Doctor Who is a fully multimedia phenomenon. Starting on Saturday afternoon BBC TV as a children’s show in 1963, its story has grown across books, comics, video games, and more. In the run-up to the show’s 60th anniversary, the program makers finally confirmed a catch-all name for the sprawling franchise that fans have been using unofficially for years: The Whoniverse.
As fans scour the freshly minted Whoniverse before the show’s birthday on November 23, 2023, they won’t want to miss the audiobooks that make up one of the most innovative parts of the franchise.
The Best Doctor Who Complete Blu-Ray Series In 2023
Looking to add to your Doctor Who Blu-ray collection? These are the best of time and space in feature-packed Blu-Ray sets.
Doctor Who has a long and healthy existence in prose and the deliberate junking of many early black-and-white episodes means novelizations are how many fans still discover classic stories.
It was only natural that it would translate to audio, and the result is a diverse collection offering adaptations of classic stories, full-cast recordings of brand-new stories, and the soundtracks of some of those infamous missing episodes. Some are essential listening as the show celebrates its 60th anniversary.
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Doctor Who: The Celestial Toymaker (TV Soundtrack)
The 60th-anniversary specials are bringing back the Celestial Toymaker, a powerful cosmic enemy of the Doctor whose sole appearance in the show was over 50 years ago. While episodes of the mischievous entity’s earlier appearance in the show are missing, the complete soundtrack from the 1966 serial remains, allowing fans to catch up with why the troublemaker is seeking revenge on the Doctor. Over four episodes and 1 hour 40 minutes, the adventure finds the First Doctor and his companions forced to compete in the Toymaker’s dangerous games.
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Doctor Who and the Genesis of the Daleks (4th Doctor Novelization)
Fans looking for an immersive Doctor Who experience can’t go wrong with this epic classic. Dalek creator Terry Nation refreshed the deadly aliens in 1974 by returning to their origins, introducing us to the iconic mad scientist behind their existence, Davros. Fans will recognize an early version of Davros in the Destination: Skaro short released before the November 2023 specials, and here is where he came in. This unabridged novelization of one of the best stories of the classic series is narrated by John Culshaw. Nicholas Briggs, the voice of the Daleks from the modern TV series, brings the proto-pepperpots to life.
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Doctor Who: The Day of the Doctor (11th Doctor Novelization)
Former showrunner Steven Moffat has only adapted one of his television scripts, but it couldn’t be better to listen to in the run-up to an anniversary. This epic 50th-anniversary special teamed up the Tenth and Eleventh Doctors with a previously hidden incarnation, the War Doctor. The Day of the Doctor is a time-twisting affair, and Moffat can’t resist playing with the adaptation, featuring the Doctor’s first and third-person narrative and out-of-sequence chapters. It’s a real Doctor Who blockbuster packed with details that didn’t make it to TV.
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Doctor Who The Daleks (1st Doctor Novelization)
The original Dalek serial has been colored and re-edited for a special release on Doctor Who’s 60th birthday. In one of the quirks that litter the show’s history, Doctor Who and the Daleks was the first novelization of the show, and writer David Whitaker penned it to be the first adventure. Read by original cast member William Russell, the story introduces teachers Ian and Barbara to the TARDIS before whisking them off to Skaro for a fateful meeting with the Daleks. Diverging from the TV show that kicked off with An Unearthly Child, this is as close as fans can get to the show's literary beginning.
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Doctor Who: Origin Stories
Narrated by Ayesha Antoine, Katy Manning, and Sophie Aldred, this collection of short stories delves into the early years of some of the Doctor’s greatest companions. With stories written and read by some of the original actors, it’s the perfect way to get inside the friends of the Time Lord, who are such an essential element of the show. A bonus tale steps into the shoes of the infamous creator of the Daleks, Davros, explaining the story behind his appearance in the opening episodes of Series 9.
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Doctor Who: A History
The history of Doctor Who’s production is almost as twisty and fascinating as the Doctor’s adventures on-screen. In this breezy run through the show’s history produced for the show’s 50th anniversary, Alan Kistler takes fans behind the scenes of the classic years between 1963 and 1988, and the hugely successful reinvention for the 21st century in 2005.It wouldn’t be an anniversary in the Whoniverse if there weren’t some incredible insights from the show’s unbelievable journey to air.
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Doctor Who: The Day She Saved the Doctor: Four Stories from the TARDIS
Companions are essential to Doctor Who, and this collection of four short stories celebrates the women in the Doctor’s life. Penned by women authors for International Women's Day, it’s a great dip into the lives of legendary sometime TARDIS crew members Sarah-Jane, Rose, Clara, and Bill, along with their respective Doctors. The stories are all narrated by different female actors who have starred in the show and its spin-offs.
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Doctor Who: The Comic Strip Adaptations
This is a listening experience for completists. The first of the three 60th anniversary specials is based on Doctor Who and the Star Beast, a comic strip first published in Doctor Who Weekly in 1980. Big Finish’s full-cast adaptation of this and two other classic Fourth Doctor adventures will bring fans up to speed with the Time Lord’s first encounter with the Wrath Warriors and the Meep.
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Doctor Who: The Waters of Mars (10th Doctor Novelization)
Chronologically, this is currently the final story from the Tenth Doctor’s era to have been novelized. Taken from the specials that completed that popular Doctor’s fifth year in the TARDIS, it kicks off a hugely important story arc, taking the Tenth Doctor into dangerous territory and inspiring the recent multimedia event Time Lord Victorious. It’s also a slice of scary Doctor Who. What’s better to listen to before the 60th-anniversary specials reveal why a familiar face has returned as the Fourteenth Doctor? Waters of Mars is adapted by original co-writer Phil Ford and narrated by the former First Doctor companion, Maureen O'Brien.
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At Childhood’s End
Doctor Who loves an anniversary and the 60th birthday celebrations are packed with throwbacks to the show’s rich history. With the reveal of the Whoniverse, the BBC premiered Tales from the Tardis minisodes that reunite old Doctors and companions and wrap around classic episodes. Following the companion’s return to the show in 2022’s The Power of the Doctor, a reunion between the Seventh Doctor and Ace is a highlight. For more Ace, fans can listen to this cleverly titled story, penned by actor Sophie Aldred, which finds her meeting the Thirteenth Doctor.
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The Tenth Doctor Adventures: Death and the Queen
This is a full-cast radio play from Big Finish, the production company that has brought hundreds of hours of additional stories starring original Doctors and companions to the Whoniverse. This fast-paced hour-long story comes from a box set that reunited the popular pairing of the Tenth Doctor and Donna Noble.This clever story plays on Donna’s famously bad luck in love. It finds her mysteriously playing the role of a fairytale queen about to marry her Prince Charming in a castle under attack. It’s ideal to listen to before we catch up with the companion decades on during the 60th-anniversary specials.
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Doctor Who: The Nightmare Fair (6th Doctor Novelization)
There were plans for the Celestial Toymaker to return to the show in the 1980s, but a second face-off, this time against the Sixth Doctor, fell through when the show was put on hiatus. Fortunately, the script, developed by former show producer Graham Williams, remains. Toby Longworth narrates this novelization that finds the Time Lord and his companion Peri drawn to Blackpool Pleasure Beach in England, where the Toymaker is plotting revenge. This is a chance to see what could have been before the Toymaker returns during the show’s 60th-anniversary specials.
Audio represents a rich and varied part of the Whoniverse, offering something for fans of every era of the show. Doctor Who loves an anniversary, and 2023’s 60th festivities are a great time to discover or rediscover the incredible stories of the last six decades. Alongside the fantastic feature-packed complete collections that are available on Blu-ray right now, audiobooks are a great way for fans to discover new sides to their favorite Time Lord.
Doctor Who: How To Catch The Missing Stories
Despite some episodes of Doctor Who being missing, there's still a way for fans to catch all the adventures across time and space.
Any fans picking up audiobooks from Amazon can grab a free, cancel-anytime trial of Prime for free and fast shipping that gives the Whoniverse the best chance to pour into their ears before the anniversary specials are broadcast on Disney Plus.
FAQs
Where Do Missing Doctor Who Soundtracks Come From?
Doctor Who soundtrack recordings are taken directly from the original broadcasts. While some episodes have been lost during the 1960s and 1970s, the soundtracks remain for every episode of Doctor Who thanks to early fans who were able to record them from their televisions.
Have Doctor Who Audios Been Collected Like Television Serials?
Soundtracks for episodes have been released separately, but also as part of CD and audio box sets, making it easier for fans to include missing episode audio with their Blu-Ray collections.
Are Doctor Who audios canonical?
Like any long-running franchise, fans are constantly arguing about what is canonical and what is not. It's even more complex in a saga involving a traveler in time and space. When it comes to the Whoniverse, it's best to see the core television series as official, and slot other parts around it where they fit. There is plenty of room to maneuver and fans have been encouraged to do so since the beginning. The first novelization, Doctor Who and the Daleks, presents a different beginning than the TV series.
Big pauses in production of the television show haven't helped. Big Finish have issued hundreds of audio stories based on existing Doctors while the show has been off and on television. The 50th-anniversary special Night of the Doctor brought these into canon when the Eighth Doctor referenced audio-only companions, but fans will find plenty of contradictions and quirks between the audio and television stories to keep the discussion going. One interesting talking point is comparing how the Eighth and Thirteenth Doctors met Mary Shelley.