Today is the 23rd November, which means one thing – it’s Doctor Who Day! To mark 61 years since our favourite TV show began, Big Finish is making a full-cast audio adventure available for free. 

The Fifth Doctor meets up with his distant past: the schoolteacher who settled down, the space pilot who became a King, the security agent who died and lived again and the swinging Sixties secretary who has made her own way in the world. 

The Five Companions, originally released in 2011 as a subscriber exclusive, is set during the events of 20th anniversary TV story The Five Doctors. It follows five of the Doctor’s friends as they find themselves fighting for their lives in a particularly dangerous section of Gallifrey’s Death Zone. 

It stars Peter Davison as the Fifth Doctor, alongside a roster of beloved companion actors from the classic era of Doctor Who: the late William Russell as Ian Chesterton, Peter Purves as Steven Taylor, Jean Marsh as Sara Kingdom, Anneke Wills as Polly Wright, and Sarah Sutton as Nyssa. Plus, Nicholas Briggs and Dan Starkey voice the Daleks and Sontarans, respectively. 

This full-cast audio drama can now be downloaded free here. 

Inside a cluster of fused-together derelict spaceships, four of the Doctor's oldest friends – and one of his newest ones – are lost and confused. They don't know how they got there or what they're meant to be doing – but as the place is infested with Daleks, Sontarans and dinosaurs, their first priority is staying alive. 

To their collective relief, the Doctor turns up and has a reasonable idea of what's going on. If the six of them work together, they can escape this place and get home. But, unexpectedly, others may be working together to ensure they all die here... 

Big Finish’s creative director and resident Dalek voice Nicholas Briggs said: “David Richardson came up with the idea of this one, as we were looking to find something special for our most loyal listeners. David had got to know all the companion actors really well while producing the Companion Chronicles, so he very cleverly persuaded them all to take part in this beautifully crazy story. 

“I say crazy, but it really works. It always does, when Eddie Robson is writing. One of Eddie's many talents is that he can make the utterly preposterous seem perfectly reasonable. And that’s what I loved about this. It’s a blatant excuse for a get-together, but it all works perfectly and is simply a ripping good yarn! And those were delightful studio days.” 

This full-cast audio drama can now be downloaded free here.