Showing posts with label stuff written. Show all posts
Showing posts with label stuff written. Show all posts

Thursday, December 12, 2024

Doctor Who Magazine Yearbook 2025

The 2025 yearbook from Doctor Who Magazine is now out, featuring a couple of things typed by me.

Pages 28 and 29 relive the experience, in May, of watching season opener Space Babies for the first time, my son the then 12 year-old Lord of Chaos keen to see it at midnight - especially if we had crisps. Then, on page 68 and 69, we mark the 40th anniversary of The Who Shop on 2 December, with an interview with owners Alex and Kevan.

Sunday, December 08, 2024

The Power of 3 podcast #316: The Time-Travelling Almanac

I spoke to Kenny Smith for his Power of 3 podcast about my new book, Doctor Who: The Time-Travelling Almanac, which would of course make the ideal Christmas gift for the Doctor Who fans in your life...

I spoke to Kenny last year about another of my books, David Whitaker in an Exciting Adventure with Television; that podcast is available here and you can still buy the book.

(The photograph above right shows two copies of the Time-Travelling Almanac plus my copy of Kate Orman's 1994 Doctor Who novel The Left-Handed Hummingbird.)

Friday, December 06, 2024

Doctor Who Magazine #611

The new issue of the official Doctor Who Magazine is out now, boasting a preview of the forthcoming Christmas special and the colour version of classic 1969 story The War Games. Exciting!

It includes a one-page Stasis Cube by me, this time based on a photograph of David Tennant and Catherine Tate on the roof of the old International Press Centre in Shoe Lane, London, on Thursday 6 July 2006 for recording of that year's Christmas special, The Runaway Bride.

I also get a mention in the editorial because of something I've written for the Doctor Who Yearbook 2025, which is out next week...

Thursday, November 21, 2024

Daleks: The Ultimate Guide

Out today, this massive and comprehensive 224-page bookazine from the makers of Doctor Who Magazine is full of everything you could possibly want to know about Daleks.

With Dalek expert Gav Rymill, I’ve written 28 entries on different models of Dalek, charting their evolution from the very first Dalek story in 1963-64 to their more recent full episode, 2022’s Eve of the Daleks. There are some new facts and insights included, such as my outlandish theory about when and why writer Terry Nation decided to make them look the way they do.

Each entry is illustrated with a CG rendering of the particular model by Chris Thompson.

Thursday, November 14, 2024

Interviews for Air Quality News, Infotech, Macclesfield Now, Social Care Today

I posted last year a bunch of interviews I conducted for technology news site Infotec. Since then, I've done a load more for Infotec and the other titles published by Spacehouse. Here they are:

Air quality in the archives

The Borthwick Institute for Archives, in York, boasts thousands of precious old documents — including the archives of Frankie Howerd and Sir Alan Ayckbourn — and closely monitors air quality to hold back the ravages of time. I spoke to Gary Brannan, Keeper of Archives and Research Collections. 

Reducing falls in care homes with Earzz acoustic monitoring

Dr. Pradyumna Thiruvenkatanathan, Founder and CEO of Earzz, explained to me how intelligent acoustic monitoring can transform the provision of care, with benefits for residents and staff.

Air quality for monsters at Millennium FX

Award-winning prosthetics in TV and film are made using hazardous chemicals. I spoke to Neill Gorton at Millennium FX about the tech employed to keep his staff safe from the creatures they’re building.

Shirah Bamber, Preston’s new Innovation Ambassador

Preston City Council has announced the appointment of Shirah Bamber as its new Innovation Ambassador, tasked with raising the profile of the city as a place for all things tech.

Mapping safe cycle routes across Oxfordshire

Easy-to-use Cyclox mapping software provides safe routes for cyclists across the city of Oxford and the whole of Oxfordshire. The result is more people than ever getting on their bikes. I spoke to Cllr Emily Kerr from Oxford City Council and Robin Tucker, Co-chair of the Coalition for Health Streets and Active Travel (CoHSAT), to learn what was involved.

Sensory Inclusive Schools

Beth Smithson is a former occupational therapist in the NHS who now helps to tackle school avoidance and refusal by better understanding our senses.

Air taxis in the UK

Flying cars were once a dream of science-fiction but eVTOL air taxis now offer a real prospect of greener, cleaner transport. I spoke to Jeremy Howitt (Future Flight Campaign Lead at the Snowdonia Aerospace Centre), Shazan Siddiqi, (Senior Technology Analyst at IDTechEx) and John Goudie (Founder and CEO of SLiNK-TECH).

Thought Formation newsletter

Dr Niall Boyce produces a free weekly newsletter that aims to keep us up-to-date on the latest advances in mental health science.

Schoolkids swim the Channel

Each year, pupils aged 12-15 from Beech Hall School in Tytherington swim the English Channel. Yes, really! I interviewed headteacher James Allen about the ambitious programme.

Sparta Global kickstarts careers in tech

David Rai, Co-Founder and CEO of Sparta Global, told me how his company has gone about training thousands of people from diverse backgrounds in tech-based skills, and found them new careers.

Central Heating for Cities

Luca Grella, Innovation Programme Delivery Manager at UK Power Networks, told me about the Heatropolis heat network being developed in the Kings Cross area of London to provide heat and power to premises including Google and Nike’s UK HQs, and 2,400 homes.


Ontaro is an online safety app that monitors content, manages screen time and filters websites to ensure children are kept safe — while respecting their privacy. I spoke to director and founder Tony Paskin.


Helen Slevin (Co-Director of Filament Projects CIC) and Barney Heywood (Co-Artistic Director of Stand + Stare) told me about the touring listening booth that allows us to hear service users and those working in the social care sector speak about their experience of the Covid 19 lockdown.

Thursday, October 10, 2024

Doctor Who Magazine #609

The latest issue of the official Doctor Who Magazine is out now, and very excitingly comes with an exclusive Target novelisation of the 1967 story The Evil of the Daleks, written by Frazer Hine with Mike Tucker and Steve Cole as his companions. In fact, it's a novelisation of the 1968 repeat of that story. Another quite good book about The Evil of the Daleks is also available. 

My contribution this issue is the latest Script to Screen feature, this time focused on the Villengard ambulance seen in Boom. I spoke to production designer Phil Sims, art director Rhys Ifan, prop maker Stuart Heath from BGI Supplies and the ambulance herself, actress Susan Twist.

The new issue also includes Richard Unwin's review of my book, Doctor Who - The Time-Travelling Almanac, which he calls, 
"a perfect gift for curious minds, young and old alike."
So he can live - for now. 

Thursday, October 03, 2024

Doctor Who and the Time-Travelling Almanac, by me



It seems like only a week since my last book was out. But today sees publication of Doctor Who - The Time-Travelling Almanac, billed as the official guide to the Doctor's year. It is written by me and illustrated by brilliant Emma Price.

What is an almanac anyway? Why do we have August? How do the histories of the Beatles and the Doctor overlap?

Where exactly did the Doctor mean to take Romana instead of that beach at the start of The Leisure Hive? What are the tides on Kastarion 3 like?

All this and Dalek horoscopes, banana penguins, the best time of day for Sea Devils to invade and much more... 

HARDBACK
ISBN: 9781785949173
Length: 256 pages
Dimensions: 224mm x 23mm x 143mm
Weight: 355g
Price: £16.99

PAPERBACK
ISBN: 9781473533943
Length: 256 pages
Price: £8.99

Thursday, September 26, 2024

The Story of the Solar System, by Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock

Out today, The Story of the Solar System - A Visual Journey, is a sumptuous big book of space infographics written by Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock off of The Sky at Night with some help by me and design/illustration by Emma Price. Exactly what you and everyone you know wants for Christmas, if you even dare wait that long.

(Emma and I have another book out next week, too...)

In case of interest, Solar System is the latest of the infographics books I've worked on, following Whographica (2016) written with Steve O'Brien and illustrated by Ben Morris, and Slayer Stats (2018) also written with Steve O'Brien and illustrated by Ilaria Vescovo. I also wrote the regular "Sufficient Data" infographics for Doctor Who Magazine, illustrated by Ben Morris and Roger Langridge.

I've written before about some of what' involved in producing an infographic. They are fiddly. And, if you're writing about space stuff, no sooner have you finished a complicated graphic showing all the moons of Saturns than those bothersome space scientists go and discover a whole load more.


Thursday, September 12, 2024

Doctor Who Magazine #608

Cover of Doctor Who Magazine #608, showing a montage of monsters
The new issue of the official Doctor Who Magazine is out today. My regular Script to Screen feature (pp. 26-30) this time covers the slug-like Mantraps seen in Dot and Bubble, for which I interviewed executive producer Joel Collins and production designer Phil Sims.

There's also a review of Deathworld, the story I script edited for Big Finish, which Jamie Lenman finds "surprising, and really quite touching". In Galaxy Forum, reader Bill Silver says nice things about the work Gav Rymill, Rhys Williams and I did on recreating the sets of missing episodes in the recent special issue.

And I think Eddie Robson's fun "This month in..." column (p. 49) uses an image of Doctor Who creators Sydney Newman and Donald Wilson that I spotted in an old issue of BBC in-house magazine Ariel, snapped on my phone and then cropped - those are Judi Dench's hands (and wine glass) in the bottom left.

Aerial, December 1967

Saturday, August 24, 2024

The DNA of Doctor Who - The Philip Hinchcliffe Years

I've just received my copy of this handsome new book, to which I contributed an essay on the 1975 Doctor Who story Planet of Evil and what it draws from classic works of science-fiction.

The obvious influence, of course, is the 1956 movie Forbidden Planet, which the BBC broadcast at 6.35 pm on Wednesday 6 November 1974 - just right to inspire the development of the Doctor Who stories that became Planet of Evil and The Brain of Morbius. I dig into that and also how the same film influenced early Doctor Who as well as other sci-fi such as Star Trek (citing the excellent ‘Gene Roddenberrys Cinematic Influences’ by Michael Kmet from 2013) and Star Wars (see the 2012 Wired interview, ‘Ben Burtt on Star Wars, Forbidden Planet and the Sound of Sci-Fi’ y Geeta Dayal).

Hinchcliffe says on the documentary made for the DVD release of Planet of Evil (by my friend Ed Stradling) that he suggested the ‘flying eye’ drone seen in the story, having read of something similar in a science-fiction story at the time. The Dictionary of Surveillance Terms in Science Fiction at the Technovelgy site helped me suggest some candidates for that story.

I also mention Isaac Asimov’s own timeline-of-the-future for his various short stories and novels, which I drew from ‘A page from Isaac Asimov’s notebook’, Thrilling Wonder Stories, vol. 44 #3 (Winter 1955), p. 63.

Edited by Gary Russell and published by Gareth Kavanagh at Roundel Books, you can buy The DNA of Doctor Who - The Philip Hinchcliffe Years from the Cutaway Comics site.

Thursday, August 22, 2024

Garry Halliday episode guide

I've posted the first two entries in what I hope will be an exhaustive guide to Garry Halliday, a BBC serial about the adventures of an airline pilot created by Justin Blake (i.e. John Bowen and Jeremy Bullmore), that ran between 1959 and 1962.

The BBC made 50 episodes, only one of which survives. But Doctor Who was devised to fill the same Saturday teatime slot and I think owes a significant amount to Halliday, which I'll tease out as I go through the history.

As with Doctor Who, there were novelisations of Garry Halliday's TV adventures. I now have copies of all five Garry Halliday books, and have already posted reviews here of the first three of them:

Thursday, August 01, 2024

DWM - The Missing Doctor Who

Out today, a new special edition of the official Doctor Who Magazine looks in detail at what's lost - from fans' most wanted missing episodes to the written but never made Tenth Doctor story by Mark Gatiss set in the British Museum.

I've also written or co-written three pieces:

Cut to the Chase, pp. 20-23

To accompany CG recreations by Gav Rymil, me and Rhys Williams detail the Dalek Pursuit Ship, mentioned in episodes 3-5 of The Daleks's Master Plan and then seen in episode 6, "Coronas of the Sun". 

The Hole Story, pp. 32-35

There are 97 missing episodes of Doctor Who and, to date, 786 episodes existing in the BBC archives. But there are still bits missing from the latter - stuff broadcast but since lost, and stuff recorded but never shown...

The Final Countdown, pp. 44-49

Gav, Rhys and me again, this time on the sets for the last of the missing episodes, The Space Pirates Episode 6.

We've previously recreated sets from a bunch of missing episodes, so here's the list so far:

  1. Galaxy 4 episode 2: Trap of Steel - DWM #583
  2. The Daleks' Master Plan episode 4: The Traitors - DWM #586
  3. The Daleks' Master Plan episode 6: Coronas of the Sun - DWM SE Missing Doctor Who
  4. The Daleks' Master Plan episode 7: The Feast of Steven - DWM #559
  5. The Tenth Planet Episode 4 - DWM #565
  6. The Power of the Daleks Episode 1 - DWM #584
  7. The Moonbase Episode 3 - DWM #562
  8. The Macra Terror Episode 1 - DWM #569
  9. The Evil of the Daleks Episode 1 - DWM SE Production Design
  10. The Abominable Snowmen Episode 1 - DWM #581
  11. The Wheel in Space Episode 1 - DWM #575
  12. The Space Pirates Episode 6 - DWM SE Missing Doctor Who
What's more, here's Andrew Orton's recreation of the sets from Marco Polo episode 1: The Roof of the World:


See also: 

Thursday, July 18, 2024

Doctor Who Magazine #606

The new issue of Doctor Who Magazine is out today and boasts lots of exclusive, behind-the-scenes stuff about the recent TV series.

I've written an article featured on the cover, "What If...?" exploring the near misses and never-were of the Fourth Doctor's era. It dovetails with the piece I wrote for the 50 Years of the Fourth Doctor special published in May, and was in part prompted by the panel about alternative history I was on at the Gallifrey convention earlier this year, which led to be revisiting the classic If It Had Happened Otherwise...

The new DWM also has news of something I've been involved in: six boxes of papers belonging to the late David Whitaker - first story editor of and prolific writer for Doctor Who - have been donated by his niece Melanie to the Borthwick Institute for Archives at the University of York. The Borthwick Institute website boasts more details and a catalogue of the David Whitaker archive. I've also written a piece on the papers in this collection relating to Doctor Who for DWM's Print the Legend special, currently in shops.

The Borthwick Institute is a very good fit for these papers because it already holds similar collections, including an archive relating to David's great friend producer Ernest Maxin. I visited the archive while researching my biography of David, as Maxin had kept two of his unproduced screenplays (see Maxin, box 14). I'm grateful to Gary Brannan at the institute for all his help.

Wednesday, July 10, 2024

Doctor Who: The Time-Travelling Almanac

The official Doctor Who website has announced my new book, The Time-Travelling Almanac, to be published on 3 October. It is illustrated by Emma Price.

Blurb as follows:

Experience a year from the Doctor's perspective with an exciting new release from BBC Books.

“The ground beneath our feet is spinning at a thousand miles an hour and the entire planet is hurtling round the sun at 67,000 miles an hour, and I can feel it.”

– The Doctor

Doctor Who: The Time-Travelling Almanac is your essential companion to a Time Lord’s ‘Year’. You’ll learn how to feel the turn of the Earth under your feet (hurtling round the sun at 67,000 miles an hour), the times each day that Sea Devil attacks are most likely (depending on the tides), how to avoid disturbing dangerous faeries (distances measured in yards), and why, despite all the invasions and Goblins, Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year. 

Releasing later this year, The Time-Travelling Almanac is a must-have guide with useful tips and information provided by the Doctor and friends – and occasionally his enemies.

Doctor Who: The Time-Travelling Almanac is out in hardback on October 3rd 2024. You can pre-order here.

Thursday, June 20, 2024

Doctor Who Magazine #605

The new issue of the official Doctor Who Magazine is out today. Having hogged loads of the last issue, this time I've contributed one small-ish thing, a Who Crew interview with Sam Dinley, assistant to composer Murray Gold.

(There was something else, too, but it's being held over...)

Friday, June 07, 2024

Doctor Who Magazine: Print the Legend

I've just received my contributor copy of the new Doctor Who Magazine special, Print the Legend, which tells the complete story of every Doctor Who novelisation - from Doctor Who in an Exciting Adventure with the Daleks by David Whitaker (1964) to The Church on Ruby Road by Esmie Jikiemi-Pearson (2024). Excitingly, each copy comes with a free Doctor Who audiobook on CD - I got Carnival of Monsters with mine. Result!

My two bits are:

pp. 18-21 Script to Manuscript: David Whitaker

The influences on Whitaker that helps to ensure the Doctor Who novelisations began at such a high standard, with some stuff I've picked up from my research into Garry Halliday as well as a previously unpublished photograph of Whitaker with Vincent Price.

pp. 22-23 The Final Chapter

Details of the Doctor Who related paperwork loaned to me by Whitaker's niece Melanie, including - reproduced in full - the surviving first page of his unfinished novelisation of The Enemy of the World, with permission of Whitaker's estate.

See also my biography, David Whitaker in an Exciting Adventure with Television.

Thursday, May 23, 2024

Doctor Who Magazine #604

Out today, the new issue of Doctor Who Magazine includes "Babies on Board", my set report from Space Babies, having spent the day with the team at Bad Wolf Studios on 23 March 2023.

That's followed by "Baby Love", in which I talk to the team about realising the episode's diminutive guest stars. There will be more from me about Space Babies later in the year...

And then, in "Music's Gonna Flood Back In!" - a line cut from towards the end of the final version of The Devil's Chord, fact fans - I interview Sam Dinley, music assistant to Doctor Who composer Murray Gold.


Thursday, May 02, 2024

Doctor Who Magazine - 50 Years of the Fourth Doctor

Just over 50 years ago, on 2 April 1974, actor Tom Baker was in Studio 1 at BBC Television Centre to record his brief appearance in the final shot of Planet of the Spiders - and his first as Doctor Who. The episode was shown on 8 June. The official Doctor Who Magazine marks this anniversary with a special edition out today, 50 Years of the Fourth Doctor.

There are new interviews including Richard Unwin's chat with Louise Jameson and Matthew Waterhouse, Robbie Dunlop's chat with Janet Ellis and Graham Kibble-White's chat with Dave Gibbons. Robbie also met with June Hudson, the costume designer of the burgundy version of the Fourth Doctor's costume seen in his final year in the programme, and with Mark Barton Hill who now owns that coat. How lovely to see a photo of the label, with Tom Baker's name written in under the address of Morris Angel & Son Ltd, the costume house Hudson employed to cut the coat.

It's prompted me to post on the Koquillion site the article I wrote about the Fourth Doctor's Season 18 costume and my chat with Ron Davies who cut the coat

I've also got two pieces in the new special edition:

pp. 22-25 The Doctor Who Wasn't
A very different version of the Fourth Doctor can be glimpsed in surviving draft scripts and other evidence.

p. 82 Many Happy Returns
He left our screens after 1981's Logopolis - or did he? The Fourth Doctor was never far away.

Thursday, April 25, 2024

Doctor Who Magazine #603

The new issue of the official Doctor Who Magazine is out today and is full of thrilling stuff about the imminent new series, starting 11 May.

I've written the preview of Episode 1, Space Babies (pp. 14-15), and spoke to writer and executive producer Russell T Davies about this completely nuts story (to quote the preview), ahead of a post-broadcast set report next issue.

I've also written Who Crew: Second Brain (pp. 36-37), in which I spoke to Sharon King and Jess Gardner, co-producers on next year's series of Doctor Who.

Then there's Script to Screen: Jimbo (pp. 38-41), featuring some of the team behind the chonky robot seen in last year's Wild Blue Yonder: production designer Phil Sims, concept artist Nandor Moldovan, prop modeller head of department Barry Jones, and puppeteers Brian Fisher and Eliot Gibbins. 

Monday, April 08, 2024

The Power of 3 podcast #212 - The Pirate Loop

Cover of Doctor Who - The Pirate Loop, showing David Tennant as Doctor Who, Freema Agyeman as Martha Jones and a spaceship in the midst of a pink and blue whirlpool
The Pirate Loop
The Power of 3 podcast is currently scrutinising the adventures of the Tenth Doctor in print, and I spoke to Kenny for the latest episode about my 2007 novel The Pirate Loop, which was the first original Doctor Who novel read by Steevie.

Here's the blurb on the back of the book:

The Doctor's been everywhere and everywhen in the whole of the universe and seems to know all the answers. But ask him what happened to the Starship Brilliant and he hasn't the first idea. Did it fall into a sun or black hole? Was it shot down in the first moments of the galactic war? And what's this about a secret experimental drive?

The Doctor is skittish. But if Martha is so keen to find out he'll land the TARDIS on the Brilliant, a few days before it vanishes. Then they can see for themselves...

Soon the Doctor learns the awful truth. And Martha learns that you need to be careful what you wish for. She certainly wasn't hoping for mayhem, death, and badger-faced space pirates.