. UNIT: Extinction will showcase all the excitement, drama and wit that viewers of Doctor Who love.”
“Having worked with the greatly missed Nicholas Courtney and his magnificent portrayal of the Brigadier since the early days of Big Finish, it is wonderful to see the return of UNIT under the Brig’s daughter,” says executive producer Jason Haigh-Ellery. “We are all very excited about bringing UNIT back to Big Finish with the next generation and look forward immensely to working with Jemma again, who appears in this month’s Doctor Who main range release Doctor Who – Mistfall.”
“I’m really excited to hear Jemma and her team battling to save the Earth,” says executive producer Nick Briggs. “They’ve been such an important part of the many exciting things to come out of the Doctor Who TV series in recent years.”
Additional cast members for the first box set, UNIT: Extinction, will be revealed later. This first box set release comprises four hours of adventure, in which Kate and her team confront an alien invasion by the Nestene Consciousness and its army of plastic Autons.
UNIT: Extinction will be released in November 2015, and is available for specially-priced pre-order, with all pre-orders getting a copy of Nicholas Courtney’s memoirs A Soldier in Time as a free download as Supplementary content in Big Finish accounts.
Three additional box sets will be available at six monthly intervals, with all four available for a Bundled pre-order. For many more details, watch this space in coming months.
Categorised under: Big Finish, CD, spin-offs
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Michael
February 10th, 2015 - 11:09pmAs a ex-GI, I can relate to UNIT!
Joe
February 10th, 2015 - 7:02pmBest news all day,all we need now are NuWho rights and that’s it, however the UNIT boxes could sees the return of other charcters from classic who and other big finishes. Eg: Mike Yates, Ruth Matheson etc…..
no 1 fan of doctor who
February 9th, 2015 - 8:40pmOOOOOOMMMMMMGGGGGG!!!!!!??????
Sam Richard Bentley
February 9th, 2015 - 6:48pmIf BF are using modern Who characters now, I DEMAND they give Marc Warren a LINDA series!
TheOncomingStorm
February 9th, 2015 - 7:35pmhaha, yes I love this, God awful episode, but fantastic idea!
Sam Richard Bentley
February 9th, 2015 - 7:42pmIt’s actually one of my favourite episodes. It’s a parody of itself! And it has Marc Warren!
TheOncomingStorm
February 9th, 2015 - 8:43pmhe’s brilliant in The Musketeers at the minute
Sam Richard Bentley
February 9th, 2015 - 11:53pmI don’t watch it, but one of my favourite TV shows is HUSTLE, and he’s amazing in it. I think he’s one of the best, and most underrated, British actors out there at the moment.
Guest
February 14th, 2015 - 1:59pmKate Stewart isn’t modern-who
the paternoster gang
February 9th, 2015 - 6:47pmI might get this. I’ve never got big finish audios before, and I might get this and dark eyes but I’m not sure if I would get enough time to listen to these.
The TARDIS
February 10th, 2015 - 6:32amI know your problem! I’ve got a huge Big Finish collection but I hardly ever find time to listen to any of it. What I would say is that with Big Finish, it’s certainly worth making the effort to find time to sit back and listen. A long car journey, a quiet evening or even just before you go to bed; you’re always in for a treat.
Matthew Staton
February 16th, 2015 - 8:12amI’ve never really bought any big finish audio books, but this one looks quite good, might consider it
jamie brennan
February 9th, 2015 - 5:13pmi still think they should make a unit TV seris
Alex The Geek
February 9th, 2015 - 4:08pmBig Finish produced the Bernice Summerfield audio dramas before they started making Classic Who audios.
I’ve always understood that they did Benny first as they had to prove to the BBC they could do Who. (Start with a spin off then get the main license.)
So could UNIT The New Series be similar but to get a license for NuWho?
Either way I’m really looking forward to hearing this and hopefully it’s going to be set whilst Osgood is still alive.
Anonymous
February 9th, 2015 - 5:07pmIndirectly. Benny was never the property of the BBC, so was far easier to get a hold of. But once they’d started her range they were able to show what they could do.
CJ
February 9th, 2015 - 3:33pmSounds good!
videogamemad00
February 9th, 2015 - 3:25pmFunny how I’m really excited about this but if it was a TV show I couldn’t care less. I might actually like her character in this.
100000BC
February 9th, 2015 - 3:17pm…OK…
Is Kate allowed in Big Finish for the same reason as the Daleks/Cybermen in that she is nott a product of the new series, but of spin-off projects Downtime and Daemos Rising, or have our friends at BFP finally found a small section of new-who license (in which case, can Eccleston and Piper (and Coduri, Clarke and Barrowman) be persuaded to create a new series of 9th Doctor adventures (The BBC deffo won’t allow Capaldi audios while he’s the Doctor on TV, and the previous Doctor Smith still seems a bit of a stretch to allow, but maybe Eccleston and later Tennant…?)
Anonymous
February 9th, 2015 - 3:28pmThe cover is a compilation of 21st century Doctor Who publicity pictures, and as explained in the article this is the first time they’ve been able to go into modern Doctor Who. It’s certainly got some sort of agreement behind it otherwise they wouldn’t use the pictures.
Also, Steven Moffat doesn’t have any problems with Big Finish (other than not using modern things) so Capaldi audios would be a hypothetical possibility, although I’m sure they would push for Tennant and Smith first.
Eccelston might be an awkward one, but as this isn’t the BBC (who were the ones he had a problem with rather than the show itself) he could potentially return. All depends on what happens.
100000BC
February 9th, 2015 - 3:41pmOf course I realise this, I was thinking more along the lines of the current Doctor being strict property of the BBC, I can’t imagine them being too chuffed by another company taking THEIR lead character and developing him in their own way.
Maybe we shall get an appearance from a Doctor, old or new, in one of these?
And if this is set (in Earth timeline) BEFORE Dark Water, then we may see a certain loveable scarf-wearing asthmatic scientist?
Anonymous
February 9th, 2015 - 3:51pmIt would be the exact same. She’s their version of Kate, just like they can’t use their version of the Doctor, the Cybermen, the Daleks, the Master etc.
As said above though they are working within modern continuity so even if this loophole existed they aren’t using it.
Alex The Geek
February 9th, 2015 - 4:09pmWeren’t Big Finish allowed to use New Who Daleks on a cover once?
100000BC
February 9th, 2015 - 7:41pmI was interested to know – always make sure it’s not due to a loophole (like the reeltime spin offs) before you go jumping to conclusions about what it could mean for the future (i.e. of the license).
Yes the bronze Daleks were used on the 6th Gallifrey box set to imply a link between its events and the genesis of the time war.
Anonymous
February 13th, 2015 - 12:11amWith Reeltime they just went direct to the writers and got copyright authorisation off them instead of the BBC. They are far more stringent these days.
doctor who crazy ross
February 9th, 2015 - 2:37pmOhhhhhh
Myyyyyy
Godddddd
This looks amazing
Anonymous
February 9th, 2015 - 1:56pmWe are getting closer and closer to a new who licence, aren’t we?
Anonymous
February 9th, 2015 - 3:05pmBig Finish (or at least somebody in their legal department) have been opting out of taking on anything post-2005 even though it comes as standard normally with the license for 20th century Who.
Although taking the additional step of taking stuff from Steven Moffat’s time on the show requires a different license so this is indeed another step.
The Doctor and handles
February 9th, 2015 - 1:03pmHopefully Osgood will return!
Doctorfan
February 9th, 2015 - 2:36pmPossibly because Osgood in death in heaven may have been the zygon or she could be a reprogrammed auton by UNIT. Both are possible
100000BC
February 9th, 2015 - 3:48pmGiven that Big Finish’s Doctor Who range is, and always has been, about making stories from previous eras of the show, they could easily set it before Dark Water as well, thus giving the dearly beloved Osgood more time to shine without detracting from the cruelty, abruptness and shock of her death.
Guest
February 14th, 2015 - 2:01pm“Nope. If it had been a zygon, she wouldn’t have been as easy to kill. Dead I’m afraid!” – Steven Moffat
The Twelfth Doctor
February 9th, 2015 - 12:48pmLooks awesome!