Lance Parkin

Lance Parkin is an author who has written professional Doctor Who fiction since the 1990s. He is one of the few authors to write for both the 1963 and 2005 version of the programme — though much of his fiction has actually been based on the 1996 iteration. Indeed, he was notably the first author to write original prose for the Eighth Doctor in The Dying Days. He was also the author chosen to deliver the nominal 35th anniversary story, The Infinity Doctors, and the final volume in the Eighth Doctor Adventures range, The Gallifrey Chronicles. In 2008, he wrote for the Tenth Doctor in The Eyeless.
He is further notable for his work with Big Finish Productions, where he is arguably most known for writing the Sixth Doctor adventure, Davros. He has also written most of the non-fiction book AHistory that attempts to make a consistent and linear timeline for all Doctor Who stories.
Outside of Doctor Who, he has written things like (with Mark Jones) Dark Matter, a guide to the author .
== Writing novels ==
Parkin's shortest ever pitch for a novel was, "I'll set it on Mars!", when Virgin editor Rebecca Levene said that she needed a Bernice Summerfield book in six weeks.Interview with Lance Parkin Interview by Graeme Burk (Originally published in Enlightenment, republished on Outpost Gallifrey via Internet Archive: Wayback Machine
His final pitch to Levene was for The Dying Days and went (something like), "Twenty years ago Dan Dare discovered the truth about Mars, and Francis Urquart (the Prime Minister from the series) put him in prison. Now he's escaped."
Parkin has noted that Just War was a reaction to Timewyrm: Exodus.
In the three years between writing The Infinity Doctors and Father Time, Parkin worked as a storyline editor for Emmerdale. He also wrote a synopsis for a book that was to have been published in the slot that Parallel 59 occupies, known as Enemy of the Daleks.BBC Website Interview with Lance Parkin 01 January 2004 via Internet Archive: Wayback Machine
Parkin has said that he "relies on 'continuity references' in my books, and I still do to an extent – but references to the spirit, not the letter. It's good to be looking forward, not back. It's good to have the Doctor centre stage, as the protagonist." In particular following events of The Ancestor Cell/The Burning.
On the EDAs as a whole; "I think that particularly from The Burning to, say, Time Zero, they're just about all as good as the NAs, which is about the highest praise I have for Doctor Who."Unreality SF Lance Parkin interview Part 1
When writing The Gallifrey Chronicles he noted, "It seems absolutely bizarre to say it at this point but the BBC were keeping their options open. If Doctor Who had bombed on telly, it would have been over and done in thirteen weeks. So part of the brief was to leave things open just in case the EDAs needed to pick up just where they'd left off!"
However Parkin has noted concerning The Gallifrey Chronicles and its relation to the new series
== Credits ==
=== Novels ===
==== Virgin New Adventures ====
* Just War
* The Dying Days
==== Virgin Missing Adventures ====
* Cold Fusion
==== Virgin Bernice Summerfield New Adventures ====
* Beige Planet Mars (with Mark Clapham)
==== BBC Past Doctor Adventures ====
* The Infinity Doctors
==== BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures ====
* Father Time
* Trading Futures
* The Gallifrey Chronicles
==== BBC New Series Adventures ====
* The Eyeless
==== Big Finish Bernice Summerfield series ====
* The Big Hunt
==== Faction Paradox ====
* Warlords of Utopia
==== Time Hunter ====
* The Winning Side
=== Short Stories ===
==== Virgin Decalogs ====
* Secret of the Black Planet (in Decalog 4: Re:Generations)
==== Short Trips ====
* A Town Called Eternity (with Mark Clapham, in Short Trips and Side Steps)
* The Exiles (in Short Trips: A Universe of Terrors)
* Doing Time (in Short Trips: Steel Skies)
* Echo (in Short Trips: Life Science)
* Observer Effect (in Short Trips: 2040)
==== Big Finish Bernice Summerfield series ====
* Paydirt (in A Life of Surprises)
* Anightintheninthage (in Collected Works)
* A Game of Soldiers (in Secret Histories)
* Winging It (in Present Danger)
==== Iris Wildthyme ====
* The Mancunian Candidate (in Wildthyme on Top)
* Lilac Mars (with Mark Clapham, in Iris Wildthyme of Mars)
=== Audio ===
==== Doctor Who Main Range ====
* Primeval
* Davros
* The Company of Friends
** Benny's Story
==== Bernice Summerfield ====
* Just War (adapted by Jacqueline Rayner)
* Professor Bernice Summerfield and the Extinction Event
* Venus Mantrap (with Mark Clapham)
==== I, Davros ====
* Corruption
==== Novel Adaptations ====
* Cold Fusion
==== BBV Productions ====
* The Root of All Evil
* I Scream
=== Comics ===
==== Comeuppance Comics ====
* Miranda - Writer / Letterer
=== Reference Books ===
* A History of the Universe
* AHistory
* Unhistory
=== Cancelled books ===
* Enemy of the Daleks
* To Hold Back Death
* Horror of Det-Sen
== External links ==
* Doctor Who and Mythology, by Lance Parkin
* Lance Parkin by Paul Scoones (Interview) - TSV 48
* Throwback Interview: Lance Parkin (2006)
* INTERVIEW: FTN interviews Doctor Who writer Lance Parkin
* Doc Oho's Reviews: Lance Parkin Q & A Part One
* Doc Oho's Reviews: Lance Parkin Q & A Part Two
* Unreality SF Lance Parkin interview Part 1
* Unreality SF Lance Parkin interview Part 2
* A Sci-Fi Worlds Interview with Lance Parkin
* From Books to Bernice: An Interview with Lance Parkin
* BBC.co.uk website interview with Lance Parkin, 01 January 2004
* Outpost Gallifrey - Interview: Lance Parkin (archived)
== Footnotes ==
fr:Lance Parkin
Category:Bernice Summerfield novelists
Category:Doctor Who short story writers
Category:Bernice Summerfield short story writers
Category:FP novelists
Category:Time Hunter novelists
Category:Reference writers
Category:Comic writers
Category:Comic letterers
Category:Main Range writers
Category:I, Davros writers
Category:BFBS audio writers
Category:Novel Adaptations writers
Category:BBV Productions audio writers
Category:NSA novelists
Category:Doctor Who novelists
Category:Iris Wildthyme short story writers