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Candy Jar Books have announced the simultaneous release of the next two instalments of the Lucy Wilson series, available for pre-order now

Chronology can get a little slippy in the timey-wimey world of Lucy Wilson, but the first release in this double-header is entitled Apocalypse Tomorrow, and it serves as the epic conclusion of The Mystery of Lucy Wilson arc, which has seen Lucy separated from her best friend Hobo by the small matter of several decades and one apocalypse. Co-written by debutant Steven Walton and range editor Shaun Russell, Apocalypse Tomorrow finds our heroes transported to their most alien setting yet: 1990s Cool Britannia.

Serving as a coda to this storyline, The Web of Terror by Paul W Robinson and Shaun Russell starts off on more familiar ground: Lucy’s home in sleepy Ogmore-by-Sea. But humanity’s last line of defence doesn’t get many off days: soon she’s confronted by a foe from her past. Or more precisely, several of her pasts…

 

Time travel, intergalactic spaceships, multidimensional beings… It’s all just a day in the life for Lucy Wilson!

With the arc juggling multiple timelines and locations, tying a bow on this storyline soon spilled over the bounds of a single book, which prompted the decision to release these novels simultaneously. Russell explains “On one level, Apocalypse Tomorrow and The Web of Terror are two very different stories. What unites them, however, is that they see the characters of Lucy and Hobo rediscovering themselves – both as individuals and as a team. At this point, they’ve been separated for several books, and their reunion is not straightforward. We didn’t want to provide the readers with the setup while withholding the payoff; by the conclusion of these stories, we’re ready to kick of a distinct new phase in
Lucy and Hobo’s adventures. But as we needed both novels to get there,
we decided, why not release them together?”

It’s an ambitious conclusion, which sees (at least) three different timelines collide. Co-author Steven Walton describes it as just one of the exciting aspects of writing for these characters: “Time travel, intergalactic spaceships, multidimensional beings… It’s all just a day in the life for Lucy Wilson! It’s the nature of storytelling to take a character from one familiar situation, and into a strange new one – and there’s no characters where you have more scope to do so! We went as big as possible with these stories, particularly with the conclusion of Apocalypse. But I think most of all I enjoyed playing with the idea of Lucy
being dropped into the 1990s, a place somehow all the stranger for its
seeming familiarity.”

 

The Web of Terror features Lucy’s first extra-terrestrial adventure

Co-author Paul W Robinson follows Apocalypse Tomorrow with The Web of Terror. Tying up a few loose ends, this book also sends Lucy on her very first adventure to an alien planet. Paul says: “I felt it was about time that Lucy and Hobo travelled beyond the earth’s atmosphere. It was fascinating creating a brand new world, while thrusting Lucy into her very own Hunger Games–style mystery.”

Both books are available for pre-order now. In the meantime, Candy Jar has put together a Spotify list for Apocalypse Tomorrow featuring all your favourites ’90s hits and much more.

 

The Mystery of Lucy Wilson: Apocalypse Tomorrow. Cover by Steve Beckett (c) Candy Jar Books Apocalypse Tomorrow

Lucy Wilson’s adventures in time have taken her to some strange places. Dangerous places, faraway places… But none so strange and alien as where she finds herself now… The 1990s. Pokémon battle in the schoolyards. Tamagotchi roam the streets. And a giant spider from a ruined future looks to spark an apocalypse that, technically, has already happened.

Timelines converge and realities shattered as Lucy’s exile in time reaches its epic climax. And in the end, it all comes down to one question: who’s better, 2Unlimited or Adamski?

 

The Lucy Wilson Mysteries: The Web of Terror. Cover by Steve Beckett (c) Candy Jar Books The Web of Terror

Lucy Wilson thought that her run-in with killer spiders was over after her time in Australia! But soon strange happenings on Ogmore-by-Sea beach set her skin crawling once again… Still, whether trapped in a spaceship, abducted by a familiar face, or hunted by space pandas, Lucy’s just glad to have her best friend Hobo back by her side.

But the past has a way of catching up with you. Can Lucy escape the enemy that she  thought she’d left behind long ago?

 

The Lucy Wilson Mysteries is a Lethbridge-Stewart spin-off adventure inspired by characters created for Doctor Who by Mervyn Haisman and Henry Lincoln.

 

You can pre-order both books from Candy Jar Books now.

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Doctor Who is taking this anniversary serious as it launches over 800 episodes of the beloved series on iPlayer alongside a new website contain 60 years of archived content.

Each episode has been carefully upgraded with subtitles, audio description and sign language making the history of Doctor Who accessible to a greater audience.

BBC’s iPlayer will be the single biggest collection of Doctor Who content.  Set to appear before the Anniversary Specials air viewers will have the opportunity to watch the entire existing world of Doctor Who including the Sarah Jane Adventures, Torchwood and Class, Behind the Scene clips and every episode of Doctor Who Confidential.

Simultaneously BBC will the biggest online archive of the show’s history at a new website bbc.co.uk/doctorwho.The new site will include written documents, long unheard audio, and behind-the-scenes photos.  Launching 1st November, the website will include audio from former Head of Drama, Sydney Newman alongside documents with his original handwritten notes guide you through the origins of Doctor Who.

Classic series returning to iPlayer

Every episode on iPlayer from the back catalogue will be available with multiple accessibility options, including subtitles, audio description, and sign language.

With over 800 episodes of Doctor Who programming on iPlayer, Russell T Davies, Showrunner said: “I’d like to thank the BBC for all the hard work, to get this massive back catalogue under one roof, at long last.  I’m so excited for new viewers – imagine being 8 years old, spending winter afternoons exploring the 60s, 70s, 80s and beyond.  And we’re determined this won’t be a dusty museum – we have exciting plans to bring the back catalogue to life, with much more to be revealed!”

Dan McGolpin, Director of iPlayer and channels, said: “Doctor Who has captivated countless millions of viewers on the BBC for 60 years and in celebration of this special moment we are bringing classic series to BBC iPlayer for the first time. Fans will be able to enjoy many of the Doctor’s earliest adventures with William Hartnell right through to the very latest series and the soon to be released and tremendously exciting new anniversary specials with David Tennant. We want everyone to be able to enjoy this breath-taking back catalogue, so we are making each episode on iPlayer as accessible as possible, with subtitles, audio description, and sign language all available for the first time.”

New online archive

The new online archive will launch at bbc.co.uk/doctorwho, so fans of the show can delve deeper into Doctor Who’s history than ever before.

The site will grow over time.  Initially starting with with items like interviews with cast members, news pieces, audio, imagery, and written documents,  more content will be added to the archive including a special collection of photos that have been scanned at 8k resolution.  There are an estimated total of 25,0000 prints, negatives, slides and digital images, which will give an unprecedented insight into the show with access to all areas throughout the years. 

Also included will be 100,000 documents, including memos, correspondence, designs, and audience research, alongside orchestral scores of sheet,  audio clips about Doctor Who, including radio programmes, documentaries, interviews, and music.

We can wait.

Doctor Who Returns ..

In November, with first of three new specials starring David Tennant as the 14th Doctor.

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In the Night shows off a TARDIS team that have rarely been better in two emotional tales of loyalty

The latest set of Fifth Doctor Adventures, In the Night combines traditional four parter Pursuit of the Nightjar with the brisk two episodes of Resistor. It’s a format that continues to work well for the range. It allows for a variety of storytelling while giving each tale room to breath. Yet slighter ideas avoid overstaying their welcome too. And so In the Night brings us from the very edge of future space to the backstreets of 1980s Warsaw. And from a jigsaw puzzle plot with meditations on hero worship and the bonds across the battle lines, to a fast paced runaround with a hint of farce.

It’s not so much the ‘In the Night’ concept with unites the two. Resistor takes place over a single night, while Pursuit… well, it is jolly dark in space. Rather it’s the audible rapport between Peter Davison, Janet Fielding and Sarah Sutton that’s tangible in both stories. Whether facing near certain death in the vacuum of space, or impersonating Australian diplomats, they’ve rarely been better than this.

 

Pursuit of the Nightjar brings the Doctor face to face with a personal hero – but can future history be saved?

The bulk of the set deals with the odyssey of the good ship Nightjar. Pursuit of the Nightjar brings the Doctor, Nyssa, and Tegan to somewhere the Time Lord hadn’t intended to go. No change there, but this time it’s actually somewhere he’s always wanted to go. The Nightjar is a starship whose final journey has passed into future legend, one to which the Doctor feels a strong connection.

It and its captain, Goben (Paul Thornley), have crossed through the most dangerous regions of space on a mercy run to deliver medical aid to a distant planet. It’s a voyage that’s taken years to complete and one born out of guilt. Because its plague is the unintended collateral damage of an intergalactic war and a wrong Goben is determined to put right, even at the cost of his own life. But every step of the way Captain Eslo  (Fenella Woolgar) and her ship, the Nemesis, shadows him under orders to make sure the enemy ship never arrives.

The nature of the stakes makes the story a rare entry in the Future Historical sub-genre. The Doctor knows the Nightjar will succeed, must succeed, because its efforts will shame both sides into ending the war and secure generations of peace. And he knows that if it fails, it will plunge the universe into a war potentially without end.

Writer Tim Foley is well aware of the usual cliches and sidesteps them all in a script full of surprises

As you’d expect, things swiftly go sideways and our heroes enter a desperate struggle to keep history on course. But writer Tim Foley packs in plenty of surprises which keep bouncing the story in unexpected directions. There’s even a wonderfully cheeky moment where the Doctor frowns that his own (and many listeners’) prediction of a familiar SF trope turned out to be completely wrong. The spectral figures haunting the cargo hold, half ghost, half human torch, also present a neat bit of misdirection. Every time you think you have a handle on their true nature, you’re proven wrong. Once exposed, it’s not entirely original, but the reveal is so artfully done it remains a satisfying surprise.

It also adds to a thematic consistency rare for Doctor Who. Even minor elements like the story of how the Nightjar got its name, and the exact reason for the Doctor’s emotional connection to its legend feed the wider whole. It’s a strangely gentle narrative, for all the terrible deaths the TARDIS crew barely escape. Pursuit of the Nightjar won’t set your pulse racing but it will make your heart pleasantly ache.

 

(l-r) Daniel Easton (Roman), Niky Wardley (Iza), Peter Davison (The Doctor), Sarah Sutton (Nyssa), Janet Fielding (Tegan) Resistor offers up a cold war adventure with an unexpected streak of humour

You may need to take a scene or two to re-calibrate for the next story. Set in Poland in 1982, as the secret police known as the SB prowl the night, you might expect a dark thriller. But from early one a wilder sense of humour makes itself known. The Doctor starts off volunteering himself as an improbable stand-in for the missing drummer of the punk(ish) band Resistor. By about halfway through he’s convincing a magnificently dimwitted SB agent that he and Tegan are the Australian ambassador and his secretary. A scene certainly written purely to force Peter Davison to attempt an Aussie accent while stood next to Janet Fielding.

It a fun moment which underlines Resistor’s greatest asset: the TARDIS trio themselves. On television, the period between Tegan’s return and Turlough’s arrival is only brief. But the decision to set these new stories in that gap pays off beautifully. We have a Tegan who is fully signed on to be an enthusiastic time adventurer, and who enjoys a close sisterhood with Nyssa. Any genuine rancor between her and the Doctor is long faded too. Instead the two communicate via the sort of affectionate teasing that the Tenth Doctor and Donna made their own. It’s a lovely dynamic that takes full advantage of the real world friendship between the three actors and energises the whole story.

Though the swift pace never allows the story’s alien to be fully developed, the human cast more than make up for it

In contrast the energy harvesting alien menace de nuit provides Resistor’s weak point. It’s methodology is appropriately creepy but beyond the theatre of it doesn’t make much sense. Meanwhile attempts to address the conflict between the Doctor’s description of this species’ peaceful nature and this particular example’s actions don’t quite convince. But ultimately they’re just the key in the engine of a fun romp. But it’s a romp which nevertheless manages to touch on themes of individualism and friendship in a sensitive way. Along the way it even highlights some interesting corners of life behind the Iron Curtain (Blogtor can reassure writer Sarah Grochala that her uncertain memory of people wearing resistors pinned to their clothes is actually true.)

 

In the Night provides a timely reminder of just how good this cast are

In The Night understands what Doctor Who on television in 1983 sometimes forgot: just how brilliant this core cast can be. It gives them plenty of opportunities for emotion and humour worthy of their talents. In doing so it creates six fine episodes of quality Doctor Who. Here’s hoping for more stories from this very particular moment in time soon.

 

Doctor Who: In the Night. Cover by Ryan Aplin (c) Big Finish Productions Doctor Who: In the Night

The Doctor, Nyssa and Tegan find themselves trapped in history – and discover that even the most familiar of pasts can still conceal surprises.

Doctor Who – The Fifth Doctor Adventures: In The Night is now available to own for just £19.99 (collector’s edition CD box set + download) or £16.99 (digital download only), exclusively here.

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Cubicle 7’s Doctor Who Roleplaying Game brings two new Diamond Anniversary source books with all you need to craft your own multi-Doctor adventure

Doctor Who: Sixty Years of Adventure celebrates the world’s longest-running science fiction television show, with a joyous time travelling extravaganza. Join us for the highlights of the world’s most beloved Time Lord’s amazing adventures across both the classic and modern eras. Encounter terrifying Daleks, Cybermen, and countless other unforgettable enemies. Experience the wonders of travelling in the TARDIS!

Hundreds of episodes and stories. Thousands of years of travels through time and space. From the dawn of time and the birth of our planet, to the end of the universe as the last star fades.

 

Doctor Who: 60 Years of Adventure (c) Cubicle 7

Book One takes us back to the scrapyard where it all began, then onwards into all of time and space. Meet the Doctor, explore the TARDIS, and set off on limitless adventures. It brings the classic Doctors, and their most iconic companions and adversaries to life in your games of Doctor Who The Roleplaying Game. Meanwhile, Book Two focuses on the Doctors, heroes and villains introduced since the 2005 revival. It takes us to the shattering end of the Time War. Meet the battle-weary War Doctor, then travel on to distant planets and discover hidden secrets of the Time Lord’s past. But both celebrate sixty years of adventure at your finger tips – a treasure trove of adventures, aliens, creatures, gadgets, plots, conspiracies, and plenty of running!

The books also each contain installments in an epic new series of adventures connecting every era – A Lustre of Starlight. It’s a must-have for fans, gamers, and Whovians of all ages!

You can pre-order Doctor Who: Sixty Years of Adventure now, with physical copies arriving between now and the New Year.

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Doctor Who Unleashed lands on BBC Three this November to bring fans behind the scenes of the 60th Anniversary specials

There are many secrets and mysteries surrounding Russell T Davies’ new era of Doctor Who. Though  perhaps one hasn’t been very secret: the return of a behind the scenes companion show. Fans have seen the team filming the filming in Cardiff and beyond. More than that, David Tennant even referenced working with them months ago. The original Doctor Who Confidential ran for six series. Along the way it gave fans access everywhere from the TARDIS set to RTD’s office. From the makeup room to the BBC canteen, Confidential’s cameras sought out everyone worth talking to. That incarnation was much loved and missed by fans. And now the concept gets a new lease of life and a new title as Doctor Who: Unleashed.

The new show brings viewers

Doctor Who: Unleashed lands on BBC Three and iPlayer this November. The brand new access all areas show aims to give viewers an unmissable insight into the world of Doctor Who. Produced by Bright Branch for BBC Studios, it keeps the 30 minute factual entertainment series format. And each episode will also air on BBC Three straight after the credits roll on the parent show. However, it will gave a host in the shape of BBC Gaming Correspondent Steffan Powell, rather than an unseen narrator. After every episode of Doctor Who, viewers can switch over to BBC Three or iPlayer. There, Steffan will show them just how the Bad Wolf team makes the out of this world drama.

Similar companion shows have been a consistent part of the Disney+ formula for its Marvel and Star Wars content . But there’s no word yet on whether international viewers will get to see Unleashed. It’s even possible they’ll get another Disney+ made program of their own.

 

Doctor Who Unleashed host Seffan Powell with David Tennant during filming of the 60th Anniversary (c) BBC Studios The people behind Doctor Who Unleashed share their excitement Russell T Davies, Doctor Who Showrunner says:

“Over the years, I meet so many people who were inspired to find careers in TV, because of the behind-the-scenes material the BBC would show. And now it’s back, in the grand old tradition of Doctor Who Confidential, but in a brand new form, Unleashed! So a whole new generation – and faithful fans of old – can see what the stars and the crew get up to behind the cameras.”

Steffan Powell, Host of Doctor Who: Unleashed says:

“When you’re told Russell T Davies is asking for you to present a show, you say, ‘when does he want me?’ Doesn’t matter, I’ll be there…There’s a really fun and fascinating group of people bringing Doctor Who to life – I can’t wait for the audience to meet them. I’m so chuffed to have been trusted to help tell, in all its glory, the story of what goes into making the magic happen.”

Jo Pearce, Bright Branch Creative Director and Doctor Who: Unleashed Executive Producer says:

“This series gives audiences access to all areas, led brilliantly by Steffan Powell, viewers are invited to see what really goes into the making of Doctor Who. It’s been such a privilege to create this show and we’re so grateful to the cast and crew who welcomed us in and allowed us to tell the story behind the drama.”

Fiona Campbell, Youth Audience (BBC iPlayer and BBC Three) says:

“Doctor Who is a show that needs no introduction, so it goes without saying that BBC Three and iPlayer are thrilled to introduce this incredible new series that invites viewers into the world of Doctor Who, showing them just what really goes on.”

 

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A new biography of David Whitaker reveals more about one of classic Doctor Who’s most important writers

A new biography of one of the most pivotal figures in Doctor Who history arrives in November, just in time to celebrate the 60th Anniversary of his world changing achievement. David Whitaker in an Exciting Adventure with Television is by Simon Guerrier, himself no stranger to writing for the Doctor. Whitaker, as much as anybody else, helped shape a vague idea into a concept which still endures six decades later. Now Guerrier explores his fascinating life and work. A launch to support the new book is taking place at the Portico Library in Manchester on the 9th of November. Biographer Simon Guerrier will be on hand, interviewed by Carol Ann Whitehead, while books will be on sale for those hoping to grab an early copy.

The event takes place from 6-7pm and you can book your tickets here.

David Whitaker in an Exciting Adventure with Television joins the recently published Pull to Open by Paul Hayes in publisher Ten Acre Films’ celebration of Who’s Diamond Anniversary. The meticulously researched and compelling told wider story of the show’s creation in 1963, it’s another must for every fan.

 

David Whitaker in an Exciting Adventure with Television

To celebrate 60 years of Doctor Who, discover the extraordinary, little-known life of one of its chief architects: David Whitaker. As the show’s first story editor, he helped to establish the compelling blend of adventure, imagination and quirky humour that made — and continues to make — Doctor Who a hit. David commissioned the first Dalek story, and fought for it to be made when his bosses didn’t like it. Regeneration, the TARDIS being alive, the idea of Doctor Who expanding to become a multimedia phenomenon in comics, books and films… David Whitaker was all over it.

Yet very little was known about this key figure in Doctor Who history — until now. Why did he fall out with Irving Berlin? Was he really engaged to Yootha Joyce? And how did an assignment to Moscow badly affect his career?

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