Showing results by publisher "BBC Audio" in Science Fiction

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!

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.

Chance. Misfortune. Coincidence. These are the weapons of choice for the Doctor’s latest enemies. And those enemies are very, very hungry. For Ruby Sunday, this Christmas Eve is a birthday she’ll never forget. It’s the day she joins the Doctor on board a Goblin ship. The day she learns of dangers from beyond the universe. The day her life really begins...or, perhaps, the day it ends.

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.

The TARDIS materialises on a research station, locked in a state of temporal displacement on the surface of Volkoff Epsilon. The station’s human crew are engaged in the study of a mysterious artefact they call ‘the remnant’. Apparently a source of unlimited power, it could be the solution to Earth’s energy problem. Yet the station’s time barrier has become disrupted, leaving the crew confined with no way out. The Doctor realises that both he and Ace - and the TARDIS - are now also trapped by the time displacement.

When the TARDIS arrives, the Doctor's companion, Tegan, is hoping to visit her grandfather. Yet the travellers learn that he has mysteriously disappeared, and the planned re-enactment of the battle has taken on a menacing tone. Local schoolteacher Jane Hampden knows how the county squire plans to celebrate May Day: with the May Queen meeting a grisly end. The village church holds the clues to what is happening in Little Hodcombe, and soon the Doctor is facing an ancient alien foe.

Escaping from their previous adventure on Skaro, the Doctor, Susan, Ian Chesterton (William Russell) and Barbara Wright (Jacqueline Hill) are inside the TARDIS when it appears to be taken over by an outside force. Bewildered and confused, the travellers become suspicious of each other’s motives, and tensions within the Ship begin to rise. The TARDIS appears to be trying to tell them something, yet the Doctor has very little idea of how to stop it hurtling backwards in Time, towards destruction.

In the great maze of the Powe Complex dwells the dreaded Nimon, a fearsome monster with immense scientific powers. The Nimon has promised to restore the Skonnan Empire to its former glory. But first it demands sacrifice - youths and maidens from the peaceful planet Aneth. The TARDIS collides with the spaceship delivering the victims, and the captured Romana is condemned to be sacrificed to the Nimon. Aided by the faithful K-9, the Doctor goes to the rescue. In the heart of the maze he confronts the Nimon and uncovers a terrifying plot to enslave the galaxy.

Reporter Tom Lambert decides to reinvestigate the bizarre events of a decade earlier concerning the ‘cosmic noise’. Believing the whole truth was never revealed, he tracks down the one man who knows it: retired astrophysics professor Dr Hayward Petrie. Told in flashbacks, the story unfolds from Petrie’s recordings of the time when he experienced things that made him doubt his own sanity. Invited to visit his old colleague Campbell McLaren, who is in charge of a radio telescope on a remote Hebridean island, Petrie asks students Clifford Brown and Elizabeth Ryder to join him.

A visit to the Grand Canyon begins with disaster for the Doctor and Peri, when the TARDIS plunges into a ravine. The travellers' only hope is to descend to the valley on foot and then track the course of the Colorado river. Their perilous journey is fraught with danger, even before they encounter a band of 19th Century explorers led by Major John Wesley Powell. Joining the watery expedition, the Doctor and Peri begin to despair of ever seeing the TARDIS again. As food supplies dwindle, so do the group's options. This is a journey which some of them will never return.

The Fishmen of Kandalinga takes the First Doctor to a planet of water, and a re-match with the alien Voord first encountered on Marinus. Planet of Bones see the Second Doctor, Ben and Polly enjoying hospitality on the planet Harmony - until a dreadful secret is uncovered. In The Phaser Aliens, the Third Doctor and Jo visit Australia to help with invisible UFOs, whilst the Fourth Doctor and Sarah are accused of being spies in Life Anew. The Fifth Doctor finds himself in an alien court of law in The Volcanis Deal, and then the Sixth Doctor and Peri are sent on a mission from Gallifrey.

How long is 73 Yards? Haunted by a sinister presence, Ruby must cope with losing the Doctor and the life she once knew. With her new life without her best friend becoming bleaker by the day, something terrifying is unleashed, and it’s up to Ruby to stop it.

Earth’s Regency era – a time of culture, extravagance, sumptuous balls…and aliens? While Ruby is a popular new addition to the Duchess of Pemberton’s ball, the Doctor’s world is about to be forever rocked by a dashing visitor from space. With many party-guests facing an identity crisis like no other, it is up to the Doctor and Ruby to stop the menacing Chuldurs’ plot.

The Doctor has a unique bond with their TARDIS. They’ve always loved the ‘old girl’ for the way she’s gone looking for trouble anywhere in the universe. The Doctor says they stole the TARDIS from Gallifrey. The TARDIS disagrees…she stole them. It hasn’t always taken the Doctor where they want to go, but it’s made sure to take them where they needed to be.

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.