Interview: David Bishop

Favourite books, Doctors and more...

What's you favourite Target novel?

Doctor Who and the Cave Monsters by Malcolm Hulke. That was only the second TV story I saw and the book really brought it back to life for me.

I loved the way Hulke fleshed out the backstory of secondary characters, made them come alive. Those funky Chris Achilleos illustrations didn't hurt either - love the flares.

What's your other favourite Who novel?

Ever? Blimey, that's a tough one. I'll pick Nightshade by Mark Gatiss, a wonderful evocation of the show's spirit and the pangs of nostalgia we all feel for aspects of our past. Like Hulke's book, Gatiss made you care about the characters. Nightshade is one of the few Who novels I've ever read more than once - and it didn't disappoint second time around.

The most fun Doctor to write for?

I enjoyed tackling the Fifth Doctor in Empire of Death, a character of surprising strength and resolve despite his apparent vulnerability. Readers can decide whether I've done him justiced. But the most fun had to be the Unbound Doctor I created for the Big Finish audio Full Fathom Five.

It was a joy to script such an existential take on the Doctor. Despite what happened to him at the end of FF5, I'd like to write more about that Doctor - it would be intriguing to discover what drove him to become so ruthless.

The Doctor you dread writing for?

I can't say I did the Eighth Doctor justice in The Domino Effect, or ever got a grip on his personality. The dizzy spells and disorientation he suffered in the book rendered him passive and ineffectual. As a result he doesn't fulfil the expected role of a central protagonist, leaving a hole in the heart of the story.

The Doctor Who book you wish you'd written

In 2002 someone suggested that I think about a sequel to Who Killed Kennedy, a side-step Who novel published by Virgin six years earlier. After mulling it over, I came up with an approach that could work without rehashing what I had already done. I began researching the relevant era and brainstorming ideas, getting excited and enthusiastic.

Alas, a problem involving rights made it unlikely BBC Books could ever commission the novel, so I never got to write it. But when it comes to somebody else's Doctor Who book I wish I'd written, that has to be Human Nature - a heartfelt and thoughtful novel, so much better than anything I could have ever created given the same concept.

• David Bishop
  

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