Season 20

Very few Doctor Who seasons end up as originally planned. Stories turn out to be unworkable for one reason or another – too costly to make, change of direction or production team, pay disputes or strikes, loss of an actor, or simply an eventual decision that the idea just doesn’t work. These roads not taken may have sent Doctor Who off in ... More

The Five Doctors

In a lot of offices, people take in cakes on their birthday to share with their colleagues. Children give out cake and party bags to their friends as a ‘thank you’ for coming to their birthday party. You’re celebrating your special day by thanking those who’ve been with you on life’s journey – perhaps they’ve even made it ... More

Season 21

Here’s a writing secret. Sometimes you write a book with ten long chapters, but the publisher thinks it would be better with twenty short chapters. So you have to decide whether to do a big rewrite, or to just find places where you can change some wording and punctuation and hope that’s enough to turn them from just another bit of the ... More

Season 22

“Change, my dear. And it seems not a moment too soon.” So said the Sixth Doctor after his regeneration – that drastic transformation of both physical appearance and personality. But it isn’t just the Doctor who undergoes change. Change is a clear – almost blatant – theme running through Series 22. Every story features at least ... More

Season 23

The Mysterious Planet. Mindwarp. Terror of the Vervoids, The Ultimate Foe. Hang on, no. Make that The Mysterious Planet, Mindwarp, The Ultimate Foe, Time Incorporated. That’s clearly wrong. It’s The Trial of a Time Lord 1-4, The Trial of a Time Lord 5-8,The Trial of a Time Lord 9-12 and The Trial of a Time Lord 13-14. No, no, NO. ... More

Season 24

Season 24. A new beginning – that no one was ready for. A last-minute renewal for a series that had no Doctor, no script editor, no scripts, and a producer who didn’t want to be there. Not the best omen (although a good O-Man would be along shortly). Doctor Who has nearly always been a show that worked to someone’s vision, whether ... More

Season 25

I need to begin with a confession. I didn’t watch Season 25 (or 26) on broadcast. Season 24 had seemed a bit silly to me. The Seventh Doctor had seemed a bit silly to me, and so had Ace, who hadn’t, in Dragonfire, resembled any teenager I knew (I was one at the time, you see), and on top of that there were exams and boys and... oh, you ... More

Season 26

There weren’t many female Doctor Who fans around in the Eighties. (There weren’t a huge amount around in the Sixties or Seventies either, although the brief flares in the show’s popularity which made it a programme that every child watched meant it was OK for girls to like it too at those points.) There weren’t many female Doctor Who ... More

The TV Movie

TV Movie producer Philip Segal was a lifelong Doctor Who fan. He wasn’t, however, very keen on the Doctor Who of the 1980s, feeling it had headed off in the wrong direction. Segal wanted to take the programme back to basics, return to its original spirit. But just what is the spirit of Doctor Who? Many commentators across the years have ... More

Series 1

There are so many things that could be written about this amazing season, but they have to be put aside, because there will never be another chance to talk about the Ninth Doctor. What to make of him? Manic and wild-eyed, grinning and gurning, but callous too, no longer compassionate – see his dismissal of Mickey as a ‘stupid ape’. ... More