Chris Chibnall gave his blessing to Jodie Whittaker and Mandip Gill’s Big Finish Doctor Who audio drama, “Vampire Weekend” (set for July).
The current series of Doctor Who may be over, but July sees Jodie Whittaker and Mandip Gil return as The Thirteenth Doctor and Yaz Khan in their first Big Finish audio adventure, “Vampire Weekend” by Tim Foley. This is the first of twelve original stories featuring the underrated Doctor and companion in their adventures after Graham and Ryan left the TARDIS and before their final season, Flux. It’s like an entire season of the regular pre-Disney era series, giving Whittaker’s Doctor her due as the lead of her own series instead of a supporting character in the Graham and Ryan soap opera. It might show Yaz gradually falling in love with the Doctor.
In “Vampire Weekend”, it’s Gina’s hen-do and her Maid of Honour has booked a large manor in the Peak District. All her friends should be here – including Yasmin Khan, who’s been mysteriously quiet whilst away on her travels. But Yaz is bringing a guest. Someone who isn’t invited. Someone who might prove a little disruptive. The Doctor is joining the celebrations. Unfortunately, so is an ancient enemy…
Doctor Who: Like a “Lost” Season Before “Flux”
Former showrunner and creator of the Thirteenth Doctor, Chris Chibnall, gave his blessing to Big Finish to create new stories with her. He told Big Finish’s in-house magazine Vortex, “Yes, that’s why I wanted them to come into their first scene in Flux like they do. It’s to say time has passed, but you don’t know how long. I love the opening of Flux; it’s one of my favourite sequences. We really shouldn’t have been able to do it on our budget, but we did! The Doctor and Yaz have obviously been having a lot of fun.
“So yes, absolutely,” said Chibnall. “That gap between the two series was really deliberate to leave a sense of time having passed, both on screen and in our lives. There had been big events in the real world, what with the COVID-19 pandemic, and it felt like more time had passed than actually had.”
“I don’t want to know what the ideas for these audio episodes are. I love not knowing, as it’ll be the first adventures for the Doctor and Yaz that I haven’t had any input into or overseen – or any of that stuff. I’ve very deliberately absented myself from it, so it will be lovely to hear other people’s take on it; it’s very exciting. Everybody at Big Finish will get to experience what we did with Jodie and Mandip – they really are two of the greatest human beings. Both wonderful actors and delightful to work with, they bring so much energy and humour.”
