Script Doctors | Series 3 | Paul Cornell
Paul Cornell seems Very Excited these days. He's in discussions with the BBC about his Very Own TV Show, and apparently Russell T. Davies was happy enough with his fourth draft scripts for the third series of Doctor Who as they stand to fast-track them forward by a whole shooting block. One small Pret A Manger just off Tottenham Court Road barely seems big enough to contain his good humour. It seems a bit of a contrast to the chap who, when DWM last spoke to him two years ago, seemed to be a little jaded with his own career, despite his impressive contribution to Series 1 of Doctor Who…
Before we start… there's all manner of secrecy afoot, as ever. So, what are your new episodes actually called, then? Go on. I promise not to tell anybody.
Paul Cornell: I've suggested that one of them should be called Human Nature – at the moment we're not sure which one – and the other one is Family of Blood. We actually haven't talked about titles much - we all sort of know what the story is, so it's never really come up. Also, I was wondering, thinking about The Empty Child and The Doctor Dances – what is the consensus for what a two-part story is generally referred to, overall? It's probably The Empty Child, isn't it? So we probably should make the first episode Human Nature… and the first one is more Human Nature, in that we've got time for a lot of nice romance before nasty things start happening. Episode two is nearly all nasty! I wrote myself a cliffhanger that I couldn't get out of. I've sorted it now, but it took me about a day staring at the screen to get out of it. Always the best way, I think…
When we wound down the interview last time, during production on Father's Day, you said you thought of yourself as a novelist who dabbled a bit in television. There hasn't been much activity from you in the field of prose, but there's been a bit of telly work, most notably Robin Hood. Do you still think in those terms?
Absolutely – very much so. Two New Year's Eves ago, I made myself three New Year's resolutions – that I'd produce a new novel, a TV show of my own and a comic of my own. And thus far I've got one of those – the comic has come true, in the Pete Wisdom mini-series for Marvel. It was all about re-focusing myself, really. I realised, a while back, when I started getting more enjoyment out of organising an arts festival in my home town than I did out of writing a script for my own TV show at the same time, that something was really wrong. So I chucked working on the arts festival – painful as that was, because I really loved it – and have started working harder, focusing on those three goals. One down! Which, hopefully, will be the start of more work for Marvel, because they're absolutely fantastic to work for. Two issues of a six-issue mini series are out now, and Marvel are tremendously receptive to ideas, they've got a wonderful editorial process. You imagine that Marvel are going to be kind of cigar-chewing and hardcore, but they actually are very laid-back, very receptive, very interested in what you might bring to the table. I love them, I think it's great. But I'm open to general 'comic' offers, yes. Especially creator-owned properties that you might be able to parlay into a vast fortune! Comics I seem to be able to live and breathe – it feels easy to be able to do my best work there, and also there's a very direct connection between you and an editor who will tell you immediately whether or not you can do something, there aren't nine different people involved in that decision process.
So there's more of a parallel with writing a novel than working in television?
It's a strange halfway-house in terms of the craft, in that there are elements of both prose and TV to it. But anyway, on that basis I've also very much refocused on being a novelist who does a bit of telly. I'm not writing other peoples' TV shows any more, I've been turning them down right, left and centre. Which is terrifying! But I'm in a position to do that now, I'm only focusing on getting my own show. But at the same time I've employed a new agent, the wonderful Simon Kavanagh, for my prose work, and he has been a tremendous influence on that. I have grown to love the feeling of prose science fiction, especially in recent years. I want to go to WorldCon and have my own thing to sign!
When you say that you're not spending your time writing other people's TV shows, Doctor Who is the most obvious exception – why are you still making such an exception?
Because it's Doctor Who. And because it's Russell! Any time he calls I'll be there…
How did the process of writing Father's Day compare to your other TV work, given that it must have been a long, involved and consultative process?
It was very long and involved. We were all still putting together what the show was like back then, nobody knew. Russell had some very strong ideas of what he wanted to do, but it was very much a learning curve. I can't quite remember now if Father's Day actually went through eighteen drafts or if I've made up 'eighteen' because it sounds good in an anecdote. But it was lots, anyway! This time round it's been a lot swifter and a lot easier, and I think that's because, for a start, the guys working on the scripts know what they want, so they know when I'm approaching that and when I'm drifting away from it. And I think I've got better, which is useful! This time round it's been not so much hard work and more fun, which is always very welcome. And the input of Julie Gardner has been important - last time round she was very busy setting up the show, but this time round she's had more time for script and story work, and I always love it when she gets to do that, she really adds something. And we've had [script editor] Gary Russell at some of the meetings, which is always fun. He's trailing the wonderful Lindsey Alford. Lindsey started two days before we had our first meeting about the script, and she's learnt very fast and is really useful now. She and Gary both tend to make very precise interventions that solve something completely huge and wonderful.
And how did you deal with sitting down on the Saturday night and seeing an episode of Doctor Who come on with your name attached at the start?
I held a party! I have a very small flat, and we filled it to the point where people had their bottoms sticking out of the window. Which was a good show for the old ladies who lived next door! It was a tremendous night – my dad called me, Terrance Dicks called me, I got texts from everyone, it was a tremendous evening. A lifetime ambition – I've written for Doctor Who, I've written a comic for Marvel. I'm running out of things I want to do now!
And possibly the best aspect will be that the episode went down very well…
What I really loved was that it was well received by the mainstream audience. The lady who runs the little tea shop round the corner from my house asked, "Which one did you do…? Ooh, that one!". And I get "Ooh, that one!" from all over the place… which was never the case when I was writing Casualty. You'd say you wrote for Casualty, and people would say "Oh - does somebody actually write that?". And I think there was something about Father's Day, particularly, which touched the mainstream audience.
Is that mainstream success, do you think, to do with the universal question your episode poses – that the first thing most people would think of when offered the chance to travel in time would be to save someone who died, and therefore it's an easy episode for any viewer to empathise with?
I think so. It's not quite been done before. It pays off that Star Trek episode, The City At The Edge Of Forever, it kind of does the reverse of what that episode does – it and Father's Day start in the same place but go off in very different directions. And I think a mainstream audience, unjustly, imagines that science fiction is without emotion. I think that impression comes from things like 2001, or maybe even at the back of their minds they have Mr. Spock – which is strange, because Star Trek is a very emotional show. And I think mine was an episode which kind of belied that for them – as if they didn't know already, the viewers now knew there were big emotions in this show, and I think they really liked that…
You also did a commentary for the series 1 DVD with Billie Piper, Shaun Dingwall and Phil Collinson…
Shaun was just coming back to the show for series 2, and didn't know whether he could tell anyone yet! Billie was fantastic – we talked about Swindon. She's a bit of a local hero where I come from, we get the Swindon Advertiser as our local paper, and every little thing she does is page five news. Partly, I suppose, because it's a 100-page daily local paper, so 'Youths Shouted At My Car' is a whole double page spread with photos… so Billie gets loads of coverage! I do very much adore her. And Shaun, great actor…
Your episode really needed a great actor in that part. Obviously it was a good script, but you were asking a lot of the actors playing Rose and Pete - had they not been up to it, it might easily have fallen apart, no matter how good the script was…
Absolutely. I think that's something my scripts kind of tend to do… if they're done badly, they're really, really bad! So thank goodness Joe [Ahearne], Billie and Shaun were just tremendously up to that…
So what's been the difference in tone and process, coming back over a year later and writing for a whole new set of characters…
Well – I'm doing my emo-Who again!
I'm having visions of David Tennant in dyed black hair and heavy eyeliner…
Yeah, but that's just wishful thinking on your part. His Doctor's voice is very easy to get – you find yourself doing the body language and 'speaking the speak' very quickly, and that is, I think, a great advantage to new writers. And listening to Freema on the first few readthroughs was really useful – her character's voice is very different to Rose, and it's an interesting difference. She's got a little more reservation, a little more wryness about why she's with the Doctor. There's a bit more of a wall there, between them, she's very much her own person. And that pays off very well in my two-parter, in that she really doesn't know him tremendously well. She knows she likes him a lot, before they're thrown into a situation where he really depends on her for sheer survival. And meeting Freema was an absolute delight – we talked about living in North London, which I did for a long time. She's very funny, very outgoing, she talks to writers – and I got to hang out with David a bit too, and just chatter about what it's like to be the Doctor and have small children approach you. They both seem very nice!
How much can you tell me about the new perspective that Freema, and indeed Martha, bring to the show? Given that the Doctor and Rose was, basically, a two-year love affair…
The Doctor hasn't really forgotten Rose. If Martha and the Doctor ever have a romatic relationship, it's going to be way down the line, because he's not entirely up to it yet. He's asked directly about it in Russell's second episode, and he says "I don't really know her that well", and I think that's a refreshing change now. You don't put the bollocks of the entire universe in the hands of someone you've only known for a couple of years…
And how different are you finding David compared to Chris, in the writing?
Utterly chalk and cheese. It's really a question of the voice again. I think Chris had his emotions all sitting there on the surface, just ready to open a vein at any point – that was the real warmth of the way he portrayed it. David's is more subtle, he's a more together guy. His Doctor is much more healed, more of a whole person. He's not a survivor any more, he's got on with his life – that's what Rose has done for him. So, to get to the emotion, there's a couple of interesting 'descents of the staircase' first, and that's always fun to do. They're both fun in their different ways, and I think it's a real testament to the show that we've had these two back to back…
Was there any concern, preparing for series 3, that it would be difficult for the show to outlive Rose - because she's been so much the heart of it for two years?
Well, Freema's fantastic, and the quality of the writing of the first few scripts this season… Russell seems to be on his best game, and Gareth's episode is great.
Did you always know, writing your new episodes, that you wouldn't be writing for Rose this time?
Yes. I was rather terrifyingly aware of it before I should have been! I hate having to keep secrets, even though I do it very well. But I knew that Rose was leaving way back. I remember the bride being the ongoing companion for a little while, and then there was some thought of Martha coming from 1914 and that mine would be a story where she could visit her family again. But I think Russell's right in that you want an identification figure as the companion, and a historical or futuristic companion kind of dulls that. I think the only successful historical companion was Jamie, because he was such a great historical archetype and such a great performance, his innocence is crying out for us to identify with him. But it's very difficult to write a historical companion who sticks to his roots and gives us something to identify with…
You could possibly try it as the second companion, but not as the main one?
That might be interesting. One of the things that I constantly notice about new Doctor Who is that Russell is reining in his own instincts all the time and writing for a mainstream audience. I loved Love & Monsters because he let the brakes go and wrote a Russell Davies script! I'd like to see more scripts like that that kick the mainstream audience in the teeth a bit. But that's why I'm not on Saturday nights getting huge ratings, as yet…
You said it's you doing 'emo-Who' again – are you bringing your experience of writing Virgin's New Adventures novels to bear on your new episodes, then? Those were pretty damn 'emo' for their time…
I'm very specifically distilling that! The new episodes are an adaptation of a book, and I'm pleased that a lot of the book remains, there are versions of almost all of my favourite scenes. I actually started it much further away from the book version of the story, and Russell kept saying "Bring it back to the book!". Julie had read it recently, as had Helen, and Russell deliberately didn't read it. And it's interesting that all of Russell's instincts were to do things that were already in the book. And that might have been half him unconsciously remembering stuff from the book first time round, and half that his current Doctor Who is so vastly influenced by the New Adventures and his instincts are largely formed by them. So I'm having a fabulous time. I think this story is my Sergeant Pepper, frankly! I'm delighted with it. One of the interesting things about it is that very early on Russell put it to me that we could do this story without any CG special effects - we're doing old-fashioned mechanical effects and make-up jobs. There are now a couple of CG things because it's quicker to do some things that way and Russell wanted zap-guns, but there aren't very many by the standards of modern Doctor Who – we've got nice big mechanical things like a spaceship landing as a bunch of lights behind some trees. And it gives it a really nice, old-fashioned autumnal BBC feeling, I think. I haven't seen any of this yet, obviously, but I think the way it's being presented will give it a certain intimate quality…
Like the more romantic approach of Steven Moffat's first couple of episodes…
Yeah – it's so 'character, character, character'. And with two episodes, I've got room to really play out at least three sets of character journeys. After drafts five and four, respectively, Russell did his polish, and we were on our way – he asked if I had any actors in mind for the part of Joan, and I just could not think of an actor of the right age. It's one of the reasons that I think I'm not made to work in television - I'm always surprised when people are actually cast!
…and they turn out to be pretty good at their jobs?
Absolutely - and the readthrough was a tremendous experience. Jessica Stevenson kicked it out of the park! I saw grown men cry as a result of her performance in that readthrough – heaven knows how much better it can be in the actual televised version. I think we had completely cast it by that point, but some of the actors couldn't be there for the readthrough, so Gary Russell played the 'bad guy'. Casting against type there! We had some small issues to resolve at the meeting afterwards, but it's really been the smoothest production job I've ever seen on a Doctor Who, we've really just whizzed into this and it's been fine. I absolutely love it! I'm blown away especially by the fact that every time Russell got hold of it and wanted to move it, he wanted to move it toward the novel…
What was your instant response to finding out you'd got Jessica Stevenson?
I'd loved her in Spaced, and then seeing her tremendous dramatic abilities in Bob and Rose. Comedy actors are often the best actors, because comedy is harder than drama. I think if you are a master of the beats, of comic timing, you can make an audience cry, of course you can. And this is a very serious performance, it's a very cut-glass performance. It's juddering, stiff upper lip… always my favourite sort of thing!
And how much of that have you seen?
I popped down to the set on a couple of occasions – I popped down on the first day and had a wander round John Smith's study, which is a masterclass in the BBC props department. Over two hundred books, volumes from the appropriate time period, a sink which includes cosmetic products appropriate to a chap from 1913, Dr. Smith's Pitman's Shorthand certificate on the wall, photos from the time with David Tennant in them… it should get an award in itself. If there is an award out there, at the BAFTAs, for set dressing, that should get it!
What did you break? Come on, I know what you're like…
Well, I did handle a mirror with an owl engraved on its side… when we got there, David was in bed in his pyjamas, looking up at the camera, and we watched him leaping out of bed and accosting Freema, who's just come in. And he was very sweet as always. Freema was learning the names of every bone in the human hand for a scene in which she proves she's a Doctor by reeling off which bones are where. Thirty different bones in order! Lindsey Alford was briefing her, like one might revise for a GCSE, in terms of where everything is – and between each take, Freema would run back to Lindsey and her crib sheet to learn all these for later on. And there was a huge tin of sweets sitting there, and between takes David would hand these round to everyone. The second time I went was right at the end of the shoot where the woman who plays Nancy was being dropped off a huge rope towards a blue screen as she's ejected out of the doors of the TARDIS, waving her arms and legs in an 'aaaaaaargh' kind of effect as she falls out of the doors. Many, many times! She wasn't actually dropped, she was under control all the way, with a couple of really talented riggers whose skill is to lower her hand by hand, fast enough so that it appears she's dropping in freefall. It's a tremendous art in itself, one of these production arts that Doctor Who takes on board and does very well.
So how did you get the job of adapting one of your old stories, anyway? Was it just a single phone call from Russell saying "You know, what I really want is to do Human Nature over two episodes…"
Yes, essentially! I have an 'oven chips' story again – I had actually been thinking, for about six months, if I ever did another Doctor Who, I'd love it to be this one, the one I'm doing. I was lying on my sofa reading a letter from the estate agent who owns the lease on my building which said "P.S. I gather congratulations are in order because you're now working on the new series of Star Wars." And I thought, is the rent going to go up…? But Russell called me at that point, and said "Right, now, I'm not sure what you're going to think about this-". And I interrupted and said "You want me to do Human Nature?". And he said "Who's been talking to you?". But I just thought it was kind of obvious. Myself, Matt Jones, Gareth Roberts and Rebecca Levene used to meet up, during the fifteen years that the show was off-air, as a kind of unofficial 'Committee To Bring Back Doctor Who', and we had a whole series of story ideas mapped out between us. I hope Gareth gets to do his one day, where the Doctor and the Daleks both lose their memories and encounter each other, and wander about not knowing they want to do destroy each other! But we were always going to do Human Nature – this was many years after the book. Russell's qualms were that he thought I wouldn't want to do it because, in that wonderful noun that we've turned into a verb, it sort of 'Unbound' Human Nature the book from the show's continuity. And I can see that. I'm probably the only writer left working on this show who can sort of see these things out of the corner of my eye, but you know, I'm not going to turn down the chance to do this story in a different way, and it doesn't mean the book stops existing. And I think the differences between the two will act as such an interesting index of the needs of the two different media and of where we are in the two different years. I'd like to think I was a radical enough 'fan rights' person to say "No! I shall not do that! Goodbye!". But I'm not…
The book won all sorts of awards for being the best novel of its range, and that's not something that can be taken away from you just because you've decided to adapt the story for a more mainstream audience, which is essentially all you're doing…
Absolutely not. I think it probably does put some kind of stake through the heart of the novel continuity, in that I think it's unlikely that the Doctor would run into the same set of people twice. And that poor woman, my God!
So, more so than things like Dalek or Rise of the Cybermen, which had their basis in an earlier adventure in another medium but, nevertheless, essentially told a new story, this one is more of a straight adaptation of the original…?
It very much is – at least so far. And now we don't have time left for it not to be! But no, it's the same characters, a lot of the same incidents – same plot, basically, although I've taken the opportunity, having heard the criticisms of the monsters, to make them probably the most traditional Doctor Who monsters you've ever seen now! They were like something out of the X-Men before. But I think if someone has a favourite moment from Human Nature, it's probably in there…
In 1995, Human Nature was pretty much unique as such an obvious Doctor Who love story, whereas now we've had a love story told in the show more than once – the whole 'Rose' arc, obviously, as well as The Girl In The Fireplace. How have you been able to make your story distinctive within that very different sphere?
It's interesting. When we started out, that seemed to be a major deal, but it became less and less of a big deal as we got into it - because this character isn't the Doctor, it's the hole where the Doctor should be; it's Dr. John Smith, who's human. At the top of the first readthrough, when we all introduced ourselves round the table, David Tennant said "David Tennant – Dr. John Smith". So he was playing a different character from the top, and I think that's very important. So that 'hole where the Doctor should be' defines the Doctor, and in this, we see a romance that maybe the Doctor would like to have – perhaps it's somewhere he'd like to be, but he really could not be. Because this is 'getting married, having children' territory – inserting oneself into time, into history, which is the one thing a Time Lord cannot do. In the second last draft, he was shagging! I nearly got that in… but because, in the end, this all takes place over a period of about two weeks, it was thought that a prim, 1913 lady would probably not do that… The book was set in Norfolk, but – and this is all Lindsey Alford's input - in terms of where regiments come from, where local regiments are brought together from, because of the war scenes we had a different county – and you'll have to consult with them as to what county it was – that was more appropriate. There wasn't a 'Norfolk regiment' in World War 1, I gather…
There are, I understand, one or two New Adventures fans who seem a little embittered that the story is being adapted for TV, and who have vowed never to watch it?
Could I just say that Russell has already told me that episodes 8 and 9 traditionally are where the mid-season slump takes place. There will be a dip in ratings no matter what anybody does! In the first season it was for Moffat's story, which ended up winning the DWM series poll – but fewer people out of the general audience actually showed up for it. So I wouldn't want anyone to think that the 'boycott' has had any effect… whoever it was who first mentioned it, and his two friends – and even he didn't claim authorship of this idea, it really was about getting people to come and see his website, which I can only applaud.
But to me, as a great fan of the various books series over the years, who loves Human Nature more than is really healthy – this adaptation is a marvellous 'legitimisation', if you like, of the strengths of the range and of this story in particular. That in a series with a limited number of story slots to fill, that one has been deemed good enough, more or less as it stands, to adapt for the different medium and put out as prime-time family viewing…
Yes! Absolutely! There's no bigger fan of the New Adventures than me, you know. I think those were the heart and soul of Doctor Who, what kept Doctor Who going, the reason we eventually got a new series. And to attempt to outflank me in terms of being a New Adventures fan is extraordinary. And I mean, the Hartnell story The Ark was knocked out of continuity by The End of the World. Before you start dealing with me, maybe you should deal with that! And fans do find intricate and lovely ways of dealing with that stuff, and I hope they'll do so for me… and anyway, it's quite romantic and lovely in a way, that the same terrible, tragic thing happens to him a couple of times. Maybe it should happen to him four or five times. I'd love to see Peter Davison go through it…
Would you like to see them all have a go at it?
Yes! Absolutely! Apart from Hartnell, perhaps. "Unhand me, Joan!".
To move on to other recent events, you were nominated for a Hugo award for Father's Day…
Another lifetime ambition! I want to win one one of these days. One year when Moffat's not writing for Doctor Who… it's a long game for me. As I said in my effusive text to Steven that evening.
While you had eight people hugging you…
Oh, many people were hugging me. And I prefer that, frankly, to having won the award! It was a tremendous evening. SF fandom is a wonderful world, a world I feel tremendously at home in. And I want to get up there and win a Hugo for a novel one day. Although I'll take the Shortform Drama one, I really will! I'm absolutely bloody not going to turn it down. Although I would encourage any other Doctor Who writer reading this to turn it down! Mind you, maybe not, because I think because of the PR voting system, having a whole gang of episodes really helped. So Galactica next year will see five or six, I would have thought. I got to meet their whole crew, bless them, they were so kind about it. They brought their whole writing staff along the next day. I love that show – I'm a huge fan. It's basically everything you ever wanted from an SF show. So it was quite nice that they were being very gracious to us, their competition – I was the guy on the Doctor Who side who cared about it, but they all cared about it.
Were they even aware of what the competition was? Has new-Who permeated that sort of market yet?
Well, the two shows are running back-to-back on the Sci-Fi channel this autumn, so I think they're aware that it's the other big hitter at the moment. It's an interesting world to be in. I think Moffat should have been out there, I think he'd have had a fantastic time. But he was at the Edinburgh TV Festival getting pissed with Russell…
Talking of 'the competition' - you said you weren't working on other shows, but you worked on Robin Hood…
I loved that show!
…but you were hired as a jobbing writer again! You said you weren't doing that any more, you liar.
It's my last one, honest! It was for the same slot as Doctor Who, and we were making a 'first season' again, so that was two lots of 'first season slog'. There were wonderful scripts editors on that, we slogged a lot back and forth for such a long time. I was very honoured to be asked back later in the same season. My first one had dear old Kwame from Casualty in it, which I'm very pleased about – that one was about how would Robin deal with an actual terrorist; If Robin's decided on this complicated middle ground of how to deal with the sheriff, how does he cope with someone who just then decides to shoot the sheriff? Which I'm very pleased about, I think it's the sort of question you need to sort out in Robin Hood very early on. Robin knows that the sheriff is a symptom and that he'll just be replaced with another sheriff who's just as bad. Although the idea that anyone could be as bad as Keith Allen's sheriff… he's very bad indeed! It's a great performance. My second one had a lot more comedy and romance in it, Much the miller's son got to achieve his grand desire, he's given a manor of his own and made a noble, so it was a heavy Sam Troughton episode. About half of that was mine – myself and the lovely script editor Jenny White, we were really up against it time-wise and she ended up writing a big 'Marion' part for it. Which I'm happy about, the end product was great. And I had nothing! I actually asked if she could get a co-writing credit, but I don't know if they give that to script editors. She certainly deserved it…
What's this TV project of your own you're trying to get off the ground, or do you not want to talk about it?
I don't want to talk too much about it, because I've had so many projects that have been commissioned to script stage or to idea stage that it's almost like jinxing it. The BBC have been kind enough to re-commission it from me recently, because we've been working on it for over a year, and they wanted to keep me working on it so they've paid me again, which is lovely of them. And they really didn't need to do that, because I'd have kept working on it anyway! It's a superhero show, for that Saturday night slot. I really hope we get it – I'm going for another meeting about it today. It's something I really want to do – it's a lot of comedy, a Buffy-esque feel. Superheroes have moved on so far from what the general public knows of them, and there's so much to be explored there…
They've become the big thing in cinema again recently – X-Men, Superman, Spider-Man in the movies, Heroes on TV……
Spider-Man 2 is one of the great American movies. Who'd have thought? But it's got such amazing depth do it, and I want to do some of that on British telly. I think that would be worth doing.
It certainly appears that in the aftermath of Doctor Who's phenomenal success, that TV executives have been scrabbling around to find something 'a bit like Doctor Who' – is that fair?
I think so, to some degree. Robin Hood was certainly very much its own beast, the tone is different for a start. I think the tone of all these shows needs to be different…
But people probably wouldn't have thought of it doing it five years ago.
Well, before Doctor Who people didn't think there was such a thing as a family audience any more, and that's been the big revelation - the fact that they will show up, if you build the field for them! They were waiting there, uncatered-for…
And do you foresee that lasting, or do you think it's a phase that television is going through?
I don't think it's a phase at all, I think it's a sea change. The trouble with working in a forward-looking medium is that sometimes it's difficult for people to accept that things have not moved on. People have been anticipating the death of the family, and the death of family viewing, so loudly and for so long that I think they kind of assumed it had happened – but it had not, and I don't think it will. I think that whilst young men might be out there with their x-Boxes, like me, and their box sets, like me, and their downloads – there's still a big audience of the young and the old who will be there on a Saturday night, and if the young and the old are there, maybe the young men will be there too. It's got Freema to appeal to young men. And David to appeal to other young men, too, of course! Er, have I covered all bases there…?
And will you come back for series 4, if you're asked?
Oh yeah, I want to keep on coming back. I want to do the Brigadier!
You've now written Doctor Who in just about every medium it's ever appeared in – books, short stories, comics, audio, TV, webcast – there aren't many media left to explore…
There are many! There's mime, grand opera, glove puppets, kabuki theatre… shadow puppets…
But is there any medium - any realistic, sensible medium, that is – that you actually would like to explore? Or any other ambitions you still have, in terms of Doctor Who?
I'd like to use the voice of Colin Baker. Because I have, as a writer, notched up a number of actors to have played the part – Peter, Sylvester, Paul, Chris, David… Richard E. Grant! Colin would be my last, practical, one left. And Richard was real, until the Time War. He was real - for a few minutes!
