Not sure what to read next? Obverse Books has the answer, and has given the DWC an exclusive extract from The Black Archive #19: The Eleventh Hour!
It’s Eleventh Doctor Week at the Doctor Who Companion, so this sample takes us right back to the beginning of that era – Matt Smith’s debut episode, which also introduced Karen Gillan’s Amy Pond and Arthur Darvill’s Rory Williams. Here’s the synopsis for The Black Archive #19:
‘Oh, you sexy thing!’
With its fantastical imagery and its child’s eye view of the Doctor, The Eleventh Hour (2010) is a bold reinvention of a series that was radically reimagined only five years previously.
Drawing on elements of farce, fandom and fairytale, The Eleventh Hour’s games with the audience’s perceptions and expectations lay the groundwork for ideas that would play out during the whole of new showrunner Steven Moffat’s time with Doctor Who.
Jon Arnold has written two previous Black Archives, on Rose and Scream of the Shalka. He is fast becoming the go to guy for analyses of Doctor Who relaunches.
Indeed, Arnold wrote for the DWC about what makes his Black Archive #10: Scream of the Shalka unique – the discovery of Blood of the Robots:
“I contacted James Goss via Twitter, and again he was incredibly helpful with the details of what had happened after the production of Shalka. I knew there had been four pitches for the second story, Blood of the Robots and by Paul Cornell, but that left two submissions which we knew nothing of. James happily filled in those gaps, giving me further avenues to research. I could fill in the details of Cornell’s submission and one of the others but attempts to contact the author of the fourth proposal proved fruitless and I was only left with a tantalising outline of what might have been…”
In this exclusive extract from The Black Archive #19: The Eleventh Hour, Jon recalls then-new showrunner, Steven Moffat’s decision to cast Matt Smith, and briefly the theme of fairytales in this era of Doctor Who.
Download the sample by clicking here!
If you want further sneak peeks inside all the Black Archive titles – Rose, The Massacre, The Ambassadors of Death, Dark Water/ Death in Heaven, Image of the Fendahl, Ghost Light, The Mind Robber, The God Complex, Scream of the Shalka, The Evil of the Daleks, Pyramids of Mars, Human Nature/ The Family of Blood, The Ultimate Foe, Full Circle, Carnival of Monsters, The Impossible Planet/ The Satan Pit, Marco Polo, The Eleventh Hour, Face the Raven, Heaven Sent, Hell Bent, and The Curse of Fenric – visit the official Obverse website, and click on the respective books.
The Black Archive #19: The Eleventh Hour is out now, priced between £3.99 and £7.99. A physical copy costs just £4.99!
