Interview: Jacqueline Rayner

The book and audio author on Wolfsbane, Short Trips and cake.

Tell us about your upcoming novel for BBC Books, Wolfsbane.

Well, it's got the Fourth Doctor, Sarah and Harry, and someone who just might be the amnesiac Eighth Doctor; there are strange and creepy goings on in the West Country just before the outbreak of the Second World War, and a lot of hopefully atmospheric gothic horror with werewolves, spooky forests and, er, the Holy Grail.

If you like the sound of that, hurrah! I hope it lives up to your expectations. If you think that sounds terrible, I'd like to reassure you that that was by no means an accurate representation of the finished product. Although, to be honest, you'll probably hate it anyway.

What made you pick the early part of the Fourth Doctor era for the novel?

Mainly it was because I love the team. Sarah and Harry are just wonderful, and I wish there had been many more adventures with them. And the Doctor back then was this fantastically wild alien, totally unpredictable.

The Wolsbane blurb tells us that Harry Sullivan died under a full moon - can we expect hairy Harry the werewolf then?

You can expect it if you like, but I'm not going to tell you if he is or not! He's certainly suspected of so being... but then characters in Doctor Who are often suspected of being things they're not. Ha ha! It will just have to remain a mystery until you read the book.

What's your favourite story in the upcoming Short Trips 4 anthology you edited?

Well, they're all wonderful. I couldn't possibly pick one. Just to give you a few teasers, though - Justin Richards's story is possibly my favourite thing of everything he's ever written, and had me crying buckets.

Steve Lyons's story is incredibly touching, a beautiful insight into a little known companion and the compassion of the First Doctor. Gareth Roberts's story is hilarious, and has the best portrayal of the Fourth Doctor and Leela I've ever read.

Robert Shearman's story is another very touching one, and one of those fabulously clever stories with really real characters he does so well. To put it bluntly, it's a very good collection, even if I do say so myself.

Who would you pick as you Unbound Doctor if you wrote one of those audio adventures for Big Finish?

Maggie Kirkpatrick, in "What if... the Doctor was a tough female Australian prison guard?"

Have you ever find yourself falling into the same traps writing Who that you tell people to avoid as an editor?

Oh goodness yes. All the time! Hopefully, a lot of the time they get spotted because I'm aware of them, but there are some habits it's very hard to break. I'm not going to give examples, though, because if people haven't spotted the problems I don't want to point them out...

Which character from Who mythology would you most like to give a speech at your upcoming wedding?

Well, I think the Sixth Doctor does good speeches. A Moonbase Cyberman might be a good idea, because if he says anything embarrassing, no one would understand a word. Harry would be adorably charming. Professor Zaroff would give good value, I expect. And Harrison Chase could play the organ. All day.

>What next in the world of Doctor Who for Jac Rayner?

Planet of the Daleks. I'm watching it with the Time Team for Doctor Who Magazine. After that... no idea! (Well, obviously, immediately after that we'll be watching The Green Death. But you know what I mean.)

Now that you're an expert - what makes a really good short story? And what makes a really bad one?

I think it may be stretching it just a little bit to say I'm an expert - but I do love short stories and so definitely have some opinions on the subject. Although I'm sure a lot of editors think differently, this is more or less what I put in my original notes for the Short Trips writers...

The definitive science-fiction short story collection, for me, is John Wyndham's The Seeds of Time, each story 'doing' SF in a different style, and all written in Wyndham's beautifully clear prose. Each tells a complete story - that's another one of my bugbears, in nearly every case I think a short story ought to be a story, not just prose which happens to be a particular length - but at the same time doesn't seem to be a novel idea compressed to fit a word count.

Writing a short story requires a different knack to writing a novel. There are many fantastic writers who just can't manage short stories. It's not necessarily easier just because it's shorter, and it shouldn't be seen as a first step towards writing a novel but as an end in itself. I feel that Sherlock Holmes, for example, works much better in short stories than in novels, in simple one-idea stories rather than more involved tales with subplots etc.

This is where Doctor Who has difficulties; the classic mode for Who is a story that fits two hours and has subplots all over the place, and this has to be abandoned. Crime fiction works excellently in short story form: a problem and a solution. Twists work well.

Experimental styles that would wear out the reader over the course of a novel can be employed to good effect. But quality of prose is still probably the most important factor of all. Other writers whose short stories may be of interest are: Edgar Allan Poe; Roald Dahl; Dorothy L Sayers; G K Chesterton.

Choose the Doctor Who books that have meant the most to you, and explain why.

The Crusaders. One of the first Who books I read, and just glorious - I didn't know the characters or the historical period at all well, but it caught me up completely. The Barbara and El Akir stuff was gripping and terrifying.

The Web of Fear. One of the few Who books our local mobile library had (I lived in the middle of nowhere), and so I read it many, many times, and thought it one of the creepiest things ever.

Day of the Daleks - I remember getting this after having been to see a pantomime, so it's caught up in a whole host of childhood holiday memories. One of the first books I read that really dealt with time travel, rather than using it as a means to an end. I've been fascinated by paradoxes ever since. And was really upset that the second Doctor/Jo meeting didn't happen on the telly.

Mawdryn Undead - the only book I got in hardback (it was in a sale). I can probably still quote you the first couple of paragraphs from memory.

The Romans - my introduction to epistolary fiction! Some Targets were better written than others, but this was not only good but different. Showing the same event from different viewpoints! Varying perceptions! Mixed narrative styles! And I found it hilarious, too.

Frontios - some really scary ideas (the machines made of dead people), a feeling of utter, utter claustrophobia and tension, and compared to many of the books around it which just used words to get from the A to the B of the story, this made you look at the words and phrases themselves - I remember writing a book report at school and waxing lyrical about '100-Turlough lamps' and 'unhandstand-like behaviour'. I could go on for hours - but people have probably skipped on to the next question already!

You wrote Evelyn's first story - and she's gone on to be a huge success for Big Finish. What do you feel are her best qualities, and what is her secret recipe for chocolate cake?

Evelyn is a nice person. She is compassionate, and mature, and knows her own mind - but in an intelligent, not a stubborn way; she's discovered that she has to be willing to learn. She likes being with the Doctor, and she cares about him. They are actually friends. But outside of that, one of her greatest qualities is being played by Maggie Stables, who brings such warmth to Evelyn that I think you'd be hard put not to like her.

Obviously I can't give you her secret recipe for chocolate cake. Because it's a secret. But here's one of my favourites that's very easy and so perfect for anyone just starting out on the cake-making path:

• 6oz marg (melted) 6oz caster sugar 6oz self-raising flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 free range eggs
• 2 heaped tablespoons cocoa, mixed with 2 tablespoons hot water.

Mix everything up together. Put in two tins and cook for 25-35 mins at 170 deg C. After they've cooled, sandwich together with vanilla or chocolate butter icing.

When watching old Dr Who stories for DWM's the Time Team, which story has surprised you the most?

The Celestial Toymaker, because it had such a fascinating premise and I expected to adore it - but was totally disappointed. Harking back to Target Books, I was utterly disappointed with the novelisation of this too - but put that down to the poor prose. Unfortunately, I think the faults were more intrinsic.

The Abominable Snowmen I expected to be really creepy, but it was possibly the dullest story ever. This sounds like I'm being utterly negative, but that's because my surprises were usually of the disappointing kind - I generally expected to love everything, so if I had hugely positive reactions they weren't as big a leap.

Possibly the biggest positive surprises, though, were The Rescue, which I thought would be inconsequential but was a very important story, and The Enemy of the World - received wisdom paints it as appalling, but it's one of the most enjoyable of its season.

Is there a freedom to writing about Benny that you don't get with writing for the Doctor.

Er... yes, I suppose so. I think it depends upon what sort of writing you favour. I tend to go for quite close-up personal narratives, and with Benny you can do that - I do feel rather an affinity for her anyway.

With Who, my preference is for the Doctor to be a bit more apart, a bit less human and empathic, and so although you can focus on him you shouldn't be right with him, inside his head, knowing his thoughts and motivations. But you *can* do that with his companions, so you can still write a Doctor Who book in that way.

Oh, and of course from a character-development point of view, Benny is more open to whole life-changing experiences than the Doctor, who has to stay within certain broad limits.

Iris Wildthyme. Although I'm not much of a drinker, so she'd have to do it for both of us. And she'd probably do all the talking too. Come to think of it, there wouldn't be much point in my going along at all.

Go on. Name your favourite Dr Who monster.

I know you're asking me this because you know my answer! And I should specify that they are my favourite monsters, not what I think are the best Doctor Who monsters ever. And they are, of course, the hilariously truck-driving, self-important, security-kitchen-owning Monoids.

But I just adore almost every one-off Hartnell monster. They're somehow at the same time cliched and imaginative, both innovative and utterly of their time. Sensorites, Rills, the Slyther, Varga Plants, Mechanoids, the "Planetarians", the Optera and Venom Grubs - I love 'em all.

I haven't actually planned November's social life as yet! Maybe we can persuade Jason Haigh-Ellery or Ben Dunn to throw a party? Or perhaps I can convince my boyfriend it would be really appropriate to visit a Doctor Who location, say Lanzarote?

Tell us about your original pirate material. Is it true that there's more singing than swashbuckling in Doctor Who and the Pirates?

Now you're asking me to give away secrets! The answer's probably no, but without counting up the minutes of swashbuckling versus those of singing, I can't be sure. There's a fair amount that's neither singing nor swashbuckling.

It's a hard knowing how to balance a description of it - I want the listener to come to it fresh, but I think there's a danger that if only hints are leaked rather than hard facts, by the time it finally comes out the listener has preconceptions based on their extrapolations, and will be disappointed. But I think and hope that's doing the majority of listeners a disservice, and they'll judge it on its own merits - positive or negative, and for those listeners I don't want to spoil it by giving too much away.

It does have singing in it (we had a very experienced musical director and a host of superb professional singers with impeccable vocal credentials), it has swashbuckling, it has other stuff, and it has a fabulous guest star meaning my two favourite childhood shows were represented in one story and I was a very happy girl indeed.

What does being Executive Producer for Big Finish entail?

There's a question! Without cutting and pasting my job description I'll do it in quite broad strokes, but it's still going to be a long answer to try to give you a reasonably accurate picture. My main official duty is to check the scripts for the licensing dept.

Licensing are responsible for approving all non-BBC-made products that contain BBC-licensed characters or concepts. Some such products, however, really need a bit of in-depth specialist knowledge, and it would be impractical for each member of the licensing team to know every in and out of something as complex and long-standing as Doctor Who. In addition, they want to make sure that there are no major conflicts of interest with BBC merchandise.

Therefore it was suggested that someone in the BBC who knew about Who already and was involved in the current BBC products could act as a consultant to Licensing: that was originally Stephen Cole, and after he left BBC Books I was asked if I would be prepared to do the same.

I have no say whatsoever on the licences themselves, or what Big Finish are allowed to do in a general sense, but I advise Licensing if there might be any problems in giving an official sanction to any particular story or aspect of a story. Practically, it rarely gets to that point as I liaise constantly with Big Finish and flag up any potential problems at an early stage - saving wasted time and energy for everyone.

I read all the scripts and sometimes make suggestions - which is where the line gets a bit blurry, because 'officially' I'm only supposed to comment on BBC-responsibility things, but sometimes I do offer opinions. Of course, Gary has no obligation to act on those, though.

There have only been two occasions where I've had serious concerns about something in a finished script and exercised producerly vetoing - though I should say that BF were fine about both. It helps both sides having one person significantly involved with BBC and BF: Who is an important property to BBC Worldwide and needs to be handled with care, and a way of ensuring they are putting their name on something that is professional and well-respected in the industry is to have a BBC presence.

So I keep an eye out to ensure everything's being done in a way of which Auntie can be proud and that's good for Big Finish too, because if any actors, writers or directors need reassuring that they're not being hoodwinked into some sort of amateur production, they can be pointed in my direction.

• Jacqueline Rayner
  

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