Calling all would be Doctor Who writers…

For years now most Doctor Who stories that have been shown on television have been novelised at some point. This also includes the stories that no longer exist on film or are missing from the BBC’s film archive.

For some strange reason the BBC have made the decision not to novelise the new stories that have been shown since 2005. Instead they have chosen to commission new stories for their range of books.

I feel sad that they have decided not to release the new series stories in book form as I believe it could introduce The Doctor to a whole new audience.

To this end I am inviting all would be writers to get in touch. There are 57 stories that have so far been shown on British TV, including the latest, Planet of the Dead. You may choose your own story, provided that it hasn’t already been taken by someone else. All stories will feature either the 9th and 10th Doctors and companions featured in that story. The novels should remain faithful to the transmitted script and plot lines. The drama of the writing is then down to you. 

In return for writing the novelised story, I will publish it in hardback book form. You will recieve a free copy.

These books will be fan written, for fans of the show and not for profit. Your friends and family will be able to purchase a copy of your book for the price it costs to produce it. I will donate my own time in producing and designing the cover of the book, to which I will try and remain faithfull to the covers of the books published by the BBC.

If you feel you would like to try your hand (or pen) at novelising one of the stories from the new series, please contact me via this blog.

Doctor Who on iTunes

The BBC and Apple have now, after a prolonged wait, made the 4 new seasons of Doctor Who available to download on iTunes in the UK. The downloads available include the Christmas specials.

 This isn’t anything new for our US cousins who have been able to download episodes for quite some time, including episodes from the Classic series of Doctor Who, some episodes which have never previously been released.

The UK still has some way to go to get classic episodes available to download. It obviously means nothing to the BBC that us UK citizens have paid for the classic episodes through the license fee and should have had them available before our American friends!

SFX Magazine celebrates 45years of Doctor Who

This months issue of SFX magazine features a 45th anniversary celebration for Doctor Who. To celebrate they have released no fewer than 10 different covers for the December issue.

Their website boasts “The main attraction in our celebration of Doctor Who is our enormous retrospective feature, where we ask Russell T Davies, Steven Moffat, Stephen Fry, Clive Barker, Paul Cornell and Mark Gatiss to talk about their love for the show. We have the world exclusive first word on this year’s Christmas special, too, and to top it all off, we’ve got a great competition where you can win all four series of Doctor Who on DVD!”

You can see all 10 covers above, click on the thumbnails for larger views. Which one would you buy? I bought the Jon Pertwee version.

9th Doctor Regeneration

This is a clip from the final episode (episode 13), The Parting of the Ways, of the new series, season 1, where the 9th Doctor (Christopher Eccleston) regenerates in the 10th Doctor (David Tennant).