Andrew Cartmel
Encyclopedia
Andrew Cartmel is a British
science fiction writer and journalist
, and former script editor
of Doctor Who
. He has also worked as a script editor on other television series, as a magazine editor, a film studies
lecturer and as a novelist.
for Shape Data Ltd (now UGS Corp) in Cambridge
, England
during the mid-1980s. He then turned more to writing and managed to gain an agent on the strength of two unproduced scripts, also attending workshops run by the BBC Television
Drama Script Unit.
In late 1986, when he was in his late twenties, Cartmel was hired as the script editor
for the twenty-fourth season of the iconic science-fiction programme Doctor Who
, having been recommended to the producer John Nathan-Turner
by the producer's agent, who had seen some unproduced scripts Cartmel had written. Cartmel worked on the programme for the next three years, overseeing the final three seasons of its original run on BBC One
. He brought in several young, new writers and despite declining ratings, tried to take the series in a new creative direction.
The most significant legacy of this new direction might have been the so-called "Cartmel Masterplan
", a back story developed with other writers that restored some of the mystery of the Doctor's background and could have explained exactly who he was. Although hints were dropped in the two full series Cartmel edited, the proposed revelations never materialised on screen as the programme was taken off the air in 1989.
When production of Doctor Who was placed on indefinite hold, Cartmel became script editor on the BBC's popular medical drama series Casualty. After one season working on Casualty in 1990, Cartmel left the television industry for the rest of the decade. During the 1990s he wrote comic strips for Judge Dredd Megazine
and Doctor Who Magazine
and three Doctor Who novels for Virgin Publishing in their New Adventures
series. This series had used elements of the "masterplan" as part of their overall story arc for the Doctor, particularly in the last Seventh Doctor novel Lungbarrow
, written by Marc Platt
.
In 1999 his first original novel, The Wise, was published in Virgin's short-lived series of new science-fiction novels, Virgin Worlds. The same year, he became editor of the science-fiction magazine Starburst
, although the appointment was a short one and he left the magazine in 2000.
Since then, he has written several pieces of Doctor Who fiction: in 2000, Winter for the Adept
, an audio drama for Big Finish Productions
'; in 2003, Foreign Devils
, a novella
for Telos Publishing; and, in 2005, Atom Bomb Blues
, a novel for BBC Books
. He developed a script for the third series of Torchwood
entitled 'The Jinx', but it was dropped when the show's format was reworked. In 2010, Cartmel worked as script editor for Big Finish Productions
' The Lost Stories
line, overseeing the adaptation of story ideas created for Doctor Whos unmade 27th series into audio dramas (released in 2011). In addition to script editing the four "Season 27" stories, Cartmel wrote two scripts (Crime of the Century
and Animal
) and co-wrote a third, Earth Aid
, with Ben Aaronovitch
.
As well as Atom Bomb Blues, 2005 saw the publication of: Script Doctor - The Inside Story of Doctor Who 1986-89, an account of his work on the Doctor Who television series; Through Time: An Unofficial and Unauthorised History of Doctor Who; and two 2000 AD
spin-off novels, Judge Dredd: Swine Fever and Strontium Dog
: Day of the Dogs'.
Cartmel has also written a novel set in the world of Patrick McGoohan
's The Prisoner
television series for Powys Media. The novel, released on February 15, 2008, is entitled Miss Freedom.
Common themes and techniques in Cartmel's novels include: animal rights; the use of animal perspectives; and extended metaphors of animal behaviour. These elements appear in the three Virgin New Adventures novels, the original novel The Wise, the Judge Dredd novel Swine Fever and the audio play Animal.
In 2001 Cartmel briefly returned to television as the script editor on the second season of Channel 5's fantasy / adventure series Dark Knight, writing what proved to be final episode of the series.
His first stage play, End of the Night, a thriller with gothic overtones, was produced by Long Shadow Productions in the summer of 2003.
In 2007 Cartmel was a finalist in the Nicotinell 'Lose the Smoke Keep the Fire' Stand Up Comedy Auditions.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
science fiction writer and journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
, and former script editor
Script editor
A script editor is a member of the production team of scripted television programmes, usually dramas and comedies. The script editor has many responsibilities including finding new script writers, developing storyline and series ideas with writers, ensuring that scripts are suitable for production...
of Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
. He has also worked as a script editor on other television series, as a magazine editor, a film studies
Film studies
Film studies is an academic discipline that deals with various theoretical, historical, and critical approaches to films. It is sometimes subsumed within media studies and is often compared to television studies...
lecturer and as a novelist.
Biography
Cartmel took a post-graduate course in Computer Studies and worked on computer-aided designComputer-aided design
Computer-aided design , also known as computer-aided design and drafting , is the use of computer technology for the process of design and design-documentation. Computer Aided Drafting describes the process of drafting with a computer...
for Shape Data Ltd (now UGS Corp) in Cambridge
Cambridge
The city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
during the mid-1980s. He then turned more to writing and managed to gain an agent on the strength of two unproduced scripts, also attending workshops run by the BBC Television
BBC Television
BBC Television is a service of the British Broadcasting Corporation. The corporation, which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a Royal Charter since 1927, has produced television programmes from its own studios since 1932, although the start of its regular service of television...
Drama Script Unit.
In late 1986, when he was in his late twenties, Cartmel was hired as the script editor
Script editor
A script editor is a member of the production team of scripted television programmes, usually dramas and comedies. The script editor has many responsibilities including finding new script writers, developing storyline and series ideas with writers, ensuring that scripts are suitable for production...
for the twenty-fourth season of the iconic science-fiction programme Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
, having been recommended to the producer John Nathan-Turner
John Nathan-Turner
John Nathan-Turner was the ninth producer of the long-running BBC science fiction series Doctor Who, from 1980 until it was effectively cancelled in 1989...
by the producer's agent, who had seen some unproduced scripts Cartmel had written. Cartmel worked on the programme for the next three years, overseeing the final three seasons of its original run on BBC One
BBC One
BBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution...
. He brought in several young, new writers and despite declining ratings, tried to take the series in a new creative direction.
The most significant legacy of this new direction might have been the so-called "Cartmel Masterplan
Cartmel Masterplan
The Cartmel Masterplan is a fan name for the planned Doctor Who backstory developed primarily by Andrew Cartmel, Ben Aaronovitch, and Marc Platt, which they intended to restore some of the mystery of the Doctor's background that had been lost through revelation of the existing backstory...
", a back story developed with other writers that restored some of the mystery of the Doctor's background and could have explained exactly who he was. Although hints were dropped in the two full series Cartmel edited, the proposed revelations never materialised on screen as the programme was taken off the air in 1989.
When production of Doctor Who was placed on indefinite hold, Cartmel became script editor on the BBC's popular medical drama series Casualty. After one season working on Casualty in 1990, Cartmel left the television industry for the rest of the decade. During the 1990s he wrote comic strips for Judge Dredd Megazine
Judge Dredd Megazine
Judge Dredd: The Megazine is a monthly British comic magazine, launched in October 1990. It is a sister publication to 2000 AD. Its name is a play on words, formed from "magazine" and Dredd's locale Mega-City One.-Content:...
and Doctor Who Magazine
Doctor Who Magazine
Doctor Who Magazine is a magazine devoted to the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who...
and three Doctor Who novels for Virgin Publishing in their New Adventures
Virgin New Adventures
The Virgin New Adventures were a series of novels from Virgin Publishing based on the British science-fiction television series Doctor Who...
series. This series had used elements of the "masterplan" as part of their overall story arc for the Doctor, particularly in the last Seventh Doctor novel Lungbarrow
Lungbarrow
Lungbarrow is an original novel written by Marc Platt and based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who...
, written by Marc Platt
Marc Platt
Marc Platt is a British writer. He is most known for his work with the BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who.After studying catering at a technical college, Platt worked first for Trust House Forte, and then in administration for the BBC...
.
In 1999 his first original novel, The Wise, was published in Virgin's short-lived series of new science-fiction novels, Virgin Worlds. The same year, he became editor of the science-fiction magazine Starburst
Starburst (magazine)
Starburst is a British science fiction online magazine published by Starburst Magazine Limited. The magazine is published every month on the 14th, with news and reviews being published daily.-History:...
, although the appointment was a short one and he left the magazine in 2000.
Since then, he has written several pieces of Doctor Who fiction: in 2000, Winter for the Adept
Winter for the Adept
Winter for the Adept is a Big Finish Productions audio drama based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who.-Plot:...
, an audio drama for Big Finish Productions
Big Finish Productions
Big Finish Productions is a British company that produces books and audio plays based, primarily, on cult British science fiction properties...
'; in 2003, Foreign Devils
Foreign Devils
Foreign Devils is an original novella written by Andrew Cartmel and based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who...
, a novella
Telos Doctor Who novellas
The Telos Doctor Who novellas were a series of tie-in novellas based on the long-running BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who, officially licensed by the BBC and published by Telos Publishing Ltd...
for Telos Publishing; and, in 2005, Atom Bomb Blues
Atom Bomb Blues
Atom Bomb Blues is a BBC Books original novel written by Andrew Cartmel and based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Published in late 2005, it features the Seventh Doctor and Ace...
, a novel for BBC Books
BBC Books
BBC Books is an imprint majority owned and managed by Random House. The minority shareholder is BBC Worldwide, the commercial subsidiary of the British Broadcasting Corporation...
. He developed a script for the third series of Torchwood
Torchwood
Torchwood is a British science fiction television programme created by Russell T Davies. The series is a spin-off from Davies's 2005 revival of the long-running science fiction programme Doctor Who. The show has shifted its broadcast channel each series to reflect its growing audience, moving from...
entitled 'The Jinx', but it was dropped when the show's format was reworked. In 2010, Cartmel worked as script editor for Big Finish Productions
Big Finish Productions
Big Finish Productions is a British company that produces books and audio plays based, primarily, on cult British science fiction properties...
' The Lost Stories
The Lost Stories
The Lost Stories are a range of Doctor Who audio plays from Big Finish, adapted from unused TV stories.-Series 1:The first series is largely adapted from stories planned for the unmade 1985-1986 series...
line, overseeing the adaptation of story ideas created for Doctor Whos unmade 27th series into audio dramas (released in 2011). In addition to script editing the four "Season 27" stories, Cartmel wrote two scripts (Crime of the Century
Crime Of The Century (Doctor Who audio)
Crime Of The Century is a Big Finish Productions audio drama based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. -Plot:...
and Animal
Animal (Doctor Who audio drama)
Animal is a Big Finish Productions audio drama based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. -Cast:*The Doctor - Sylvester McCoy*Ace - Sophie Aldred*Raine Creevey - Beth Chalmers...
) and co-wrote a third, Earth Aid
Earth Aid
Earth Aid is a Big Finish Productions audio drama based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. -Cast:*The Doctor - Sylvester McCoy*Ace - Sophie Aldred*Raine Creevey - Beth Chalmers...
, with Ben Aaronovitch
Ben Aaronovitch
Ben Denis Aaronovitch is a London-born British writer who has worked on television series including Doctor Who, Casualty, Jupiter Moon and Dark Knight...
.
As well as Atom Bomb Blues, 2005 saw the publication of: Script Doctor - The Inside Story of Doctor Who 1986-89, an account of his work on the Doctor Who television series; Through Time: An Unofficial and Unauthorised History of Doctor Who; and two 2000 AD
2000 AD (comic)
2000 AD is a weekly British science fiction-oriented comic. As a comics anthology it serialises a number of separate stories each issue and was first published by IPC Magazines in 1977, the first issue dated 26 February. IPC then shifted the title to its Fleetway comics subsidiary which was sold...
spin-off novels, Judge Dredd: Swine Fever and Strontium Dog
Strontium Dog
Strontium Dog is a long-running comics series featuring in the British science fiction weekly 2000 AD, starring Johnny Alpha, a mutant bounty hunter with an array of imaginative gadgets and weapons....
: Day of the Dogs'.
Cartmel has also written a novel set in the world of Patrick McGoohan
Patrick McGoohan
Patrick Joseph McGoohan was an American-born actor, raised in Ireland and England, with an extensive stage and film career, most notably in the 1960s television series Danger Man , and The Prisoner, which he co-created...
's The Prisoner
The Prisoner
The Prisoner is a 17-episode British television series first broadcast in the UK from 29 September 1967 to 1 February 1968. Starring and co-created by Patrick McGoohan, it combined spy fiction with elements of science fiction, allegory and psychological drama.The series follows a British former...
television series for Powys Media. The novel, released on February 15, 2008, is entitled Miss Freedom.
Common themes and techniques in Cartmel's novels include: animal rights; the use of animal perspectives; and extended metaphors of animal behaviour. These elements appear in the three Virgin New Adventures novels, the original novel The Wise, the Judge Dredd novel Swine Fever and the audio play Animal.
In 2001 Cartmel briefly returned to television as the script editor on the second season of Channel 5's fantasy / adventure series Dark Knight, writing what proved to be final episode of the series.
His first stage play, End of the Night, a thriller with gothic overtones, was produced by Long Shadow Productions in the summer of 2003.
In 2007 Cartmel was a finalist in the Nicotinell 'Lose the Smoke Keep the Fire' Stand Up Comedy Auditions.
Comics
- Doctor Who (in Doctor Who MagazineDoctor Who MagazineDoctor Who Magazine is a magazine devoted to the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who...
#164-166, 175-178, 180 & 188-190, 1990–92) - Doctor Who: Evening's Empire (in Doctor Who Classic Comics Autumn Holiday Special 1993)
- Judge Dredd (in Judge Dredd Megazine vol.3 #11-12, 1995)
Novels
- Doctor Who: Cat's Cradle: WarheadCat's Cradle: WarheadCat's Cradle: Warhead is an original novel written by Andrew Cartmel and based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It features the Seventh Doctor and Ace...
(1992) - Doctor Who: WarlockWarlock (Doctor Who)Warlock is an original novel written by Andrew Cartmel and based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It features the Seventh Doctor, Ace and Bernice. The book is the middle novel in the "War trilogy", following on from Cat's Cradle: Warhead and concluding in...
(1995) - Doctor Who: WarchildWarchild (Doctor Who)Warchild is an original novel written by Andrew Cartmel and based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It features the Seventh Doctor, Bernice, Chris, and Roz. This novel marks the conclusion of the "War trilogy" begun in Cat's Cradle: Warhead and Warlock, both...
(1996) - The Wise (1999)
- Judge Dredd: Swine FeverSwine Fever (Judge Dredd novel)Swine Fever is an original novel written by Andrew Cartmel and based on the long-running British science fiction comic strip Judge Dredd.-Synopsis:...
(2005) - Strontium Dog: Day of the Dogs (2005)
- Doctor Who: Atom Bomb BluesAtom Bomb BluesAtom Bomb Blues is a BBC Books original novel written by Andrew Cartmel and based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Published in late 2005, it features the Seventh Doctor and Ace...
(2005) - The Prisoner: Miss Freedom (Published February 2008)
Audio stories
- Doctor Who: Winter for the AdeptWinter for the AdeptWinter for the Adept is a Big Finish Productions audio drama based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who.-Plot:...
- Doctor Who: Crime of the CenturyCrime Of The Century (Doctor Who audio)Crime Of The Century is a Big Finish Productions audio drama based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. -Plot:...
(2011) - Doctor Who: AnimalAnimal (Doctor Who audio drama)Animal is a Big Finish Productions audio drama based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. -Cast:*The Doctor - Sylvester McCoy*Ace - Sophie Aldred*Raine Creevey - Beth Chalmers...
- Doctor Who: Earth AidEarth AidEarth Aid is a Big Finish Productions audio drama based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. -Cast:*The Doctor - Sylvester McCoy*Ace - Sophie Aldred*Raine Creevey - Beth Chalmers...
(2011) co-written with Ben AaronovitchBen AaronovitchBen Denis Aaronovitch is a London-born British writer who has worked on television series including Doctor Who, Casualty, Jupiter Moon and Dark Knight...
.