Doctor Who - Pieces of Eighth

WE LEAVE no stone unturned in our quest to bring you interviews with as many of the EDA authors as possible - and today, we bring you the elusive Christopher Bulis. Chris gives us a fantastic rare interview, with his memories of watching Doctor Who in its earliest years, and how he became a writer in the 90s with Virgin, and then the BBC - and his fascinating notes on the Eighth Doctor's personali...

AN ICE WARRIOR! Foamasi! Wirrrn (with three 'R's)! And they're all in the one book!  Gary Russell's Placebo Effect is the subject of today's episode of Pieces of Eighth, and he tells us which monsters originally featured in the outline for the book before changing to the creatures from The Leisure Hive and The Ark in Space. As ever, Steve Cole joins Kenny and Becca on their voyage, as we hit...

THE DOCTOR's been put in prison, and despite his best efforts, can't escape. Sam, meanwhile, spends three years, having a series of relationships, as he friend tries to find freedom. We're joined by Jonathan Blum, co-author of Seeing I (the other half being his wife, Kate Orman), to chat about this novel, which concluded the 'missing Sam' trilogy, and reset the relationship between the Time Lord a...

THE Doctor and Sam have been separated, and Dreamstone Moon seems them nearly reunited... but not quite! Sam's on her on, stuck on an out-of-control Kusk spaceship, and the Doctor has troubles of his own to resolve...  We're joined by range editor Steve Cole and author Paul Leonard to discuss this little gem (gettit?) of a novel.

THEY'RE BACK! We'd waited years for a new Dalek story, and then two came along in the space of six months in the EDAs! Today, we put Legacy of the Daleks under the microscope, as editor Steve Cole tells us how he picked it up from his predecessor Nuala Buffini, and author John Peel (not that one) tells us about writing for the Eighth Doctor, Susan, David Campbell, the aftermath of the Dalek Invasi...

LONGEST Day by Michael Collier is a Doctor Who novel that's carried a mystery about it for more than two decades. Fan rumour and speculation suggested that Mike wasn't actually a real person, and it had actually been written by range editor Steve Cole. Today, Pieces of Eighth can reveal the full story behind this tale, as the Doctor and Sam face the Kusks, as we speak to Mike, live from his home i...

OPTION Lock marks the arrival of Justin Richards to the BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures range. The future editor of the series makes an impressive debut with aliens, businessmen, the Philosopher's Stone and space stations with nuclear weapons... We're joined by editor Steve Cole, Justin's son Julian, and cover artist Colin Howard.

THERE'S no need to cry wolf - just tune in to this episode of Pieces of Eighth! We've got werewolves in a fun park, as author Peter Anghelides and BBC Books Eighth Doctor Adventures range editor Steve Cole join us, to tell us about this novel, from 2008. And, trivia fans - The Kursaal is a Grade II listed building in Southend-on-Sea, in Essex, England, which opened in 1901 as part of one of the wo...

IT'S THE Eighth Doctor Adventure that shook up the line, as Lawrence Miles arrives on the scene with Alien Bodies. We're joined by range editor Steve Cole, and we hear from Lawrence in an archival clip talking about the book from the London science fiction podcast Reality Check, after he declined our invitation to take part. Huge thanks to Alex Fitch for allowing us to use an excerpt. DWM reviewer...

IN OCTOBER 1997, BBC Books achieved something that their predecessors at Virgin had been unable to achieve with the New and Missing Adventures - an original novel with the Daleks. Written by John Peel, a friend of Dalek creator Terry Nation, it saw the Eighth Doctor, Sam, Davros, Thals, Movellans and Daleks all feature. Today's episode features a chat with the writer, as well as range editor Steve...

WHAT'S THAT, you say? Pieces of Eighth covering the EDA The Bodysnatchers? But haven't you already done that in season two?! Why yes, yes we have, dear listener, but we're not going to short change you for your time. We've gone back to scratch, re-edited the content and added all-new material, including a chat with range editor Steve Cole, Doctor Who Magazine reviewer and Eighth Doctor superfan Ma...

THE EIGHTH Doctor's back in the city where he was born - San Francisco. Accompanied by his new friend Samantha 'Sam' Jones, the pair encounter vampires and UNIT - but there's not a peep from his old pal Dr Grace Holloway. Co-author Jonathan Blum joins us for a chat about writing the book - sadly, his wife and co-writer Kate Orman had gone down with COVID-19, so was unable to join us, so sit back a...

WE'RE BACK after a very short break - it's our long-awaited look at the BBC Books Eight Doctor Adventures range. Over the coming 18 days, we're going to be covering the first 18 novels in the range, from The Eight Doctors up to The Face Eater.  Today, we kick off with The Eight Doctors by Terrance Dicks, featuring an archival interview with the author, BBC Books editor Steve Cole, an extract...

WE LIED! We told you episode 4.16 was the last of the run, and it really, really was planned to be... and now, it's the penultimate episode of season four! Before our fifth season kicks off, looking at Phase One of the EDA (we like that phrase - we'll have to use it more in future), we present an overview of the BBC Books series, as not all of our listeners will be aware of the ins and outs of the...

IT'S DOCTOR Who's 59th anniversary today, and to mark the occasion, and Paul McGann's birthday last week, we're looking at The Night of the Doctor. Our fantastic listeners have shared their thoughts on when they first saw the Eighth Doctor's shock return to our screens in 2013, and we present their thoughts on the surprise mini-episode, which debuted on 14 November, 2013. And keep an ear out - you...

BBC Audio brought us a new adventure for the Eighth Doctor, in the form of The Code of Flesh. The sequel to last year's The Scent of Blood, writer Andrew (Andy!) Lane and narrator Dan Starkey were reunited, to bring us another terrifying tale set in Victorian England. This week, we're joined by Andy, as well as BBC Audio's commissioning editor Michael Stevens, and audiobook producer Neil Gardner,...

HAVE YOU ever had one of those dreams, where everyone and everything around you just... stops? That's exactly the situation Liv Chenka finds herself in, in the Big Finish Short Trip The World Beyond The Trees, written by Jonathan Barnes and produced by Ian Atkins - and read by Nicola Walker. We've got two of the three named creatives involved in this episode - can you guess who?!

WE TAKE a look at the final release in the Big Finish Doctor Who monthly range, The End of the Beginning. Author Robert Valentine talks us through the four episodes, Part One: Death and the Desert; Part Two: Flight of the Blackstar; Part Three: Night Gallery (the Eighth Doctor one) and Part Four: The Lost Moon, as we learn what goes into the making of a multi-Doctor story.

IT'S ANOTHER first for Pieces of Eighth - normally we don't do review episodes, but on this occasion we've broken our rule. Today, we feature Kenny's roadtrip to Edinburgh with his Power of 3 co-host David Steel, as they travelled to watch Doctor Who Am I on the big screen, the documentary charting Matthew Jacobs' journey with fandom, from being (as he perceived it) an unwanted embarrassment after...

IT'S 31 OCTOBER, which means it's Halloween, and we've decided to bring you a suitably scary episode to mark the occasion.  We're dipping into the first Doom Coalition box set, as the Doctor and Liv Chenka encounter Helen Sinclair for the first time. Unfortunately for them, people are dying in mysterious circumstances if they look at artworks from a collection which its late owner ordered to...

VIEWERS of Doctor Who in the 21st century have become accustomed to watching how the show is made behind the scenes, through DVD and bluray extras, and Doctor Who Confidential. However, back in 1996, these things were unheard of, with the only additional content coming in the form of an official electronic press kit, with interviews with Sylvester McCoy, Paul McGann and Daphne Ashbrook, plus the l...

In a change to the scheduled episode 4.9, we had to bring you something new, given Paul McGann's just been back on our screens as the Doctor! His brief appearance in The Power of the Doctor, alongside David Bradley, Peter Davison, Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy, has been warmly greeted by fans all over the world. So, here's our celebration of his return, complete with the views of fan friends all...

THE Doctor and Charley Pollard are on the hunt for adventurer Pieter Montemarche, a hero of the Edwardian Adventuress in her youth. But when the duo fail to meet him at several of the locations he's reputed to have visited, they begin to wonder if he has been taken out of time completely... We go behind the scenes of this Big Finish Short Trip from 2016, as writer Ian Atkins and sound designer Rob...

IMAGINE how thrilling it must have been to have Doctor Who back in production, after a seven year gap - and then flying to Canada to see it unfold before your eyes. That's exactly what happened to Gary Gillatt during his tenure as the editor of Doctor Who Magazine, becoming one of just a handful of British journalists who were given access to the set in Vancouver, and had the thrill of walking thr...

WHEN the Eighth Doctor was forced to regenerate, it all came after a spaceship crash with a pilot named Cass. The Night of the Doctor gave us a new and unexpected insight into the Time War, as we heard about the conflict through the eyes of Cass - played by Emma Campbell-Jones - and did so much world building in seconds.  This week we chat with Emma about her experiences in The Night of the D...