Out this month is the second series of Vienna, the sci-fi adventure series I created, starring Chase
Masterson. It consists of three stories; Tabula
Rasa by James Goss (every sci-fi series has an
episode called Tabula Rasa, it’s
obligatory), Underworld by Cavan Scott
and The Vienna Experience by me. It’s
more high-concept twisty-turning mind-bending stuff, Philip-K-Dick-meets-another-Philip-K-Dick-from-the-future-that’s-actually-a-robot.
James’s and Cavan’s stories are extremely ingenious and clever and original,
and my story was inspired by phone hacking, so there you go.
You can listen to the trailer here but more importantly you should
also pre-order it!
A third series is almost literally in the pipeline, I’ve
read the scripts and it’s going to be very, very good. You can pre-order that too!
(Another very, very good script I’ve read is the Vienna
episode from The Worlds Of Big Finish.
I’m not actually involved with this release but I’m going to plug it anyway, so
there. You can pre-order it here.)
Out next month is another Doctor Who story, called The
Entropy Plague. Now, it’s hard to know quite what to say about this,
really, as almost anything could be a potential spoiler. But there are two
things. The lovely fans over on Gallifrey
Base have been bemoaning the lack of ‘experimental’ stories in recent
times; well, for me at least, this story was a bit experimental. I mean, it’s
not a story that you can listen to played backwards as well as forwards, it
doesn’t have an episode entirely in Swahili, it’s not that experimental, but – and this is what I think fans really mean
when they say they want ‘experimental’ stuff – it does stuff that hasn’t been
done in Doctor Who before, at least
to my knowledge. Which is, as I’ve said elsewhere, kind of the whole appeal of
writing Doctor Who anyway; that you’re
trying to tell stories different from the previous however-many stories.
(Yes, I know, Revenge
of the Swarm, but for me, that was doing something different too)
Anyway, I think it’s one of my best ones - The Entropy Plague – I think I did a
very good job with the script, and I’m very excited to hear the finished
article. It has new monsters, it’s not about bringing back any foes from
yesteryear, it’s not a sequel to any old stories. So hopefully people will like
it.
You can listen to the trailer here but more importantly you should
also pre-order it!
Coming up in July is another Doctor Who, We Are The Daleks.
As it’s a way off I’ll not say anything about it just now, except that, once
again, it’s me trying to do something different from what has gone before. It’s
not like any other Dalek story. I think my last Dalek story – The Curse Of Davros – did new stuff with
the metal meanies, and this one does too. The story was inspired by an article
I wrote for Doctor Who Magazine last year (under the same title) exploring the appeal of the
Daleks and what they represent. So you have been warned – this story is
actually about stuff. And it’s not a
sequel to any specific story either.
You can pre-order it here.
(I also have some other stories coming up - Jago & Litefoot: The Flying Frenchmen, Doctor Who: Damaged Goods and Doctor Who: Cloisters Of Terror, along with some things I've script-edited. I will blog about them some other time, but please click on the links to read the blurbs and pre-order them!)
And finally, speaking of Doctor Who Magazine, I’ve just finished my latest The Fact Of Fiction on the 2005 story Rose, which will come out to celebrate
its ten-year anniversary. It’s packed full of new facts, it might be my best
one yet.
