Showing results by publisher "BBC Audio" in Science Fiction

Reporters Charlie Palmer and Moog Johnson are supposed to be exploring the galaxy in search of unimaginable news. But the beauty of an infinite universe is that if everything possible happens somewhere, there's no need to actually go there to check. So they may as well stay where they are - parked on Clapham Common disguised as a hedge - and simply make up their stories instead. Unfortunately, their terrifying boss at Inter-Galactic News, Korg, is on to them and won't tolerate their fake news any longer. 

Thirtieth-century Britain and the calamitous collapse of the pension system means compulsory euthanasia for all 70-year-olds. But a clerical error spells disaster for 69-year-old George Smith, who suddenly finds himself facing his demise a year early. Feisty George isn't going to take this lying down and goes into battle with Central Admin - and the terrifying TV crew from This Was Your Life, who want to broadcast his imminent death live on air. 

While travelling on the London Underground one afternoon, Alice meets the gaze of a man standing on the platform of a mysterious 'ghost station'. As her train hurtles into a tunnel, he's gone. She's convinced that the man was her brother Alan who has been missing presumed dead for the past five years. This fleeting encounter is the beginning of Alice's increasingly bizarre, desperate and labyrinthine search for her missing brother, a journey that leads her back through time into London's past. 

The TARDIS materialises on a spaceship at the edge of the known universe, and the Doctor, Leela and K9 encounter a group of astronauts searching for the lost gene bank of the Minyan race. The craft plunges into the heart of a recently formed planet, wherein the Doctor discovers an awesome secret: the descendants of a previous Minyan expedition have become enslaved to a powerful computer!

Five exciting novelisations set in Earth's past history, featuring the Doctor and his companions. The stories are Doctor Who - The Gunfighters, Doctor Who - The Highlanders, Doctor Who and the War Games, Doctor Who and the Talons of Weng-Chiang and Doctor Who - Black Orchid.

Once, a girl called Ace travelled the universe with the Doctor - until, in the wake of a terrible tragedy they parted company. Now, decades on, she is known as Dorothy McShane, the reclusive millionaire philanthropist who heads the global organisation A Charitable Earth. But Dorothy is being haunted by terrible nightmares in which she’s abducted to an alien world. Nightmares that begin just as scores of young runaways are vanishing from the dark alleyways of London. 

A dark, quirky parody of Desert Island Discs, Desolation Jests is a post-apocalyptic sketch show that takes a not-altogether-accurate look at the history of comedy. Featuring faux interviews with spurious celebrities, conducted by the Roy Plomley-esque host JP Doom, it poses the question ‘Which comedy sketches would you most want at your side to face the end of the world?’

Celebrating the 40th anniversary of Doctor Who, this release looks back through the radio archives and highlights the wide variety of Doctor Who features and interviews which have been broadcast over the years. Dozens of extracts - many of which have been unheard since their first broadcast - illustrate how the programme has been a national institution, held in fond regard by adults and children alike.

When the TARDIS lands on Earth in the 1830s, Tegan is keen to explore Dickensian London. The grim realities of poverty and destitution are sobering, with conditions exacerbated by the New Poor Law. Yet something else is affecting those most in need - something not of this world. As the Doctor falls into the hands of the law, and Tegan and Nyssa are abducted by a brutish pair of ne'er-do-wells, Adric finds himself on an altogether different plane, at the heart of the malaise affecting the capital city.

From a problematic meeting with an alien princess to a horde of space tourists on a holiday from hell, life on the cruiser is never less than eventful. Indecisive Captain Taylor is faced with disaster when another of the fleet’s spaceships, The Indestructible III, suddenly explodes; relentlessly nice Communications Officer Karen embarks on a forbidden romance with ship’s engineer Stuart; and medical scientist Clive 55 causes chaos when he is arrested for murdering his 136 clones, and experiments with dark matter to catastrophic effect.

Novelist, playwright and screenwriter James Follett wrote over 25 novels, more than 50 radio dramas and numerous TV scripts, including several episodes of Blake’s 7. He was one of the most borrowed authors in UK libraries, and his works have been translated into over a dozen languages. This anthology includes his finest radio plays and series – including many that have never previously been available before. Framing the collection is the special BBC7 programme Men, Martians and Machines, in which Follett himself introduces us to several of his most popular pieces.

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.

It's July 1966, and Ben and Polly have just said goodbye to the Doctor at Gatwick Airport. Now they must return to their old lives - but things at home aren't quite right. Polly's cat is behaving oddly, and both she and Ben soon realise they are under close scrutiny. To complicate matters further, the pair must acknowledge their true feelings for each other. When they find themselves transported against their will to a far-flung destination, what matters most is their loyalty to each other - and to the Doctor.

The inhabitants of the planet Karfel are suffering under the tyrannical rule of their leader, the Borad, who has brought his world to the brink of interplanetary war. Those who dare to oppose the will of the Borad are mercilessly sacrificed to the Timelash, a fate considered by many to be worse than death. When the Doctor arrives on Karfel, he soon discovers the Borad's horrifying plan - and realises he must be stopped at all costs.

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

Landing on an apparently devastated planet, the Doctor and Romana make a horrifying discovery. The planet is Skaro, home-world of the Daleks. The Daleks are excavating in order to find and revive Davros, the scientific genius who first created them. They hope that he will give them the scientific superiority to break the deadlock with their Movellan enemies. Faced once more with the deadly and seemingly indestructible Daleks, the Doctor's wits and strength are stretched to their very limits.

A treasury of Doctors invite you to join them in twelve exciting and original audio adventures. The Tenth Doctor must take a dangerous test when he seeks an audience with the mysterious Minds of Magnox. The Twelfth Doctor and Nardole think they're in 1950s suburbia until an attack takes them into The Nightmare Realm. The Ashes of Eternity threaten the Ninth Doctor and Rose in 1980s England, before the duo encounter The Beast of Scar Hill on a snowy Yorkshire moor.

It’s 2025, and advances in gene therapy have led to the eradication of many once-common diseases. But the ability to engineer and re-engineer the brain has provoked fear – for it means that a truly artificial consciousness is within reach. The idea that humans may no longer be the only sentient species is so unthinkable that legislation is hastily passed, rigorously controlling genetic experiments. But there are certain people who seek to circumvent the law...

Terry Molloy reads this original adventure for the Seventh Doctor and Ace, featuring a rematch with the Autons. When a new state-of-the-art recycling plant opens in North-East London, pensioner Roger Turner is all for doing his bit. In return for donations of unwanted plastic, he and his friends get to see AN-X Recycling’s exhibition of life-size human and animal mannequins.

The TARDIS arrives on the planet Manussa, about to commemorate its ancient banishment of the evil entity known as the Mara. Unbeknownst to the Manussans, the Doctor's companion, Tegan, has become an unsuspecting medium for the Mara. Now she has helped it to return home. The Doctor realises that this could mark the spectacular revival of the Mara's reign of terror - but it seems that no-one will heed his warning.