DOCTOR WHO FAN FICTION
BY ANDREW KEARLEY
Bullseye Books contents page
String Theory is now available online. Read String Theory.
Visitors to the South of England might be intrigued to learn that many of the locations for String Theory are real places. I hope to have some photos up soon - watch this space.
Check out the Myth Makers web page for more details - although needless to say, Myth Makers Presents: Jade has long since sold out.
Following on the heels of String Theory, I started work on a new piece of Doctor Who fan fiction. I was encouraged by Matt Grady, who was keen to publish it as another Myth Makers Presents. But as you'll see from the Myth Makers page, MMP5 was eventually cancelled. Unfortunately, I took so long writing it that Matt had ceased editing the magazine by that point. (The rumour is he ran away to sea because he couldn't cope with my ever-extending deadlines! There's at least an element of truth in that...) Though I did consider trying to find another fanzine to pick the story up - or indeed publishing it myself - I finally elected not to do so. I believe the fiction fanzine is practically dead - washed out by the plethora of available commercial fiction (and those charity anthologies) - and superseded by the internet. By publishing online, you can reach a wider audience in a quicker time, without any of the financial outlay of producing a printed zine. So any of my future fanfic (including any potential Bullseye Books instalments) are going to appear on this site. Mind you, having said all that, it seems that printed fan fiction isn't entirely dead after all, and I ended up co-editing the final two issues of Myth Makers myself! Who'd have thought?
So to my new story: Doctor Who: An Adventure in Time and Space. This is designed to be seen as the novelization of an imaginary Doctor Who movie. What I set out to do was devise a scenario for a big budget blockbuster film that was entirely true to the spirit (if not the letter) of Doctor Who - which meant effectively avoiding all the errors made by the Paul McGann tv movie. That production failed hopelessly in its task of introducing Who to a new audience, by managing to exclude the two most important aspects of the original series - the Doctor's travels through time and space; and the monsters. I've solved the first problem by making my new story an epic quest, taking in several planets and time zones. The second problem is still more easily solved - by including the deadliest monsters of all, the Daleks.
The other problem with the McGann movie was its over-reliance on series continuity. Within five minutes, the audience was being filled in on the Time Lords, Rassilon, the Master, regeneration - it's a lot to take in at once, and it's largely irrelevant. My rule tends to be: throw it all away! So my story is not dependent on the series's past at all. The only three essentials from the show are the Doctor (and all you need know about him is that he's a mysterious traveller in time and space); the TARDIS (his fabulous time machine); and the Daleks (the most evil creatures in the universe - enough said). As for the rest - forget it! It's more important to tell a story that will engage the audience, than it is to fill them in on all the minutiae of an old, creaky TV show. So what I'm trying to achieve is to present the Doctor Who film I'd make if I was given the chance. And I do think it's a damned fine template for a blockbuster Who movie...
Read Doctor Who: An Adventure in Time and Space.
Myth Makers
An Adventure in Time
and Space
Doctor Who, the television series
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Doctor Who, the television series