Return of the Switching

The Switching is a short Doctor Who story I wrote in 2002, the first piece of fiction I was ever paid for. The book it was published in has long been out of print, but the nice people at Big Finish have just made an audio version available, read by Duncan Wisbey off of Dead Ringers.

• Doctor Who and the Switching (audio) at Big Finish

(Duncan was also in the last series of Graceless and was responsible for the awesome song.)

Doctor Who Magazine #517

Oops. I'd meant to post some things - about books I've been reading and nonsense in my head - but have been Busy. And now another issue of Doctor Who Magazine is out, when I'd only just mentioned the last one.

It's a little alarming that it marks 30 years of the Seventh Doctor, who I still can't help but think of as "new".

Anyway, as well as all the usual hijinks, issue #517 includes my interview with composer Dominic Glynn about the release of his soundtrack for 1989 story Survival - which I adore.

I'm also interviewed about my new book Whoniversal Records (out next week) and new audio play The Outliers (out next month), and there's a nice review of Paper Dolls (out now).

Oh, and tomorrow me and James Goss will be monsters-in-residence at Uxbridge Library from 6.30 pm. There will be shenanigans and maybe even shobogans.

Doctor Who Magazine #516

The new issue of Doctor Who Magazine - the first under the whip of new editor Marcus Hearn - features interviews with Jodie Whittaker, Russell T Davies and the horrifically clever monster-makers at Millennium FX.

I've also interviewed Nicholas Briggs about providing the voices for the Mondasian Cybermen in the last two episodes of Doctor Who. He also tells me about Peter Capaldi's emotional last day of recording on the forthcoming Christmas special...

Paper Dolls Q&A

The We Are Cult site has interviewed me and Ben Morris about our new book, Doctor Who Paper Dolls.

Outliers cover

Here's Tom Webster's cover for Doctor Who: The Outliers, out in October:

The TARDIS takes the Doctor, Ben, Polly and Jamie to a flooded underground town on an alien world. The streets are empty. The houses are bare. Not a trace of life.

The miners working here are vanishing. And it isn’t long before the time-travellers are suspected of being responsible for the disappearances. But even the authorities haven’t fully realised the scale of the problem.
There’s something else on this world. Something dragging people away. And it won’t stop until it’s taken them all.

Written By: Simon Guerrier
Directed By: Lisa Bowerman

Cast

Anneke Wills (Polly Wright/Narrator), Frazer Hines (Jamie McCrimmon/The Doctor), Elliot Chapman (Ben Jackson), Alistair Petrie (Richard Tipple), Debbie Chazen (Dr Goro), Matilda Ziegler (Chatura Sharma)
Producer David Richardson
Script Editor John Dorney
Executive Producers Jason Haigh-Ellery and Nicholas Briggs

Referencing the Doctor

The new Doctor Who Magazine Special Edition is out in shops, this one devoted to Referencing the Doctor. It's full of wonders, including Alistair McGown's piece on the greatest book about Doctor Who ever, The Doctor Who Monster Book (1975).

I've written a few bits and bobs for the mag, too:

STINFO MANIACS
In the days before Doctor Who Magazine, the devotees of the Doctor Who Appreciation Society went to extraordinary lengths to chart the history of their favourite programme. (Interviews with DWAS's Jan Vincent-Rudzki and Jeremy Bentham.)

MAIL ORDER MAN
For two decades, John Fitton provided an essential service to Doctor Who fans - supplying books and other merchandise direct to their doors.

THE BOOKKEEPER
Doctor Who's account brand manager Edward Russell is the ultimate authority on what goes into a reference book.

Plus Robert Fairclough talks to m'colleagues Steve O'Brien and Ben Morris about our 2016 book, Whographica. Mark Wright talks to BBC Books's publishing director Albert DePetrillo about titles including my The Scientific Secrets of Doctor Who and the forthcoming Paper Dolls and The Book of Whoniversal Records. There's even mention of my book on The Evil of the Daleks. And I provided some details about The Writer's Guide produced by the Writers' Guild of Great Britain - edited by Malcolm Hulke and commissioned by David Whitaker.

Doctor Who: the Book of Whoniversal Records

The new issue of Doctor Who Magazine announced that I have a new book out on 28 September. The Book of Whoniversal Records is "a celebration of the greatest achievements from the brilliant, impossible world of Doctor Who."

There's also a lengthy preview of Doctor Who: Paper Dolls, a book by Ben Morris that I've written captions for, with cosplay tips by Christel Dee. That is out on 24 August - but you can get it early at Forbidden Planet in London on Saturday 19 August, when Christel and I will be signing copies.