Interview: Tom Arden

The author of Nightdreamers.

How did you come to write a Doctor Who Novella? Writing for Doctor Who was an ambition of mine as a child. Of course I'd like to have written for the TV series, but failing that, I'd been toying with the idea of a book for quite some time.

I nearly put together a proposal for BBC Books a couple of years ago, but what with work on my five-volume fantasy series, The Orokon, I never got around to it. But as it turned out, I'd just finished the series when David Howe approached me to write a novella for Telos Books. The timing couldn't have been better, and I jumped at the chance.

What was it that appealed to you?

I suppose I like Doctor Who for two reasons. One of them, inevitably, is childhood nostalgia. Doctor Who was one of the first things I ever saw on television. I was obsessed with it as a child, and I still love it.

But it's not just nostalgia. Looking at it now, as a professional writer, I also think Doctor Who is simply the most brilliant science fiction format ever devised. There's nothing else to touch it, so far as I'm concerned.

The Doctor is a great dramatic character, great in the way that Sherlock Holmes is great. So I don't need that much persuading to write a Doctor Who story, I assure you.

What made you choose the Doctor/Companion

Jon Pertwee has always been one of my favourite Doctors. As a performer, he had tremendous presence, and was a treat to watch whether he was playing a part or just being himself. As the Doctor, he was totally convincing.

Katy Manning, as Jo Grant, was the perfect companion. The on-screen chemistry between them was wonderful. Their time together remains one of my favourite periods of Doctor Who, so I didn't have to think too hard about writing a Third Doctor story with Jo as the companion.

What's it all about then?

I'd just finished writing a very long and involved fantasy series, so I was keen to do a simple, straight-ahead story. For some time I'd been toying with the idea of a short novel that took place over a single night, with lots of weird goings-on in the small hours, and the whole situation resolved by dawn.

Since I wanted it to be fantasy, this made me think of Shakespeare's play A Midsummer Night's Dream, and I began to think of trying to do a science fantasy book that would have that kind of structure, and use some of the same elements. (Shakespeare is a fantastic inspiration for science fiction and fantasy writers, by the way. Lots of crazy Royals and weird magic!)

Anyway, all this was going round in my head when I was approached to do the Doctor Who book, so suddenly I saw the possibility of a Doctor Who version of A Midsummer Night's Dream. Hence Nightdreamers. Of course, by the time I'd finished, Nightdreamers had gone a long way beyond its starting point.

Those who know the original play will recognise some elements, but I've also introduced a monster that definitely isn't out of Shakespeare. Come to think of it, Shakespeare didn't have the gadgets either. Or the Doctor. Or the TARDIS. Still, I suppose he did quite well for himself, considering.

Nightdreamers is heavily influenced by A Midsummer Night's Dream. How did you approach the plot with this in mind? Did you have to be careful not to copy to exactly. When I started thinking about ideas that would be suitable for a novella, I liked the idea of a story that was set over a single night, starting in the evening, and ending at dawn.

I realised that the classic example of this sort of thing is Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, and as that is also a famous fantasy story, I thought it would be fun to take it as a model.

I used several ideas from the play, and tried to suggest something of the feel of it. But the main plot of my novella is original. It's certainly not a point-by-point steal from Shakespeare!

How did the poems that pepper the text come about?

In my Orokon books I'd done a lot of verses and songs, inserted in the text at various points. Of course that's part of the epic fantasy convention, stemming from Tolkien.

But I always enjoyed writing the verses, and so when I was doing Nightdreamers, with its supposedly Shakespearean story, it seemed natural to have verses in it. I hope it contributes to the ethereal, otherwordly feel.

What is it about Who that allows for a fanciful fantasy to work in the same series as hard SF and horror stories.

Doctor Who is an amazingly flexible format. Ultimately, though, I think it's about four things. It's about characterisation, particularly our profound affection for the character of the Doctor. It's about the TARDIS and time-travel, which are endlessly fascinating. It's about weirdness, mystery, unusual or supposedly impossible things. And, of course, it's about storytelling.

If you can tell an exciting story, with lots of fantastical weirdness and mystery, and the Doctor caught in the middle of it, I think you can do almost anything with Doctor Who.

What is your favourite era of Who and why?

The seventies, I'll admit. A lot of the sixties stuff looks dated today, but for all that it's interesting to Who fans. By the eighties, there's a distinct sense that the party's over.

Colin Baker, for example, is a very talented actor (I saw him in Privates on Parade at the Theatre Royal in Brighton years ago, playing a drag queen, of all things, and he was pure magic, truly larger than life), but his period in Who just never gelled, for a Whole lot of reasons that weren't his fault.

To me, the classic periods are Pertwee and Tom Baker, when the show was really firing on every level, though I will add that the Troughton era has some stunning stuff, too.

If you could take a TARDIS ride to anywhere and any time, where would you go and why? Ah, but the Whole point of the TARDIS is that you wouldn't have to choose! You could go to one era, then another, and another, and so on forever.

Still, I'd probably start with Ancient Egypt, Ancient Rome, King Arthur's time, Elizabethan England (I'd quite like to meet Sir Francis Drake) ... and then, of course, I'd visit the far, far future.

What do you feel is the appeal of Who? Is it relevant to today's audiences (whether in book or other formats).

In the end, Who taps into some of our deepest fantasies, particularly our desire to go wherever we want, to do whatever we want, to have wild adventures in other worlds. It's classic fantasy, even if it comes in science-fictional guise.

As such, it's also appealingly innocent (important in this cynical world). It's about goodness. It's about heroism. And, like Harry Potter, it has a powerful edge of nostalgia, a quality of classic Englishness which adds immensely to its appeal. Who is completely relevant to today's audiences (just as relevant as Harry Potter, or Lord of the Rings).

The problem with Who is not with the basic format or the idea. Who should come back to the screen, and I hope it will, but if it's going to succeed it needs to tap into the core strengths which made the show work in the first place.

The McGann movie was a ghastly miscalculation. Doctor Who in America! It was all wrong. And McGann's Doctor should not have been made to look like a bargain-basement version of Tom Baker.

But do it well, and Who will work. I'm sure of it, because it's the best science fiction format ever. It's wonderful.

• Tom Arden
  

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