The Company of Friends (audio anthology)

was the one hundred and twenty-third release in Big Finish's monthly range. The four stories were written by Lance Parkin, Stephen Cole, Alan Barnes and Jonathan Morris respectively and featured Paul McGann as the Eighth Doctor.
The story featured four companions who had never appeared alongside him in audio Doctor Who. Most of these companions were derived from Eighth Doctor stories in print media. Thus, Company contained the first performances of Izzy and Fitz. It also contained the first audio team-up of the Eighth Doctor and Bernice Summerfield (she had previously met him in the novel The Dying Days). Finally, it depicted a meeting Big Finish had long teased in their Eighth Doctor audio adventures: that of the Eighth Doctor with Mary Shelley. Notably, it was the first Eighth Doctor audio drama to be released in the Main Range not to feature Charlotte Pollard.
== Publisher's summary ==
Four one-part stories:
1. BENNY'S STORY by Lance Parkin
Deep in the mines of Epsilon Minima, Professor Bernice Summerfield is up to her neck in it - as usual. The Countess Venhella has hired her to recover a lost Time Lord artefact: A TARDIS key, it turns out. Guess whose?
2. FITZ'S STORY by Stephen Cole
On the planet Entusso, the Doctor and Fitz Kreiner investigate Alien Defence Incorporated - your one-stop shop for protection against extraterrestrial invasion! But which is the greatest menace: the hideous Vermin Queens or ADI itself?
3. IZZY'S STORY by Alan Barnes
TARDIS travel opens one's eyes to a universe of possibilities, reckons the Doctor. For geek girl Izzy, it's also a fantastic way to track down ultra-rare back copies of 'Aggrotron!', the most dangerous comic in history...
4. MARY'S STORY by Jonathan Morris
Switzerland, 1816: at the Villa Diodati, Lord Byron's house guests tell each other tales to curdle the blood and quicken the beatings of the heart. With a monster on the loose outside, young Mary Shelley isn't short of inspiration.
== Stories ==
# 	Title 	Author 	Director 	Featuring	Released 	Pr. code
123.1	Benny's Story	Lance Parkin 	Nicholas Briggs, Lisa Bowerman	Benny 	July 2009	8Z
123.2	Fitz's Story 	Stephen Cole 	Nicholas Briggs, Lisa Bowerman	Fitz 	July 2009	8Z
123.3	Izzy's Story 	Alan Barnes 	Nicholas Briggs, Lisa Bowerman	Izzy 	July 2009	8Z
123.4	Mary's Story 	Jonathan Morris	Nicholas Briggs, Lisa Bowerman	Mary 	July 2009	8Z
== Gallery ==
The Company of Friends cover.jpg|Original cover art
Company of Friends.jpg|The Doctor's companions Izzy, Fitz, Benny and Mary
Company of Friends art.jpg|Mary's Story illustration by Brian Williamson featured in the DWM 410 preview of this audio anthology.
Benny (TCOF).jpg|Illustration of Benny and the TARDIS key from the CD booklet.
== Notes ==
* This audio drama was recorded on 30 and 31 October 2008 at the Moat Studios.
* It was released on 28 July 2009.LATEST AND UPCOMING RELEASES - Archived on 28-08-2009
* This is Big Finish's fourth anthology release.
* In 2011, Big Finish launched a trilogy of audio dramas featuring the Eighth Doctor and Mary Shelley. To coincide with this, Mary's Story was made available as a standalone download.https://www.bigfinish.com/news/v/but-mary-s-story-for-a-limited-period-for-just-99p
== Footnotes ==
== External links ==
* 
Category:Main Range audio anthologies
Category:2009 audio anthologies