Benjamin Cook
Benjamin Cook is a writer and interviewer for Doctor Who Magazine. Between 2007 and 2008, Cook collaborated with Russell T Davies on an extensive correspondence that formed the basis of the 2008 book release The Writer's Tale, which was issued in an expanded second edition subtitled The Final Chapter in 2010.
Cook's friendship with Davies, chronicled in the book, has had a lasting impact on the series itself, as The Final Chapter acknowledges that Cook was responsible for convincing Davies to abandon plans for a cliffhanger ending to Journey's End.
In Doctor Who Magazine issue 419, an interview with Beep the Meep was supposedly written by Ken Book, who dies at the end of the interview. Ken Book is an obvious pseudonym for Ben Cook.
Cook also participated in an interview panel of non-heterosexual Doctor Who fans, alongside Bethany Black and "Torchwood Boy", as part of the Doctor Who: The Fan Show. The panel discussed in-depth the LGBT+ representation within the show and why it appeals to non-heterosexual fans.[1]
Cook worked on many of the DWM episode previews. He previewed most episodes of Series 8 along with David Bryher, and previewed the opening Series 9 two-parter The Magician's Apprentice / The Witch's Familiar in DWM 491, while Jason Arnopp previewed Under the Lake / Before the Flood.
By 2019, Cook was hired by the BBC to put together and edit a "cinematic" trailer for the Blu-ray release of season 10.
Cook also led the team which, during 2022/23, produced The Daleks In Colour, released on the BBC iPlayer on 23 November 2023 to mark Doctor Who's 60th anniversary. In response to some criticisms of the edit and colourisation (in which the seven episodes of the original monochrome serial were cut down to a colourised 75-minutes), Cook explained: "There's nothing arbitrary about our year of hard work on this [...]. No decision was taken lightly. We went with the colours we think will look best on screen. Some are the '60s originals. Some aren't. We get to pick and choose."
