Doctor Who Goth Opera Is Out!

In my usual timely fashion I’m making the post about my latest work a week or two after in came out. The classic Doctor Who novel Goth Opera, written by Paul Cornell (that guy I do Hammer House of Podcast with; he may also have written some telly, and comics, and books, and radio), is now a shiny new production from Big Finish. It’s also a well-timed release as it’s 30 years since the novel was first released. And I had a smashing time adapting it for audio.

It’s a fifth Doctor story, with Tegan and Nyssa and vampires and Gallifreyan lore. A three hour long epic of a story, and what I hope is a faithful translation of the novel. It was a joy to work on, and exciting to take what I’d learned about audio drama and apply it in a new way. A little writing, a little structural work, some translation to the medium, and lots of editing.

And if you fancy reading the novel afterwards you’ll find that one of the coolest things in the book isn’t in the audio. It just wouldn’t work in the medium (I tried!), but that does mean there’s an awesome thing to discover in the novel.

I asked Paul for an Exclusive Quote about Goth Opera so this blog post had a USP. I thought he’d give me something pithy, but no, it’s the sort of thing I don’t want to post but he refused to give me another quote, so here we are:

“Liz has found the beating heart of the book and given it a transfusion of vampire energy.  This is an incredibly exciting adaptation, ten times better than the original, and I love it to pieces,” says Paul Cornell.

Ahem. Yes, well. He hasn’t read the novel in 30 years and has a terrible memory.

My lovely contributor copy has also arrived, so here is a picture with bonus Hector:

Available now in digital download and CD form from the Big Finish website. (Goth Opera, not Hector.)