Justyce Served - A Small Start with a Big Finish

by Alun Harris, Matthew West

In 1984 a group of Doctor Who fans began a project which would continue for another decade and eventually lead to much greater things.

Audio Visuals: Audio Adventures in Time & Space were a non-profit, fan endeavour creating full-cast audio Doctor Who drama. 27 plays later the majority of the creative team would go on to be involved with Big Finish, an officially licensed range of Doctor Who audio dramas.

For many fans Audio Visuals seem almost canon. Nicholas Briggs was our Doctor. We remember the Daleks’ destruction of Gallifrey before it even happened on TV. We supported our Doctor through drug addiction, companion-loss and the horror of Justyce.

This book is a guide to those days. .

With contributions from Nicholas Briggs, Gary Russell, Nigel Fairs, John Ainsworth, Heather Barker, Patricia Merrick, Richard Marson, Jim Mortimore, Andy Lane and no doubt many others between now and September, all wrapped up in a new cover by Tim Keable.

Celebrate Doctor Who fan creativity at its very best.

Genres: Doctor Who, Nonfiction

448 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2012

Reviews

[Gareth]

I am right in the middle of the venn diagram when it comes to this book's target audience. I loved following the Audio Visual stories as a Doctor Who fan in the late Eighties and they inspired me and some friends to create our own Doctor Who radio plays (Fine Line productions in case you want to know). So this book works both as a nostalgic guide and a collection of very relatable anecdotes about producing amateur audio in the pre-internet age.

Alun Harris and Matthew West have done an excellent job of research. Each story is analysed and its history retold thanks to extensive interviews with both the main creators and people who just dropped in to play a role. There's a pleasing collection of artwork, including promotional comic strips, and details of significant unmade stories.

Most of the contributors are clear sighted about their successes and youthful mistakes, both as dramatists and as people having fun but also occasionally falling out. I definitely learnt some new facts and its interesting to see how AV influenced not just Big Finish but the 90's New Adventures too.

It's possibly the most niche book about Doctor Who ever published but as a portrait of creative fans it is nearly ideal.

[Gareth]

Everything you could possibly want to know about the Doctor Who fan audio dramas that came before Big Finish is here, with perhaps one exception: how did they get away with it? (John Nathan-Turner, then producer of Doctor Who must not have minded, but he is no longer with us to comment.)

Justyce Served covers all four seasons of Audio Visuals with in depth synopses and a wealth of interviews (both archive and new) with the cast and crew. Also covered for good measure are several spin-off productions, plus loosely related audios and books. It’s impressive how much impact this all had on Big Finish and the kinds of audio drama you could then expect from a licensed property; the stories have significance to any Who fan, even if you haven’t heard them.

It’s fascinating and, I cannot stress this enough, *exhaustive*. This can work against it, as the synopses go on for pages at a time without (possibly for space reasons?) paragraph breaks. I found myself looking forward to the behind the scenes chatter which appears in shorter bursts, and is often eye-wateringly candid. (Certain individuals seem more than happy to throw shade at others...)

Admittedly niche and a little rough around the edges, this is still a great read for fans of fledgling audio drama. 3.5 stars.

[Tony Jones]

A tremendous review of the AudioVisuals works that gives some tiny glimpse into the creative powerhouse that these Doctor Who fan tapes were. Superbly researched and a labour of love