Location, Location, Location

There's another new Doctor Who Magazine special edition out, and I am very pleased to be able to say that I have another couple of pieces in it!

This one's all about the location work on the show down the years, and there's one piece that I was specifically asked to do by Marcus the editor, which is quite flattering, and another which I pitched to him which he liked.

The one Marcus asked me to do basically tells the story of the different ways the show has been shot on location over the decades - from film to OB video to the current single-camera methods - and why these changes have happened. It's quite a meaty topic to try and summarise, but I was very pleased to be asked to do it as it's exactly the sort of thing I have enjoyed reading in DWM down the years, and I'm quite proud that I was considered a decent pair of hands to handle such a feature.

I was also quite pleased with the title of the piece, Outside the Spaceship. Partly because it was my idea, and it's always quite nice when an editor likes your title and keeps it for the actual feature! And also because I was immensely pleased with myself for a punning reference for anybody who's familiar with the debates over the season one story titles... quite a niche audience, I admit! Although I was disappointed to realise it's a gag which has been done before, as it's what DWM used to call the Beyond the TARDIS column for a while back in the 1990s.

The other piece, the one I pitched to Marcus, is an interview with the designer Spencer Chapman, who worked on The Dalek Invasion of Earth back in 1964, which was the first Doctor Who story to include a major amount of location work. Famous for the Daleks going across Westminster Bridge, and all of that.

The special is out today, and you should be able to find a copy in WH Smith and other good newsagents over the next couple of months.