Prolific British writer Richard Dinnick has recently been working on projects connected to three 21st century renditions of classic 1960s series – Doctor Who, Lost in Space and Thunderbirds. In a wide-ranging interview in September, he discussed each in detail, starting with his script for The Many Lives of Doctor Who, Titan Comics’ “primer” for those who haven’t met the Doctor before the arrival of Jodie Whittaker’s 13th incarnation (read our review here)…

I was the lead writer on the third year of the 12th Doctor comic, and Titan decided to bring all those ongoing series to an end for the time being. I said, “Help! Give me some more work!” and [editor] Andrew [James] very kindly said, “We’ve got The Road to the 13th Doctor, but after that we do have a gap before Jody [Houser] starts the main line of 13th Doctor ongoing. What we’d like to do is a multi-Doctor big event thing to bring everyone into the range.”

It’s like a primer, Doctor Who 101. The idea is that Jodie Whittaker is going to bring in a whole load of new viewers and fans; if you’ve never come across Doctor Who before and now you’re excited by a female lead in a sci-fi show, you pick up The Many Lives of Doctor Who.

It started life as “The 13 Doctors” – then we realised there were 14 if not 15 in there; we’ve not got Cushing but we have got War. We haven’t done two Tennant stories – even though apparently he’s two Doctors! Jess Burton came up with the title “The Many Lives of…” and then the new logo, even though Doctor Who isn’t the name of the main character! Cue head explosion!

Andrew asked, “Would I like to write it?” I said, “Would I!” The main stipulation was they didn’t want a multi-Doctor romp kind of adventure in the style of Supremacy of the Cybermen or The Four Doctors; they wanted standalone stories to show the Doctors in their era, in their comfort zone with their companions doing a story that was reflective of their era.

The other stipulation was not to have too much baggage – which I liked because I’d done two quite continuity-heavy stories for 12th Doctor and a standalone that wasn’t. I loved that one shot of Bill in the Ubermarket. (I give that a bit of a namecheck in this as well.) While not bringing baggage I did put some Easter eggs in for fans – but nothing hinges on you knowing that 30 years ago Sylvester McCoy did x y or z in The Greatest Show in the Galaxy or whatever it is.

We only had about 64 pages to play with, which breaks down to either 3, 4, 5 or 6 pages per Doctor with some Jodie inserts in the middle – it’s set during her regeneration and she’s going back through her previous selves to find out who she is. I describe it as like when just after Sylvester regenerated into Paul McGann, and had that total amnesia as to who he was. He still knew he was a good guy – he didn’t go round automatically killing people or being a nutter… He got enthusiastic about shoes, not about death and destruction! It’s that kind of thing. Although she might have regenerative amnesia after she regenerates, it’s still going to be a primer for her as well.

We have a small glimpse of the future at the end of the special, and in my mind at least, it’s the 55th anniversary special! Every Doctor is in it, but although we get namechecks, we don’t see Daleks or Cybermen or Sontarans etc. There is a story that is about Daleks but doesn’t have them in it, which was a fun one. When we were discussing it, I said I want to put an element of 13 in each story – for example there’s a story about some aliens that are based on the 13th element of the periodic table.

It was a great excuse to go back and watch lots of old Doctor Who stories. I wanted to get the characters of the Doctors – you cannot rely on your memory, or gestalt fandom thoughts about what the Doctors are like.

The job of a lifetime – if I never write Doctor Who again, it was a great way to finish.

The Many Lives of Doctor Who is out now from Titan Comics