Clayton Hickman

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Clayton Hickman (born 5 January 1977^[1]) has had a wide-ranging impact upon the Doctor Who franchise.

Career[[edit] | edit source]

Editorship of DWM[[edit] | edit source]

Hickman was the dominant editorial voice on Doctor Who Magazine for most of the first decade of the 21st century. He was officially credited as assistant editor on issue #296 in 2000 and remained at that post until taking over the full editorial reins from Alan Barnes with issue #314 in 2002. In DWM 316, Hickman established the comedic persona "Sorvad" in the first Space-Time Telegraph; Hickman's "Sorvad" would pop up occasionally during his editorship, eventually featuring in the regular feature Matrix Data Bank.

He remained the magazine's editor until issue #386 in 2007. One of his most notable achievements was the magazine's radical redesign at the start of the BBC Wales version of Doctor Who. As a part of his duties, he was also one of the key creatives on the comic strip, primarily during the Eighth, Ninth and Tenth Doctors' runs. Indeed, he co-wrote the first of the "new series" comic strips, The Love Invasion, with frequent collaborator, Gareth Roberts. He also established the tradition of Panini publishing an annual, first with the 2006 Doctor Who Annual and later with Doctor Who Storybook line that began in 2007. He was instrumental to Panini's digital restoration and reprinting of their catalogue of comic strips in graphic novel format, beginning with The Iron Legion. He also shepherded the creation of yet another Panini series, Doctor Who Magazine Special Edition, whose issues took in-depth looks at particular Doctor Who topics.

Association with Big Finish[[edit] | edit source]

Hickman also had an important role to play in the production of many early Big Finish Productions audio dramas. He designed a large proportion of the company's early CD covers, and co-wrote The One Doctor and Bang-Bang-a-Boom! with Gareth Roberts. He also provided the voice of the Daleks for the story The Time of the Daleks.

Involvement in televised Doctor Who[[edit] | edit source]

He was the primary designer of Region 2 and 4 Doctor Who DVD release covers, until being superseded by Lee Binding in 2012.

Hickman's writing credits for the televised Doctor Who universe have been confined to The Sarah Jane Adventures. With Gareth Roberts, he co-wrote both the Comic Relief sketch, From Raxacoricofallapatorius with Love and the Series 4 finale, Goodbye, Sarah Jane Smith.

Hickman is well versed in many Who topics, but especially prop history. He has a keen knowledge of the evolution of the TARDIS prop, and an infamy for protesting any altered language on the "Pull to Open" sign (particularly the change in the new series of the phrase "respond to urgent calls" to the historically inaccurate "respond to all calls"). This led to him directly being contacted by Steven Moffat to help ensure that the First Doctor's prop in TV: Twice Upon a Time was as accurate as possible.

Hickman's long experience with the franchise, coupled with his articulate irreverence, made him a frequent interviewee on Doctor Who Confidential. Other affiliations with the franchise included being a celebrity judge on Totally Doctor Who and a regular contributor to Doctor Who DVD documentaries.