Dr Who getting new Podcast Drama

[StCoop]

Well more of a spin-off with cameos from various existing characters from the sounds of it.

https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/sci-fi/jodie-whittaker-doctor-who-redacted-audio-drama-newsupdate/

 

[The Nth Doctor]

Huh, weird that it's not happening over at Big Finish.

 

[Brendan Moody]

Big Finish don’t have a license to use the current Doctor and they don’t do podcast drama per se. It also sounds like a different approach to tie-ins than BF usually takes. But the lead writer and at least two of the other writers have worked for BF, so the project’s not a million miles removed either.

 

[StCoop]

Plus it confirms for BF that Jodie's happy to come back and play the Doctor again on audio.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

Not current, yes, but changes pretty soon which why I was surprised.

As for format, Big Finish has tried different formats over the years. This wouldn't be so different from what they've done.

 

[Brendan Moody]

Right, but the further it gets from BF’s usual wheelhouse the less surprising it becomes that they aren’t involved. They’re not the only people in the UK who know how to produce audio drama, after all.

 

[David cgc]

So, for anyone who's listening who may be involved in any kind of podcasting project in the future, if you're going to pre-announce it to build hype, for the love of God, set up the actual podcast feed and throw in a little teaser so people can subscribe the second they hear about it when you make the annoucement. Even a fifteen or thirty second trailer is enough, there just needs to be something there so I can put it into my podcast app when I learn about it, and don't have to hope I hear about it again once the actual episodes are available. The whole point of being subscribed to anything is that I shouldn't have to think about it, the stuff I want just appears the instant it's available, unbidden.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

Right, but the further it gets from BF’s usual wheelhouse the less surprising it becomes that they aren’t involved. They’re not the only people in the UK who know how to produce audio drama, after all.

That's fair.

I'm just being grumpy because I want it all under one umbrella for easy access and collection.

I say that when I'm waaay behind on Big Finish.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

So, for anyone who's listening who may be involved in any kind of podcasting project in the future, if you're going to pre-announce it to build hype, for the love of God, set up the actual podcast feed and throw in a little teaser so people can subscribe the second they hear about it when you make the annoucement. Even a fifteen or thirty second trailer is enough, there just needs to be something there so I can put it into my podcast app when I learn about it, and don't have to hope I hear about it again once the actual episodes are available. The whole point of being subscribed to anything is that I shouldn't have to think about it, the stuff I want just appears the instant it's available, unbidden.

The BBC is trying to push people who listen to their podcasts to the BBC Sounds app (which seems to be just an app wrapper around the website), and they're doing it by making some of their content exclusive to the app. I'm already not happy that they've put a 4 week exclusivity window on In Our Time with Melvyn Bragg. Don't mess with my RSS feeds like that!

Anyway, as far as I can tell, the BBC hasn't even set up the program page for Doctor Who Redacted on the BBC Sounds website. You can't subscribe to it yet. There's nothing to subscribe to.

 

[Nightowl1701]

BF's hands are pretty full right now storywise anyway, and they don't even have Smith or Capaldi yet (using soundalikes at present), let alone Whittaker or Martin.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

They don't have Smith and Capaldi yet because they haven't been able to contract them yet (we already know Smith's agent has been running interference in that regard), not because they're "full right now."

 

[Saul]

I wonder what Big Finish thinks about this? This seems like something trying to rival them.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

The BBC has been making and broadcasting audio drama for decades. It's honestly been a puzzle to me why they haven't done more Doctor Who audio drama than they have. They're entirely capable of doing it on their own; they don't need Big Finish to make it for them (like the Paul McGann season a decade back). A BBC Radio 4 Doctor Who series would be capable of reaching more listeners than Big Finish ever could.

I wonder if Redacted will sound more like a true crime podcast than an audio drama, more Serial (or Dead Eyes, which plays like a true crime podcast without a crime) than The Sirens of Time. Will there be (fictional) sponsorship spots, spoken word ads for other (fictional) podcasts in the "network," flash forwards and callbacks, interviews and lots of commentary, heavy use of "podcast voice"? If that's what Redacted is, there's going to be a contigent of fans who are going to hate it because it's so nontraditional for a Doctor Who story. And that's good; not everything needs to fit the 1982 template.

 

[Mr Awe]

It's honestly been a puzzle to me why they haven't done more Doctor Who audio drama than they have. They're entirely capable of doing it on their own; they don't need Big Finish to make it for them (like the Paul McGann season a decade back).

I wonder if the bigger name DW stars are willing to take a pay cut for Big Finnish but not so willing to do that for the BBC? If so, it might be simple economics behind the BBC not making them.

Even with DW stars taking the lower pay for BF, it still sounds like BF's profit margin is very slim.

Yeah, I know the BBC isn't out to make a profit. But it might explain why it's not a priority for them.

 

[Marc]

I wonder if the bigger name DW stars are willing to take a pay cut for Big Finnish but not so willing to do that for the BBC? If so, it might be simple economics behind the BBC not making them.

Even with DW stars taking the lower pay for BF, it still sounds like BF's profit margin is very slim.

Yeah, I know the BBC isn't out to make a profit. But it might explain why it's not a priority for them.

having listened to some of the BTS stuff, while the stories can be sometimes be a bit well yeah, BF has a really good working environment and it's an enjoyable experience for the actors (and they manage to get some good ones) and it's probably the benefit of a fairly small organisation.

whereas the BBC would probably entail a lot of bullshit and hassle that would make the experience less enjoyable.

 

[Brendan Moody]

I imagine money does play a part, in the sense that the BBC can probably use its radio budget more effectively than by paying current-era cast (which is what would really draw audiences) to spend even more time with these characters than they do making the TV series. Past Doctors are the kind of niche proposition more naturally left to Big Finish.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

The trailer has been posted.

 

[Brendan Moody]

First episode is out. About an even split between fanservice and character work, which given it’s a 20-minute episode means really not much room for the latter.

 

[Turtletrekker]

Huzzah! The script is available!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0c0wkjf

I hope future episodes feature a little bit more of, you know, The Doctor.

 

[Turtletrekker]

This is looking to be a very Doctor-lite adventure. She was barely in the first episode and not in the second episode of it at all. Rani had a slightly bigger role in episode 2.