The Black Archive

Series · 31

books · 2016-2022

By Paul Driscoll, Ian Millsted, James Cooray Smith, and more

Books in series

Rose

2016

‘Nice to meet you, Rose – Run for your life!’ Rose (2005) reimagines Doctor Who for the 21st century, showing us the Doctor through the eyes of Rose Tyler, a shop assistant unfulfilled in her job and relationship. It reinvents the Doctor and companion for modern television, grounding the show in a world of council estates, celebrity gossip and soap operas. Rose was not only a new vision for Doctor Who but pioneered a revival for the Saturday-night adventure series. Jon Arnold edits fanzines and is a major contributor to Hating to Love.

The Massacre

2016

‘Here in Paris we know what is right.’ The Massacre (1966) is a serial of disputed authorship, of which no known video copy survives. One of the last of Doctor Who’s ‘past’ stories as originally defined, it was produced during a fractious transitional period. It nevertheless draws on a variety of primary and secondary sources, many never previously acknowledged, to examine religious civil strife in the Paris of 1572 from some surprising angles, and with maturity and complexity. James Cooray Smith writes on culture for The New Statesman.

The Ambassadors of Death

2016

‘I’m sorry, Doctor, it’s my moral duty.’ The Ambassadors of Death (1970) is Doctor Who at its most adult. A story with no true villains despite its action-hero Doctor, it exposes the uglier side of human nature while offering an optimistic view of humanity's future. It shows how fear alone can warp good intentions into horrifying situations, and that humanity is at its best when offering trust, compassion and kindness even in the face of mortal peril. LM Myles is a Hugo-nominated editor, writer, critic and podcaster.

Image of the Fendahl

2016

‘12 million years ago… evolution went up a blind alley.’ Image of the Fendahl (1977) is a fusion of the Gothic Doctor Who story with the colder post-Gothic tradition of Nigel Kneale and HP Lovecraft. It builds on the success of Chris Boucher’s earlier scripts to create a classic of the series, and still works as an adventure drama for a modern audience. It functions as a human drama, a scientific puzzle, a horror story, and a masterpiece of unease. Simon Bucher-Jones has written or co-written five novels for Doctor Who and its spinoffs.

Ghost Light

2016

‘Darwinian claptrap!’ The last story produced in Doctor Who’s original 26-year-run, Ghost Light (1989) remains one of the most densely complex – a true antecedent of the modern series in its style, pace and focus. Every shot and line has meaning, often more than one. A bricolage of literary and cultural references, a story of alien experimentation set in a haunted house, Ghost Light explores issues of science, religion, class, race and more. Jonathan Dennis has written for Faction Paradox, Iris Wildthyme, Señor 105, and Bernice Summerfield.

The Mind Robber

2016

‘We obey our creator. That is all that can be expected of any character.’ In a transitional season of Doctor Who between the base under siege formula and later, more grounded stories, no story was more experimental than The Mind Robber (1968), the debut of the visually inventive director David Maloney. Its creative solutions to production problems, including a main cast member’s illness and the need to add an entire extra episode, lift it from run-of-the-mill whimsy to one of the series’ finest moments. Andrew Hickey has written books on topics including Doctor Who, and a novel, Head of State.

Black Orchid

2016

‘Why didn’t I leave after the cricket?’ With its vintage cars, cocktails and genteel murder, Black Orchid (1982) mines comfortably familiar literary and televisual traditions. Yet within this country house is a disfigured prisoner whose history invites us to confront our prejudices about mental and physical injury, and our beliefs about colonialism and race. A two-part story without extraneous science-fiction elements, Black Orchid plays games with our ideas of monsters, doppelgangers and identity, as well as cricket. Ian Millsted has written for the You and Who series and for various comics websites and short story anthologies.

The God Complex

2017

‘Why is it up to you to save us? That’s quite a God complex you have there.’ Drawing deftly on sources from the Theseus myth to Nineteen Eighty-Four and The Shining, The God Complex (2011) expands a one-line brief about a shifting, labyrinthine hotel into a tragic commentary on the Doctor’s fallibility and Amy’s misplaced faith. Unsettling, disorientating and frankly terrifying, Toby Whithouse’s story considers fear, belief and the series’ fundamental question: Who is the Doctor? Is he a hero, or simply ‘a madman in a box’? Paul Driscoll is a regular writer for You and Who and Doctor Who Worldwide, and contributed two short stories to Seasons Of War.

#10

Scream of the Shalka

2017

‘I do love a nice old-fashioned invasion.’ Intended as the first in a series of online animated dramas, Scream of the Shalka (2003) attempts to redefine Doctor Who for the 21st century. Following a traditional narrative formula, it rethinks the Doctor, the companion and the Master in ways that anticipate the later revived series. A victim of timing as much as of its own flaws, it remains a fascinating glimpse into an alternative vision for Doctor Who. Jon Arnold wrote The Black Archive #1: Rose. Includes the previously unpublished storyline for Simon Clark’s sequel, ‘Blood of the Robots’.

#11

The Evil of the Daleks

2017

‘Without knowing, you have shown the Daleks what their own strength is!’ Originally commissioned to kill off the Daleks forever, The Evil of the Daleks (1967) is an epic, eerie conclusion to Doctor Who’s fourth series. It grapples with issues of authenticity, from the mystery of brand-new Victorian antiques in swinging London to questions of human – and Dalek – identity. Now new research and interviews shed fresh light on this now largely missing story, its characters and its mix of science and history. Simon Guerrier is the author of numerous Doctor Who books, comics and audio plays.

#12

Pyramids of Mars

2017

‘Your evil is my good. I am Sutekh the Destroyer.’ Pyramids of Mars (1975) inherits not only the mythology of Ancient Egypt, but a long tradition of Gothic fiction. Late-Victorian imperial guilt, and a fascination with mummification and the afterlife, led to stories of reverse colonisation, later reincarnated as 20th-century horror movies. These in turn inspired the alien gods and robot mummies of Pyramids of Mars, including one of the Doctor’s most frightening adversaries: Sutekh, the enemy of all life. Kate Orman has written or co-written 13 Doctor Who novels, and a chapter in Doctor Who and Race.

#15

Full Circle

2018

'Well, evolution goes in quantum leaps, but it doesn’t go that fast.’ 1980 was a time of profound change for Doctor Who, with a new producer and script editor both keen to overhaul the series at all levels. During the course of its 18th season the series would also undergo a complete change of its leading cast. Positioned in the middle of this pivotal season, Full Circle (1980) exemplifies the new production team’s vision, one that rejected the fantasy overtones of previous years and put a more science-driven ethos at the heart of the series. It attempts to present the concept of evolution to a tea-time family audience in an entertaining way, dramatising it by depicting the inhabitants of a spaceship and a primordial swamp in conflict with each other. But stranger elements lurk beneath the surface, forgotten and waiting to re-emerge. This book puts Full Circle under the microscope and discovers a mixed heritage of discredited science, pseudoscience and mysticism. It also considers the effect this story, the first to be written by someone who grew up as a fan of Doctor Who, had on the evolution of the series itself.

#16

Carnival of Monsters

2018

‘Our purpose is to amuse… simply to amuse. Nothing serious, nothing political…’ Carnival of Monsters (1973) is a story of two halves. Two apparently unlinked stories unfold in a pair of quite different worlds. The crew of a steamship en route to Bombay in 1926 are menaced by a terror from the deep that should be extinct, while on an intensely socially stratified world, nervous officials prepare to make first contact with alien beings after thousands of years in isolation. Somehow, the Doctor and Jo Grant will find themselves stepping between these worlds in one of the most bizarre Doctor Who stories of its era. Simultaneously a light comedy with satirical undercurrents and a thrilling children’s adventure featuring ferocious alien beasts, Carnival of Monsters brings together a producer-director keen to push the boundaries of the electronic studio and a writer who delights in conjuring worlds from tiny off-stage details. The result is a remarkable piece of television with its own unique flavour that works on a number of levels for a variety of audiences. Written with access to surviving scripts, storylines and production files this Black Archive volume explores the roots of Carnival of Monsters as a story, its thematic resonances and linguistic quirks and its occasionally troubled production. Roll up and see the monster show, and take a peek behind the curtain. Ian Potter has written documentaries, comedy and drama for BBC radio, audio dramas for Big Finish Productions, and plays performed at the Crucible Theatre, Sheffield, Contact Theatre, Manchester, West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds and Theatre at the Mill, Bradford. He’s worked as a sound designer, archive researcher in television and been a curator at the National Museum of Photography, Film & Television. His previous factual writing includes The Rise and Rise of the Independents, a history of UK television’s indie production sector. He’s not terribly interesting, but he means well.

#18

Marco Polo

2018

‘This is the Plain of Pamir, known to those who travel to Cathay as the Roof of the World.’ Marco Polo (1964) reflects a cultural change reshaping TV’s role as historian, placing the interpretation of history in the viewers’ hands by recruiting them as travellers in Polo’s caravan. Examining camera treatments and mobility, adaptive and remedial interventions, public and book history, cultural assumptions and memories, this book celebrates the work of collaborators, copyists, studio personnel and fans in reconstructing this most famous and earliest of missing Doctor Who stories.

#19

The Eleventh Hour

2018

‘Oh, you sexy thing!’ With its fantastical imagery and its child’s eye view of the Doctor, The Eleventh Hour(2010) is a bold reinvention of a series that was radically reimagined only five years previously. Drawing on elements of farce, fandom and fairytale, The Eleventh Hour’s games with the audience’s perceptions and expectations lay the groundwork for ideas that would play out during the whole of new showrunner Steven Moffat’s time with Doctor Who. Jon Arnold has written two previous Black Archives, on Rose and Scream of the Shalka. He is fast becoming the go to guy for analyses of Doctor Who relaunches.

#20

Face the Raven

2018

‘Let me be brave. Let me be brave …’ In a series where violent death is prevalent but the regular characters generally immune, Face the Raven (2015) is a rarity in featuring the demise of the 12th Doctor’s longstanding companion Clara Oswald. While Doctor Who’s basis as a time-travel series means that the audience will see Clara again, everything after her death here is borrowed time. The figures reintroduced by Face the Raven all play unexpected parts: Ashildr, a Viking woman made immortal by the Doctor, is a mayor; Rigsy, a graffiti artist befriended by Clara, is a murder suspect; and numerous monsters from the series’ past have become refugees. Scripted by Sarah Dollard, an Australian living in the UK, the story uses the tropes and imagery of Doctor Who to comment on real-world issues of immigration, asylum and the penal system, its narrative leading directly to the Doctor’s own incarceration in the following episode. This Black Archive draws on the history of London and its presentation in fantasy, on queer and feminist theory and on the mythic and folkloric symbolism of ravens to examine this haunting story. It is the first of three books dealing with the final episodes of the 2015 season of Doctor Who. Sarah Groenewegen is the author of the novel Daughters of Earth, and of numerous essays on Doctor Who, gaming, and being queer. In 2016 she was awarded a British Empire Medal for her services to law enforcement and LGBT+ diversity.

#21

Heaven Sent

2018

‘I’m not scared of Hell – it’s just Heaven for bad people.’ Nine series into its 21st-century run, Doctor Who made history with Steven Moffat’s Heaven Sent (2015). It was the show’s first single-hander, and the first ever to be shortlisted for an Emmy Award. Beyond that, it took Peter Capaldi’s 12th Doctor on a journey of self-discovery through a bespoke torture chamber, covering billions of years and the depth of a diamond wall. But Heaven Sent is more than just the Doctor’s own puzzle-box: it also serves as a decoder ring, allowing us deeper insight into both the Time Lord who fled Gallifrey and the persona of ‘the Doctor’ he adopted for himself. With a toolbox containing everything from Jungian psychology to video game design, this Black Archive (the second of three covering the final episodes of the 2015 season) seeks to take apart the Doctor’s Confession Dial and discover what he’s been hiding from his audience – and himself – for all these years. Kara Dennison is a writer and journalist specialising in deep analysis of geek and genre entertainment. She has contributed to Seasons of War, and The City of the Saved and You and Who series, and is the co- creator of the light novel series Owl’s Flower. In March 2018, she conducted Peter Capaldi’s first public interview since leaving Doctor Who.

#22

Hell Bent

2018

‘These have been the best years of my life, and they are mine. Tomorrow is promised to no one, Doctor, but I insist upon my past.’ Hell Bent (2015) is a story that twists our expectations. Grand villains are reintroduced and then quickly discarded. The Doctor shifts from a heroic figure to an anti-hero. And a familiar scenario between the Doctor and a dying companion plays out with radically different results. This is a story that explores and challenges some of the Doctor’s most paternalistic, controlling behaviours. The companion departs with an origin story equal to the Doctor’s. And with a Time Lord’s on-screen regeneration from a white man into a black woman, the path to Jodie Whittaker’s casting as the Doctor became even clearer. This is the third of three Black Archive titles covering the final episodes of the 2015 season. The Black Archive #20: Face the Raven by Sarah Groenewegen and The Black Archive #21: Heaven Sent by Kara Dennison were published in June and July 2018. Alyssa Franke writes the blog Whovian Feminism and is the co-host of the This Week in Time Travel podcast.

#23

The Curse of Fenric

2018

‘The dark curse follows our dragon ship.’ One of the last stories of Doctor Who’s original 26-year run, The Curse of Fenric is the first to make use of a Second World War setting. Complex and thoughtful, the story – and its various extended editions – draws on a range of sources and responds to a variety of social and cultural contexts. A vivid historical that stands on its own terms, The Curse of Fenric explores themes of history, maturation, progress, and collective action.

#24

The Time Warrior

2018

Originally conceived as a satire on the Vietnam War, The Time Warrior (1973-74) became a story which anticipated the Gothic mode of later Doctor Who. Matthew Kilburn considers its presentation of feminism, its relaxed approach to history, and its paradoxically unique villain.

#25

Doctor Who (1996)

2018

‘I can’t make your dream come true forever, but I can make it come true today.’ In 1996 the Doctor Who TV movie gave new hope to a generation of fans, but it quickly proved a false dawn. While the production’s successes and failures have been exhaustively documented, the script, with its unique perspective on the Doctor’s Britishness, has been given lesser attention. With the help of over 1500 fans who answered our survey, and input from screenwriter Matthew Jacobs, this Black Archive fills that gap.

#27

The Face of Evil

2019

‘You know, the very powerful and the very stupid have one thing in common…’ When Robert Holmes and Philip Hinchcliffe asked Chris Boucher to write about a civilisation that breaks down when its controlling computer fails, Boucher handed in an outline called ‘The Day God Went Mad’. The finished serial, retitled The Face of Evil (1977), featured a giant stone face of the fourth Doctor and the introduction of Leela. This volume of the Black Archive puts the ‘mad god’ Xoanon on the couch for analysis – but also examines the stereotypes of ‘madness’ and Freudian explanations for behaviour that pervade the serial (and the series). Viewing the serial through a psychological lens uncovers answers to many questions, including whether the different Doctors are really so different, what madness means in Doctor Who, why exactly Leela’s eyes had to be brown, and whether Boucher really based his script on a novel by Harry Harrison. Bonus features include a report on a study of the Doctor’s personality and a new interview with Boucher.

#30

The Dalek Invasion of Earth

2019

“Survivors of London, the Daleks are the masters of Earth. Surrender now and you will live.” The story of the Daleks’ return to Doctor Who in The Dalek Invasion of Earth (1964) has been told in multiple media, but for this Black Archive, Jonathan Morris has had unparalleled access to the many variants of the scripts. After 55 years, learn the identity of ‘The Waking Ally’, discover Milton Subotsky’s working draft of the second feature film, and find out why the iconic shot of the Daleks crossing Westminster Bridge doesn’t appear in the actual story.

#32

The Romans

2019

‘Oh, something else I forgot to tell you: I think I’ve poisoned Nero.’ Following 53 episodes of unbroken action adventure, The Romans (1965) was Doctor Who’s first ever comedy. Beyond this seminal place in history – beyond the serial’s clever script, vigorous direction, fine acting and all the humour – it remains notable as an expression of 1960s culture, counterculture, and a burgeoning spirit of reinvention. The Romans afforded us the gift of laughter and allowed Doctor Who the freedom to shed its skin.

#33

Horror of Fang Rock

2019

‘Yes, I always find trouble.’ An isolated Edwardian lighthouse, mysterious deaths, an unexpected shipwreck, a body-snatching alien: Horror of Fang Rock (1977) distils Doctor Who’s vein of Gothic horror, setting the Doctor in a locale that mirrors and amplifies his duality. The story intersects with the lore of the lighthouse as historical icon, as technological compendium, and as literary allegory, to probe the limits of knowledge, the artifice of class and the dangers of narrative.

#39

The Silurians

2020

‘If the Brigadier won’t listen to reason, Liz, maybe the Silurians will.’ In the face of hopelessness, are we still compelled to do the right thing? No Doctor Who story encapsulates the layered complexity of science versus ethics more than Doctor Who and The Silurians (1970). The story raises issues of land rights, the 1970s energy crisis, technological innovation, animal experimentation and the role of the military. Science is presented as the solution to many of the problems, but terrible acts result from the morality of the choices made by both humans and Silurians – and an exiled Time Lord.

#48

Arachnids in the UK

2020

“How’s this for fire and fury?” Arachnids in the UK (2018) is both a homage to the tropes and history of the giant spider movie, and one of the most direct political satires in the history of Doctor Who, looking to comment on and criticise the inescapable personality of Donald Trump at the dawn of a new era for the show. Looking at the philosophy of B-movies, the Gothic sensibilities of the Chris Chibnall era and industrial history, this book offers a coherent reading of this episode’s ideological web: its aesthetic successes, its political failings, and its surprising sociological relevance.

#49

The Night of the Doctor

2020

‘Physician, heal thyself.’ Released as a webcast in the prelude to Doctor Who’s 50th anniversary, The Night of the Doctor (2013) revisited Paul McGann’s eighth Doctor 17 years after his sole TV appearance. In just seven minutes, showrunner Steven Moffat’s characteristically revisionist return to the series’ past blends Doctor Who lore from diverse eras and media with images of rebirth and resurrection, and questions of identity.

#50

The Day of the Doctor

2020

“She didn’t just show me any old future, she showed me exactly the future I needed to see.” A puzzle. A key. A superstructure and, arguably, the most important Doctor Who story ever made. The Day of the Doctor is all these things and much more. For this 50th Black Archive, Alasdair Stuart examines the 3D storytelling at the heart of the show’s 50th anniversary tale from 2013.

#51

Earthshock

2021

‘Excellent!’ Earthshock (1982) featured the unexpected return of the Cybermen after seven years, updated for the 1980s, and the unexpected death of one of the Doctor’s companions, for the first time since the 1960s. It was also the first example of a new style of Doctor Who serial that the show revisited regularly, albeit to diminishing returns. A high point of 1980s Doctor Who, Brian Robb gives it the credit it deserves – but also suggests that it potentially sowed the seeds for the show’s ultimate cancellation in 1989.

#58

The Talons of Weng-Chiang

2022

“Have I ever, in my thirty years in the halls, seen such a dazzling display of lustrous legerdemain? So many feats of superlative, supernatural skill? The answer must be never, sir. Never.” Most likely to be described as ‘a product of its time’, The Talons of Weng-Chiang has been hailed as the best Doctor Who story ever written, and maligned as blatant sinophobia. No other story has had more requests to consider it in its proper historical context, but perhaps equally important is how that context affects our relationship with the story today.

Authors

Dene October lectures at the University of the Arts London on subjects ranging from David Bowie studies to fan cultures, fashion and Doctor Who by Design. He studied fashion journalism at London College of Fashion and won the Graduate Journalism Award. His writing ranges from feature articles to academic books, poetry to novels. He is co-editor of Doctor Who and History and has contributed many book chapters on the British programme, and on pop icon David Bowie. His current book, Marco Polo, was 2018 Critters awards finalist in the Non Fiction category. The book explores the lost 1964 Doctor Who classic by entwining broadcast history with the stories of the famous Venetian, as well as his own childhood geographical and televisual travels, all while reflecting on the themes of media, mobility and memory. The result is an epic travelogue where the author tags along with Marco, Ping-Cho, Susan, Ian, Barbara and the Doctor whilst simultaneously examining a different theme in each chapter on such topics as camera story-telling, collaborative authorship, public history and transformative journeys.

Thomas L Rodebaugh is a psychologist and an associate professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Washington University in St Louis. He has published over 100 articles and chapters in scientific journals and books. He has also published fiction. In his spare time, he enjoys gardening and playing the guitar (both badly).

Matthew Guerrieri

Author · 2 books

MATTHEW GUERRIERI is the music critic for The Boston Globe, and his articles have also appeared in Vanity Fair, NewMusicBox, Playbill, and Slate. He is responsible for the popular classical music weblog Soho the Dog

I’m a Scottish writer, editor and geek, with a blog called Follow That Trebuchet cause medieval siege weaponry is awesome, most especially trebuchets. I co-edited the Hugo Award nominated anthology Chicks Unravel Time (with Deborah Stanish), and Companion Piece (with Liz Barr), and I’ve written for Doctor Who in prose and on audio, most recently the title story on the Big Finish release Breaking Bubbles and Other Stories. My writing’s been published in Cranky Ladies of History, Uncanny Magazine, and Bernice Summerfield: Present Danger, amongst others. You can also hear me say very sensible things about Doctor Who on the Verity! podcast.

Simon Guerrier is a British science fiction author and dramatist, closely associated with the fictional universe of Doctor Who and its spinoffs. Although he has written three Doctor Who novels, for the BBC Books range, his work has mostly been for Big Finish Productions' audio drama and book ranges. Guerrier's earliest published fiction appeared in Zodiac, the first of Big Finish's Short Trips range of Doctor Who short story anthologies. To date, his work has appeared in the majority of the Short Trips collections. He has also edited three volumes in the series, The History of Christmas, Time Signature and How The Doctor Changed My Life. The second of these takes as its starting-point Guerrier's short story An Overture Too Early in The Muses. The third anthology featured stories entirely by previously unpublished writers. After contributing two stories to the anthology Life During Wartime in Big Finish's Bernice Summerfield range of books and audio dramas, Guerrier was invited to edit the subsequent year's short story collection, A Life Worth Living, and the novella collection Parallel Lives. After contributing two audio dramas to the series, Guerrier became the producer of the Bernice Summerfield range of plays and books, a post he held between January 2006 and June 2007. His other Doctor Who work includes the audio dramas, The Settling and The Judgement of Isskar, in Big Finish's Doctor Who audio range, three Companion Chronicles and a contribution to the UNIT spinoff series. He has also written a play in Big Finish's Sapphire and Steel range. Guerrier's work is characterised by character-driven humour and by an interest in unifying the continuity of the various Big Finish ranges through multiple references and reappearances of characters. As editor he has been a strong promoter of the work of various script writers from the Seventh Doctor era of the Doctor Who television series

I had a biography here but it was very out of date. Currently my main work is my podcast, A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs. The New Yorker compared that to the Bible, Oxford English Dictionary, and the works of Gibbon and Pepys, and said it "will eclipse every literary project in history". So that's nice.