Out now is a new Doctor Who Magazine bookazine, The Story of Doctor Who. It’s an introduction to the magical world of Doctor Who for the uninitiated, for any new fans that may burgeon over the next few weeks with the new series on television. I have two bits in the magazine. Firstly The Story So Far of the past fifty-five years of the television series, all in under 2000 words. As a guide, I went back and read how Terrance Dicks had summarized the first ten years of the series in the 1976 edition of The Making of Doctor Who, and aimed for a similar brevity and tone. That said, it was still one hell of a tricky task to squeeze all of Doctor Who into such a small space, and of course I had to leave so much out – I couldn’t mention all the companions, or all the monsters, and I had to focus on the stories which were significant within the progression of the series and skip over the rest. However, fortunately all that other stuff is covered elsewhere in the magazine.
My other bit in the magazine is Pages of History, a history of Doctor
Who in the world of books in under 1500 words. Again, a big subject to
squeeze into such a small space, and so I kind of focussed on four areas; the novelisations,
the annuals, the original novels and non-fiction, plus a box-out on biographies
(unfortunately Christopher Eccleston’s autobiography was announced
just too late). Anyway, I tried not to leave out anything significant but there’s
only so much you can fit into four pages.
In other news, a blurb has been released for my forthcoming The Diary of River Song adventure The Bekdel Test. It’s due out in January
and can be pre-ordered here. You can also hear the trailer here.
Back at the start of
her imprisonment, Dr Song becomes a guinea pig for an innovative new security
system.
But it’s her fellow
prisoners she needs to be most wary of.
Because it’s early
days for Missy, too. The Doctor is dead, and she is outraged that somebody else
killed him first...
There’s also a blurb for my forthcoming Missy adventure, The Belly of
the Beast. It’s due out in February and can be pre-ordered here. There’s a
trailer available too but it doesn’t contain any bits from my story.
Missy’s scheme nears
completion. All she must do is subjugate one little planet and bend the
inhabitants to her will. Not too much to ask, is it?
But slaves will keep
rebelling. It’s almost as if they don’t want to unearth an ancientartefact to
help her plans for universal domination.
She’ll have to do
something about that.
Mostly excitingly, there’s also now a trailer available for
my forthcoming story in the Doctor Who –
The Early Adventures range, The Crash
of the UK-201. You can listen to it here, and pre-order the story here. It’s
due out in December, not long to wait.
And finally, a reading of my Doctor Who story Lant Land is
now available as part of Short Trips
Rarities. It’s a fifth Doctor Who story, featuring his companions Tegan and
Turlough, and is read by Duncan Wisbey of Dead
Ringers and The Ladies’ Bras fame.
The story was originally published as part of the Short Trips: Life Science anthology way back in 2004, while this
reading was originally released as a bonus thing on the story Army of Death in 2011. Now, excitingly,
it has its own cover, which can be viewed below:
As it was written quite quickly, a very long time ago, I can
remember virtually nothing about it. Checking through my old emails I have
found an email from John Binns asking where the story is, and an email from me
sending him the finished story eight days later, so that’s probably how long it
took. Anyway, it can be ordered here - it's only £2.25.
Anyway, that is October’s news, so far.
