Neil Gaiman Apparently Working On Another Doctor Who Project - And Probably Not For The Eleventh Doctor

[Brendon Connelly]

Let put down a couple of distant dots and then take out my green crayon to try and join them up for you.

The BBC have announced a series of Doctor Who eBooks by "well known children's authors," to be published one a month from now until November. Each is going to tell a story of a different incarnation of The Doctor, and then, in time for the show's 50th anniversary, they're all going to pe published in an anthology paperback.

The authors would seem to come with fandoms and reputations, as the very unveiling of their names is being turned into a media event. The first will be announced next Monday, and then next Friday, that author will appear in a special YouTube video. This pattern will be repeated each month.

Without any real evidence other than the fact that she's a well known children's author, several sites are already naming JK Rowling in their headlines - she's got good clickability and SEO value in a way that Cressida Cowell, Michael Morpurgo or Terry Deary just don't.

I can certainlyimagineRowlingwriting one of these stories, but I'm not expecting it. Nobody knows anything or is even claiming an unnamed source is associating Rowling with the project, they just see the value in putting her in the headline because she can't be ruled out.

That's dot one.

Now. Earlier this afternoon, Neil Gaiman revealed that he's been doing some research by watching an old Doctor Who skit from Children in Need.

Rewatching lots of old YouTube clips for A Project. I'd forgotten how much I loved Curse of the Fatal Death j.mp/133F6RZ#drwho

? Neil Gaiman (@neilhimself) January 4, 2013

It's not going to be anything to do with Gaiman's episode of this year, as that's already been filmed.

Perhaps it's for a tribute to Steven Moffat. Maybe it's for something with Rowan Atkinson. Or Joanna Lumley. Most likely, though, it's something to do with Doctor Who.

And that's dot two.

And as the crayon makes its way from dot to dot, it's nice to think that Gaiman could be writing one of these eBooks, and for any of the eleven Doctors.

'His Doctor,' Gaiman has said, was Patrick Troughton as the second. So, assuming he was given his pick of the run, that he'd actually pick 'his Doctor' and that I've drawn a crayon line where there should be one, I'd guess we'll be seeing Gaiman announced at the beginning of February.

[Michael Mayket]

Based on his tweet I would've guessed he's writing something for Red Nose Day... but yours is good too.

[Somebody]

Well, he was never able to novelise "The Doctor's Wife" as he hinted for a while that he intended, which he ultimately put down to contractual clashes. Why would he suddenly be able to write a DW book now?

[Johnson!]

With any luck he'll be writing the Rowan Atkinson Doctor.

[Timber-Munki]

Well, he was never able to novelise "The Doctor's Wife" as he hinted for a while that he intended, which he ultimately put down to contractual clashes. Why would he suddenly be able to write a DW book now?

It would be a contract specifically for writing a new book, as opposed to adapting an existing work.

The story also features characters created by different writers - Amy, Rory and the Ood character, which if the new series is similar to the classic could mean paying the respective creators for every use (although I'm not sure on the ownership of characters created by the show runners in the new series as there wasn't really an equivalent position in the classic series and I could see the potential payments making an equivalent scheme running now open to flagrant abuse/faux-outrage from right-wing politicians and other media outlets).

So I'm guessing the legal legwork/costs ratio to predicted sales didn't pan out to make it worthwhile for all the parties concerned.

[Death's Head]

Alan Garner or nothing.

[Somebody]

The story also features characters created by different writers - Amy, Rory and the Ood character, which if the new series is similar to the classic could mean paying the respective creators for every use (although I'm not sure on the ownership of characters created by the show runners in the new series as there wasn't really an equivalent position in the classic series and I could see the potential payments making an equivalent scheme running now open to flagrant abuse/faux-outrage from right-wing politicians and other media outlets).

It was characters created by freelancers from the old series that the BBC didn't retain the rights to - and even then for monsters or robots, like the Daleks or K9, they still own the visual since those tended to be created by staffers [Hence the K9 redesign for the recent non-BBC series - and even then, they traded them the ability to use K9 a bit in Sarah Jane Adventures for being able to use the original K9 design in episode 1]. RTD (Ood) and Moffat (Amy & Rory) were both on-staff when they created the characters.

[Nimbus]

Well, he was never able to novelise "The Doctor's Wife" as he hinted for a while that he intended, which he ultimately put down to contractual clashes. Why would he suddenly be able to write a DW book now?

Because its just a short story he'd be writing, not a novel. Assuming this rumour is true, of course. Each of the ebooks will just be a short story and there's no indication of how long each will be.

[Joe Kalicki]

So when's the first one due?

[Nimbus]

So when's the first one due?

The first story will be available on the 23rd January. The others will be available, one at a time, on the 23rd of each month. That way, the last comes out on the 23rd November.