So, you've heard a lot about Big Finish, and want to know how to begin. This guide will aim to give you as much information as possible about the best places to truly begin.
Key points:
1) You should probably start with free stories, to make sure you can enjoy the format. Audio drama is not for everyone.
2) While there are many stories that you can listen to and understand completely with little or no context, some stories are more natural "start" points because they point you towards another story.
3) This is actually a difficult question, but this guide will focus on simple answers to avoid overwhelming as far as possible.
4) To keep this guide as evergreen as possible, it will mostly look at older starting points that are less likely to be affected by new stories or re-evaluated by future listeners as actually not that great. (As an example, Series 10 of New Who was initially regarded as a good starting point while it was airing... but then it brought back two versions of the Master and used the word "Mondasian" unironically, making it slightly less friendly to newcomers.)
Free Stories
There are two types of free story. The first is the stories available for free through libraries and streaming services - if your library already pays for Big Finish, or you already have a Spotify subscription, these stories are effectively free for you. The second type is truly free stories, which Big Finish very kindly make available here so that people can check their ability to download things before buying.
The "truly free" stories are mostly part 1s or excerpts, not complete stories. That said, the excellent short story "The Word Lord" is available for free here. Another excellent short story, "Urgent Calls", is available on Big Finish's SoundCloud here.
If you subscribe to a good music streaming service - Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple Music, Tidal, Deezer, and so forth - you should be able to access Big Finish stories by searching for "Doctor Who". Some ideal starting points on these services include:
"The Marian Conspiracy" - the start of the Sixth Doctor's travels with Evelyn, which are both enjoyable in their own right and intertwine with an excellent Seventh Doctor arc. Guide to the two arcs here.
"Storm Warning" - you've heard about the Eighth Doctor. This is the start of his travels with Charley, and by extension most of his Big Finish stories. Guide to the Eighth Doctor here.
"Eye of the Scorpion" - the start of an arc featuring the Fifth Doctor, Peri, and Ancient Egyptian companion Erimem. Guide here.
Or do you just want to experience the best-of-the-best without worrying too much about arcs? Well, try these stories - again, free on music subscription services:
"Spare Parts" - cliché for a reason, this is a story featuring Five and Nyssa and the Cybermen.
"Jubilee" - a thematically heavy Dalek story featuring Six and Evelyn, which got writer Rob Shearman the job of writing the first Dalek story of New Who. "Dalek" is a good story... "Jubilee" is much, much better.
"The One Doctor" - comedic story featuring the Sixth Doctor and Mel.
"The Fearmonger" - Seven and Ace go up against a shock jock - a story which makes creative use of the audio format.
"Master" - Seven solo, the first real glance at just how cold this version of the Doctor can be.
I'd prefer to start with the Fourth Doctor
Tom Baker was the fifth of the Doctors to agree to work with Big Finish, so has quite a large back catalogue. Tom is in a bit of a strange position. If you just want to sample him, try "The Wrath of the Iceni" (Fourth Doctor Adventures, available for free on music services). But I wouldn't recommend starting out with Tom, his releases just don't lend themselves to that.
I'd prefer to start with a New Who Doctor
I'll be real with you - at the time of writing, there is a lot of Classic Who Big Finish and relatively little New Who Big Finish, although there's constantly more of the latter. You'll run out of New Who stuff fairly quickly. The appeal is very much mostly in Classic stuff.
That said, I'd recommend starting with the following:
Ninth Doctor - Travel In Hope. This is a set of three stories where two of them are very good. The main attraction in the set is "Below There", but "Run" is probably the best "second best" story in a set in the Ninth Doctor range so far.
Tenth Doctor - Tenth Doctor and River Song. Much better than the initial numbered sets of the Tenth Doctor Adventures, and less of a commitment than Dalek Universe (which is very much aimed at Classic Who fans).
Eleventh Doctor - Geronimo!. This is the start of a run of stories set between Series 7A and 7B with a new companion, Valarie. It uses an excellent impersonator rather than Matt Smith, but don't let that put you off.
I'd prefer to start with the Third Doctor
Buy a set of the Third Doctor Adventures. If you want Jo, I'd suggest Vol 4. If you want Liz or Sarah Jane, try Vol 7, which has one story for each of them.
I want to start with the First or Second Doctors.
No you don't.
These Doctors will get guides of their own one day, but if you're new then right now the thing to do is to start with any other Doctor. These two are complicated because they've only fairly recently got their own dedicated ranges (especially Two), so their stories are spread across Short Trips, Companion Chronicles, and then the Early Adventures. Not to say that there isn't stuff you can enjoy, but it's a bit harder to "jump in".
I want to start with a spin-off.
Look for a different guide.
Conclusion
Hopefully this has helped you decide where to start with Doctor Who at Big Finish. Start with a free story, and ideally try to use one that will catapult you onto future stories.
