Earth & Beyond |
Short story “Bounty”, first published by BBC Worldwide, 1998, Number: ZBBC 2223, ISBN: 0-563-55890-3
The BBC liked my first novel, Kursaal,
particularly the way that the Doctor interacted with his new companion,
Samantha Jones. They invited me to pitch ideas for an audio story, which would
be read by Paul McGann.
The story was to be unique to audio, and it was never
planned for publication in book form. So I produced what I thought would be a
compelling storyline, with plenty of action and dialogue for the Eighth Doctor.
This was the first new adventure for the Eighth Doctor performed by Paul McGann
after his appearance in the 1996 TV Movie. I also decided to make it Sam
Jones’s debut adventure, as she had appeared only briefly in her introductory
novel The Eight Doctors (by Terrance Dicks).
The original proposal to the BBC was for a
5,000-word story, but we eventually agreed that it should be 6,000 words.
Several scenes were chopped completely to make the story pacier; in total, the
script went through five drafts. The intro scene was rewritten to make it more
punchy, too.
I was delighted with Paul McGann’s performance. It was
great to hear him bring my words to life. And my favourite word in the whole
story, because of the way McGann says it, is “sploop!” (Sad but true!) The reviews
seemed to share my enthusiasm.
The script excerpt you can read here is from
the early part of the story. There’s also a 2˝ minute audio sample, in which
Paul McGann narrates a sequence that features the Doctor’s companion, Sam.
One of the other stories on
the Earth & Beyond tape is “Dead Time” by Andrew Miller, later
published in the BBC Books collection More Short Trips.
Andrew’s story introduces the Gallifreyan Flowers of Remembrance, which make a
startling reappearance in The Ancestor
Cell.
Last
revised: 03 December 2004