Today marks 25 years since the Eighth Doctor (Paul McGann) made his first audio drama appearance, in the Doctor Who Monthly Range release, Storm Warning. The play marked the start of a new era for Big Finish, for the first time able to tell fresh stories with the incumbent Doctor while the TV show was off the air.   

On the airship R101, in the year 1930, the young adventuress Charlotte Pollard (India Fisher) is fated to die. Then, as the ship is attacked by Vortisaurs, the Doctor appears in Charley’s life and rescues her – causing ruptures across the web of time and beginning a beautiful friendship. 

Storm Warning, along with the following three stories from 2001, is re-released today as part of a downloadable collection, allowing listeners to relive – or experience for the first time – the early days of the Doctor and Charley. 

The collection also includes a brand-new audio documentary, running over two hours, in which several of the creative figures from behind the scenes of these stories reflect on them, 25 years on.  The interviewees include writer and director Nicholas Briggs, executive producer Jason Haigh-Ellery, producer and script editor Gary Russell, and writers Alan Barnes and Paul Magrs. 

Big Finish senior producer John Ainsworth said: “We wanted this repackaged collection of landmark audio dramas to feel like a celebration – and that’s why I’m delighted with the new documentary on this release, produced by the impeccable Jamie Griffiths.  

“It really feels like going back in time, to the Christchurch studios in Bristol, and embarking on a new adventure with a fresh-faced cast and a creative team ready to launch into a new era of Doctor Who.” 

Beginning the documentary, Gary Russell said: “My whole ethos for producing Doctor Who was to do the sorts of stories you could only do on audio. There was no point in doing the same sort of stuff you could do in a book or a comic strip.” 

And, on writing the Eighth Doctor’s audio debut, Alan Barnes remembered: “I wanted it to be a ripping good adventure – I didn’t want it to be an intellectual exercise. I wanted it to be emotional. We didn’t want a companion who was sad about being in the TARDIS and having a hard time. And that’s why one of the very first plot points was that Charley had already stowed away on the R101, looking for a life of adventure. She doesn’t know that she’s looking for the Doctor, but she is looking for the Doctor.” 

Doctor Who – The Eighth Doctor and Charlotte Pollard: Series One is now available to purchase exclusively here, as a digital download to own, for just £11.99. 

The four audio adventures in this collection are: 

Storm Warning by Alan Barnes 

October 1930. His Majesty's Airship, the R101, sets off on her maiden voyage to the farthest-flung reaches of the British Empire, carrying the brightest lights of the Imperial fleet. Carrying the hopes and dreams of a breathless nation. 

There's a storm coming. There's something unspeakable, something with wings, crawling across the stern. Thousands of feet high in the blackening sky, the crew of the R101 brace themselves. When the storm breaks, their lives won't be all that's at stake... 

The future of the galaxy will be hanging by a thread. 

Sword of Orion by Nicholas Briggs

The human race is locked in deadly combat with the 'Android Hordes' in the Orion System. Light years from the front line, the Doctor and Charley arrive to sample the dubious delights of a galactic backwater, little suspecting that the consequences of the Orion War might reach them there. But High Command's lust for victory knows no bounds. 

Trapped aboard a mysterious derelict star destroyer, the Doctor and Charley find themselves facing summary execution. But this is only the beginning of their troubles. The real danger has yet to awaken. 

Until, somewhere in the dark recesses of the Garazone System, the Cybermen receive the signal for reactivation... 

The Stones of Venice by Paul Magrs

The Doctor and Charley decide to take a well-deserved break from the monotony of being chased, shot at and generally suffering anti-social behaviour at the hands of others. And so they end up in Venice, well into Charley's future, as the great city prepares to sink beneath the water for the last time... 

Which would be a momentous, if rather dispiriting, event to witness in itself. However, the machinations of a love-sick aristocrat, a proud art historian and a rabid High Priest of a really quite dodgy cult combine to make Venice's swansong a night to remember. And then there's the rebellion by the web-footed amphibious underclass, the mystery of a disappearing corpse and the truth behind a curse going back further than curses usually do. The Doctor and Charley are forced to wonder just what they have got themselves involved with this time... 

Minuet in Hell by Gary Russell and Alan W Lear

The 21st century has just begun, and Malebolgia is enjoying its status as the newest state in America. After his successful involvement with Scotland's devolution, Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart has been invited over to Malebolgia to offer some of his experiences and expertise. 

There he encounters the charismatic Brigham Elisha Dashwood III, an evangelical statesman running for Governor who may not be quite as clean-cut and wholesome as he makes out. One of Dashwood's other roles in society is as patron of a new medical institute, concentrating on curing the ills of the human mind. One of the patients there interests the Brigadier - someone who claims he travels through space and time in something called a TARDIS. 

Charley, however, has more than a few problems of her own. Amnesiac, she is working as a hostess at the local chapter of the Hell Fire Club, populated by local dignitaries who have summoned forth the demon Marchosias. And the leader of the Club? None other than Dashwood, who seems determined to achieve congressional power by the most malevolent means at his disposal... 

The four episodes have a guest cast including  Mark Gatiss (Sherlock), Gareth Thomas (Blake’s 7), and Michael Sheard (The Empire Strikes Back, several classic Doctor Who serials), among many other names. 

Doctor Who – The Eighth Doctor and Charlotte Pollard: Series One is now available to purchase exclusively from the Big Finish website, as a digital download to own, for just £11.99. 

All the above prices (including pre-order and multibuy bundle discounts) are fixed for a limited time only and guaranteed no later than 28 February 2026.