Showing results by publisher "BBC Audio" in Science Fiction & Fantasy

Every year, on the winter solstice, the small town of Melcombe observes an annual custom, the roots and meaning of which are lost in the mists of time. A torch-lit procession to the ancient tomb of Cairndale Knapp, overlooking the town, puts the old sun to bed, and greets the new sun in the...

Something ghastly is afoot in Victorian Yorkshire. Something that kills. Bodies are washing up in the canal, their skin a waxy, glowing red...but just what is this crimson horror? Madam Vastra, Jenny and Strax are despatched to investigate the mystery. Strangely reluctant to assist their enquiries is Mrs Winifred Gillyflower, matriarch of ‘Sweetville’, a seemingly Utopian workers’ community. Why do all roads lead to the team's old friends Clara and the Doctor? Who is Mrs Gillyflower's mysterious silent partner Mr Sweet?

Time: the present. Place: Smalltown, USA. A town like any other. A sleepy world of white picket fences, front porch gliders and freshly mown lawns, a Pontiac or Chevrolet in every driveway. But the streets are empty, with not a sound to be heard, and no one to hear it if there was. It's into this strange world of shifting sands that the TARDIS propels the Doctor and Nardole, who think they're in 1950s suburbia until an apparent nuclear attack takes them into far darker territory, with a series of terrifying consequences.

When the TARDIS materialises on Earth in the year 2084, the Doctor meets an old enemy - the Sea Devils. Once the masters of this planet, they are now forced to live in the murky depths of the sea. But their intention is to reclaim their position of domination. The Sea Devils' associates in this dastardly plan to attack humanity's defences are the Silurians, also known to the Doctor of old.

A letter arrives at Nest Cottage, warning of danger for all former companions of the Doctor. Intrigued, Mrs Wibbsey begins a correspondence with one Polly Wright - and soon finds herself with an unexpected guest for Christmas. But shadows are gathering in the Hexford snow and old scores are waiting to be settled. With Mike Yates and other friends around her, Mrs Wibbsey must navigate her way between facts and half-truths if she's to keep the Doctor's secrets safe, and live to tell the tale....

Jon Culshaw reads this exciting novelisation of a classic TV adventure for the Third Doctor, featuring the Ice Warriors. Fifty years after his first visit to Peladon, the Doctor returns to find that Queen Thalira has inherited a troubled kingdom from her father. Membership of the Galactic...

Comedian Olga Koch has a masters degree in the social science of the Internet and can turn almost any file into a PDF. In these three series, she looks at life through the eyes of a computer scientist, taking the universal truths you hold dear and tearing them to shreds using logic. With the help of her sassy digital assistant ALGO (played by Sindhu Vee and Tia Kofi), she uses stand-up and storytelling to unpack concepts such as Nationality, Beauty, Health, Privacy, Fun, Intelligence, Friendship and Family.

Nicola Bryant reads this classic novelisation of a Sixth Doctor TV adventure. En route to Kew Gardens, the Doctor and Peri arrive in Northern England at the time of the Luddite uprisings. Unknown to them, the TARDIS has been dragged of course by the Master, who plans to pervert the course of...

Geoffrey Beevers reads this action-packed novelisation of a Third Doctor television adventure. Seven months after it left Mars, there has still been no radio communication with the Probe Seven spacecraft or the astronauts inside it. Back on Earth concern is mounting, and eventually a recovery capsule is sent up to rescue the astronauts. But when the capsule returns to Earth, it is found to be empty. As the Doctor and Liz investigate, they discover that the interior of the capsule is highly radioactive.

J.R.R. Tolkien: An Audio Portrait is a compilation of radio and TV archive material from the '60s and '70s featuring interviews with J.R.R. Tolkien, his relatives, and his colleagues in which he talks about The Lord of the Rings, his other Hobbiton books, life as an academic, correspondence received from fans, and his views on the 20th century. This audiobook is presented by Brian Sibley.

Everyone knows that Pluto is a barren, airless rock. So naturally the Doctor is surprised when he discovers artificial suns and an ultra-modern industrial city. What’s more, a group of colonists is being worked - and taxed - to death in this inhospitable and supposedly undeveloped part of the Universe.... With the help of his companion Leela and the faithful K9, the Doctor takes on the mysterious and powerful Company, a ruthless exploiter of planets and their people.

First published as an illustrated book in the 1960s and now a collector’s item, Doctor Who and the Invasion from Space sees the Doctor land in the futuristic world of The One. Along with the Mortimer family, whom he rescued from the Great Fire of London, he finds himself recruited to lead a galactic invasion from Andromeda - with the TARDIS instrumental in the plan! In Ten Fathom Pirates, a story from The Doctor Who Annual 1967, the Doctor encounters underwater raiders on a distant planet.

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.

On the planet Tigella, the Savants and the Deons are irrevocably opposed on one crucial issue: the Dodecahedron, mysterious source of all their power. To the Savants, it's a miracle of science to be studied and used to benefit all. To the Deons, it's a god, and not to be tampered with. When the power source begins to fluctuate, the whole planet is threatened. Zastor, Tigella's leader, welcomes the Doctor and invites him to arbitrate; yet the Time Lord may not be all he seems.

When Professor Irene Hyde's Monday morning lecture at St Luke's University is rudely interrupted by a man named the Doctor, it's the beginning of an adventure she could never have dreamt possible. Soon they are hurtling backwards in time to 1806, where the crew of the trading ship Favorite, led by the 'Ice King' himself, Frederic Tudor, are being picked off, one by one, by a hideous monster that lurks in the shadows.

Bonnie Langford reads this thrilling novelisation of the debut TV adventure for the Seventh Doctor. Assailed by violent bolts of energy, the TARDIS is blasted off-course and forced to land on the barren planet of Lakertya. The turbulence triggers the Doctor's sixth regeneration - but that is the...

Victorian adventure writer Henry Rider Haggard is most famous for his novel King Solomon’s Mines, which launched the ‘Lost World’ genre of SF, featuring the discovery of long-forgotten or legendary civilizations. His follow-up, She, was also hugely successful, and has been hailed as ‘one of the great classics of fantasy fiction’. The radio dramatisations of both tales are collected here, with casts including Tim McInnerny, Adjoa Andoh, Finlay Robertson, Oliver Chris and Mia Soteriou.

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.

In a seedy backstreet, in a rotting theatre, the sinister Dr Caligari runs a cabaret with his demonic assistants, Snuff and Anthrax. A riot of a listen, this surreal and macabre comedy follows the smooth-talking Dr Caligari as he encourages unwilling guests to tell their story in his London nightclub. Written by Alan Gilbey, strange encounters and dark mysteries are recounted by guest acts on London’s most bizarre stage.

Sulky Goth Eloise hates her life, Monday mornings and her dreary job as a Co-op sales assistant. She’s always felt like an outsider, but as her 21st birthday approaches, she starts to wonder if she’s going mad. She can’t sleep, the sun hurts her skin, she’s plagued by nightmares and she has an insatiable craving for blood – and worst of all, she seems to be allergic to garlic bread. Then her Transylvanian Aunt Lucretia reveals that she’s a vampire, and suddenly it all makes sense. She’s happier than she’s ever been: but there are still a few hurdles to overcome.