Doctor Who Audio News

Been so busy lately that I can't help making announcements on Twitter, days or even weeks before I get to blog them. Nature of the beasts I suppose, and at least I get to talk about them in more detail here.

I've written two Doctor Who or Doctor Who-related audio releases. They're both original stories rather than adaptations, and are as follows:

THE SARAH JANE ADVENTURES: DEADLY DOWNLOAD
This will be published by BBC Audio on November 4. Every year since the TV series began, the BBC have released two original audio stories alongside the show. I'm really privileged to have written one of the 2010 pair (the other being Wraith World by Cavan Scott and Mark Wright).

I'm also delighted that Deadly Download has been read by Sarah Jane herself, Elisabeth Sladen. Elisabeth's voice is intrinsically linked with my childhood, just like Tom Baker's, and so it's amazing to have her read my 11,000-word prose story on CD.

As you might imagine from the title, Deadly Download concerns the Internet. Hopefully, it should make a fair few younger listeners think twice before chatting to random strangers while online...

DOCTOR WHO: THE DEMONS OF RED LODGE & OTHER STORIES
This will be published by Big Finish - the producer of BBC-licensed Doctor Who, as well as various other franchises - in December. I've written the title story on this collection of four tales, each of which features the Fifth Doctor (played by Peter Davison, for the uninitiated and/or forgetful) and companion Nyssa (Sarah Sutton).

One of the really nice things about this release is that two of the other authors are friends of mine. William Gallagher has written Doing Time, while John Dorney brings us Special Features. I've never met the remaining writer Rick Briggs, but he emerged triumphant from a recent Big Finish competition which earnt him this commission, so I've no doubt that his tale The Entropy Composition will be excellent.

I haven't heard the other stories yet, or even read the scripts, but I can obviously tell you a certain degree about mine. The Demons Of Red Lodge is very much a creepy horror story which puts a terrified Doctor and Nyssa into a literally dark place, then challenges them to work out where they are and what's going on. Red Lodge is a Suffolk village and I'm from that part of the world, so it was nice to base my first Big Finish story there, albeit in the 17th Century.

I was lucky enough to attend the recordings at Big Finish's London studio, a few weeks back. As you can imagine, it was beyond surreal to see Peter and Sarah acting out my script - surely one of the best experiences available to a writer and lifelong Who fan. I was really glad to see that they really went for the unusual level of anxiety which seizes their characters in this story, and really nailed each and every line. Rather than merely churning it all out, as you might reasonably expect, what with them having recorded countless audios by now, they often asked for a retake, so that they could try to better the previous one. Marvellous.

Further announcements are to come as the year goes on, but good lord, I'm still busy fanning myself in an attempt to recover from all this giddy excitement!