Interview | The Paternoster Gang answer Big Finish listeners' questions

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Dan Starkey, Catrin Stewart and Neve McIntosh answer questions submitted by Big Finish listeners on social media.

In Victorian England, the Great Detective, Madame Vastra, her resourceful spouse, Jenny Flint, and their loyal valet, Strax, solve conundrums, fight injustice and capture criminals – but an enemy has infiltrated their ranks!

Knowing their foe can take any form, the Gang trusts no-one. Not even themselves – and certainly not the strange little man who says he is the Doctor…

Silurian detective Madame Vastra (Neve McIntosh) returns today alongside her wife Jenny (Catrin Stewart) and their Sontaran butler Strax (Dan Starkey), with three rip-roaring new adventures in The Paternoster Gang: Trespassers – No Place Like Home.

The last time we caught up with the gang, in April’s The Casebook of Paternoster Row, Vastra and Strax discovered that Jenny had been replaced by an alien shapeshifter. How will they deal with this incursion, and who is the alien among them? All will be revealed…

For the third episode of this new box set, there's help in store for the trio, as Michael Troughton makes his Paternoster Gang debut as the Second Doctor. Vastra doesn’t recognise this incarnation of her Time Lord friend – so can she trust him?

The Paternoster Gang: Trespassers – No Place Like Home is now available to purchase as a collector’s edition 3-disc CD box set (+ download for just £19.99) or as a digital download only (for just £16.99), exclusively here. Please note: the collector’s edition CD box set is strictly limited to 1,000 copies and will not be repressed.

The Gang’s three latest adventures are:

Doppelgängers by Ken Bentley

After being imprisoned by a shapeshifting foe, Jenny has escaped through the London sewers and returned to Paternoster Row. Meanwhile, her captor (now disguised as Doppel-Jenny) infiltrates Paternoster Row with murderous intent!

Jellyfish! by Neve McIntosh and Dan Starkey

The Gang head to the coast for Madame Vastra to convalesce. But their holiday proves far from restful. This Cornish village is home to suspicious locals, strange storms and wreckers.

Most dangerous of all, something lurks in the seas – something with a mysterious hold over Vastra...

The Houseguest by Matt Fitton

Vastra, Jenny and Strax return to London to find Paternoster Row changed. Houses lie empty, a crimewave grips the neighbourhood. A new criminal mastermind rules the underworld.

What’s more, Number 13 has an unexpected houseguest. And he claims to be the Doctor...

Maggie Service (Good Omens) guest stars in the third episode as Mrs Wiggins/Space Urchins, while regular Doctor Who monster voice Nicholas Briggs plays a mysterious alien.

The box set’s guest cast also includes David Holt as Fonipodio/Gaolor, Clive Hayward as Reg Adams, Helen Phillips as Maggie/Jellies, Kate O’Sullivan as Mrs Bligh, Alex Stedman as David, Wayne Forester as Mr Bligh/Villager One, and Derek Hutchinson as Dr Brownlow.

The second episode is written by the series’ stars Neve McIntosh and Dan Starkey. McIntosh said: “I've got notebooks filled with ideas, but this is the first time that I've properly sat down and brought one to a full story. I had the idea of them going to the seaside – and, being a Sherlock Holmes fan and a Daphne du Maurier fan, I decided to mash Lion’s Mane and Jamaica Inn together, then add a good amount of, obviously, robots and sci-fi in for us.”

Starkey added: “It’s a heady mixture! I have quite a strong voice in my head when I’m writing because I tend to impersonate people, and that’s my route into writing dialogue. But it’s lovely hearing your words being spoken, and when you hear a different actor taking a completely different tone, you go, oh, that's good!”

And Michael Troughton, who joins the gang as the Second Doctor, said: “It’s wonderful to be able to pop in and out of other characters’ timelines – any Doctor can appear anywhere! – and it's been very interesting to step into the world of the Paternoster Gang, an area I hadn't investigated before. What a lovely group of detectives they are! Especially Strax, who has some great, very funny lines.”

Big Finish listeners can save money with a multibuy bundle comprising all four volumes of The Paternoster Gang: Trespassers, available to pre-order for just £76 (collector’s edition CD box set + download) or £66 (download only).

All the above prices include the special pre-order discount and are subject to change after general release.