Big Finish, producers of the Doctor Who, Star Cops audio adventures and more, has just released another free to download issue of Vortex magazine, offering a useful overview of their upcoming releases, most out next month.
Alongside background information on new releases, we also get to see more of the terrific cover art commissioned for many adventures, by artists including Oliver Arkinstall-Jones and Rafe Wallbank.
You can grab it for free right here as a PDF
UNIT: Eras
A new series in Big Finish’s UNIT range highlights heroes from across the history of the organisation. The first box set comprises four new adventures featuring Jon Culshaw as Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, Jemma Redgrave as Kate Stewart, Ingrid Oliver as Osgood, Sadie Miller as Sarah Jane Smith and Christopher Naylor as Harry Sullivan. This release also marks the Big Finish debut of Rupert Holliday-Evans as Colonel Mace.
UNIT: Eras – Hostile Universe will be released on download to own in April 2026.
Doctor Who – The Eleventh Doctor Adventures
Miles Taylor takes on the role of the Doctor, with Jasmine Bayes as new companion Eleanor Fong, in the first of a brand new series of adventures for the Eleventh Doctor. Written by Lisa McMullin and Beth Axford, the stories are set in 1990s Hong Kong, futuristic Space Florida, and back in history to Salem during the 1692 notorious witch trials.
Doctor Who – The Eleventh Doctor Adventures: The First Question will be released on download to own in March 2026.
Doctor Who – The Thirteenth Doctor Adventures
Jodie Whittaker is the Doctor, with Mandip Gill as Yaz, in a new adventure set in the East End of London, in 1926. The story, written by Rafaella Marcus, features the London underbelly of East End music hall culture and that time period’s obsession with speaking to the dead through mediums, weird science experiments and ‘piercing the veil’.
Doctor Who – The Thirteenth Doctor Adventures: The Violet Hour will be released on CD and download to own in March 2026.
Doctor Who – The First Doctor Adventures
Stephen Noonan plays the Doctor, with Anneke Wills as Polly and Lauren Cornelius as Dodo. The adventure, written and directed by Nicholas Briggs, explores the notion that an alien invasion might not be a grand, military affair, but could just be sordid little deals where the human race is seen simply as a commodity.
Doctor Who – The First Doctor Adventures: Beware the City of Illusions will be released on CD and download to own in March 2026.
Doctor Who – The Fourth Doctor Adventures
Tom Baker is the Doctor, with Sadie Miller as Sarah Jane Smith, Jon Culshaw as Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart and Christopher Naylor as Harry Sullivan in the first of the Fourth Doctor’s box sets of 2026. Summoned back to Earth by the Space-Time telegraph, the Doctor and Sarah Jane find themselves assisting their old friends at UNIT – not once, but twice. But exactly how willing will a Time Lord be to be stuck in a single place once more?
Doctor Who – The Fourth Doctor Adventures: The Ministry of Death will be released on CD and download to own in March 2026.
UNIT: Brave New World
Angela Bruce returns as Brigadier Winifred Bambera, with Alex Jordan as Sergeant Jean-Paul Savarin and Yemisi Oyinloye as Dr Louise Rix. Following directly on from UNIT – Brave New World: Fractures, a rift has opened leading to Camelot, and the return of Bambera’s husband – the knight Ancelyn. The release features a tribute to the late Marcus Gilbert, who played Ancelyn.
UNIT – Brave New World: Knightfall will be released on download to own in March 2026.
Torchwood
Big Finish pays tribute to the late Murray Melvin, and his iconic character Bilis Manger, in a story by David Llewellyn. How was Torchwood involved in a burnt-down Swansea theatre? Who is the character claiming to be Bilis Manger? And what’s trapped inside the statue of the Swansea Devil?
Torchwood: Curtain will be released on CD and download to own in March 2026.
Star Cops
David Calder returns as Commander Nathan Spring, with Linda Newton as Chief Superintendent Pal Kenzy and Trevor Cooper as Inspector Colin Devis, in part three of Star Cops: Conflict. Written by Roland Moore, this is a thriller with a strong emotional impact.
Star Cops: Conflict: Prisoner and Escort will be released on download to own in March 2026.
The Big Finish Book Club
Plus, in The Big Finish Book Club: revisit Doctor Who – The Companion Chronicles: Home Truths, an adventure with the First Doctor as told by his companion, Sara Kingdom, first released in 2008, on download to own throughout February for only £1.99.
There’s a house across the waters at Ely where an old woman tells a strange story.
About a kind of night constable called Sara Kingdom. And her friends, the Doctor and Steven. About a journey they made to a young couple’s home, and the nightmarish things that were found there. About the follies of youth and selfishness. And the terrible things even the most well-meaning of us can inflict on each other.
Hear the old woman’s story. Then decide her fate.
• Download Vortex Issue 204 for free right here as a PDF
• The majority of Big Finish releases can now be accessed on-the-go via the Big Finish App, which is available for both Apple and Android devices
- About the Author
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John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.
He’s the writer of comics such as Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs”, with Dave Hailwood.
Categories: Audio, Digital Media, Doctor Who, downthetubes News, Other Worlds, Science Fiction
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