Recorded on: 14-15 and 18-19 March 2024
Recorded at: The Soundhouse
Producer Heather Challands said: “It's my privilege to continue the story of Susan. Carole Ann Ford takes the lead so well and it's so exciting to have her front-and-centre in these stories, tackling the Time War. These episodes really confront Susan with the family that she's lost, and the family she still has! For the first time, she's going to meet the War Doctor. But will she approve of what her grandfather has become?"
Writer Sarah Cassidy, who makes her Big Finish debut with this box set, said: "I was so excited to write for Susan, especially knowing Carole Ann's playing her, because she was there at the start of Doctor Who, she's absolute royalty. And what I really loved is writing Susan at the age that Carole Ann is now. Who says that older women can't have adventures? Susan absolutely can."
Script editor Matt Fitton added: "This is a different angle on the Time War - it's much more to do with diplomacy and espionage. Susan's not a soldier; she uses her brain and her empathy for forging alliances with other species for the Time Lords. And I like to keep an aspect of the 1960s present, so we touch on characters, situations, and alien races that hark back to the time when Susan was travelling with the Doctor.
"Way back in the Eighth Doctor Adventures, Susan lost her son Alex to the Daleks and attributed some of the blame to the Doctor and his actions. And that trauma is a big driving force for why Susan took the Time Lords' invitation to do her duty in the Time War – to do this for Alex. However, in The Lost Son, we find a place where Susan’s empathy and her memories of Alex may end up being used against her."
Carole Ann Ford said: "The usual image of Susan is as a fifteen-year-old, and one of my biggest gripes is that I was never allowed to grow older. I was stuck in a time warp! But now I’m proceeding to play her as a more mature woman, with a great sense of duty to the planet that she’s on, the people around her, and indeed the rest of the universe. So, she’s a very important person, a VIP now, not just a tagger-along. I love being the lead character!"
Sonny McGann added: "One of the first things I said to Carole was ‘Do you remember me?’ The first one we recorded together, An Earthly Child, must have been 2007 or 2008 – such a long time ago, and I was a skinny little teenager. That was the first acting job I’d ever done and I was terrified, but everyone was so lovely. As with the Time War stories, it’s lovely to have Alex back in any shape or form. He’s an interesting character and quietly very relatable as well."
And, Jonathon Carley said: "As soon as I found out the War Doctor was meeting Susan, I was giddy with excitement. Carole Ann Ford is the First Lady of Doctor Who! The War Doctor is such a remote figure, and to thrust him into a conflict situation with his own granddaughter – from the very beginning, when he became the Doctor for the first time, and he has since renounced that – it brings up a real mix of emotions."
Rosalyn Landor, Sophie Bleasdale, Beth Chalmers, Carole Ann Ford, Heather Bleasdale, Sonny McGann, John Ainsworth
Sebastian Humphreys, Bruce Alexander, Carole Ann Ford, Jonathon Carley, Tania Rodrigues, John Ainsworth
