Showing results by publisher "BBC Audio" in Action & Adventure

The Doctor ventures into alternative dimensions in these four exciting novelisations of TV stories.

In Daleks: The Chase the First Doctor and his friends must flee from the path of a Dalek execution squad. The Macra Terror awaits the Second Doctor, Ben, Polly and Jamie within an apparently idyllic Earth colony, whilst in Doctor Who and the Web of Fear the Yeti have colonised the London Underground, at the behest of the Great Intelligence. Doctor Who and the Mutants relates the oppression of the Solonian people at the hands of Earth authorities, and in Doctor Who and the State of Decay the Doctor, Romana, Adric and K9 encounter the terrifying Great Vampire.

Best known as the author of the popular space serial Earthsearch, James Follett wrote over 50 radio dramas, 25 novels and a number of TV scripts. This gripping 3-book series, adapted and abridged for BBC Radio and read by Nigel Anthony, explores what takes place when a West Sussex village becomes cut off from the outside world by an alien force field after a UFO crash-lands.

From the moment they land on the planet Androzani Minor, everything goes wrong for the Doctor and his new young companion, Peri. They become involved in the struggle between brutal gun runners, ruthless Federation troops, and the hideously mutilated Sharaz Jek, who lurks in the depths of the caves with his android army. Key to the struggle is spectrox, the most valuable substance in the universe. Suitably processed, spectrox is an elixir of life, but in its raw state it is a deadly poison - a fact which will cost the Doctor another of his Time Lord lives.... 

Mark Twain (real name Samuel Langhorne Clemens), was one of the foremost writers and humourists to come out of the United States. Hailed by William Faulkner as 'the father of American literature', he is renowned worldwide for his classic novels The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. This wide-ranging collection comprises dramatisations and readings of a host of his much-loved stories, from well-known works to less familiar gems.

The huge, octopus-like Kroll lives deep in the swamps of the humid, steamy planet Delta Three. To the native swamp-warriors, Kroll is an angry mythical god. To the money-grabbing alien technicians, it is a threat to their profit-making scheme. When the Doctor and Romana arrive, in search of another segment of the Key to Time, they have to face the suspicion of the lagoon dwellers, the stupidity of the technicians and, finally, the power of Kroll itself.

Launched into space 350 years ago, a meteor is returning to Earth. Inside it waits Nemesis, a silver statue made of the living metal validium, the most dangerous substance in the Universe. Three factions await the statue: the neo-Nazi de Flores and his stormtroopers; Lady Peinforte, who saw Nemesis exiled in 1638, and the advance part of a Cyberman invasion force. Meanwhile, the Doctor and Ace are in Windsor.

Nicola Bryant reads a brand new story featuring the Sixth Doctor and Peri, set in the far future. The TARDIS lands aboard the Sun God, a vast spaceship carrying executives from a powerful 35th century energy company. Peri is menaced by deadly cat-like robots, whilst the Doctor discovers that Spalding Revere, the company's founder, has set the ship on course for the heart of a sun. Spalding's last wish is to take his acolytes with him to the afterlife, and unless the Doctor can intervene, he and Peri will be going with them.

An unabridged reading of this novelisation of a classic 1960s TV adventure for the First Doctor, as played by William Hartnell. Following a skirmish in deep space, two alien spacecraft have crash-landed on a barren planet in Galaxy Four. The Drahvins are a race of beautiful females led by the imperious Maaga. The Rills are hideous tusked monstrosities accompanied by their robotic servants, the Chumblies. When the Doctor arrives with Vicki and Steven in tow, he discovers that the planet will explode in two days' time.

First published in 1886, Robert Louis Stevenson's rollicking historical novel Kidnapped was an instant bestseller. It was followed by an 1893 sequel, Catriona, which Stevenson regarded as his 'high water mark', declaring that he would 'never do a better book'. Included here is the epic 10-part BBC radio dramatisation of both action-packed tales.

The Doctor is enjoying the sun on a holiday island, until things get hotter than he bargained for. The young American, Perpugilliam Brown, brings to the TARDIS a mysterious object that her archaeologist step-father has found in a sunken wreck. When the Doctor’s robot friend Kamelion reacts to the object unexpectedly, it has bewildering consequences for the TARDIS crew.

The TARDIS lands in the Lancashire village of Bilehurst Cragg in the 17th century, and the Doctor, Ryan, Graham and Yaz soon become embroiled in a witch trial run by the local landowner. Fear stalks the land, and the arrival of King James I only serves to intensify the witch hunt. But the Doctor soon realises there is something more sinister than paranoia and superstition at work. Tendrils of living mud stir in the ground, and the dead lurch back to horrifying life as an evil alien presence begins to revive.

It is 1751, and 17-year-old David Balfour is all alone in the world. Recently orphaned, he receives a letter instructing him to seek out his sole remaining relative at the House of Shaws. But on meeting his uncle Ebenezer, David soon realises that he is a shifty, miserly man with designs on his inheritance. After an attempt on David's life fails, Ebenezer tricks him into boarding the brig Covenant, where he is knocked unconscious, kidnapped and taken to sea....

Something ghastly is afoot in Victorian Yorkshire. Something that kills. Bodies are washing up in the canal, their skin a waxy, glowing red...but just what is this crimson horror? Madam Vastra, Jenny and Strax are despatched to investigate the mystery. Strangely reluctant to assist their enquiries is Mrs Winifred Gillyflower, matriarch of ‘Sweetville’, a seemingly Utopian workers’ community. Why do all roads lead to the team's old friends Clara and the Doctor? Who is Mrs Gillyflower's mysterious silent partner Mr Sweet?  

Drawn into 'the nexus of the primeval cauldron of Space-Time', the Doctor and Peri are somewhat surprised to find themselves at Blackpool Pleasure Beach. Is it really just chance that has brought them to the funfair? Or is their arrival somehow connected with the sinister presence of a rather familiar Chinese Mandarin?

From Andrew Lane comes an original adventure for the Eighth Doctor, as played on TV by Paul McGann, and Victorian journalist James MacFarlane.

In search of a segment of the Key of Time, the Doctor, Romana, and K9 arrive on the planet Tara, whose population has long mastered the art of android engineering. Romana is apprehended by the ambitious Count Grendel, who seeks to overthrow the king in waiting, and the Doctor is coerced into helping those loyal to the crown. With Reynart locked away in Grendel's dungeons, the Doctor must perfect an android that can be crowned in his place. Yet Reynart is not the only one of Grendel's prisoners to have a double: the captive Princess Strella is Romana's doppelganger.

John Leeson stars in this exciting novelisation of a classic adventure for the Fourth Doctor - and the introduction of K9. A mysterious cloud drifts menacingly through space, and the Doctor becomes infected with the Nucleus of a malignant Virus that threatens to destroy his mind. Meanwhile, on Titan, human slaves prepare the Hive from which the Virus will swarm out and infect the universe. In search of a cure, Leela takes the Doctor to the Bi-Al Foundation, where they make an incredible journey into the Doctor’s brain in an attempt to destroy the Nucleus. 

Toby Longworth reads this original adventure for the Thirteenth Doctor and Graham, as played on TV by Jodie Whittaker and Bradley Walsh. It's 1970, and record-breaking explorer Silvia Sandstrom has completed an epic lone drive to the North Pole. But as she activates her on-board experimental equipment, her vehicle is swallowed by a massive hole in the ice. Meanwhile the TARDIS is drawn to an arid wasteland, also apparently at the North Pole. There the Doctor and Graham meet Silvia - but it's clear that she is a woman out of her own time.

Martin Jarvis reads this exciting novelisation of a classic TV adventure for the Sixth Doctor, introducing the slug-like Sil. The TARDIS has stalled in midflight, and it is only on the planet Varos that the Doctor can find the precious Zeiton-7 ore he needs to continue his travels through time and space. Arriving on the planet, he saves the rebel Jondar from execution, and incurs the wrath of Sil, the sadistic representative of the Galatron Mining Corporation on Varos.