Paul Cornell

Paul Cornell
Birth date:	18 July 1967
Work in the DWU
Main jobs:	Writer, Editor
Stories:	See Credits Section
Main time period active:	1989-2013, 2015-20
Career highlights
Notable non-DWU work:	Children's Ward, Casualty, Robin Hood, Primeval, Captain Britain, Elementary, This Damned Band, Blake's 7
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Paul Cornell (born 18 July 1967) wrote several Virgin New Adventures and edited several Bernice Summerfield anthologies for Big Finish Productions.

He co-authored The Avengers Programme Guide.

Paul Cornell was responsible for several additions to the Doctor Who universe. He created Bernice Summerfield and Wolsey the cat. "A friend of mine has a cat called Wolsey, and I wanted there to be a cat in the TARDIS, and I put it to Peter Darvill-Evans and Co. And they said No no no. And then a few nights later at a nice drinking session Rebecca said, 'Thish cat Poll, Thish cat Wolsey, we'll av im we'll av im'."

He also wrote two televised stories, the first being Father's Day for the 2005 series of Doctor Who, and adapted his novel Human Nature into the two-part Human Nature / The Family of Blood for the 2007 series being the second. Both were nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form, although he lost both times to fellow Who scribe Steven Moffat.

He was later nominated in the Best Graphic Story category for The Girl Who Loved Doctor Who, making him the only person to be nominated in two separate categories for his work on Doctor Who.

Cornell pitched several Doctor Who television stories during Steven Moffat's tenure, including the script Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and adaptations of his stories Love and War and The Hopes and Fears of All the Years. None of these were produced; however, elements of The Hopes and Fears of All the Years were used in A Christmas Carol.

He also contributed to the charity reference book Behind the Sofa: Celebrity Memories of Doctor Who.

He was interviewed for the revival series' tenth anniversary. He commented that he always thought the show would return to TV. (REF: DWM 485)

The Heralds of Destruction, a comic story released from September 2016 to February 2017, was originally Cornell's final contribution to the Doctor Who universe, as he afterwards planned to cease writing for characters not of his own design. However, he later wrote the Target novelisation of Twice Upon a Time, published in April 2018, and a "shadow" trilogy of short stories for Doctor Who: Lockdown! in 2020.

Credits

Television

Doctor Who TV stories

• Father's Day
• Human Nature / The Family of Blood

Novels

Target Novelisations

• Twice Upon a Time

BBC Novelisations

• Scream of the Shalka

Virgin New Adventures

• Timewyrm: Revelation
• Love and War
• No Future
• Human Nature
• Happy Endings

Virgin Missing Adventures

• Goth Opera

BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures

• The Shadows of Avalon

Virgin Bernice Summerfield New Adventures

• Oh No It Isn't!

Short stories

Doctor Who Magazine

• An Incident Concerning the Continual Bombardment of the Phobos Colony
• Prelude Love and War
• Prelude No Future
• Prelude Human Nature
• Teenage Kicks
• Cathedral Heart
• Doctor Who - The Ninth Doctor

Virgin Decalogs

• Lackaday Express (in Decalog)
• The Trials of Tara (in Decalog 2: Lost Property)

Doctor Who Yearbook

• Country of the Blind

Doctor Who annuals

• The Masks of Makassar

The Sunday Times

• Deep and Dreamless Sleep

The Daily Telegraph

• The Hopes and Fears of All the Years

Web short stories

• The War of Art
• The Shadow Passes

Big Finish Bernice Summerfield series

• The Dead Men Diaries (in The Dead Man Diaries)
• The Shape of the Hole (in A Life of Surprises)
• The Fall (in Life During Wartime)
• Lockdown Conversations: 1 (in Life During Wartime)
• Lockdown Conversations: 2 (in Life During Wartime)
• Lockdown Conversations: 3 (in Life During Wartime)
• Lockdown Conversations: 4 (in Life During Wartime)
• Misplaced Spring (in A Life Worth Living)

Reference books

• The Discontinuity Guide

Audio

Doctor Who Main Range

• The Shadow of the Scourge
• Seasons of Fear (with Caroline Symcox)
• Circular Time (with Mike Maddox)
• The 100 Days of the Doctor

Special Releases

• Buried Treasures
  • Closure

Novel Adaptations

• Love and War (adapted by Jacqueline Rayner)

Big Finish Bernice Summerfield series

• Oh No It Isn't! (adapted by Jacqueline Rayner)
• Closure
• Death and the Daleks
• Many Happy Returns (with Xanna Eve Chown, Stephen Cole, Scott Handcock, Stephen Fewell, Simon Guerrier, Rebecca Levene, Jacqueline Rayner, Justin Richards, Miles Richardson, Eddie Robson and Dave Stone)
• Misplaced Spring

Doctor Who: Lockdown

• Shadow of a Doubt

Webcasts

Other

• Scream of the Shalka

Doctor Who: Lockdown

• The Shadow in the Mirror

Comic stories

Doctor Who Magazine comic stories

• Stairway to Heaven (with John Freeman)
• The Chameleon Factor
• Emperor of the Daleks!
• Time & Time Again

Doctor Who Magazine special issues

• Seaside Rendezvous

Doctor Who Yearbook

• Metamorphosis
• Blood Invocation

BBC Writers' Comics

• Just Another Thursday

IDW

• The Girl Who Loved Doctor Who

Titan Comics

• Four Doctors
• The Doctor Shops for Comics
• Open Mic Night
• The Meeting
• The Doctors Do... Classic Comedy
• The Doctor Shops for Angels
• In-Between Times

Doctor Who: The Third Doctor

• The Heralds of Destruction

As editor

Short Trips

• Short Trips: A Christmas Treasury

Big Finish Bernice Summerfield series

• The Dead Men Diaries
• A Life of Surprises
• Life During Wartime

External links

• Official website
• Paul Cornell at the Internet Movie Database
• Interview with Paul Cornell, 3rd March 1995, which appeared in Broadsword issue three
• Interview with Paul Cornell, 1999, which appeared in issue 3 of The Curse magazine
• TSV 43 Four Writers, One Discussion - Andy Lane, Paul Cornell, Steven Moffat & David Bishop By Guy Blythman
• Den of Geek - Paul Cornell interview: Captain Britain, Doctor Who, Matt Smith, Primeval and more..., Published 23rd March, 2009
• Throwback Interview: Paul Cornell (2002)
• BBC.co.uk website interview with Paul Cornell, 01 January 2004
• Outpost Gallifrey - Interview: Paul Cornell (archived)