Sound of the Underground

More stuff coming up. Out in May is Doctor Who: Vortex Ice:

In search of ‘exotic particles’, the Doctor and Flip arrive 700 feet underground, in a mine in Northern Mexico – only to run into a scientific expedition. Among their number, an exobiologist. They’re all on the hunt for alien life! Deep underground, the team finally uncovers a cave of vast crystals – like ice, despite the heat. And inside the crystal: something frozen. Something trapped in time. If only it were something simple, like a monster. But it’s far, far worse than that.

It is, fairly obviously, inspired by the mysterious Cave of the Crystals in Naica. The perfect location for a Doctor Who story. And it was amusing to read in the news about the crystals containing long-dormant life...

Vortex Ice is a two-part story and paired with a super story by Ian Potter called Cortex Fire, and can be ordered here.

And out in June is another underground story, Doctor Who: Subterranea:

The TARDIS is going underground. When the Doctor and Romana find themselves buried beneath the surface of an alien world, they're soon swallowed up by a giant burrowing machine. This is where the inhabitants of this planet live - in huge, constantly moving, Drill-towns, chewing up the fuel and resources of the planet in order to survive.

But something else lurks in the earth. Something that feeds on the Drill-towns. Something that is relentless and will not stop.

The Silex are hunting.

This is, of course, a steampunk tale about Dickensian moles wearing wearing goggles and stovepipe hats. I know, another Dickensian mole story. Another entry in that whole Dickensian mole genre.

My computer hard drive tells me that Subterranea was written way back in September 2014. Another buried time capsule! I’ve re-read it to remind myself what it was about and I think it’s rather good. Sadly it doesn’t contain an extra story by Ian Potter but nevertheless it can be ordered here.

Ghost Town

It’s been a while since my last blog, hasn’t it? So, over the next few days, I’ll write a few ‘previous’ blogs to cover some of the stuff I’ve done over the past few months. And plug some of the things I have coming up, of which, first and foremost, is

Doctor Who: Plague City

Yes, I’ve written a new Doctor Who novel. It’s out in April, around the same time that the new series begins on television, and features the Peter Capaldi Doctor alongside his companions Bill and Nardole, as played by Pearl Mackie and Matt Lucas. We haven’t seen much of Bill yet – she was in a mini-episode last years – so the book will only hit the shelves after she’s made her proper television debut.  The novel is set during the new series, and I’ve done my best to ensure it fits in seamlessly; it should feel a bit like having an extra episode, but with an unlimited budget.

What’s it about? Well, here’s the blurb:

“We should leave. We definitely should leave. But... chatty ghosts!”

The year is 1645, and Edinburgh is in the grip of the worst plague in its history. Nobody knows who will be the next to succumb – nobody except the Night Doctor, a masked figure that stalks the streets, seeking out those who will not live to see another day.

But death is not the end. The Doctor, Bill and Nardole discover that the living are being haunted by the recently departed – by ghosts that do not know they are dead. And there are other creatures lurking in the shadows, slithering, creeping creatures filled with an insatiable hunger.

The Doctor and his friends must face the terrifying secret of the Street of Sorrows – that something which has lain dormant for two hundred million years is due to destroy the entire city...

An original novel featuring the Twelfth Doctor, Bill and Nardole as played by Peter Capaldi, Pearl Mackie and Matt Lucas.

I’ve been to Edinburgh a few times, but not very much of the 17th century city remains, so in terms of geography and architecture it was all a matter of historical research and imagination. I had a lot of fun writing it during the cold, dark days of January – it is a tale of spooky and supernatural goings-on – and I’m very proud of the end result, it does everything I set out to do, so please place your orders now. It’s also coming out as an ebook, for those of you who hate paper. I daresay I will be plugging it a little bit more nearer the time, I may even do some signings, and eventually I'll write a blog about the research in more depth.

It’s been very exciting, and a great honour/responsibility, to be writing a book to fit alongside a new TV series (my last one, Doctor Who: Touched by an Angel, falls somewhere between seasons). I hope you all like it.

The End of the World

Out today, the new issue of Doctor Who Magazine (available at all good newsagents) has a couple of things by me in it.

First of all, there’s Take Two – 50 Years of the Second Doctor, an article on the Patrick Troughton era of  the show. Hopefully I say a few things that haven’t been said before, point out some things that have been overlooked. As it is, it’s more about the way the programme changed as Patrick Troughton became the second Doctor, but with the change of Doctor reflecting the way the programme was changing under producer Innes Lloyd rather than the change of Doctor causing the show to change. And at no point do I use the term ‘cosmic hobo’, which is a first.

Secondly there’s a Fact of Fiction article on The End of the World. Which, thanks to an extremely lovely person, includes a large amount of hitherto unpublished information about the first draft of the script, including lots of deleted scenes. The whole point of doing these articles is to uncover new information, stuff which hasn’t been covered in previous archives or The Complete Series magazines; it makes life difficult but that is also the fun of it, and hopefully it will make going to back to watch the episode a richer experience (in the same way as reading Revolution in the Head and The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions might increase a fan’s appreciation of the Beatles).

Plus, marvellously, the wonderful Russell T Davies agreed to answer a few questions about the episode, so even if you’re not fascinated by differences between script drafts and which bits of dialogue were late additions in ADR there is a lot of entertaining and illuminating stuff in there.

And, in four weeks’ time, there’ll be another one. A Fact of Fiction on The Runaway Bride – which includes a rather amazing thing that no-one has noticed, hidden in clear view all along...