To mark the release of the latest volume of adventures for Jodie Whittaker’s Doctor – in tandem with David Tennant’s incarnation – writer Jody Houser answered some questions from Paul Simpson…


Were you a fan of Doctor Who before working on the book? If so, what got you into the show in the first place; if not, what attracted you to the project?

I was! My first encounter with the show was actually the Eighth Doctor movie in the 90s… I really liked the character of the Doctor, so I started watching the first series with the Ninth Doctor when it premiered in the US.

You’ve been writing Doctor Who comics for some time now, with various different Doctors. What do you find the greatest challenge of working on the title? And has that changed over the years?

I think the biggest challenge with a character like the Doctor is that Time Lords are much smarter than any human. Much like writing a good mystery, writing a good Doctor Who story requires a lot of reverse-engineering to make sure the Doctor really is as brilliant as she should be.

You’ve written team-ups for the Doctors, and in the case of the Tenth Doctor and the Thirteenth Doctor, what aspects of them do you find contrast most – and where do you think they’re fundamentally the same? 

I think they have a similar enough energy that they get along well, which is why they are fun to throw together. However, the Thirteenth Doctor has a few more regenerations under her belt so I think playing her as a bit more mature helps illustrate how the Doctor has grown over her lifespan.

What’s the biggest difference between writing for Doctor Who and the other hugely popular characters you write or have written in the past? Are there, for instance, more similarities than differences in writing Stranger Things and Doctor Who?

Doctor Who is one of the longest-running brands I’ve worked on, and with that much history it’s difficult to make sure that you’re telling a story that hasn’t been done before. You want to make sure that the work you’re doing in the comics fits in with the stories being told in other mediums.

How detailed do you write your scripts – or have you and Roberta worked together long enough now that she knows what you’re after instinctively?

I always try to give a good sense of mood for the characters for the storytelling, but leave a lot of the larger design choices up to Roberta and Enrica. They’re so wonderful at creating amazing worlds and aliens for the book.

If you could team up any Doctors to write, which would it be?

It would be interesting to have Thirteen meet the War Doctor. And there are so many Doctors I would love to write meeting Missy…

 

Doctor Who: A Tale of Two Time Lords is out now from Titan Books

Thanks to Imogen Harris for assistance in arranging this interview