Interview: The Authors of The Glamour Chronicles
Patrick Kavanagh-Sproull speaks to Gary Russell, Una McCormack and Trevor Baxendale about the 12th Doctor novels.
Compared with previous years, 2015’s trilogy of current Doctor novels is a real shake-up. They’re all linked by the Glamour, a highly desired artefact of unknown value, and the three authors tasked with bringing Peter Capaldi’s Twelfth Doctor to the page for a second time are Una McCormack, Trevor Baxendale and Gary Russell.
All three have form in writing Doctor Who, having produced the excellent Prisoner of the Daleks, Beautiful Chaos and The Way Through the Woods respectively. In time for the release of the new Twelfth Doctor novels – titled the Glamour Chronicles – I had the chance to put some questions to the writers.
Gary Russell, Big Bang Generation
I’d been talking to Justin Richards, the range editor, about doing a new Who novel, especially as Peter Capaldi was the Doctor now, and one always likes to try and write something for each Doctor (Hartnell and Eccleston to go for me now!). There’s something very engaging about Peter’s performance and I thought it’d be nice to try and tackle what I see on screen and get it onto paper. This is the first series of Doctor Who for many, many years, right back to the Tom Baker era really, where I haven’t been active in fandom and thus I knew nothing about each episode before it transmitted, not even all the titles or writers. So that freshness and novelty invigorated me.
The Glamour is a very fine through line in the three books; did you ever consult with the other writers about how the stories would form a whole trilogy?
Very briefly – Justin handled that really. It was a loose concept (for me at least) and as there have been a number of previous things called ‘glamour’ in the books, everyone was quite relaxed about our three novels not being about the exact same ‘glamour’ as one another. It was more a conceptual idea than a physical object-one.
Where did the idea for Big Bang Generation come from? Was there any particular episode you drew inspiration from? Can you guide us through the research you did?
The title comes from a Duran Duran song (as do all the chapter titles, one per album) – it sounded silly and funny and not po-faced, and seemed to fit my idea of the Twelfth Doctor’s humour and his old-man-trying-to-understand-the-younger-generation shtick (much like myself in fact). I’m currently living in Australia and Justin asked me to set it there, so I utilized the two areas I love – Sydney’s CBD (central business district) and the Blue Mountains – neither of which I live in but visit whenever possible.
You chose not to include Clara as the companion in Big Bang Generation – why was this?
Because everyone else was and I thought, ‘I don’t have any great insights or new things I could bring to the character’. So rather than try and fail, I asked to use River Song – who I adore, but Steven Moffat said he had plans (oh, look, Christmas Special) and he suggested I used Benny – a character I love with a passion. Once that suggestion was made, everything fell into place.
Your book is notable for including Bernice Summerfield in a return to the page – how did that come about and what was it like bringing her back?
Benny is adorable, she’s clever and smart but not at all smug – she makes mistakes and owns up to them. She’s fun – as are the family she brings with her, both literal and figurative – plus as I wanted to do something that was a homage to one of my fave BBC shows, Hustle, I knew she’d fit right in with her team.
Since you managed to get Bernice Summerfield, was there ever any temptation to include another familiar character?
I’m not sure who you mean? Braxiatel? If so, then no – after all, the Doctor still believes that only he and Missy have managed to escape whatever pocket dimension Gallifrey is in. Brax would spoil that.
Unlike the writers of last year’s novels, you and your fellow writers this year had already seen Peter Capaldi’s Twelfth Doctor in a full series but as Last Christmas and series 9 prove, he’s changed since series 8. How did you go about characterisation? Were you shown anything from series 9?
No I think I was probably working on the novel around the time they started filming series 9, so there wouldn’t be anything to see or scripts to read. Not that I would have wanted to anyway. Spoilers! But the BBC have a marvelous continuity hound called Scott Handcock who spots things in books, comics etc. and makes sure nothing contradicts what’s going on the show, so I placed my trust in him. It’s also the job I used to do three or four years ago, so I’m well aware of the boundaries novelists need to adhere to.
What are you working on next?
I’m in Australia executive producing an exciting brand new sci-fi 2D frame-by-frame animation show for the ABC Children’s Dept., called Prisoner Zero. It’s nothing to do with Doctor Who – and has kept me busy these last two years, and will do for a few more I hope – it’s one of the reasons I wanted to dip my toe back into the Whoniverse – I think I missed it more than I realised. I was very lucky – at the same time I was asked to do Big Bang Generation, I was asked to do three short stories for another, children’s this time, Doctor Who Collection, so 2015 has been a good Who year for me!
Una McCormack, Royal Blood
How did your involvement in the Glamour Chronicles come about?
The series consultant on the book range, Justin Richards, emailed me asking whether I’d like to pitch. It was touch and go as to whether I could do it! I was in the middle of writing another book (Weird Space: The Baba Yaga), and at first it didn’t look like I’d be able to make the deadline for the Glamour Chronicles. Fortunately we were able to work something out: I’d have been terribly disappointed if we couldn’t!
The Glamour is a very fine through line in the three books; did you ever consult with the other writers about how the stories would form a whole trilogy?
In this case, no, although I’ve consulted with other writers on other book series. Justin provided the point of continuity throughout.
Where did the idea for Royal Blood come from? Was there any particular episode you drew inspiration from? Can you guide us through the research you did?
When Justin approached me about doing the book, he suggested doing a story about the ‘Glamour Knights’, who pursue the Glamour across time and space. This immediately got me thinking about doing a Grail story. As our ideas progressed, we moved away from setting the book on Earth during the time of Arthur, and tried to come up with a more unusual setting. I’ve always loved the classic Doctor Who story The Androids of Tara, with its romantic and adventurous feel, and the way that the technology sits seamlessly with the Ruritanian setting, so I decided to do something reminiscent of that. As for research – I went back to the Grail stories to see what I could plausibly adapt, and where I could plausibly fit my own story. I hope it works!
Without spoiling anything, I felt that there was an underlying anti-consumerist in Royal Blood, was this intentional?
Ooh, good question! I hadn’t thought of that! I don’t think I consciously go into a book thinking about its themes in that way – they might feel forced if you did. But the concept of the Glamour requires you to think about greed, and I suppose that leads naturally to an anti-consumerist message. I didn’t want the book to be anti-technology, because I’m not, and I don’t think Doctor Who is either. I suppose the book is about the misuse of all kinds of power, including technological power.
Unlike the writers of last year’s novels, you and your fellow writers this year had already seen Peter Capaldi’s Twelfth Doctor in a full series but as Last Christmas and series 9 prove, he’s changed since series 8. How did you go about characterisation? Were you shown anything from series 9?
I didn’t see anything from series 9 – it will all be as new to me as to everyone else! What I enjoy about Capaldi’s Doctor is just how cross he is about everything, and how pomp and ceremony are meaningless to him – it’s not that they aggravate him, it’s that they simply don’t make sense. I really enjoyed writing this sort of impatient clear-sightedness.
What are you working on next?
I have several projects in the pipeline, but nothing has been announced yet, so I’ll have to keep quiet about them! After a very busy couple of years since the birth of my daughter, I’ve just enjoyed a wonderful summer holiday from writing, spending time with her.
Trevor Baxendale, Deep Time
How did your involvement in the Glamour Chronicles come about?
Justin Richards, series consultant on BBC Books’ Doctor Who range, asked me if I’d like to write a Twelfth Doctor novel – one of the three that were to be published in 2015. I’m pretty certain he knew I’d say yes! Justin explained that the three books would be loosely linked by a theme or monster, although each would be a standalone story. He asked if I’d like to write one set in the future, and that was the extent of the brief.
The Glamour is a very fine through line in the three books; did you ever consult with the other writers about how the stories would form a whole trilogy?
The involvement of the Glamour was based entirely on the brief given by Justin – a little bit of background on what it was, and broadly how the Doctor would encounter it on present day Earth, the past and the far future. We each had a very free reign with what type of story we wanted to tell.
The idea was that the books, although they would all feature the Glamour, could be read independently or in any order. So there was no particular requirement for us to work with each other on them. We each had sight of the other synopses, but we were probably all too busy writing the books to consult with each other!
The only real complication was that because Una’s book and mine both featured Clara, she would have to already know about the Glamour in one or the other. There is a definite sense in Deep Time that the Doctor is running the Glamour to ground, so to speak, and so it made sense for my story to take place after Una’s. I was as vague as I could be about that, however, in a desperate attempt to maintain the ‘read in any order’ brief, but in the end Justin wanted Deep Time to include a small but clear reference to the events of Royal Blood.
Where did the idea for Deep Time come from? Was there any particular episode you drew inspiration from? Can you guide us through the research you did?
The idea for Deep Time came from a space exploration story I’d had in my mind for some time – the journey in the far future with a small crew to a remote and unexplored planet, far from help. I suppose the main inspiration came from the works of Edgar Rice Burroughs, who wrote some wonderful tales about small bands of disparate people surviving in extreme conditions – the Tarzan books, the Pellucidar tales and so on. But I wanted it to be very sci-fi; with futuristic space travel and part of the action taking place in such a hostile, alien environment that the characters were all forced to wear spacesuits. I envisaged Deep Time as a big-budget, blockbusting space adventure, very much in the cinematic style of the new series.
As for research – I like to make the science at least sound right in my Doctor Who stories, so I did a bit of research into wormhole theory, neutron stars and space travel. But not too much. The story is the thing in Doctor Who, not the science. You only have to look at the TARDIS to realise that!
Deep Time felt very much like a classic era adventure, did you ever consciously channel that style of adventure?
Not consciously, no, but I’ve been a fan of Doctor Who for as long as I can remember. I started watching it in the early Jon Pertwee years, so it’s inevitable, I suppose, that some of that ‘classic era’ feel comes through. But my biggest conscious influence is the current series; especially Peter Capaldi and Jenna Coleman. The characters of the Doctor and Clara have to ring true.
Unlike the writers of last year’s novels, you and your fellow writers this year had already seen Peter Capaldi’s Twelfth Doctor in a full series but as Last Christmas and series 9 prove, he’s changed since series 8. How did you go about characterisation? Were you shown anything from series 9?
No, I haven’t seen anything from series 9 yet! I wish! It’s possible to see Peter Capaldi’s Doctor evolving as series 8 progresses, but the touchstones of his character are all consistent. I think he was especially wonderful in Last Christmas, which was utterly brilliant, and it was that version of the Doctor I tried to capture in Deep Time.
What are you working on next?
Nothing at the moment. I hope that will change soon! I always want to write more Doctor Who.
