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The first of Big Finish’s Dark Gallifrey series will focus on renegade Time Lord Morbius.

Samuel West stars in the first trilogy of full-cast audio dramas beginning in April 2024.

The tyrant Morbius plays an important role in the history of the Time Lords. His attempts to scrap their non-interference policy in favour of military conquest set off Gallifrey’s first civil war and – although Morbius was defeated and executed – it takes more than death to keep a bad Time Lord down for long.

Viewers of Doctor Who first encountered him in the 1976 television story The Brain of Morbius, resurrected in the body of a Frankenstein-style creature to fight the Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker). This incarnation didn’t last long but Morbius was brought back to life once more, voiced by Samuel West, in the 2008 The Eighth Doctor Adventures audio story The Vengeance of Morbius. Now, West reprises the role of the warmongering despot in three brand-new audio adventures which form the first trilogy of the epic event series Dark Gallifrey.

And a rematch is in the offing…

The three instalments in the trilogy, all written by Tim Foley, are:

Part 1

The time has come for the last Time Lord battleship, the Proteus, to leave the planet Karn and return to Gallifrey victorious. But her voyage home will not be easy. The Captain is sick, the crew is restless, and there are dark forces lurking in the hold below…

Part 2

When disaster strikes the Proteus, Captain Argento and her crew must fight for their lives and the fate of all Time Lords. What is out there on the ice? Who hides in the impossible temple? As loyalties shift and secrets emerge, the cult of Morbius lies in wait to bring about the General’s return…

Part 3

Morbius has been brought back to life on the Isle of the Dead. But a desperate Captain Argento has called for help and received an unlikely ally. Here is a stranger who knows the tyrant of old and is the only one who can put his plans on ice. But perhaps even the Doctor cannot stop the threat of Dark Gallifrey…

Starring alongside West are Rachel Atkins (as the recently regenerated Captain Argento) and Lara Lemon (as Gilda, a meek Sisterhood of Karn apothecary). Also joining the cast are Hywel Morgan, Andrew French, Mina Anwar, Justin Avoth and Janet Henfrey. Part 3 includes a guest appearance by Tom Baker as the Fourth Doctor.

Writer Tim Foley said: “I was delighted to be asked to write for Morbius. He is largely a blank slate, and what little we know about him is infused with vague, strange Time Lord lore that’s all to play for and a joy to explore.

“He’s famously inspired by Frankenstein, so I thought about the sections which bookended that original novel – on Captain Walton’s ship exploring the North Pole. My pitch for this three-hour epic was not the typical paragraph I usually deliver – it was a picture of the Caspar David Friedrich painting The Sea of Ice.

“I also thought about the format of the gothic thriller as a whole. This informed the way I approached the telling of my tale. It’s a series of moody, murky chapters exploring the voyage home after the defeat of Morbius. He’s a complex character and there is much to dissect.  I reckon this is the most experimental project that Big Finish has undertaken yet.”

Each part of Dark Gallifrey: Morbius is now available for pre-order as a single-disc collector’s edition CD (+ download for just £10.99) or download only (for just £8.99).