The Doctor Who Project presents: Timebase

A long time ago, I began work on my third full-length story for The Doctor Who Project, Timebase, which at the time was intended to feature the TDWP Tenth Doctor.

In the end, though, I never finished it. Sometimes stories just don't seem to come together, and while I think Timebase had some really good ideas, I just couldn't get it to work.

However, it has since been revived - regenerated, if you will. Meg MacDonald and Hamish Crawford have reworked the story based on my original draft. It's not quite the story I had planned, and has been altered to feature the new TDWP TARDIS team of the TDWP Eleventh Doctor and Maggie. Hamish in particular has jettisoned elments that were dragging it down and tied it up into a proper story.

So, finally, we can present Doctor Who: Timebase, available for free PDF download.

Doctor Who: The Fossilist

 If you like Doctor Who adventures featuring the Sea Devils and remarkable women from history, why not try this story written by James P. Quick and myself for The Doctor Who Project?

The Doctor Who Project - Tenth Doctor Adventures

The Doctor Who Project has made its full run of Tenth Doctor Adventures available for free download once again. Now, this isn't the Tenth Doctor you're familiar with from the TV series; The Doctor Who Project continues from the end of the original series, which finished in 1989 with season 26. TDWP is now onto its 41st season, with work currently underfoot on season 42. You can find the beginnings of our Tenth Doctor at the end of season 37 with the Summer Special Pendragon by Duncan Johnson.


My story Peace of Mind can be found in the 2011 specials, as the Tenth Doctor's fourth story. You can also read stories by Miles Reid-Lobatto in seasons 38 & 40 (The Vault and Cybercult respectively), and my co-conspirator James P. Quick in season 41, with the two-part extravaganza The Throne of Peladon and The Secret of Peladon. We've got Cybermen, Voord, Ice Warriors, Silurians and more in the series, plus all many of new and strange monsters and adventures.

A quick update

Well, I've just moved house! Everything is in chaos and I'm very busy! And there's no WiFi yet! I haven't even watched the latest episode of Star Trek yet, that's how busy I am!

However, soon I will be catching up and cracking on with some reviews, so expect a flurry of posts in short order, with reviews of Discovery, The Orville, some of the latest Doctor Who releases and probably more.

Plus, take a look at the new Television Heaven site. Site supremo Laurence Marcus has given the site a complete overhaul, making it all shiny and new and much more compatible with mobile devices. There are already new articles on there, and I shall be working away at some new material myself covering both new and classic TV series.

Also celebrating a milestone is The Doctor Who Project, which hit twenty years old in January. This is a pretty bloody impressive feat for a fan fiction series, and there are still new stories coming, and I hear there's an anniversary special in the pipeline. Go check out the site, or if you want to read my stories for the series (including co-written works with James P. Quick of CP Studios) then click the links below:

Shadow at the Heart (with JPQ) featuring the fifth Doctor and Nyssa
Monkey Cups featuring the sixth Doctor and Peri
The Fossilist (with JPQ) featuring the TDWP ninth Doctor and Silver
City of the Dragon featuring the TDWP ninth Doctor, Tom and Val
Peace of Mind featuring the TDWP tenth Doctor, Tom and Val

Now available - "The Fossilist"

My latest bit of fanfic is now available at The Doctor Who Project. The Fossilist is my third short for the site, the second written with my talented friend James P. Quick. I'm really rather pleased with this one.

The Fossilist features the TDWP Ninth Doctor and Silver, along with the noted amateur palaeontologist Mary Anning. I previously wrote for the Basil Rathbone-inspired Ninth Doctor in City of the Dragon - his penultimate adventure and my first contribution to TDWP. Anning is something of a hero of mine and I hope we did her wonderful story some justice with this silly adventure.

If you enjoy it, there are some notes at the end which give you a little insight into how James and I work together and how the story developed.

Also, there are dinosaurs in it. Lots of them.

Now available - The Throne of Peladon

Season 41 of The Doctor Who Project is now begun. The first story, The Throne of Peladon by James P. Quick, is now available to read for free. Part two, The Secret of Peladon, is available next Saturday.

Give it a read if you enjoy classic era Doctor Who stories, political intrigue, mediaeval adventures or hermaphrodite hexapods. Click the cover and go read!

The Doctor Who Project Season 41 arrives 23rd September

The latest season of the Doctor Who fanfic series The Doctor Who Project begins with The Throne of Peladon, the first part of a story of adventure and intrigue in the fifth millennium. The story is a sequel to the third Doctor adventures The Curse of Peladon and The Monster of Peladon, and the fifth Doctor audio adventure The Bride of Peladon, and is written by my good friend and occasional collaborator James P. Quick. (The "P" stands for Peladon.)

The upcoming run of adventures in time and space will be downloadable, free of charge, here.

New from The Doctor Who Project

TDWP have just released the latest in their Brief Encounters line - a series of adventures for Doctors One to Seven. This time it's "Shadow at the Heart" featuring the fifth Doctor and Nyssa, as played by Peter Davison and Sarah Sutton in the hit BBC TV series.

This short was written by me and my compatriot James P. Quick of C.P. Studios, from James's original idea. I think we've come up with something pretty special here, especially if you're a fan of early 80s Doctor Who. I have also been involved with C.P. Studios' upcoming series of Batman audioplays, The World's Greatest Detective. Keep an eye on the website for updates.

You can download the story in PDF format for free here.

Return of The Doctor Who Project

It's back! After a short hiatus (that's a very Doctor Who-y word) The Doctor Who Project has announced a return, and are now looking for writers for new adventures featuring their alternative tenth Doctor and his companion Hannah Redfoot.

Full details of submission rules and where to send them can be found here. Submission deadline is December 5th.

The Temporal Logbook

A new Doctor Who fanthology is now available for purchase, with all proceeds going to the Positive Living Society of British Columbia, a charity that supports people living with AIDS and HIV in Canada. The book includes stories featuring Doctors one to twelve, by some of the best writers in fandom. Many of the people behind the collection have been part of the acclaimed fanfic series The Doctor Who Project.

You can buy the book via Lulu.

The Doctor Who Project: The Final Season

The Canadian Doctor Who fiction series The Doctor Who Project is about to enter its fourteenth and final season. Season 40 (for it continues from the end of the original series) features three stories told over four installments, featuring their own tenth Doctor and his companions Val and Tom.

The season kicks off this Saturday with Ghost Ship, a spooky story by Krista Wilson and Matthew James, in which an isolated spacecraft is seemingly being haunted. You can read an extract here.

Ghost Ship is followed by Cybercult, by my expat friend Miles Reid-Lobatto. If you haven't gussed, it's a Cybermen story, but this time, they've brought religion with them.

The series ends with a climactic two-parter. In Final Reckoning by John Gordon Swogger, the Doctor and his newest companion encounter an ancient threat, and come face-to-face with no fewer than three incarnations of the Master.

The Doctor Who Project features novella-length stories available for free download in PDF format. Head over to the homepage on Saturday 29th November for the TDWP Doctor's final adventures.

Fan publications round-up

There are lots of lovely fan publications available this anniversary-Christmas-time. The late, lamented fanzine Panic Moon is making a one-issue comeback to celebrate this special year. Visit the Panic Moon blog here for details on how to order - it's only £1.50 in the UK and £3.00 elsewhere.

The there's Fourth Dimension, a new charity publication featuring short stories and reviews first published during the long, dark years between 1996 and 2005. It can be ordered here in hardback, softback or for download, and all proceeds go towards Unite Against Cancer.

Also, the special Golden Anniversary issue of Myth Makers is still available here. Not only does it feature stories by many talented authors, not only does it feature all eleven Doctors, not only does it feature me, you can also get free shipping on it by using the code FREESHIP. The code is valid until December 15th. Again, this is a non-profit publication, with proceeds going to the Canadian St. John Ambulance.

And, you can still order copies of The Best of the Doctor Who Project here, currently with 15% off the cover price. The profits from this publication will be donated to the British Columbia animal charity, the BC-SPCA. The current series of The Doctor Who Project is nearing its end, with the finale available this Saturday, December 7th, from this page here. It's all available for free PDF download.

The Best of The Doctor Who Project

Well, it doesn't look like my previously planned entry to The Doctor Who Project, the long running Canadian Doctor Who fanfic series is going to come to fruition. Sometimes, a story just doesn't work, and, even with help from others on the team, this one wasn;t going anywhere.

But never mind that. The Doctor Who Project is gearing up to launch its latest run of stories, published soon as Season 39 and available on their site. More news on the first story, Reverance of the Daleks by Kevin Mullen, as it becomes available. It is expected to be released this October.

Also rather exciting is the upcoming publication, The Best of TDWP 1999-2012. This is going to be a proper, printed book, available for order from the TDWP website soon. It collects seven of the very best stories published by TWDP since its inception, chosen by readers from the 110 odd stories in the series. It includes works by firm fan favourites like Duncan Johnson and Arnold T. Blumberg, and from the latest season, the rather smashing story The Vault by friend Miles Reid-Lobatto. You can read all about the publication here.

By the fans, for the fans

If you're a Doctor Who fan, and you're missing the show now that first mini-season has finished (only five episodes and now we have to wait till Christmas? Bah!) then you should take a gander at these. Two fan productions, just released, that will help fill the TARDIS-shaped hole in your life.

First of all, there's the third and final part of Power of the Daleks, the reimagined version of the lost Patrick Troughton classic. Adapted, directed and starring Nick Scovell, this is twenty-three minutes of cracking Dalek action. Produced by TNT Films and with music by Everybody Else, this is well worth watching if you need a little extra Who to keep you going till the winter. Don't worry if you're already super-familiar with the original serial; Nick and co. have reworked the story into a riveting modern adventure. The Daleks look fantastic, and sound even better, with voices by official BBC Dalek supremo Nick Briggs. Watch part three here, or go back and watch it from the beginning.

Not enough? Prefer your fiction a little more literary? Not to fear, for the Doctor Who Project, the acclaimed Canadian Doctor Who fanfic series has just published the first story in its new season (the thirty-eighth!), 'The Mask of Anhur' by the very talented Robert Mammone. This is my reading for tonight, if I've been good and done all my chores.

Sorry to say I shan't be contributing to Season 38 after all. My on-again, off-again story has finally switched to off. I have had some real issues getting this piece right, and not enough free time to give it the focus it deserves. But not to fret - 'Timebase' is still a work in progress, and TDWP chief Bob Furnell and I plan to release it in the near future, before the publication of the upcoming Season 39 (already in the planning stages).

Year's up

Crikey, it's the second of January already. This new year's just storming along, isn't? Mind you, I did sleep for almost three quarters of the first of January, so it's not too surprising that it seems to be going fairly quickly. At least Christmas is over; actually, it's the ninth day of Christmas, but near enough done with. Now, I love a bit of Christmas, but it's a bloody relief to have it all over. Especially since I had to wrok on Christmas Eve, Boxing Day, and the 27th, 28th, 29th and 30th. Which is, of course, nothing compared to those policemen, nurses, doctors, firemen, and so forth, who worked right through Christmas Day, but still. At least I've had three days off for New Year, and eventually managed to do something to celebrate. New Year's Chinese - a strange irony there. I'll have to have a western meal for Chinese New Year in February.

Christmas Day was a lot of fun, though, which is part of the reason I struggled so much getting up for work on Boxing Day. Who enjoyed the Doctor Who Christmas Special? I liked it a great deal; not quite up to the previous year's standard, but just right for the alcohol sodden, sentimental feel of Christmas Day. If you don't like things quite so festive, then how about reading Stromboli's Comet, the 2011 Christmas Special for The Doctor Who Project, if you haven't already? A wonderful read, and only Christmassy in the vaguest sense (it is, after all, about a snowball).

There are plenty of fan productions to look forward to in the upcoming months. Panic Moon is publishing its January issue any day now, and it's always a good read if you like snappy little Who-obsessed articles. Whotopia, the Canadian web fanzine, is soon to release its 23rd issue. This edition is a Matt Smith special, including the long-awaited reviews for the whole sixth series, up to and including my review of The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe. An extended edition will appear on this very blog in good time (or, to put it another way, my review was too long and the unedited version is sitting there waiting to be read).

If fanzines aren't your thing, how about some brand new Doctor Who on film? Oh yes, now this is exciting! There are two fan productions on the horizon. Those who follow the fanfilm phenomenon should be familiar with Nick Scovell and Interalia's work. If you're not, then you should track down a copy of The Millennium Trap. This was a rather marvellous fanfilm released in 1997, filmed in glorious monochrome and starring Nick Scovell as the Doctor. There's a trailer here, but don't bother with the download link - the download is no longer available, sadly. I'm sure it's still possible to track down the 2009 special edition, though, if you look hard enough online. Scovell is a fantastic Doctor, and it wasn't long before he took to the role again, on stage, in a theatrical remake of Fury of the Deep at the Portsmouth New Theatre Royal in 2002. In 2006 - with the aid of a surge in Who popularity thanks to the new series - came The Evil of the Daleks, which I was lucky enough to see. The following year, I went to see the group's last stage production, The Dalek Masterplan, which was utterly brilliant.

The plan was for the next play to be based on The Power of the Daleks; however, the BBC declined the permissions required. Quite why, I don't understand; they had happily allowed the previous productions, which raised money for Children in Need, and can only have further encouraged the ever growing Doctor Who fandom. Nonetheless, the stage play was not to be. However, production is now well under way on a filmed remake. The Power of the Daleks will be made available on YouTube later this year. To whet your appetite, there's a very exciting trailer here.

But that's not all! At the end of The Millennium Trap, the grievously injured Doctor regenerated. Finally, fifteen years later, we're going to see an adventure featuring this new Doctor, played by James Harper, in Doctor Who: I Can See You. You can catch these guys on facebook.

That's all the Who nonsense I've planned to go on about for now. Join me tomorrow, when I shall go on about Sherlock Holmes for a change.

Doctor Who Christmas Special now available

Well, OK, not the Christmas Special. However, The Doctor Who Project has now made available its Christmas Special, Stromboli's Comet, by Jez Strickley and Jake Johnson.

You can download it for free here.

The song is ending, but the story goes on

A couple of things have come to an end lately, through necessity or choice. The Whoniverse has got a little smaller. Sadly, The Sarah Jane Adventures have finally reached their end. Of course, there is very little that could have been done about this. It is fortunate for fans of the character and the series that the first half of the proposed fifth season was filmed at the end of the fourth. Plans for further episodes were halted by Elisabeth Sladen's tragic death. I understand that there may have been talk of continuing the series in an amended format, although this is probably just the work of the Internet rumour mill. Perhaps Katy Manning could take over - The Jo Jones Adventures? Perhaps the 'kids' could continue, carrying the series on their own. Perhaps there might be a way, but it could never be a true continuation. The show belong to Sladen, and it's right that it ended with her. I hope that perhaps one or more of her sidekicks might turn up on Doctor Who one day, but otherwise, it's quite right that the series has ended.

Doctor Who: Peace of Mind - now online

For those who haven't had their fill of Doctor Who tonight, the award-winning fanfiction series The Doctor Who Project has just begun its series of specials. First up is my very own story, Peace of Mind. Just click on the link to be taken to the free downloadable PDF! Please let me know if you enjoy it, or even if you don't.

Fanfictioneers

I'd hoped that this was going to be a productive week. Hasn't really gone to plan. Come down with the latest lurgy, plus had to work extra hours to cover those who are off sick at work, so it's all been a bit on the knackering side. My brain doesn't really seem to be in gear. When you go to work with odd shoes on, you know you're not quite with it. When you do it twice, you need a holiday.

So, not much progress made on my new story for The Doctor Who Project, tentatively entitled 'Timebase.' Still plenty of time left till deadline, but I had hoped to get it done good and early so I could start work on some other bits. Ah well. Still, the Project now has a rather marvellous poster up for my story Peace of Mind, the first of the 2011 specials.

And you can read a little about it here.

Also on the fanfic side of things, E. G. Wolverson has released the second part of his excellent audio story, Wolfshead. Part two, 'All of History's Heroes,' which you can download from The History of the Doctor.  It's the official end of the site now, which is a real shame, but Eddy has a whole world of more important things to focus on now. It's been a pleasure and a privilege to be part of it; and yes, my story for the Wolfshead sequence, 'The Six Pillars,' is one of the things on my ever-growing to-do list.

Doctor Who is back tomorrow. Rejoice!

The Doctor Who Project

A quick heads up on some fiction I've been working on lately.

The Doctor Who Project is a Canadian-based fanfiction series that has been running for about twelve years now. Bob Furnell and his team decided to tell stories continuing from where the original Doctor Who left off in 1989. The first couple of stories featured Sylvester McCoy's seventh Doctor, but he was soon regenerated into a new, original eighth incarnation (unrelated to the Paul McGann version). Since then, the Doctor has regenerated twice more - I wrote the penultimate story for the ninth Doctor, who was based on the legendary Basil Rathbone.

The series usually runs in seasons - starting with the 27th (following on from the TV series) and now up to the 37th. However, this year it took a short break, but is now back with a short selection of specials, much in the style of David Tennant's final run on the revived TV series. The stories take the form of novella-length, freely downloadable PDF pieces. The first of the specials, Peace of Mind, is written by none other than yours truly. I won't spoil it, but the story does feature elements of a classic adventure. Also, our new tenth Doctor is based on handsome French actor Vincent Perez. He can be a bit of a git, this Time Lord, so he's great fun to write.

Peace of Mind was originally planned as a summer special, but has been delayed, as these things tend to be, and should now be out in September. It'll be followed by The Mountain of Light, by Duncan Johnson, who's brilliant, and then there's a fascinating-sounding Christmas special in the form of Stromboli's Comet, by Jez Strickely and Jake Johnson.

Next year, TDWP is back on with a regular season - the 38th! - so I'd better get on with writing my next one...