The latest story in the Doctor Who main range, and featuring the Seventh Doctor (played by Sylvester McCoy), and his companions Mel (Bonnie Langford) and Ace (Sophie Aldred), The High Price of Parking is released today.

The planet Dashrah is a world of exceptional beauty. Historical ruins; colourful skies; swirling sunsets…

Unsurprisingly, it’s a major tourist trap. So if you want to visit Dashrah, first you’ll have to visit Parking, the artificial planetoid that Galactic Heritage built next door. Parking, as its name implies, is a spaceship park. A huge spaceship park.

A huge, enormous spaceship park. When the TARDIS materialises in Parking’s Northern Hemisphere, the Doctor, Ace and Mel envisage a quick teleport trip to the surface of Dashrah. But they’ve reckoned without the superzealous Wardens, and their robotic servitors… the sect of the Free Parkers, who wage war against the Wardens… the spontaneously combusting spaceships… and the terrifying secret that lies at the lowest of Parking’s lower levels.

This isn’t the first time that Mel and Ace both travelled with The Doctor, after originally meeting in TV episode Dragonfire (at the end of Sylvester McCoy’s first season as the Doctor in 1987). They also appeared together at Big Finish, in the trilogy of releases A Life of Crime, Fiesta of The Damned and Maker of Demons from last year. 

We caught up with writer of this story, John Dorney, "I was hugely excited to finally write this story as I'd had the idea for The High Price of Parking in my head for at least five years! The planet Parking has never quite been willing to give up, it was just waiting for the right time. And, with its season 24/25 vibe - a quirky planet, filled with quirky people - it seemed such a natural fit for Sylvester, Bonnie and Sophie, that when the opportunity to write for them turned up, it was clear its time had finally arrived. I've worked with all three cast members before on separate projects, but never as a unit, so it was a joy to have them all together. They're a great set of actors with complementary characters that you can do an awful lot with."

"I particularly enjoyed writing for Mel, who I'd not got much chance to work with on Terror of the Sontarans, and Bonnie lived up to her reputation as the consummate professional - and, as it happened, I was performing with her niece Summer Strallen in a play during the evenings when I was working with her in the daytime! What a small world!"

The High Price of Parking is available now at £12.99 on Download or £14.99 on CD. All CD purchases unlock a download copy of the release, which works with the Big Finish App.

In this release, subscribers get extended extras. For extra savings, you can subscribe to the Main Range in either six or twelve month subscriptions. Subscribers can enjoy a range of bonuses, including exclusive extras from behind-the-scenes, up to four exclusive subscriber Short Trip releases, PDFs of each script and a free Big Finish release! Click here for more details. 

Next in the Doctor Who Main Range - The Blood Furnace, continuing the adventures of the Seventh, Mel and Ace!