INTERVIEW: David Tennant Talks About His Doctor Who Return With Big Finish



Later this month David Tennant and Catherine Tate return as the Tenth Doctor and Donna Noble for three brand new audio adventures from Big Finish. Ahead of the much-anticipted releases, David has been chatting to Big Finish producer David Richardson for a feature in Vortex, the company's free magazine. The three new adventures, Technophobia by Matt Fitton, Time Reaver by Jenny T. Colgan and Death and the Queen by James Goss, are released on CD and digital download on Monday 16th May. 

See below for a sneak peek at some of David's comments. For the full feature, including contributions from the writers, David's co-stars and other members of the Big Finish family, download a copy of the free magazine here

David on his Big Finish past:
“I first did Big Finish with Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred many years ago, certainly before Doctor Who was as central a part of my life as it has become since. I was always keen to come and play. I did a few different characters, one with Colin Baker, one with David Warner and some Dalek stuff with Nick Briggs. It was always something I really enjoyed." 

David on the difference between TV and audio work:
“It’s quite tiring and it’s quite intensive because you do a story in a day, faster than you work on Radio 4, but there’s such an energy to this stuff, you can’t help but be barrelled along by it. It took about two weeks to do a show on TV!”

David on returning as the Tenth Doctor:
“It’s been really good fun. I was a bit nervous about whether I would slip into it with ease, or would it be a bit of a stretch, but it really felt like returning to a comfy pair of trousers, rather than a scratchy vest."

David on working with Catherine Tate: 
“I think Catherine and I always got on, right from the moment she came to do the tiny bit at the end of Doomsday. She came down and shot the cliffhanger for series two. It took all of half-an-hour and from that moment, we got on – and always have done. That’s something we can hopefully bring to the characters."

On Technophobia:
“What I love about the first story is it’s quite a recognisable, traditional Doctor Who set-up, where it would seem that the machines are taking over – and that’s the kind of thing we’ve seen before – and there’s a brilliant twist. It’s a wonderful and rather chilling idea. It’s not an idea I’ve come across in Doctor Who before.”

On Time Reaver
“It’s nice to have a big, proper sci-fi story on a big alien world, but as with the other stories we’ve done, we kind of think it’s going to be one type of story, about gun runners or this terrible weapon that’s going to destroy everything, and actually it’s even more interesting than that. It’s about a civilisation that doesn’t quite operate on the same moral framework as everyone else and how that can be confused when they move out into the stars, and there’s some lovely character stuff going on there as well.”

On Death and the Queen
“Death and the Queen is kind of like a twisted fairytale. It’s got some slightly deconstructed elements which make it the most broadly funny, the most broadly comic, of the three. That always works for the Doctor and Donna as a pairing. It also goes to some quite dark, quite unusual places and you also get to see Donna at her best. She struggles with finally getting her fairytale wedding, and nothing quite works out as she would imagine.”

For more information about the new titles and to pre-order your copies, visit the Big Finish website.


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