As the caption says, I wrote a book about The Evil of the Daleks for the Black Archive series, which is still available and rather good.
Thursday, September 23, 2021
The Dalek Factor
Monday, July 26, 2021
The Tides of Time #47
Tuesday, June 15, 2021
Vortex 148
"It was brilliant [ to write for the Cybermen]! I’ve written Daleks, Sontarans, Ogrons and even Vardans but was keen to do Cybermen because the TV episode Earthshock made such an impression on me as a kid. I watched The Invasion on DVD, as that was their last appearance before my story, and then listened to the audiobook of Ian Marter’s novelisation. I also re-read David Banks’s book Cybermen for a sense of the lore around them. But as I say, the main thing was that vivid description of them in [the prologue of] Doctor Who and the Cybermen. Knowing that Nick [Briggs] would be voicing them also helped, as I knew he’d make them authentic.”
Thursday, March 11, 2021
Cinema Limbo: Smoke (1995)
Thursday, December 31, 2020
Cinema Limbo: Highlander II
We've previously discussed Ryan's Daughter and the 1976 version of King Kong.
And here's me in more positive form on some of amazing non-Bond films starring Sean Connery.
Wednesday, December 23, 2020
Happy Times and Places
Waaah! |
You may like to now that I wrote a book about The Evil of the Daleks, and we recreated the sets of episode 1 for Doctor Who Magazine's recent production design special.
Saturday, November 21, 2020
World-Building: How Science Sculpts Science Fiction
It me |
The time difference meant that the panel started at 1 am for me - so, rather fittingly, I was calling in from the future.
Thanks to Dr. Jessie Christiansen for inviting me and the expert team who put it all together.
Monday, September 21, 2020
Edy Hurst's War of the Worlds
Interlude 3: Justice for Wells w/ Simon Guerrier
Apple: https://apple.co/3hQYpIS Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3kySidU
You can still listen to the BBC radio documentary I produced on HG Wells and the H-Bomb, while "Alls Wells That Ends Wells" is an extra on the DVD of 1966 Doctor Who story The Ark:
Thursday, September 17, 2020
Cinema Limbo: Ryan's Daughter
As preparation, back in March I read The Painted Banquet by costume designer Jocelyn Rickards. But sadly I didn't know about (because it hadn't been released) Paul Benedict Rowan's making of, which details the troubles I had only suspected...
Monday, May 18, 2020
How to Build a Universe, by Brian Cox, Robin Ince and Alexandra Feachem
There are six chapters - Introductions & Infinity; Life, Death & Strawberries; Recipe to Build a Universe; Space Exploration; Evidence & Why Ghosts Don't Exist; Apocalypse - but the material is peppered with asides, footnotes, illustrations and pull quotes. The chapter on building a universe is by far the longest and hard-going, Robin advising us to wade into it as far as we can then stop and start again, hoping to progress a bit further on the each subsequent attempt. At the end, we're presented with illustrations of badges as rewards for making it that far. For all the equations and technical language, I don't think it is (only) the degree-level physics that makes the going tough. The book offers less a single thesis as per a bullet shot from a gun, so much as a range of ejecta shot out of a blunderbuss.
If I'm familiar with a lot of the material - even if I don't wholly comprehend it - there was lots that was new, and loads I'm very taken by, such as this:
"This is the beauty of books, they are secondary human fossils. We may leave behind bones, skin preserved in a peat bog, perhaps eventually a fossil, but books are our mind fossils, the fossils of our thoughts that are left after we are gone. We appear to be the only creature that can interrogate minds even after the owner of those thoughts has died." (p. 242)There's some fun stuff, too, on the credibility of the science in sci-fi - the subject they quizzed me about when I was on the show.
It's interesting to hear that Brian and Robin argue. When they revisit some of those arguments here, there's a sense that the good-natured discussion in print follows a less amiable row. I'm not sure I agree with some of the assumptions made in the book, either. For example, here's Brian citing a case for greater exploitation of space.
"I recently spoke with Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, at his Blue Origin rocket factory in Seattle. His vision is to zone Earth as residential and light industrial, in order to protect it. We've visited every planet in the Solar System, he said, and we know with absolute certainty that this is the best one. That's why his company is called Blue Origin, after our precious blue jewel of a world. Spaceflight does not increase pressures on our world by consuming valuable resources; it is a route to protecting our world by enabling us to grow in a richer and more interesting civilisation whilst simultaneously consuming less of Earth." (p. 152)I think the first part of that paragraph is a sales pitch and the final sentence is wrong. After all, how do we get into space to access this bounty of resources? Rocket launches produce 150 times as much carbon dioxide as a transatlantic flight - when it's argued that rocket launches have low environmental impact it's because they are infrequent. They also seem to damage the ozone layer and leave space junk in Earth orbit. Are we also to assume that the resources mined in space and the people who fly out to mine them will not be returned to Earth?
But then I think that's the point of the book: it's the book of a panel discussion show aimed at provoking further debate.
Wednesday, April 01, 2020
Doctor Who Magazine 550
What with all that hullabaloo, magazines are facing a thin time so now would be the perfect opportunity to subscribe to this noblest of all titles. Please and thank you.
Also, this afternoon I took part in the Stay-at-Home! Literary Festival, on a panel about writing Doctor Who books alongside esteemed colleagues Una McCormack, Jonathan Morris and Jacqueline Rayner. Jac commissioned me for the very first bit of fiction I ever got paid for, and it was nice to be able to remind and thank her.
Monday, March 02, 2020
Vortex 133
The series is out next month: order Susan's War from the Big Finish website.
Thursday, November 14, 2019
In The Atlantic
Picture by Aaron Chown / PA Wire / PA Images - ref: 47995752
Monday, November 11, 2019
Galactic Yo-Yo 86
"Simon likes Timelash more than most people do," as Molly says in her introduction. It is true.
Friday, November 01, 2019
Standing with Samira
Monday, October 28, 2019
Radio Free Skaro 712
We talk about my contribution to the newly published Doctor Who: The Target Storybook, and about maestro Terrance Dicks, who died in August and whose final contribution to Doctor Who in included in the book. As I say, both I and the Dr rather owe our careers to Terrance.
I think you can probably tell that I'd been at home alone for a few days, the Dr off on half-term excursions with the apes. The bit with me starts at 30:08.
Monday, August 19, 2019
I'm a Joke and So Are You, by Robin Ince
Friday, July 19, 2019
Cinema Limbo on King Kong (1976)
The Cinema Limbo podcast re-evaluates old films, and host Jeremy Phillips asked me to discuss the 1976 remake of King Kong. You can listen to our extended rambling here:
http://www.podnose.com/cinema-limbo/068-king-kong
Thursday, July 11, 2019
Floating in Space repeat
On Tuesday, I was in the audience at Broadcasting House for the recording of James Burke: Our Man on the Moon, to be broadcast on Radio 4 on 20 July. It's full of great clips - many of them new to me - and Burke presented with characteristic insight, intelligence and wit. It's superb.
Tuesday, February 12, 2019
Trowelblazers' TrowelTakeover
We shared the story of how we made our Radio 3 documentary, Victorian Queens of Ancient Egypt in an 80-tweet thread.