Adrian Middleton is an author, magazine editor, historian, publisher, radio presenter, and Doctor Who continuity genius. Through friendships and working relationships, Middleton has part of or close to some of the major Doctor Who spin-off range projects during the series' time off television in the 1990s and early 2000s. Two weeks before Christmas and the broadcast of The End of Time Part One, this Examiner conducted via e-mail an exclusive interview with Adrian Middleton to hear his opinions of classic Doctor Who, its following book and audio continuations, the RTD era of the New Series, and his impressions and predictions of the future of the program under Steven Moffat.
Thanks, Adrian, for taking the time to talk with me today. First off, tell me about yourself: who you are, where you come from, your education, and how this has led to your current occupation.
Ooh, personal. My independent education was quickly abandoned in favor of my meritocratic principles. Unfortunately, nobody else seems to be meritocratic, so I ended up as a frustrated soul who started out court reporting with a newspaper then got offered a better paid job with local government, which turned into an even better paid job in regional government, where I ended up as a strategist specializing in digital policy – broadband, content, media and so on. That brought me full circle, to a point where my hobbies – writing, publishing, radio presenting – started to inform my day job. Unfortunately, having married and started a family in the early 90s, I put my short-term earning power ahead of my long term ambition. I took a good job working long hours over stacking shelves to fuel my boyhood dreams of being a published writer.
You live in the Birmingham area, which strong ties to the author J. R. R. Tolkien. Tell me if Tolkien has had any influence in your occupation, your life, and your education.
I was introduced to Tolkien as a boy – I must have been 8 when I read The Hobbit – and I eventually found myself living on the same stretch of road where he once lived and went to school, with the tower that inspired Isengard visible from my front window and the two towers said to have inspired the book of the same name visible from my back. I even drive past Gamgee House and a pub called The Twin Towers on my way to work every morning.
Like Tolkien, I moved into Birmingham from its suburbs, but by my time the dark stain of industry is ingrained in the fabric of the city, and it’s the green shoots of a new, more environmentally friendly society that are starting to spring up everywhere as the world’s first factories, vacant and overgrown, are starting to give way to green spaces in hidden places that coexist with our industrial heritage as Birmingham the motor city of the 60s gives way to the pedestrian city of the 21st century. Paradoxically, the recent discovery of an ancient treasure hoard a few miles to the north has recaptured the Anglo-Saxon spirit of the seventh century hamlet that once lay at in the heart of the great forest of Arden, which itself lay at the heart of the Kingdom of Mercia.
How long have been a fan of Doctor Who?
I was aware of Doctor Who long before I remember watching it. "Spearhead from Space" was my first clear memory of it, but I had a vague awareness of Peter Cushing and Patrick Troughton being the Doctor before Pertwee, and I started reading the early Hartnell novelizations around the time "The Green Death" was broadcast.
What were your thoughts about the series’ potential of a return when it ended in 1989/1990?
I was pessimistic. The show was killed from within, and it was a byword for how out of date the BBC was becoming. Its death seemed symbolic of a shift towards commercialism, and fandom itself knew there was no real appetite for the foreseeable future. What it did mean was that the show was finite. It was shifting out of the BBCs control into that of the fans, which meant that all of the plans to resurrect it were flawed, and that books became the only medium in which it could survive and thrive.
What did you feel about the various attempts to return it on or off screen, starting with the Virgin Novels in the early 1990s?
The novels were exciting to me. At the time nobody was accepting unsolicited manuscripts until Virgin opened the doors, and I, like everyone else, was keen to add to the slushpile. With hindsight I, like many others, sacrificed my desire to write original science fiction in favor of competing to be next on the list for getting a Doctor Who book published.
I tried, came close, got and lost a commission with Virgin, got and lost another commission from a rival publisher who wanted to poach the license, and eventually decided to call it a day. Partly because of the politics, partly because of the lack of money in writing, and partly because, as the New Adventures moved forwards, they mutated into something that I felt Doctor Who wasn’t. Stealing its innocence by focusing on an adult audience is one thing, but as time went by the wonder and optimism faded, and the grit started to take over. The books were catering to an ever-decreasing audience, shifting from popular to niche in very short order.
Your thoughts on the 1996 telefilm?
I hated it, yet I loved it at the same time. The Doctor was back, McGann was great, the TARDIS interior finally had a budget, but the character of the Doctor was unnecessarily redefined, his origins were too openly worn on his sleeve, and the plot was way too Hollywood. Philip Segal was focusing too much on the wrong aspects of the show’s history, and not enough on understanding the formula. Rumors of what might happen if it went to a full series were leaching into fandom, and I remember praying that it would be successful enough in the UK to persuade the BBC to bring the show back and unsuccessful enough in the States to see it remain in British hands.
In the end it did fuel a re-launch, but of the books. Only BBC Worldwide seemed to recognize its potential, but again, they didn’t understand the formula.
The BBC Novels 1997-2005?
I pretty much missed the EDAs [Eighth Doctor Adventures] when they first came out, and found myself playing catch-up. When I finally did read them, they at least took the Eighth Doctor in a more comfortable direction – at first. Once the overcomplex, overlong, overplanned War in Heaven story arc emerged, it was clear that the books were pandering to a minority audience, and that their relevance too all but a few was barely significant. On the shelves and off the shelves within a month, the books gave more enjoyment as remaindered kindling for the fires of Romanian orphanages than they did to any but the most devoted fans.
The Big Finish audios?
I’d been a fan of the Audiovisuals, and later of BBV’s output, and had even half-produced a full-cast audio series pilot of my own (cameo by Nicholas Courtney, with Big Finish stalwart Ian Brooker as the Doctor). The audios at least felt like a true continuation of the classic TV series. Very quickly their relevance was growing and they seemed to have a better strategy – to start as a niche, but to grow, ultimately to be broadcast on BBC Radio. To the fans I know, the audios were seen as a guilty pleasure, whereas the books would often seem like a chore.
Being a continuity freak, my only dislike for the audios was their often perplexing desire to distance themselves from the books, and to sometimes intentionally contradict non-TV continuity. Like the books, however, the audios threatened to lose their way where the Eighth Doctor was concerned. I still see ‘"Zagreus" [the November 2003 Doctor Who fortieth anniversary audio release] as a low point rather than as a great celebration, and only the announcement of the new series and the change of personnel at Big Finish saved it from spiraling into oblivion.
What was your initial reaction in 2003 to the return of the series to television? What were your first thoughts on the potential direction/tone of the series when you learned of RTD as the producer/head writer?
2003? Was that when it was announced?
I knew, from around 2000, that Russell T Davies would only work for auntie Beeb if he got Doctor Who, and I was fearful because his New Adventure [‘Damaged Goods’] had been the darkest and most adult Who novel ever written. That said, it worked, and I’d enjoyed much of Russell’s output on lower budget series.
I was also encouraged by the fanfare and all the forward planning, and by the gifting of Who to BBC Wales, who were crying out for ongoing output across the whole of the UK. I think the show’s development away from TV Centre was a godsend, and kept the interference from skeptical executives away.
I did hate that logo though, and I remember being more apprehensive about Christopher Eccleston’s hair than his performance.
I was also a bit worried when I saw the unfinished cut of "Rose" that was leaked. The pace was too fast, I thought, and belching bins aimed at 8 year olds made me wince, although it did give me confidence that the focus of the show was in the right place again: on the kids.
Let’s discuss writing. Have you ever been interested in writing in or out of Doctor Who?
Hell, yes. I nearly got a commission for a second Doctor meets Blackbeard story which doubled up as a prequel to David McIntee’s White Darkness, and I was briefly in talks with another publisher about editing and writing for several unofficial novels initially focusing on the creations of Robert Holmes. There were three pitches being worked up – a ‘Monsters’ series, a ‘K9/Companions’ series, and a ‘Master and UNIT’ series. The latter was the most interesting, because it would have involved a universe without the Doctor, and the Master would have been UNIT’s unwilling scientific adviser dealing with all the monsters we saw during the Pertwee era. Ultimately the publisher was persuaded to put its unofficial plans on hold when rumors that Virgin’s license wasn’t going to be renewed started to appear.
Connecting to the question above, one of your friends was the late Doctor Who author Craig Hinton, who entered the DW writing circle through knowing future DW creative heads such as Gary Russell and Justin Richards at university. Were you also at university together and if not, what path did you take to "approach" the side creative side of Doctor Who writing fandom?
Craig went to University of Warwick with several other Who fans including Justin and Andy Lane. He also worked with Peter Anghelides. While I did nearly study at Warwick several years later, my friendship with Craig came out of fandom. I was a prolific fanzine editor, ran my own club, and had been roped into editing a brochure for a Doctor Who 30th Anniversary Exhibition in Birmingham in 1993. Craig and I ended up discussing our submissions to Virgin, and he asked to borrow plot elements from one of my rejected proposals for inclusion in his second novel (Millennial Rites). Thereafter he championed my second Doctor story and, if I’d been anyone other than the editor of a controversial fanzine called ‘Rumours’, things might have been different.
Have you written or published any stories or novels, in or out of Doctor Who? If so, what are the titles and a brief synopsis? Have you ever written but not published any novels and if so, may I ask what are some circumstances surrounding those? Do you have any current story ideas you might wish to pitch for Doctor Who ranges? If so, what can you tell us about them?
Lots. Most of my stories and ideas may see the light of day in a book called ‘The Collected Chapter Ones’. I wrote a cyberpunk novel in 1984 which lays moldering in a cardboard box somewhere, and I started but never finished a couple of Religio-political-philosophical-fantasy-comedies which were meant to be for the Millennium, but that came and went. I edited several fanzines and wrote short Who fiction for them, and I write articles for the Hitchhikers’ Guide to the Galaxy as a distraction. Sadly, my Sub-Etha Relay is broken.
In terms of Who novels, my submissions were: "Haven" (A Doctor Who in the Village story, later reworked as a role-playing scenario and turned into the very first drabble written for the infamous Drabble Who?), "The Fugue" (Sixth Doctor changes the laws of reality, elements of which appeared in Craig’s Millennial Rights), "Black Mountain" (the Fugue reworked as a New Adventure with Benny, Chris and Roz), and "The Dark Tide," my masterpiece, which was a Fourth Doctor/Romana pirate romp that mutated into a Second Doctor/Jamie reunion that revolved around the death of Blackbeard. The premise behind the latter story was that Jamie [after "The War Games"] had been returned to the wrong Jacobite uprising by the Time Lords – 1715 instead of 1745 – and that he flees Scotland to become a contemporary of Blackbeard, and eventually reunites with the Doctor in 1718. This was to be the Jamie seen in "The Five Doctors" and later "The Two Doctors," and I remember writers like Jim Smith and Paul Cornell trying to get a Season 6B Missing Adventures campaign off the ground.
I pretty much gave up on Who writing after that, although Craig dared me to write a Fourth Doctor/Romana novel called "Blink of An Eye" in 2005-6. He very kindly claimed that I was the only writer who could put more fanwank into a story than him and still have it make sense. I finished the first draft in mid-2006, passing it to Craig for editing, but sadly he died before that was complete. Craig loved it, but secretly I think he was sitting on the manuscript so nobody would know if I won the dare!
Since then, I’ve edited and contributed to the Shelf Life anthology, and am similarly working on Shelf Life 2 and 3. I’m also working on other projects, including a non-fiction book about the Anglo-Saxon founder of Birmingham called "Finding Beorma," a vampire sci-fi anthology and a story called "The Tall Man in Clean White Underpants."
What are your thoughts on the RTD era of the New Series? How does it compare to eras of the original series? Do you feel the 1996 telefilm has any influences on the direction RTD has taken with the series? Overall what are the RTD era successes and/or weaknesses in your opinion? What are your feelings on the New Series Doctors, particularly David Tennant? The companions and their families? Were the families of companions necessary or useful to the series?
I think Russell largely got it right, and he learned a lot of lessons about what did and didn’t work for the Doctor from the books. Some of his themes – the Time War and the darkening Doctor in particular – handle themes previously seen in the books well. Those two elements have pretty much followed us throughout the series, bringing character development much more to the fore than ever before. That owes more to showrunner-led series in the US than it does to classic Who or to the books, but sticking to the tried and tested staples of the original series without the fan embellishments was the right way to go . Obviously Russell made some fan embellishments of his own, but they were all ‘signatures’ that create a shorthand for viewers’ expectations. For example, the belching dustbin in Rose and the farting Slitheen made it okay for children to laugh without their parents telling them to shush, and the use of memes and catch-phrases builds upon the success of the modern British comedy formula and kept the show talked about in the playground and the office.
Similarly I think the use of a supporting cast, while borrowing from ensemble shows like Star Trek, Stargate and Buffy, actually harks back to the original show in which Ian, Barbara and Susan had a defined relationship at the start of the run, and to the creation of the UNIT family as a backdrop to the the third Doctor’s Earth-based adventures. They gave the Doctor a reason to stay on Earth most of the time without needing a deus ex machina like his earlier exile.
I think without Christopher Eccleston or someone of similar stature, the show would have struggled to be taken seriously from day one, and his characterization drew me right back to Russell’s New Adventure – he was, quite literally, damaged goods. This was the perfect set up for a new happy-go-lucky Doctor, and I’d go so far as to say that Eccleston’s tortured portrayal made the quick and painless acceptance of a new Doctor easy for the audience to accept. The last few Tennant stories reflect this – his growing arrogance and darkness towards the end is actually making the audience ready for the next Doctor to come along.
This brings me to the one thing I don’t particularly like. Inexorability. The classic series was pretty much set on our Earth, only tripping itself up when the near future stories became part of the show’s past. UNIT dating wasn’t a problem until UNIT stories were in the past. By contrast, the new series is pretty much NOT set on our Earth. Big events haven’t been swept under the carpet or conveniently forgotten, but they have been building up to a point of no return. The history of Earth in the new series is SO different to that of the real Earth, that events are starting to lose their sense of danger. Does the audience care about Dalek invasions anymore?
This certainly sets up the Doctor as a time meddler out of control. It justifies the existence of other Time Lords, and it sets the next series up for a universe not policed exclusively by the ‘Time Lord Victorious’, and perhaps a world where the history we, the audience, have experienced, rather than the one we’ve seen since 2005.
This also means that Russell’s run is self contained. Seasons 1-4 are his series, and like Joss Whedon or Chris Carter or David E Kelley he’s seen his series plan complete its cycle, just like any US series. The beauty of this is that Stephen Moffatt’s run on the show can be treated separately and on its own merits, and that it too can stand alone as a separate series with a completely different set of rules.
I’m going to name a few notable original series races and persons which have re-appeared in the New Series and ask for your overall grade (A-F or British equivalent) and your reasons for assigning that grade: Daleks, Cybermen, Sontarans, Autons, the Master, Davros, Sarah Jane Smith with K-9, the Brigadier (including ‘The Warkeeper’s Crown’ and ‘Enemy of the Bane’), the Time Lords (in their absence).
They’re all A grade up to K9 in that they’ve successfully made the transition from classic series to new series without needing to be altered – a considerable achievement when you compare that to the villains of the Star Trek universe who then producers felt needed redesigns and reinterpretations to be acceptable to modern audiences. The only monsters or characters to return have been those Russell T Davies was confident would stand the test of time.
The Brigadier, I’m afraid, gets graded C. He has rightly not made a substantive appearance in the new series because a) a cameo shortchanges him, and b) there isn’t a new story to tell that hasn’t been told. Wilf proves an older character would work, but given grueling production schedules and the need for the Brigadier to only fit into a Brigadier-centric story, I’m glad this hasn’t happened. The Brigadier works well with Sarah Jane because they have a relationship that fits the back-story of The Sarah Jane Adventures. His appearance in "The Warkeeper’s Crown" comic strip works because a full story could be devoted to the character.
Which aliens or races do you wish had appeared during the RTD and which do you hope Steven Moffatt returns for his era?
That’s easy – RTD should have brought back the Sensorites (because I’m curious about their relationship with the Ood), the Zygons (perfect enemies for Eccleston) and Magnus Greel (in a story with Captain Jack).
I’d like to see Moffatt bring back…. The Voord (heck, all of Marinus. I want to SEE it this time), the Yeti, the Silurians and the Dominators (preferably without the Quarks, or possibly with evolved Quarks).
On that note, what predictions or impressions do you have on Steven Moffatt and incoming Doctor Matt Smith with companion Amy Pond? Should the Time Lords return and how to use them in modern era?
I think the Time Lords need to return to remove the Doctor’s responsibility for the universe, but they need to be different… more aloof, less corporeal.
I think Matt Smith is going to be the intense shouty Doctor who will know who he is, but he will not necessarily know everything about the universe and how it works. He has to be wide eyed, vulnerable, and fallible. He has to fail at least once, and he has to stumble his way to victory because the Tennant Doctor firing on all cylinders needs to be contrasted. He needs to be reliant – his companion is as much his guide as his friend – someone to reassure him and steer his decisions until he finds his feet.
I expect ambiguity. Maybe even a question hovering over the new Doctor’s identity. There’s nothing to drive forward a mystery than to remove a character’s sense of self. I think we can expect time to have passed, and subsequently more mystery, maybe with the use of flashbacks or scenes out of sequence. The mystery of the Doctor will be ‘where did he go and what did he do?’ during the gap between the regeneration and series 5. I’m not even sure the Doctor will be a Time Lord anymore – if the Time Lords return maybe they should strip him of his title or his powers, but leave him free to learn and explore.
Adrian Middleton, thank you.
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