We return to travelling with the First Doctor in the next box set of The Companion Chronicles: The First Doctor Volume Three, with four adventures due for release next year. In the first adventure, Carole Ann Ford plays Susan in E is For… by Julian Richards, a story which flirts with superheroes and what happens when someone is ‘gifted’ – is that how everyone else sees them?

The second adventure looks at heroes in a different way as Guy Adams's The Crumbling Magician finds Ben as a hero to an unexpected person in need, while an ailing Doctor gets a tempting offer of a new life – but at what cost...?

E is For… by Julian Richards

All is not right on the planet Malkus. Every day more and more monstrosities are born; people with powers and abilities far beyond those of normal men and women. They call these people ‘the Gifted’. And Susan has become one of them. Separated from her friends in a Police State dedicated to hunting people like her, Susan finds herself in a prison which has destroyed countless lives. And at its centre, at its heart, waiting, is the most dangerous monster of all...

The Crumbling Magician by Guy Adams

The TARDIS has crashed, its passengers in a bad way. The Doctor – not in the best of health anyway, his old body wearing somewhat thin – is in a coma, Ben unconscious. As for Polly, she’s been affected worst of all. Time is running in the wrong order for her and she’s seen the future, a future in which she’s mortally wounded. But will Continuity allow her to die?

More details on the remaining two stories will be revealed soon – make sure you get your pre-orders in for next year!

And don’t forget the latest volume of The Companion Chronicles, with four stories from the time of the Second Doctor, came out last month to stellar reviews:

“All in all, this is another quartet of entertaining tales which remind us of the strength of The Companion Chronicles: compelling stories related to us by the Doctor’s friends in a wonderfully personal manner.” says Cultbox.

“This second volume of The Second Doctor is a terrific set of stories,” writes Blogtor Who, “that not only honours the show’s past but looks to its bright future. The writers are excellent, each delivering a story that feels completely new and fresh. Directors Helen Goldwyn and Lisa Bowerman craft these stories excellently, showing why they’re the best choices for a set as anticipated as this.”

And MassMovement praises the exploration of the Second Doctor’s era through the eyes of the companions: “The second set of Second Doctor Companion Chronicles covers the length of the Second Doctor’s on-screen life, and then, thanks to a little Big Finish jiggery-pokery, goes a touch beyond it. The stories that add significantly to what we understand about the Second Doctor’s time.”

Make sure you pick up the box set before it goes up in price at the end of the month (as you can see from the news story picture - Elliot Chapman, who is currently starring in The Mousetrap in the West End, has got his copy!). 

Congratulations to Christopher Jay of Southampton, who was the lucky recipient of the signed The Second Doctor: Volume Two artwork last month.

And don't forget there are more First Doctor adventures this September, with the launch of the fifth series of the Early Adventures, starring Peter Purves and Maureen O'Brien.