Cars Are Cars

Earlier this week a new Big Finish series was announced, featuring the ‘Paternoster Gang’ from Doctor Who (as seen in A Good Man Goes To War, The Snowmen, The Crimson Horror, The Name of the Doctor and Deep Breath). My story, The Cars That Ate London! is the first of three in the first box set, so I have the task of setting up the series – although I’m pretty sure everyone can guess how the series will work, as the format for future Vastra, Jenny and Strax adventures was pretty well established in The Crimson Horror. It’s a spin-off series that fans have been requesting for a good five years now, so it’s great to finally kick it off. My story, as it’s the first one, is deliberately a fairly what-it-says-on-the-tin thrills-and-spills adventure in order to launch the format; you have to establish what a standard story is, and then later on you can subvert it or experiment with the form.

I wrote it in ‘Steven Moffat’ mode (which is mainly just a process of imagining him laughing at the jokes) so hopefully it will be a seamless continuation from Deep Breath. I was fortunate enough to attend the recording and I can tell you that all the cast were absolutely note-perfect. It wasn’t hard to imagine the characters – in fact, it was harder to imagine the actors. Dan Starkey knows Strax so well he can adlib indefinitely, while it was rather wonderful to be able to watch Neve McIntosh and Catrin Stewart interacting as Vastra and Jenny; not just saying the words, but acting out the scenes physically and reacting with looks and gestures when they didn’t have lines. Which should all come across in the finished product; you will be hearing the three of them in the studio, together.

Anyway, the observant readers amongst you will notice that I haven’t mentioned what the story is about. Well, that is for Big Finish to announce as and when, you’ll get no secrets from me, Silurian. But it will be a lot of fun, I promise you.

The full announcement can be found here and the box set can be pre-ordered here.