DR WHO, has gone from strength to strength to strength in
the last decade – which still seems like a miracle to yours truly, who watched
and worshipped the show all through the 1960s, 70s and 80s, and then was
horrified and bamboozled when it suddenly got the chop – and now in 2014, only
25 years later (a matter of heartbeats to a Time Lord), there appears to be no
limit. With each new twist and turn in the never-ending story, there seem to be
all manner of fascinating spin-offs, creating adventure on adventure for that
mysterious traveller in time and space known only (still known only, it would
seem) as The Doctor.
I, for one, could not be happier, and as such over the last
few years have been honoured and proud (and more delighted than I can say) to add my
own chapters to the saga in the form of short stories, novels and full-blown,
full-cast audio dramas.
Now I’m going piling in again with a novella, as part of a
truly fascinating project. Here’s the back-story:
And this was the trick – these enemies had to be genuinely DEADLY, as
in major-league opponents from the Doctor’s past, hard-hitting foes who
previously had pushed him to the absolute limit.
I mean seriously, what more could a writer ask for? It was
an invitation I accepted straight away, especially on learning that my fellow contributors
would be MARK MORRIS, JUSTIN RICHARDS and GEORGE MANN, a legendary crew in
their own right, whom no fan of Dr Who, sci-fi, fantasy or horror fiction
would be unfamiliar with.
Even though the festive season was right upon us, we all got to it pretty quickly. Justin was the first guy to
lay claim to a beastie, if I remember rightly – opting for the Ice Warriors,
while George followed quickly with the Krynoids. When Mark put his ticket in
for the Mara, this still left a wide range of choices for me, including the Who
enemy I found most nightmarish of all; not just the first time I first saw them in 1970, when they broke out of shop windows in the guise of showroom dummies, but the second time in 1971, when they dressed as holiday camp
mascots and wielded murderous plastic flowers, and perhaps most memorably of all when they provided
the first opponent for the all-new 9th Doctor in 2005.
Yep … it was the Autons, the murderous plastic mannequins
manipulated by that indefinable alien force, the Nestene Consciousness.
And … well, that’s about as much as I’m really allowed to
say, because it wouldn’t serve any purpose to give away too many spoilers at
this stage would it? Suffice to say, the finished Table of Contents reads as follows:
Let it Snow - by Justin Richards
An Apple a Day - by George Mann
Strangers in the Outland - by Paul Finch
The Dreaming - by Mark Morris
And here’s the official online blurb:
As it had been foretold, the armies of the Universe gathered
at Trenzalore. Only one thing stood between the planet and destruction – the
Doctor. For nine hundred years, he defended the planet, and the tiny town of
Christmas, against the forces that would destroy it.
He never knew how long he could keep the peace. He never
knew what creatures would emerge from the snowy night to threaten him next. He
knew only that at the end he would die on Trenzalore.
Some of what happened during those terrible years is well documented. But most of it remains shrouded in mystery and darkness.
Until now.
This is a glimpse of just some of the terrors the people
faced, the monstrous threats the Doctor defeated. These are the tales of the
monsters who found themselves afraid – and of the one man who was not.
TALES OF TRENZALORE: THE ELEVENTH DOCTOR'S LAST STAND is released on 27th February this
year, initially as an e-book only, though it is entirely possible a print
edition may follow at a later date. I shall keep you informed as and when that
story unfolds. But you’ll need to keep checking back here. So it’s all in your
hands …