Shortly after Decalog 3 was published,
Tim Archer interviewed six of the ten authors. Here are my answers. You can see
the other authors’ replies at Tim’s Tardis Log
site.
Conducted
by Tim Archer
Tim Archer: How did you become
involved with Doctor Who?
Peter Anghelides: I've watched the show since I was at primary school
(back in Ye Blacke and White Transmission Yeares). At secondary school and university,
my pals and I produced a fanzine, “Frontier Worlds”, which published reviews,
humour, and fiction (including stuff by Paul Cornell, what a scoop, eh?) And I
wrote a novelisation of “Logopolis” and the last ever Blake's 7 story, “Blake”,
as well as some short fiction.
The
Decalog series provides fans with the opportunity to harness their
literary talents by printing their work. How did you become involved in the Decalog
series?
Two
of my colleagues at work were Justin Richards and Craig Hinton; I'd seen their
Virgin work (and commented on some early drafts). Andy Lane had published some
of my short fiction in one of his fanzines. Justin and I used to edit the CMS
reference series “Doctor Who IN-VISION”. Justin and Andy invited me to submit
an outline for Decalog 3, which they considered and which Virgin
accepted. (Sounds a bit "in", I suppose, but they were quite prepared
to reject my stuff if they thought it was not very good-and besides, a lot of
commissioned publishing is done through "networking" (whether who you
know, or meet, or e-mail, or BBS, or rec.arts.drwho, or whatever!)
Fans
have welcomed the Decalog concept over the years very positively. But,
what do the authors involved think of it?
An ideal testing ground for new authors, as well as a sound marketing device for Virgin to try out short s.f. There's a real variety of material in each, some of which is brilliant (and a small amount of which is pretty dreadful).
Tell
us about your story.
I
wanted to write a short story-rather than the sort of "short story"
previously published in the Decalogs
(you know, the "shortened novels" sort of thing). So I
concentrated on (a) the "consequences" theme of the book (but not in
an entirely literal sense), (b) a couple of central characters, and (c) a
central scene around which these pivot. I've resisted the
temptation
to say more, because it's more fun for readers to work stuff out for
themselves. I haven't said who appears in it, for example. Mind you, I haven't
seen many reviews of the story, so I can't really judge how successful people
think I've been. (Have you seen any?) What I can tell you is that I wildly
overshot the word-limit, and had to do some judicious editing-which I think has
benefited the story.
Several
authors who have contributed to Decalog in the past have gone on to
write more Doctor Who fiction in the style of full-length novels. Will
you?
Yes
(watch this space).
Last
revised: 16 March 2002