1.) Who are you and what do you do for the Tardis community?
- Our administrative staff at Tardis tends to offer different tasks to different people. Though we have a few generalists, we have admin specifically looking over short stories, books of the 1990s, and even just adventures involving the Eighth Doctor.
I’m sort of a generalist, but really I was “hired” to be the chief technical admin there. That means that any of the coding errors you see there are mine!
2.) What drew you to the Tardis community?
- It’s more a question of what ‘’’’’sucked me in’’’’’. I tried to resist for a while, editing initially at Memory Alpha and Bionic. But in the end, I couldn’t stand to see such a great franchise exist on Wikia without trying to make it look as cool as possible.
3.) What about Dr. Who makes it wacky, weird, and/or wild?
- What doesn’t? Ya look at the pilot episode and ya think, "There’s no way this should work at all. A grumpy old guy inside of what is effectively a telephone booth flying through time and space?"
- If you proposed the show in Hollywood today, you’d get laughed out of the office before you finished your first paragraph.
- I suppose though that the thing that makes it wacky is that you never know what you’re going to get. It’s really just an anthology show, with episodes varying wildly from week to week. But then on top of that — certainly in the 21st century stories — you’ve got a sometimes ‘’bafflingly’’ intricate through-line.
- I got into the show because Tom Baker and Lis Sladen — stars of the mid-1970s version — were a comedy double act that seemed to fit into the Britcom scene that was then dominated by Monty Python. And though it’s still a comedy today, it’s become a show with a genuine emotional resonance that’s put it in line for the most prestigious awards on offer.
4.) Where would you recommend someone start with the franchise? Any particular story?
- Everyone’s always scared of ‘’Doctor Who’’ because they think, “Oh, it’s fifty years old! I’ll never be able to catch up!”
- And so they give up, never having tried. But the cool thing about the show is that it re-invents itself time and time again, in every media. There are ‘’tons’’ of jumping-on points!
- Comics: Start with Endgame, and work your way forward through the Eighth Doctor stuff. Widely acclaimed as the best stories Doctor Who Magazine ever told.
- Audios: Go for the cheaper stuff first to see if your brain will respond to audios. And the best of the more inexpensive audios definitely starts with Blood of the Daleks. It's the first in a range of stories that tells the tale of the only Doctor Who companion to have debuted on BBC Radio — the fantastic Lucia Miller played by the multiple Laurence Olivier Award-winning Sheridan Smith.
- Prose. Well, there's more prose than anything. So I'm just going to pick a personal favourite, and leave it at that. Wonderland. It's a little harder to find these days, but so worth. The Second Doctor. Jefferson Airplane. Bad acid trips at the start of the Summer of Love. 90 pages of absolutely exquisite prose.
5.) What's the wackiest/wildest thing you've seen in the Tardis community?
- Probably the Doctor window-shopping for a tardis:bong in tardis:Haight-Ashbury. Honestly, I thought I knew every possibility for an historical adventure until I read that one.
6.) What can we expect from Dr. Who in the near future?
- The big news for the future is the coming of Peter Capaldi's Doctor in late summer or early autumn. Again, another jumping on point! If you've never experienced Doctor Who, this is clearly the time to get on board. We don't have an exact broadcast date — the series is only in production right now — but look for it a little later in the year! But if you can't wait, don't forget to try Big Finish audios! Peter Davison's Doctor is "in season" as I write this in April 2014, and Moonflesh just got released.
A School for Glory
A School for Glory (TV story)
Alixion
Alixion (TV story)
Century House
Century House (TV story)
Farewell Great Macedon
Farewell Great Macedon (TV story)
Genesis of the Cybermen
Genesis of the Cybermen (TV story)
Hostage
Hostage (TV story)
Ice Time
Ice Time (TV story)
Killers of the Dark
Killers of the Dark (TV story)
Network
Network (TV story)
Project Zeta Sigma
Project Zeta Sigma (TV story)
Shrine
Shrine (TV story)
The Children of January
The Children of January (TV story)
The Daleks in London
The Daleks in London (TV story)
The Dark Dimension
The Dark Dimension (TV story)
The Doomsday Contract
The Doomsday Contract (TV story)
The Dreamspinner
The Dreamspinner (TV story)
The Final Game
The Final Game (TV story)
The Fragile Yellow Arc of Fragrance
The Fragile Yellow Arc of Fragrance (TV story)
The Giants
The Giants (TV story)
The Hidden Planet
The Hidden Planet (TV story)
The Hollows of Time (unproduced TV story)
The Hollows of Time (TV story)
The Imps
The Imps (TV story)
The Laird of McCrimmon
The Laird of McCrimmon (TV story)
The Masters of Luxor
The Masters of Luxor (TV story)
The Nightmare Fair (unproduced TV story)
The Nightmare Fair (TV story)
The Red Fort
The Red Fort (TV story)
The Ultimate Evil (unproduced TV story)
The Ultimate Evil (TV story)
World War
World War (TV story)
Yellow Fever and How to Cure It
Yellow Fever and How to Cure It (TV story)