Big Finish have announced Doctor Who – The Sixth Doctor: The Last Adventure, a September 2015 audio release that provides a heroic exit for Colin Baker’s much-loved Time Lord…

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Colin’s last outing in the Doctor Who role on television was The Trial of a Time Lord in 1986, but there was no proper handover story to Sylvester McCoy when he joined the series in 1987. Now, 28 years later, the full details of the Sixth Doctor’s death will be revealed – and it’s part of an epic battle that spans many sections of his life, and involves many of his companions.

‘I spoke to Colin not long after Matt Smith’s final outing, The Time of the Doctor, was broadcast on television,’ says producer David Richardson. ‘I felt very strongly that regeneration stories, and each Doctor’s final end, are very important to Doctor Who fans – these are stories that allow us to see the Doctor at his most courageous, making a sacrifice that only makes us love him more. And so I asked Colin if he might finally consider doing the Sixth Doctor’s final story with us. To my huge delight, he said yes.’

‘I owe a lot to Big Finish,’ says Colin. ‘They have given my Doctor the opportunity to live beyond those few episodes on television which were recorded during a time when the programme was under siege from various quarters. My Doctor did not benefit from that time. However at Big Finish the Sixth Doctor has lived and breathed anew and developed in a way that I am extremely happy with.

‘That would be the only reason I have agreed to bring my Doctor to an end – although it’s not really an end, because Big Finish plucks stories from the whole era of every Doctor. But because I never actually filmed a regeneration, and left poor Sylvester floundering around in my empty clothing with a blond wig on, I have resolutely maintained the lie that I am still the Doctor and all the rest are imposters because I never regenerated!’ (He laughs) ‘So it’s a tribute to the smooth talking people at Big Finish and the standard of the work completed thus far that I have cast aside my reluctance and joined all the other Doctors in actually having a regeneration.

‘And I can promise you: it’s a cracker.’

Doctor Who – The Sixth Doctor: The Last Adventure will be released in a lavish book-sized box set that contains special photography, bespoke illustrations and behind the scenes interviews, as well as four hour-long episodes. The stories are connected by the presence of Michael Jayston as the Valeyard, the entity that exists between the Doctor’s twelfth and thirteen incarnations.

The Sixth Doctor won’t be alone in battle though, as he’ll be joined across the adventures by Constance (Miranda Raison), Charlotte Pollard (India Fisher), Flip (Lisa Greenwood) and Mel (Bonnie Langford), as well as those dedicated detectives, Jago & Litefoot (Christopher Benjamin and Trevor Baxter, alongside Lisa Bowerman as Ellie Higson!)