The random witterings of Jonathan Morris, writer.

Wednesday, 22 July 2009

Another Girl, Another Planet


Quick plug. In the new issue of Doctor Who Magazine, that marvellous journal of all things dimensionally transcendental, they’re doing a promotion whereby the readers can download a previously-unreleased Doctor Who Companion Chronicles play from the Big Finish website. The play’s called The Mists Of Time and I wrote it. It stars Katy Manning as Jo Grant, who was the assistant to the third Doctor, Jon Pertwee. Like all the Companion Chronicles, it’s somewhere between a dramatic monologue and a two-hander play.

I’ll witter on remorselessly about writing it some other time, if I can think of anything interpreting to say (or, more likely, even if I can’t). I was fortunate enough to attend the recording; Lisa Bowerman was directing, marvellously, and Katy Manning was lovely. In fact, she was so friendly, enthusiastic and tactile I was a little overwhelmed. I’m not used to it. But the recording went well, and Katy seemed to enjoy herself, although I gather in retrospect she’s become a bit uncomfortable about returning to those days, so this may very well be the last Companion Chronicle she does. Or it may not. I don’t know. It’s entirely her decision and a decision I respect. But I hope she does more.

At the time, we didn’t know it would be a DWM giveaway. Would we have done anything differently had we known? I don’t know. Maybe I’d have made it tighter and shorter (but I say that about everything I write). I was surprised (and delighted) by the decision to use it as the freebie; the idea being that it will encourage readers to buy more CDs and downloads from Big Finish (and I hope it does). A greatly flattering and much appreciated vote of confidence. And hopefully their website will cope with the strain...