Doctor Who: Timestream Restored
(A Forward…Well, More of a Backward, Actually)
“A man is the sum of his memories. A Time Lord even more so.” ~ The 5th Doctor
How true that is. For the past several years, BrokenSea Audio Productions has gained a phenomenal number of followers and one of their favorite shows is Dr. Who. I can’t tell you how exciting it is when somebody writes in to show their appreciation; or my personal favorite, to tell me it was their first contact with The Doctor and that they were now not only hooked, but trying to catch up with the TV show. High praise indeed. It also still boggles my mind when people will tell me “I” was their first Doctor or that they didn’t believe at first that I wasn’t actually English, until they heard other shows I where my full Midwestern twang solidified the truth of my Chicago origins.
Speaking of origins, today marks Peter Capaldi’s debut as the 12th Doctor and while some of you are reading this, I am communing with my *cough* 11th incarnation, Matt Smith, and Amy Pond’s alter-ego, Karen Gillan at the WizardWorld Chicago ComiCon. Needless to say, today is a very special day. But there’s one more reason. Today also begins the restoration of my original episodes as Dr. Who with their siblings. Yes, my travels as the intrepid Time Lord actually began lonnng before I met Stevie Farnaby and the other Hooligans who keep the ‘Sea churning.
My journey began about 2001 when, as a semi-joke, I auditioned for the role in the wake of the original choice for the Doctor bowing out. Back then, the show was going to be released through an audio group called Quantum Realities Productions. Sadly, the lady running that company fell afoul of real life issues and the script I penned for my origin story, Grave White North, sat partially produced for nearly a year. Thankfully, a new emerging group called Darker Projects, picked up the slack and put things into high gear. For about five years and through a number of post-producers, DP’s Dr. Who racked up listener numbers that made one of our former competitors change their comments from “You should stick to Star Trek,” to something along the lines of “We’ve never gotten monthly numbers like that.” Though it had its ups and downs, it was a good ride while it lasted. I won’t bore you with details; but like with many bands, creative differences cropped up and some seemingly irreconcilable ones led to “a parting of the ways.”
As often happens to the Doctor, it was time for a change and that’s where many of you lovely people first met me. But only a fraction of you realized that “Unleashed” was actually a continuation from 10 previous stories (give or take a couple Christmas specials) spread over the previous 6 years. So what happened to my original first two seasons? In short: They stayed tucked away at Darker Projects…until now. Because of a management change within the last year or two, BrokenSea has now come into possession of my entire Dr. Who audio catalog prior to 2008. At long last, listeners will be able to begin at the beginning and experience all my time tales in order – including the ubiquitous post-regenerative shock and costume selection scenes that have made the Doctor’s debut episodes so much fun – and all from a single repository. Like a number of the BBC DVD re-releases, we have also taken the liberty of adding some newly recorded material for each show to help catch newcomers up and hopefully smooth the transition. But rest assured, the story material will remain intact and the production credits will still belong to their original creators, technicians and performers.
So there you have it. Once again normality is restored; the temporal fractures have been repaired, and my adventures will most definitely continue. Allons-y!
Time Lord victorious,
~ M.A.K.
8/23/14
