Doctor Who TV movie writer to return for new Paul McGann story
Matthew Jacobs returns to Doctor Who almost two decades after penning the 1996 movie.
Paul McGann is set to star in a brand new Doctor Who audio drama box set as the Eighth Doctor, but he isn't the only talent returning to the sprawling sci-fi franchise. The writer who penned the 1996 movie McGann starred in is also making a comeback.
Matthew Jacobs has been confirmed as the writer of one of the stories in the box set, titled Puccini and the Doctor.
Tim McInnerny (Blackadder, Game of Thrones, and Doctor Who: Planet of the Ood) is set to guest star as the famous composer, while companions Charley Pollard (India Fisher) and Lady Audacity Montague (Jaye Griffiths) join the Doctor for the triple-story ride.
Producer David Richardson said: "How brilliant to have Matthew Jacobs return to the series to write Puccini and the Doctor – a man so dedicated that he woke up at 4am in Los Angeles to listen in to our studio recordings!
"He’s given us a lovely and imaginative tale, which feels very much in the spirit of the Eighth Doctor TV movie."
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Jacobs himself added: "This is the first time I've written a Doctor Who adventure since 1996. The Doctor is such an integral part of my life, so it's been fascinating over the years to see it grow and grow. Paul has kept the Doctor alive at Big Finish in a marvellous way and he has become so much more sophisticated as a character than when we were starting.
“I was over the moon when script editor Matt Fitton asked me to put together a story. We discussed that this version of Paul's Doctor is a bit closer to the TV movie Doctor – inquisitive, not as embittered as he gets through the Time War."
He continued: “The idea that stuck out was one where I got to deal with some unfinished business from the TV movie. In the movie, the Doctor says how sad it was that Puccini never got to finish Turandot, and it was the bane of his life towards the end. I wanted to tell a story to do with the nature of how we use music and how we search for love.”
The box set, titled Deadly Strangers, also features stories by Lisa McMullin (Women's Day Off) and Lauren Mooney and Stewart Pringle (The Gloaming).
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Doctor Who – The Eighth Doctor Adventures: Deadly Strangers is now available to pre-order as a collector’s edition 3-disc CD box set (+ download for just £22.99) or as a digital download only (for just £18.99), exclusively at www.bigfinish.com.
Doctor Who is available to stream on BBC iPlayer.
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