Posted in: Audio Dramas, BBC, Doctor Who, Preview, streaming, TV | Tagged: Audio Drama, bbc, big finish, bleeding cool, bonnie langford, cable, colin baker, doctor who, emily cook, Mind of the Hodiac, russell t davies, streaming, television, tv

Doctor Who: Big Finish Brings "Lost" Russell T. Davies Story to Life

An unproduced, thought-lost Doctor Who script by former showrunner Russell T. Davies has been found by Davies himself, and Big Finish Productions will be producing it as an audio drama. It's all in the Mind of the Hodiac! Conceived in 1986 and rediscovered almost 35 years later, Doctor Who: Mind of the Hodiac stars Colin Baker and Bonnie Langford as the Sixth Doctor and Mel. The full cast audio version is expanded from the original script into two episodes and is co-written by Russell T Davies and Scott Handcock.

Davies had this to say about the news: "I was preparing for Emily Cook's Doctor Who' tweet-a-long for 'The Runaway Bride,' reached for the script, pulled an old stack of papers out of a box… and there was 'Mind of the Hodiac'! A story was written back in '86 on an electric typewriter in a bedsit in Roath, Cardiff. The only copy! I'd forgotten all about it. It's one whole hour-long episode, plus a detailed synopsis of the second, final episode. Starring the Sixth Doctor and Mel!"

Davies' latest TV drama It's a Sin, a miniseries about 1980s gay life and the AIDS Crisis, smashed audience records in the UK and encouraged a new dialogue about HIV and drove up testing for the first time in decades. Davies had said he was done with Doctor Who, but finding this old script, written back in 1986 at the start of his career in TV, has drawn him back into the Time Lord's orbit. "It's a galaxy-spanning adventure, as the mysterious Hodiac begins a deadly hunt, putting an ordinary Earth family in terrible danger. There are psychic powers, Tungsten Warriors, and a vital role for the Doctor's coat."

Producer Emily Cook added: "When Russell told me he'd rediscovered his forgotten 'Doctor Who' script, it was like finding buried treasure. We joked that it would inevitably become a Big Finish release. And a few enthusiastic emails later, the wheels were already in motion. "It was Russell's Doctor Who' which introduced me to – and made me fall in love with – the show in 2005, so I'm thrilled to be producing his first-ever Doctor Who script. I can't wait to bring 'Mind of the Hodiac' to life on audio and I hope fans are intrigued and excited to hear it. What a wonderful thing to come out of lockdown!"

Doctor Who – The Lost Stories: Mind of the Hodiac is now available to pre-order as a collector's edition CD box set (priced at £14.99) or digital download (at £12.99), at www.bigfinish.com.

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