Doctor Who legend returns to face vintage villain in new show spin-off

As a seasoned gamer of both time and space, I can hardly contain my excitement for the return of one of Doctor Who‘s most intriguing villains – the Mara! Having grown up with the Fifth Doctor and his companions, it’s refreshing to see a different TARDIS team face off against this slithering menace.


In an upcoming three-part audio series, a longstanding nemesis from the world of ‘Doctor Who’ is due for a return, with Paul McGann reprising his role as the Eighth Doctor.

In the upcoming release, “Doctor Who – The Eighth Doctor Adventures: Deadly Strangers,” the Mara makes its comeback. This boxset of captivating full-cast audio dramas is now open for pre-orders, with delivery scheduled before December.

Introduced for the first time in the “Doctor Who” episode “Kinda” back in 1982, and later reappearing in “Snakedance”, the Mara is an amalgamated being that transforms into a serpent-like figure. This entity feeds on its victims through their dreams.

Doctor Who legend returns to face vintage villain in new show spin-off

In an upcoming audiobook titled ‘The Gloaming’, the extraterrestrial entity known as Mara will find its ideal hunting ground disguised as a high-end sleep clinic. This facility offers wealthy individuals a chance to sleep during their home planets’ darkest hours, creating opportunities for Mara to slip into their dreams unnoticed.

On the planet Gloaming, the Eighth Doctor (Paul McGann), Charley (India Fisher), and their companion Lady Audacity Montague (Jaye Griffiths) discover that a long-standing adversary may be lurking in the shadows.

Producer David Richardson has expressed his long-held desire to incorporate the Mara into “Doctor Who” once again. He finds it intriguing to imagine how these characters might fit within the dynamic of a new TARDIS crew.

Instead of always centering stories around the legendary Fifth Doctor’s crew, this tale takes a fresh approach by featuring the eighth incarnation of the Doctor and his companions as they confront a malevolent force.

Doctor Who legend returns to face vintage villain in new show spin-off

Lauren Mooney, one of the writers for ‘The Gloaming’, noted that what makes this TARDIS team unique is the contrast between Charley who has a deep history with the Doctor, and Audacity who is still relatively new. This setup introduces an element of insecurity that comes from being the newcomer, which is further amplified by the presence of the Mara.

Stewart Pringle, one of the co-writers, talked about the literary inspirations behind the episode, stating: “It’s thrilling to revisit ‘Kinda’ and ‘Snakedance’, two phenomenal tales, as well as delve into the universe and mythology that Christopher Bailey crafted for the Mara. This is a richly layered and highly literate conceptual world, deeply impacted by modernist poetry, with TS Eliot being a significant influence.

We aimed to delve more profoundly into the concept, where the Mara represents a being that appears when an empire falls.

This show titled “Deadly Strangers” features episodes such as ‘The Encounter between the Time Lord and Puccini’, where we witness a meeting with the Italian composer, and ‘A Women’s Holiday’, which takes place in 1975 Iceland.

Pre-orders are now being taken for the collector’s edition 3-disc CD box set of “Doctor Who – The Eighth Doctor Adventures: Deadly Strangers,” which is also available as a digital download only. The CD box set costs £22.99, while the digital download is priced at £18.99.

In the United Kingdom, you can watch Doctor Who on BBC One, while viewers outside the UK can find it on Disney+. For those in the UK, classic episodes of Doctor Who can be found on BBC iPlayer.

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2024-10-24 18:18

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