April Approaches: Doctor Who, Flash Gordon, and the Battle of Agincourt

March has gone on a bit and not been my easiest month, not helped by some marvellously dreich weather, but we’re about to tip over into April, where some smashing things I’ve written will be released, so that’s quite cheering.

Flash! He’ll Save Every One of Us!

My first professional comics credit! I co-wrote a backup story featuring Flash, Dale, and Zarkov though almost certainly not in the form you’d expect. I can’t even with the joy of this. I’ve adored Flash Gordon since I was tiny, thanks to Defenders of the Earth, and I’m a great fan of the Buster Crabbe serials, and the 30s/40s/50s comics which I inhaled in my youth. These days, since I started my more recent forays into comics, it’s one of the areas I’m particularly interested in catching up on.

So what a delight to get to write for one of my most beloved comics characters.

It was co–written with Paul Cornell, who is a wonderful person to work with. It’s immensely satisfying when you connect with someone creatively, and can bounce ideas back and forth so quickly and shape them into something that works.

It’s s out in Flash Gordon Quarterly on 29th April from Mad Cave. (And, fingers crossed, may not be my only comic out this year.)

A Crucible of Queens

Set between the Battle of Agincourt and the arrival of Joan of Arc, A Crucible of Queens takes place in a little nook of medieval history I adore. It was immensely fun to write about the Sixth Doctor, Peri, and Turlough being thrown into this tumultuous time, and figuring out a way to survive it.

We’re in the Hundred Years’ War between England and France. The French have just suffered a massive defeat, the King of France is mad, the Queen of France wants peace with the English, the Dauphin and his mother-in-law – Yolande of Aragon – very much do not. Effectively, a civil war/massive family squabble with assassinations, while also being at war with your greatest enemy.

It’s a particular delight to see a French actor in the main guest role, the indomitable Yolande of Aragon, a woman who, in many ways, won the war for France and yet is neglected by history. She was the constant supporter of the young Dauphin, and then Joan of Arc – politically and financially – and funded the army needed for her to raise the siege of Orleans.

And there’s no sort of Doctor Who story I love writing more than throwing beloved Who characters into deliciously messy periods of history.

I’m not sure precisely when the story’s out (they never tell the lowly writers!), but it’s some time in April, and you can pre-order it over on the Big Finish website as part of the Sixth Doctor boxset, Expulsion.

Where We Stand, Where We Fall

And the biggest release, for me anyway, is Where We Stand, Where We Fall – The Politics of Doctor Who. I have loved and hated and delighted and despaired at working on this thing. And I’m very, very proud of it. It takes six of my favourite political themes in Doctor Who, ones that the show has wrestled with across all its decades, and looks at how they’re explored, how they reflect, and evolve their ideas over the years. I learned a lot working on it, and there are whole swathes of Doctor Who that I now adore and appreciate even more than I did when I started writing (I’ve become such an evangelist for Invasion of the Dinosaurs; and I’m horrified at how forgiving I now am of The Ark.)

It’s out on April 30th, and available to pre-order at the Herne Books website, and at Amazon.

See you next month!