The Minister of Chance is a curiosity – a spinoff from a Doctor Who story that itself is a spinoff from the original series.

Before BBC rebooted Doctor Who in 2005, there were a handful of unrelated webcast stories, starting with 2001’s Death Comes to Time, which introduced a renegade Timelord known as The Minister of Chance. Dan Freedman (creator of this character) then created an audio series of the later adventures of the Minister of Chance – wrapped in, but not directly referencing, Doctor Who/Gallifreyan lore.

The series was crowdfunded on Indiegogo, and there was a subsequent unsuccessful attempt to create a movie based on the mysterious character. The original audio drama was made freely available for MP3 download and on major podcast platforms, but appears to have been withdrawn by Freedman/Radio Static as they look to potentially option a TV series (according to their Facebook page). Which is a shame, as they had crowdfunded on the basis of making it freely available.

It’s a darker, more adult take on some of the ideas in Doctor Who, and well worth a listen.