1999–2000

Big Finish has produced the vast majority of Doctor Who Audio Dramas. Their Monthly Adventures (originally called the Monthly Range, and then the Main Range) is a series of standalone Doctor Who stories – in other words, you can choose any story you like and listen to it.

Until 2014, Big Finish was only licensed for classic series content, and weren’t allowed to touch anything used in the new series, so until then a lot of their dramas feel like classic series stories, although occasionally a bit darker in tone and more adult in content.

The Monthly Adventures form the backbone of this guide, as they go all the way through it. This first segment of Monthly Adventures releases is fairly long, compared to later segments, as Big Finish had only just begun.

P.S. the letter code in brackets after Monthly Adventures isn’t anything official, it’s a device so you can keep track of where you’re up to.

Bernice Summerfield is a former companion of the Seventh Doctor. If you don’t recognise her name, that’s because she was never in the TV show! She was introduced in the Virgin New Adventures range of novels, then went on to have her own series of novels. Big Finish adapted a number of those novels to make the first series of Bernice Summerfield audio dramas. These were, in fact, the first audio dramas to be produced by Big Finish, and were instrumental in convincing the BBC to allow them to make audio dramas about Doctor Who. So, if Bernice Summerfield started before the Monthly Adventures, why is this later in the list? The answer is: to not break up this series. In general, segments are placed in order according to the date of their last release.

As an aside, the stories Making Myths and Closure are part of a special release called “Buried Treasures”, rather than as part of Series 1, but chronologially they slot into the middle of the series, so they’re in this segment.

General warning for this segment: sexual references.

Here are the BBV dramas for 2000. Note that not all of these were released in 2000 – this is just the one off releases from 2000, and the audio drama series that had their final episode in 2000.

First up in this BBV segment, is a story involving a terrible conspiracy. It’s narrated and performed by Lisa Bowerman, who also plays Bernice Summerfield.

Next, is a series about Sontarans.

Finally, The Rani Reaps the Whirlwind, a standalone story featuring The Rani and the Tetraps.

And now we finish off the Monthly Adventures for 2000.