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From the summary:

"Our results do not imply that the legal channel should, all of a sudden, start actively encouraging piracy," researchers said. "The implication is simply that, situated in a real-world context, our manufacturer and retailer should recognize that a certain level of piracy or its threat might actually be beneficial and should, therefore, exercise some moderation in their anti-piracy efforts."

I don't know if this is intentional on their part, but the Big Finish Productions people regularly do sales of their stuff, even the somewhat-recent stuff. (They do a lot of full-cast audio stories for Doctor Who - new stories with the original cast - but they do a lot of other things too.) I remember on one of their podcasts a few years ago, they mentioned that they know people do illegally share their stuff around. Everything is (intentionally) unlocked mp3 and unlocked audiobooks, so it's easy to share. And someone on the podcast mentioned the sales help those who have "pirated" their titles to "square up."

Maybe that's not why they do the sale, but those sales help. They always get sales on their really old titles, and this person on the podcast suggested that a certain number of those sales were probably people buying the titles they already "obtained" elsewhere.

Anecdotally I'll admit that I first got into Big Finish when a friend "loaned" (gave) me a few titles. I really liked it, and worked great for my commute, so I started buying more stories. A year or so later, they had a big sale, and I figured "may as well buy the ones my friend gave me." So I did. Now all the audio stories that I have are ones that I actually bought.

So yeah, pirating stuff can lead to more sales.

This is why we don't buy anything as a download. Physical media only. I'll take the time to rip it myself. If you want to own it, you have to have something physical to maintain control of it.

Digital is okay, but DRM is not. I listen to audiobooks and full-cast audio stories, and I buy a lot of that from Big Finish Productions. Buying as digital download means you can download your stories as unlocked mp3 audio files, or unlocked audiobook format, or both. Then you can do with them what you want.

Big Finish trusts that you won't share the stories you bought, and that trust model works well for them.

I thought I'd point out that Tom Baker is also doing ongoing Doctor Who stories with Big Finish Productions. These are entirely on audio (think audiobooks, but with a full cast) and are extremely good! He's done six "seasons" already, and there's a seventh on the way.

These are full cast productions, with original cast members, including Leela (Louise Jameson), Romana I (Mary Tamm), Romana II (Lalla Ward), and K9 (John Leeson). And occasional appearances by other characters, with Trevor Baxter and Christopher Benjamin as Jago and Litefoot (from the classic TV story The Talons of Weng-Chiang) and Geoffrey Beevers as The Master.

It's not just nostalgia. Big Finish does an amazing job! I've been a subscriber and listener for several years now. The audio stories were great when I had a regular weekly three-hour commute, but now I listen to them during a much shorter daily commute to/from work, and during quiet moments on weekends.

Big Finish has the other classic Doctors too, from 4 to 8 (and other actors filling in for 1 to 3 - Frazer Hines as Pat Troughton's 2nd Doctor is spot-on). As others have pointed out, Big Finish has already done a version of Shada with Paul McGann (8th Doctor); Lalla Ward (Romana); and John Leeson (K9).

I thought I'd point out that Tom Baker is also doing ongoing Doctor Who stories with Big Finish Productions. These are entirely on audio (think audiobooks, but with a full cast) and are extremely good! He's done six "seasons" already, and there's a seventh on the way.

These are full cast productions, with original cast members, including Leela (Louise Jameson), Romana I (Mary Tamm), Romana II (Lalla Ward), and K9 (John Leeson). And occasional appearances by other characters, with Trevor Baxter and Christopher Benjamin as Jago and Litefoot (from the classic TV story The Talons of Weng-Chiang) and Geoffrey Beevers as The Master.

It's not just nostalgia. Big Finish does an amazing job! I've been a subscriber and listener for several years now. The audio stories were great when I had a regular weekly three-hour commute, but now I listen to them during a much shorter daily commute to/from work, and during quiet moments on weekends.

Big Finish has the other classic Doctors too, from 4 to 8 (and other actors filling in for 1 to 3 - Frazer Hines as Pat Troughton's 2nd Doctor is spot-on). As others have pointed out, Big Finish has already done a version of Shada with Paul McGann (8th Doctor); Lalla Ward (Romana); and John Leeson (K9).

Besides being the War Doctor in five TV episodes, he played the role in a number of audio plays for Big Finish: https://www.bigfinish.com/rang... I don't know if the final volume (due out next month) was finished or not.

There was an audio drama episode of Doctor Who from Big Finish titled The Warehouse, episode 202 of the monthly series, that dealt with something similar except the warehouse was in orbit. Big Finish creates audio dramas featuring the Doctors before the latest return to TV and gets the actors to reprise their roles. I'm enjoying them much more than what Steven Moffat has been putting out over the last couple of seasons.

When I want to stream music, I use Tunein.

But I rarely stream music anymore. If I want to listen to something, I buy it as an MP3. I avoid the Apple Music Store and look for alternative places that sell unlocked MP3s and don't require me to use iTunes to buy it.

Most of the time, I don't listen to music but instead to audiobooks or audio plays. This makes my drive to/from work go a lot faster. I got addicted to audiobooks when I had a regular three hour drive (I worked that far away from home) and just kept at them. If you like audiobooks and you like Doctor Who, I highly recommend Big Finish Productions which has the license for Doctor Who (new and classic series), Blake's 7, Survivors, Torchwood, and a bunch of other great stuff, including spinoffs (Dalek Empire, UNIT, Counter-Measures, Jago and Litefoot, etc). Even better, they do their audio plays with the original cast!

During the period after the old show was canceled (when the movie with Paul McGann came out), and the new revived series, they have set a whackload of Dr Who adventures starring Paul McGann's iteration of the doctor. They are radio-plays effectively, available here: http://www.bigfinish.com/

There are also recorded episodes for a pile of other popular but now defunct TV shows. My wife has listened to a ton of these and says they are very well recorded, full cast stories.

If you count these, Paul McGann has likely done more Dr Who stories than most of the other actors playing the Doctor :P

Personally I have really been enjoying the stories which Big Finish have been doing with the old doctors, they have even got Tom Baker doing some now. They've been exploring some of the different doctors' personalities in some interesting ways. You can find some on BBC Radio 4 Extra from time to time, if you don't want to shell out the cash for them...

I did enjoy some of the Colin Baker episodes. Seriously, the guy did an amazing job considering the crap they were putting it through, and it's the producer John Nathan-Turner who would have been better lost, as he seemed determined to make the series die a slow death. Being forced to retake scenes requiring strong emotions multiple times just because "that prop in the background still isn't quite right" must have been soul destroying for the actors.

The good news is that Colin Baker is still doing Doctor Who via the Big Finish Productions, where he is given good scripts and is well liked among fans. Nicola Bryant seems to have settled into the role well too, and no longer sounds like she's about to burst into tears after every sentence.

We are unable to feature the Time War in any of our stories for the reasons given in the previous answer.

The previous answer being:

The terms of our licence with the BBC allow us to only produced 'Classic' Doctor Who. This means that we can only use the first eight Doctors and their companions. Anything connected to the new series - even characters who are no longer featured - cannot be used by us in a Big Finish Doctor Who production.

So far on BBC7 there's been: Invaders From Mars, Regeneration, Shada, Slipback, Storm Warning, Sword Of Orion, The Chimes Of Midnight, The Ghosts Of N-Space, The Partadise Of Death, and The Stones Of Venice.

They're mainly the Big Finish versions (http://www.bigfinish.com/drwho/index.shtml/), though the early BBC radio stories get an airing as well.

Rather than give a lot of links to my site, try the D index (http://www.radiolistings.co.uk/programmes/Index-D .html) and scroll down to where the Doctor Who episodes are listed.

On a related note, don't miss BBC7's 4 week broadcast of Doctor Who, Invaders From Mars starring Paul McGann. If you're quick, that link should get you Episode 1. Episode 2 is broadcast today and will be available to Listen Again from Sunday.

More info on this story (and CD) at http://www.bigfinish.com/drwho_main/bf028_invaders frommars.shtml>Big Finish.

I myself usually have both a regular book and an audiobook in progress, but Audiobooks, even the well acted kind, don't hold a candle to the likes of:
Big Finish http://www.bigfinish.com/ Fantastic scifi audio (mostly Doctor Who related)
or
Noise Monster http://www.noisemonster.com/.
Anyone wanting something more than an audiobook, but still staying in the audio medium should check out their stuff. It's written and produced directly for the audio, and in the case of Doctor Who from Big Finish, is licensed by the BBC and uses the original cast.

I mean, I just feel involved, you know?

Anyway, the new Doctor Who series is absolutely gripping, laugh-out-loud funny, and subtly frightening all at the same time. In short, all the things Doctor Who has always been, and should always be.

My only disappointment is that the new series seems to be heavily reusing plot elements from the Big Finish audio dramas. Episode two, The Unquiet Dead, basically took the setting and overall structure (Victorian ghost story, ghosts are caused by alien influence, seance held to communicate with spirits, heavily rational character who has trouble coping with the new facts before him) from the second Big Finish audio play, Phantasmagoria. Granted, they were both written by the same person, but he even goes so far as to mention it in the TV Episode (Charles Dickens [Upon seeing an alien/ghost]: What phantasmagoria is this?)

Next week's episode (simply titled "Dalek") seems to be a retooling of the Big Finish play, Jubilee. They're both written by the same gentleman, and both deal with a lone Dalek captured and tortured for the betterment of mankind. The trailer at the end of last week's episode implies that they share other plot elements as well.

Then again, I'm still puzzling over what all the "Bad Wolf" clues mean. I somewhat suspect that this Doctor's relationship with Rose extends prior to the first episode. Who (and where) is Rose's father? Why is the Doctor so staunchly opposed to Jackie travelling with them, when he was willing to bring Mickey? I also suspect that this Doctor may not be the Doctor. This will probably become more clear when the new novel, Gallifrey Chronicles is released, although the TV Show will probably reveal more plot details before then.

There have been a few appearances of Daleks outside of Doctor Who (although in many cases the Doctor Who label has been added after-the-fact).

Terry Nation wrote at least one Dalek story sans Doctor; I believe it was meant for kids. The company Big Finish has released two series (and is currently releasing a third) of audio dramas featuring the Daleks without the Doctor. There are of course countless cameos ranging from comedy shows to the classic '80s game "Paradroid").

More interesting to me is how much control Terry Nation's estate seems to exert over Dalek usage -- by all accounts of the time Dalek creation was a collaborative effort; much of what people think of when hearing the word "Dalek" had nothing to do with Terry Nation...

And it allows you to engage in guilty pleasures without feeling, well, guilty. I've been listening to Doctor Who audio dramas during my commutes for the last few weeks. Complete geek-out time, and nobody has to know about it but me. (Well, me and thousands of Slashdot readers, now.) And it's not like I've wasted otherwise useful time on it, so no pangs of guilt.

Listen to some of the Big Finish Doctor Who audio dramas.

He develops quite a bit. There are some amazing stories; I highly recommend them for any Who fan.

Listen to some of the Big Finish Doctor Who audio dramas.

He develops quite a bit. There are some amazing stories; I highly recommend them for any Who fan.

I have to agree. The animationg was less a celebration of the 40th anniversary and more a digging up of your grandmother's corpse and skullfucking it. On Easter. In front of your 5 year old daughter.

Meanwhile, Big Finish has been pumping out some damn fine original radio drama material for years with Peter Davidson, Colin Baker, and Sylvester McCoy reprising their roles. Paul McGann has been involved too, and numerous companions come back as co-stars. Sir Derek Jacobi has even done a one-shot as the Doctor!

The BBC is absolutely the wrong outfit to depend on for a reprisal of the Doctor we all know and love. BBC policies drove the original series into the ground in the first place!

If we *must* have a new TV Doctor, can we get Phillip Hinchcliffe or one of that bunch to come back and produce it? Those middle years of Tom Baker's run were classic -- but for goodness sake, don't let John Nathan-Turner in on it.

Here's the link to the relevant page at Big Finish Productions' website. GBP15.50 inc P&P for nonUK orders, GBP13.99 in the UK.

They also do a Dalek Empire range which resoteores the old pepperpots to their malevolent, manipulative best :-)

You belong to us. You will be like us.

Cushing wasn't a timelord called The Doctor, he was an eccentric human inventor called Dr. Who. But I rate him as a fab Doctor anyway. Bearing in mind these were kids films made in 1965 and 1966 on the tide of Dalekmania, with big-name casts and colour which the TV series wouldn't get until 1970, and considering Mary Poppins (1964) or "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" (1968) as reasonable benchmarks, they were pretty impressive IMHO. When I was the right age for them, I thought they were the best Doctor Who of all.

The TV Movie confuses me every time I try to watch it. It *looks* stunning, live Doctor Who never has. The lighting is gorgeous, the budget is there for the sets and effects. There's some very gorgeous camerawork and some fantastic cutting. McGann probably makes a bigger impression in the space of his first story than any of his predecessors since Hartnell in An Unearthly Child. He's got charisma, he's got humour, he's got energy and he's definitely alien. I can even enjoy Eric Roberts' version of the Master in the spirit in which it was intended - very suave, somewhat camp, a lot of Delgado under the stupid costume. The motorbike chase? Utterly run of the mill in the Pertwee era, could be taken as a nice bit of subtle continuity. The plot doesn't make much sense, but that's hardly unique in the 26-year TV run ;-)

But it doesn't have a soul, and I just *can't* watch it all the way through. Stylistically it was very different but I'm cool with that. spiritually it was a million miles and a million years out. It wasn't a story about a mysterious traveller who gets involved with something bad and defeats it, it was a story about Phil Segal trying to cram as much utterly pointless continuity into his Pilot as he could manage, to get an audience up to speed for his obsessively fanwanky series proposal described in his and Gary Russell's book "Doctor Who - Regeneration" (Harper-Collins, 2000). The trouble being that if you're going to build your new show almost entirely from 26 years of old-show continuity, you (a) box yourself in from the outset, and (b) had better get it 'right' (you can't, since it's massively self-contradictory) since the only audience you'll see is the core of the core of the fans.

McGann was wicked in the movie, and is very very good in the Big Finish audio plays he's been doing for the last few years.

tV