The Seeds of War (Matt Fitton and Nicholas Briggs)

The release for March 2013 is "The Seeds of War" and is a Sixth Doctor and Melanie Bush story starring Colin Baker and Bonnie Langford.

This story has been written by Matt Fitton and Nicholas Briggs and has been directed by Barnaby Edwards. It was recorded on the 3rd and 4th September 2012.

This story guest stars: Ray Fearon (Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone) who plays Barlow; David Sibley (Pralix in "The Pirate Planet") is The Eminence; and Stuart Organ (Mr Robson in Grange Hill and Bazin "Dragonfire") is Helgert. Also starring are: Ony Uhiara, Lucy Russell, John Banks, Beth Chalmers and David Sibley.

As revealed by Script Editor Alan Barnes ‘This one is by Matt Fitton again, this time working from an epic, galaxy-spanning adventure plot devised by our own Nicholas Briggs’.

Sixth Doctor

Big Finish Productions have announced that it is a story that will be significant for the future, with David Sibley set to return in 2014 as a recurring villain - but with an earlier Doctor...

‘The Eminence is a very mysterious entity which is a sort of living gas’, Matt Fitton, co-writer of this story has revealed, ‘and it transports itself around in these materialisation caskets. The gas emerges and takes over the bodies of any nearby human beings, transforming them. And we may be hearing from it again...’

It has been revealed that the Eminence is set to be a recurring threat. In fact, although "The Seeds of War" will be the listeners' first encounter with the Eminence, it's already familiar to both The Doctor and to Big Finish Production's writers. ‘I had seen the script for "Destroy the Infinite" which is a Fourth Doctor story where the Eminence first meets The Doctor, and that story was written first. Being a Sixth Doctor script, it is technically a sequel to "Destroy the Infinite", but because it's the first time the listeners are introduced to the Eminence, it has to work from scratch’.

Melanie

‘People are already picking up on the hints that the Eighth Doctor might encounter the Eminence too. The idea of this new enemy is that all the stories stand alone, and if you want to go through the whole back story that's something extra’.

"The Seeds of War" has been written by Matt from a synopsis by Nicholas Briggs. ‘He didn't have time to write it! I was called up just after I'd started "The Wrong Doctors", and asked whether I could write a script from his synopsis, and that's essentially what I did - he had all four episodes down, all of what happens, and I just wrote a script from that, referring back to him on certain little changes I wanted to make’.

‘The interesting thing was that it's a story I would never have written. Something Nick does really well is the big space epic, and it wouldn't occur to me to write something like that, so that was a really interesting way to work. The first episode is like a standalone disaster movie, and then the rest of it becomes this sprawling epic along the lines of "The Dalek Empire"’.

On the Back Cover:

Humanity is emerging from a long, exhausting war. Against an enemy so powerful, so implacable, it seemed unstoppable – right up until the moment it stopped.

Now, despite its ‘victory’, the human race is on its knees. The Doctor and Mel join its struggle for survival to try to ensure it has a future.

A race against time takes them from the Great Tower of Kalsos to the Reliquaries of Earth. In an epic journey across the ten systems, their fates are intertwined with one family. The Tevelers are to feel the effects of war more than most

The Doctor has a plan. Mel is sure he can save the day. But something is lurking. Watching. Waiting. A presence the Doctor knows of old. But just how far does its influence pervade?

The Eminence awaits…

In The Art of War, the legendary military treatise written around the 6th century BC by the Chinese general Sun Tzu, we find the following observation: 'All warfare is based on deception.'

In The Seeds of War, that adage has never been truer. Matt Fitton and Nicholas Briggs have come up with a story of Pyrrhic victory, personal betrayal and preternatural villainy. Theirs is a grim future peopled with complicated heroes, which means you need to find lightness where you can, but also to play the tragedy to the hilt.

Achieving the correct tone and pacing for this kind of story can be extremely tricky, which is why I'm endlessly grateful to the cast for being so dashed brilliant. Every character, including the Doctor and Mel, goes on an emotional journey in this story and it was a joy having actors who were prepared to go - and capable of going -that extra distance.

A final word should go to Andy Hardwick, who has excelled himself in the sound design and music for this story. His is the world and everything that's in it.


BARNABY EDWARDS


Writer's Notes

After a rollercoaster few months chock-full of so many new opportunities, this story gave me a fresh set of firsts.

First first: the privilege of developing a storyline by Nick Briggs, taking his synopsis and fleshing it out into a full-blown script. Being a Briggs plot, the hard work of creating the dramatic rhythm was already done: everything slotted together perfectly! The Seeds of War became the chance to write a story I'd never have written myself. A great big action-packed space epic. And another take on the Sixth Doctor and Mel, very different versions from those in The Wrong Doctors. Here they're friends, long-standing fellow travellers. A lovely dynamic to play with - but does Mel know the Doctor as well as she thinks...?

Another first was the opportunity to work with Barnaby Edwards - lovely chap and marvellous director. And to see his fabled big book of contacts at work -just look at that cast! (Including the dream-team of Beth and Banks, who I now want in everything I write.)

One more first. The Eminence. You'll be hearing more from it, sooner or later. Or maybe sooner and later. But, as the Doctor says, that's another story...

MATT FITTON