With Jenny’s return to the audio worlds of Doctor Who confirmed back in June, Big Finish has shared more details for the Doctor’s daughter’s further adventures! Due for release this November, let’s take a look at the additional cast members and new story details for Jenny- The Doctor’s Daughter: Still Running.
Additional Cast
Previously, the only confirmed returning cast members were Georgia Tennant as Jenny and Sean Biggerstaff as Jenny’s friend and companion Noah. Now we also know that Siân Phillips will return as Colt-5000- the bounty hunter that has been tracking Jenny down since before the events of her first set of stories! According to Big Finish, this reunion will result “…in a showdown that could come with a cost…”
As teased with the initial release of the titles of the stories that will make up Still Running, Simon Fisher-Becker will return to the role of Dorium Maldovar. Last seen in “The Wedding of River Song”, Dorium is the owner and operator of the Maldovarium and not always entirely trustworthy! This will be Simon Fisher-Becker’s second return to the role for Big Finish following the release of The Doctor Chronicles: The Eleventh Doctor Volume 1’s “The Light Keepers”.
Jenny will also be facing some of her father’s foes, too, as Nicholas Briggs joins the cast as the Cybermen! The initial news of this set of stories did tease the return of an “old enemy” so this is exciting to hear. But just what are the Cybermen up to? Let’s take a look at the new story details!
New Story Details
Jenny- The Doctor’s Daughter: Still Running will, as previously announced, be made up of four stories. Let’s see what new story details for Jenny are! The first in the set is “Inside the Maldovarium” by Adrian Poynton.
“Jenny and Noah find a priceless item up for auction at a disreputable venue – with an even less trustworthy owner. Dorium Maldovar might seem pleased to see them, but what’s his real agenda? Is Jenny here by chance, or is someone spinning a web…?”
Namedropped in Jenny’s first Big Finish adventure, she may know Dorium as someone who is able to get time travel technology to paying customers. And though Jenny’s inherited genius and time-sensitivity allowed her to construct a Vortex Manipulator of her own from various spare parts, perhaps she and Noah are looking for something a little more reliable…? Interesting, too, that it seems as if Dorium may already know who Jenny is! I’m looking forward to hearing how this adventure goes and seeing what happens as Jenny meets more of her Dad’s, er, “friends”.
Next up will be “Altered Status” by Christian Brassington and Matt Fitton.
“On a utopian world, the perfect society toils towards its worthy ‘Cause’. But the hard-working Suits are more than they seem, and the Department Head is something else altogether. And when Jenny and Noah scratch the surface, they find silver underneath. The Cybermen are coming…”
Jenny and the Cybermen! And while, sure, there are a multitude of stories featuring the Cybermen lurking behind the scenes of something more sinister, that can be when they’re at their scariest. Interesting, too, is the look at the Cybermen that we get on the cover of Still Running. It’s very close to the earliest “Mondasian” Cybermen, but lacks the normal silvery fabric face covering. Somehow that’s almost more unsettling than the blank, sans-flesh faces of those early versions of this particular monster… Especially with the eyes already replaced!
Following Jenny’s run in with the Cybermen, we’ll have “Calamity Jenny” by John Dorney.
“When Noah and Jenny mosey on into the Old West, it’s surely a coincidence that Jenny looks exactly like the town’s most notorious outlaw. But as they’ll discover, anyone who crosses ‘Calamity Jenny’ suffers an unlucky fate – and it’s usually fatal.”
Time travel shenanigans are always fun, and this one does have a twist thrown in. The last time Jenny time-travelled to Earth to get away from an enemy (also a story by John Dorney!), things didn’t end overly happily. I’ll be interested to hear how Jenny sharing a face with ‘Calamity Jenny’ works out. Personally, John Dorney’s stories are some of my favorites in Big Finish!
And to finish up Still Running, there is “Her Own Worst Enemy” by Lisa McMullin.
“Jenny wants bounty hunter cyborg Colt-5000 off their trail once and for all. Her plan involves cybertech founder Seavus Colt, time travel, and showing somebody the true value of their life. But the web of time can’t be pulled apart without a cost…”
Though it did seem as if Jenny and Noah had finally gotten rid of Colt-5000 at the end of her previous set of adventures, it seems as if this is not the case! The synopsis sounds a bit like Doctor Who’s “A Christmas Carol” to me in a way, but with Jenny being a bit less experienced than her Dad it may not end well for her. Jenny’s brilliance has been on full display in all of her stories. However, she’s very unique in the universe. She has a lot of knowledge (see again, making a Vortex Manipulator based on nothing more than the feeling she got when someone else used one!) but perhaps not quite enough wisdom to act on given how new she is in the universe.
Speaking about Jenny’s upcoming adventures, Georgia Tennant had this to say:
“My favourite Who monster is the Cybermen – I did a school project on Doctor Who (unsurprisingly) when I was about 7 years old, and I specialised in the Cybermen, so her meeting them is a dream!
And her and Noah’s sibling relationship has developed in this series – they’ve got to know each other much better. Each has a quality the other one doesn’t have. Jenny’s a bit more reckless, and Noah’s a bit more steadfast and reliable.”
Looking forward to Still Running
Certainly there’s a lot that can be theorized about in these new story details for Jenny! I’m particularly interested to hear how Jenny and Dorium’s meeting goes. Dorium, it seems, has known the Doctor for a long, long time. So will he know who Jenny is- perhaps hinting at her finding her Dad again one day soon? Perhaps Dorium knows Jenny from River Song, another one of his customers? (Please, oh, please let Jenny and River meet one day!)
Jenny and the Cybermen also have a lot of potential, too. The Cybermen’s vendetta against the Doctor is perhaps not quite as personal as some of his other enemies (such as the Daleks), but they do know who he is and may see an opportunity when meeting his daughter. And again, I am interested (if slightly uneasy) about the Cyberman on the cover of this release. We’ve seen partial conversion in the show before (“A Nightmare in Silver”), but not quite on that level.
You can pre-order Jenny- The Doctor’s Daughter: Still Running from Big Finish’s website now as a digital download for £19.99 or a collector’s edition box set for £24.99. Listeners can also save by ordering a bundle of both series as a download for £40 or the CDs for £48
