Tag Archives: Doctor Who

Revisiting The Alternative War

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Doctor Who: The Alternative War is a two-part fan audio series from TT Productions 23. The “alternative” universe branches off from the TV Doctor Who universe at the moment of the Eighth Doctor’s regeneration. In the alternative universe, the Doctor regenerates into a female incarnation who is still very much the Doctor, but who must find a way to bring the Time War to an end. She is the ninth Doctor of this universe.

The first part, simply called “Doctor Who: The Alternative War”, was my first stab at a full-cast script. I won’t deny that I was in a bit over my head. Partly because I took on too much. I brought the cast together but didn’t have the means for them to record it live, so each actor performed in isolation, with the exception of Alia and Abi, who recorded together. I stitched the recordings together as best I could. Fortunately, Jaspreet Singh came to my rescue and tweaked the dialog and added sound effects and music. I enjoyed the result, but came away thinking that I could have done better. I could have written a better script.

And I did do better with the sequel, “Doctor Who: The Alternative War—Reprieve.” The recording used the normal TT Productions 23 process and was much better for it. There was a table-read to iron out the kinks, and then the recording proper with all the actors present. And boy, did the actors nail it. Abi brought us a more seasoned Aliana. Jack played two roles, the 10th and 11th Doctors. He nailed each of them and switched between them like a slippery chameleon. You’d have sworn there were two different actors present. I’ve always been fond of Jaz’s performances as the Third Doctor, and he tackled the role once again with gusto and vim. Marcus gave us a War Master who delighted in getting under the Doctor’s skin. But it was the Master’s sparring with Aliana that was a highlight for me. And then there’s Chelsea and Sam who played the constantly bickering Time Lords Strange and Love. I could listen to those two go at it all day. You would never think that the two actors had never met before the recording. The striking cover art is, as usual by ‪@johannesviii.bsky.social.

As for the script, I was very happy with the result. It was a bit of a large cast for the length of the story, with three Doctors, a companion, the Master, and Strange and Love. I wanted each character to have a purpose—to have agency. And so, the third Doctor has his own little adventure and gets to drive a fast car and reverse the polarity. Aliana, having grown since the first adventure, is often the adult in the room. The eleventh Doctor has a bad day, getting eaten by a lake serpent and then having his sonic screwdriver melted. The tenth Doctor, still recovering from his regeneration, has to keep his ragtag team focussed on the job at hand. And if you’re fond of ’50’s era sci-fi movies, there’s something here for you, too.

So if you haven’t listened to it yet, give Doctor Who: The Alternative War — Reprieve a try. I think you’ll be glad you did.

Panic in the Cave

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When I think of 2019, I think of it as The Before Times. Before the world was frozen in time while researchers scrambled for a vaccine to beat back the beast known as COVID. Some pretty good things happened that year, including my first visit to a Doctor Who convention. I had the pleasure of attending Chicago TARDIS and enjoyed an all-too-brief encounter with Katy Manning.

Katy, of course, was Jo Grant, assistant to the third Doctor, played with panache by Jon Pertwee. Katy left the show after her character married environmentalist Clifford Jones. She has since played Jo Grant and Jo Jones many times for Big Finish.

She was a delight on the show and an even bigger delight in person, doling out hugs to all the fans who lined up for autographs. As we chatted, I might have let slip that I’d written a couple of stories for Big Finish. After all, “Battle Scars”, my second Short Trip for Big Finish, was released just a few months earlier. She narrated Short Trips sometimes, she said, and suggested I write one for her.

A story idea came to me almost immediately. I let it percolate until late last year when I decided to go ahead and write it as fan fiction. As I do these days when I get the urge to write Doctor Who. If there was any chance that Katy would narrate the story, I would have centred it around Jo Jones and Kate Stewart. However, since the story was going to be fan fiction, I decided that it would feature Jo Grant and the Brigadier, and as the story progressed they would bond with each other and gain a measure of mutual respect. The result is a short story called “Panic in the Cave.” It’s hosted by the Doctor Who Project.

Something is stirring in the cave system beneath Yorkshire. Locals are near deafened by eruptions of bone-rattling sound, and tremors have been reported, sufficient to split the earth and swallow vehicles. Before he can be notified, the Doctor takes his TARDIS for its first test flight since the Omega affair. Jo Grant, eager to prove her worth to the Brigadier, insists upon her involvement in the investigation. But, without the Doctor’s support, will she be able to face her fears and confront the unknown?

The Doctor Who Project hosts edited fan fiction stories which are set in alternative timeline. They also host “Brief Encounters” which are short stories set in the “classic” Doctor Who timeline. The editors had some good suggestions for improving my story. Do check the site out.

And please have a look at “Panic in the Cave” and let me know what you think of it.

Star Wars: The Motivation Problem

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This post contains SPOILERS for Star Wars: The Acolyte

If you’ve listened to “Landbound“, the Doctor Who Short Trip I wrote for Big Finish, you’ll know that it begins with the Third Doctor driving off in a temper from Unit HQ until he finds himself at the seaside in Whitby. In my first draft, the Doctor was simply having a bad day and was fed up with the Brigadier and his rules and regulations. Ian Atkins, my editor, suggested making the reason for the Doctor’s anger clearer by setting the opening right after the TV episode, “The Silurians.”

The Silurians, an intelligent, lizard-like race, ruled the world before humans came along. They’ve since been in hibernation. In the episode, they awake and wish to resume their place on the Earth’s surface. The Doctor tries to achieve a peaceful solution only to have his efforts undermined by the Brigadier, who seals them underground and likely kills them all in the process. The Doctor, of course, is furious.

With that change, the reason for the Doctor’s anger in “Landbound” begins becomes much clearer. And clear motivation, I’ve learned, is key to good storytelling.

Which brings us to Star Wars: The Acolyte, the latest Star Wars series from Disney, in which very few character motivations are clear. For instance, the Jedi are shocked — shocked! — that the Witches of Brendok are raising two children. I wonder where they thought big witches came from if not little witches. Are the witches inherently evil? Or just different. Or does different equate to evil? Do witches roam the galaxy, turning people into newts? Why is it so very important to the Jedi to remove these children from the witches? Particularly since these not-so-old children are apparently too old to train.

What motivates Torbin, the Jedi who instigated the awful events on Brendok? Why is he so whiny? Why does he want so badly to return to Coruscant? Why does he wear his heart on his sleeve when the mission of the Jedi seems to be to drum emotion out of their students (more on that in my next post)? Why does he wantonly disregard his master? Is he campaigning for Worst Padawan Ever?

There’s a tracker in the show, a diminutive creature with a great sense of smell. He’s not just a dog on two legs, though. He’s quite handy with technology as it turns out, and effectively caused Sol’s ship to crash-land. What’s his story? How does he communicate with people? Why does he do what he does?

In the final episode, Osha and “the Stranger” leave but apparently they simply must leave Mae behind. Why is that? Is the ship not big enough for three? Is it that a Sith can only have one apprentice at a time? Enquiring minds want to know, and it wouldn’t have taken long to explain.

There are other questions, of course, but I won’t list them all. Except to question Jedi Master Vernestra Rwoh, and her desire to hide what’s going on in Acolyte from the Jedi Council.

There are a lot of screen writers out there and by all accounts it’s nearly impossible to get a treatment to the point of actual production. Studios, it seems, have the luxury of selecting from the best of the best. Given that, I’ll end with a final question: why would Disney accept a script in which reasonably clear motivation is so lacking?

What Day is it?

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It’s Missy’s Day!

Missy was the 12th Doctor’s antagonist, a version of the Master in female form. Played delightfully by Michelle Gomez, Missy could be alternately cold-blooded and playfully witty. She was different from her previous incarnations in that, in her own, stumbling way, she wanted to regain the Doctor’s friendship.

I wrote “Missy’s Day” during COVID lockdown and found it a very welcome diversion and I greatly enjoyed the writing of it. Follow the link to read it. I hope you enjoy it.

Missy’s Day

The Perils of Writing Doctor Who

Writing

Some things are not meant for the faint of heart. Writing Doctor Who is one of them.

Consider why you’re writing Doctor Who in the first place. We’re in the 21st century and you’re writing Doctor Who because the show is very successful. In fact, it has sixty years of history. Sixty years. There have been TV episodes, novels, comics, not to mention audio plays and books from Big Finish and the BBC. Even through the wilderness years, after the show was cancelled, there were many stories, including the TV movie. That’s a lot of content.

How does one get one’s head around it all? Short answer: you can’t.

How much of that content is canon? What is canon, anyway? The answer to that depends on who you are writing for. In all cases, the TV episodes are canon (mostly). Depending on the TV showrunner, some Big Finish might be canon. If you’re writing for Big Finish, previous Big Finish will be canon. I’ve always preferred the TARDIS wiki’s approach. For them, the question is meaningless. There is no canon. I mean, just think about it. We’re talking, after all, about a show in which time can be rewritten and the entire universe can be rebooted.

Let’s say you’ve got your head around all of that, and you’ve written a story that’s wonderful. Perfect. It has thrills. It has chills. It has humour and pathos and tragedy all rolled into one. And it’s published. That’s where Doctor Who fandom, bless their collective hearts, come in. I will always be grateful that my Big Finish stories were greeted with mostly positive comments. But whenever you put your writing out there, you’re taking a risk. Fans might love it. They might hate it. They might say, “meh.” Some might accuse you of ruining Doctor Who, or ruining their childhood, or being “woke” (heaven forbid). You just don’t know. I don’t have an answer for how you prepare yourself, except that, if you truly believe in what you’ve written, then the rest will fall into place.

It might sound as if I’m being negative, and I don’t mean to be. But I do want to be realistic. Being asked to write Doctor Who is a huge thrill. You might even say it’s the trip of a lifetime. I humbly suggest that, if you’re given the chance, you buckle in and enjoy the ride.

But what, you might wonder, is the worst thing about writing Doctor Who? Easy: it’s addictive. Despite all of the above, you never want to stop.

Tipping the Time Scales

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So a few days ago Grego Keith contacted me and expressed interest in having a chat as part of a collection of interviews on the Time Scales YouTube channel. The Time Scales is a website where users can comment on and rate, well, all sorts of things, including Doctor Who TV and audio episodes.

Me being me, I first checked who else Grego had been speaking to. When I saw that the list included Gary Russell, my first reaction was, well why does he want to speak to me? There are a lot of other well known faces there, including Sophie Aldred. My second reaction was to say, sure, let’s chat.

Grego was extremely welcoming and put me right at ease, which was great because I get awfully nervous about this kind of thing. The last time I’d been interviewed was around the time that Big Finish announced “Battle Scars” back in 2019. Before the world changed.

We ended up having a great chat and I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. We covered my writing journey, starting with sketches I would write as a kid, to my fan fiction, to Big Finish, and to the collections of original fiction I’ve self-published. We also touched on the two Alternative War fan audios that were recently released by TT Productions 23.

I hope you give the video a watch when you get the chance. And be sure to check out the other content in the Time Scale’s channel. I’ve just finished the first part of the Gary Russell interview and am looking forward to parts two and three.

Oh yes. Happy Doctor Who Podcast Day!

The Alternative War – Reprieve

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“Reprieve” is the second and probably last in the Doctor Who Alternative War series. In the first, simply called Doctor Who: The Alternative War, the Alternative universe diverges from the TV Doctor Who universe when the Eighth Doctor regenerates. In the Alternative universe, the Doctor regenerates into another Doctor, a woman, who meets fellow Time Lord Aliana and sets out to find a way to bring the Time War to an end.

In “Reprieve”, the Doctor has recently regenerated and is now a version of the Tenth Doctor that we know and love. But this time, he’s ginger.

The backstory behind the regeneration didn’t make it into the script, but here’s a synopsis: The Doctor sets out to gain intelligence on Dalek plans by infiltrating a Dalek ship. She is unable to penetrate the Dalek shields with the TARDIS, but finds a way to transmat inside. She finds that the Daleks have been hunting down a so-called Doomsday weapon. Whispers have hinted it is being developed by the Time Lords. Before she can finish, she is spotted by a Dalek and is shot. Meanwhile, Aliana has been furiously working to find a way past the Dalek shields and finds a means that should work just as the Doctor is shot. Throwing caution to the winds, Aliana materializes the TARDIS around the Doctor and they escape.

The Doctor and Aliana have had numerous adventures since the first episode, and Aliana has grown and matured. As “Reprieve” takes place, she and the Doctor have almost reversed roles, Aliana being the steading influence on the impulsive Tenth Doctor of this universe. We also learn of Aliana’s backstory, and how she was able to find the Doctor just at the moment he regenerated on Karn.

As with many of my stories, “Reprieve” is mostly character-based. More character, less running down corridors. And in this story, there are more Doctors than usual. Three, specifically: the tenth, eleventh, and third. Ten and Eleven are played by the ever-brilliant Jack Reeves, and Three is played with love and gusto by the inimitable Jaspreet Singh. As for villains, well, there are three of those as well: The War Master, as well as … well, let’s not spoil it. They’re original characters, so you won’t know them, but as played by Chelsea Lagan and Sam Cybichowski I could listen to them all day.

What else will you find in “Reprieve?” Well, there are loads of references to classic sci-fi and fantasy. And the Third Doctor gets to reverse the polarity and drive some pretty hot wheels.

Really, what else could you ask for in a Doctor Who story? Especially when played by such an amazing cast, and with such great sound design courtesy of the indefatigable Abi Louise, who seems to be a master of just about everything. Basically, Abi and TT Productions 23 are awesome.

Doctor Who: The Alternative War can be found here: https://youtu.be/NaREhegyddw

Doctor Who: The Alternative War – Reprieve can be found here: https://youtu.be/q_if3Z5HKWc

The Debut of “Reprieve”

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The debut of the new Doctor Who (fan fiction) audio play is on Wednesday, July 5th, at 7 PM UK time. Doctor Who: The Alternative War — Reprieve is a light-hearted, multi-Doctor story set in an alternative universe during the Time War.

Hope you’re able to join us and that you enjoy it. We have an amazing cast and a stellar production so I’m looking forward to hearing what you think of it.

You can find it here: https://youtu.be/q_if3Z5HKWc

The Unravelling

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One of the reasons for the success of Doctor Who over its nearly sixty years of history is the variety of stories the show presents. The stakes can be small or potentially universe-ending. The setting can be the past, present, or future, or a combination thereof. And within a given story, the tone can change from light-hearted to deadly serious in a pair of heartbeats.

I have a particular fondness for the third Doctor’s era, and as a writer, I enjoy writing in a variety of styles, from serious character studies to light-hearted affairs. Recently, I wrote a light-hearted, third Doctor story called “The Unravelling.” What I was going for here was to provide an amusing, in-universe explanation of why the walls at UNIT HQ were occasionally prone to wobble. And, why it was that the quality of light indoors was quite different from outdoors.

It’s been published by The Doctor Who Project, which posts two kinds of stories. On the one hand, they continue the adventures of the seventh Doctor past the cancelation of the series. These can be considered to take place in an alternative universe. The Doctor has regenerated several times in this universe.

The other stories are tales of the classic Doctors under the umbrella, Brief Encounters. Herein you’ll find “The Unravelling” among many other Doctor Who short stories.

Please give it a read and let me know if you enjoy it. And do check out the other fine stories collected here.

The Time Conspiracy

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For a long time now, I’ve been itching to take my four-story fan fiction saga that linked the Firefly, Castle, and Doctor Who universes, and combine them into a single volume. It’s called The Time Conspiracy.

It all started back in 2012 with my fanfic story, “Goodbye.” In that story, I introduced time travel to the Firefly universe because—hey! It’s me. After the events of the movie Serenity, Mal and company meet up with someone from their past who should be dead. And they’re not the only ones who have been seeing ghosts. Something is wrong, and it’s up to the crew of Serenity to put it right.

This story led, inevitably perhaps, to a couple of Firefly–Castle crossovers. In “A Firefly in the Castle”, Mal visits Castle’s Earth. In “Castle Serenity”, Castle and Beckett find themselves in the far future and join the crew of Serenity. In these stories, we learn that Mal and Castle are clones, inserted into their respective time streams to nudge events in a direction favourable to the Alliance.

The conclusion of the saga came with “Miranda” in 2016. This story brings the eleventh Doctor and Clara to the Firefly universe to get to the bottom of why the Alliance is meddling with time.

It’s interesting and gratifying to see how my writing improves along the way. And there are other things. The closing scene of “Castle Serenity” is, I think, the most touching thing I’ve written. To this day, it continues to makes me misty-eyed. And from a plotting perspective, “Miranda” is the most complex story I’ve written, telling its story while fitting into the events of “Castle Serenity” and the movie Serenity.

I also have to say that I’ve really enjoyed reading this adventure. I hope you do too.

To get your hands on the EPUB file, see my blog page, The Time Conspiracy.