Feature Category: Interviews

Mike Carey is best known for his work on Hellblazer and Lucifer comic books and the Felix Castor series of Novels. Starburst caught up with him to talk about his latest book, The City of Silk and Steel, which he co-wrote with his wife Linda and his daughter Louise.

Starburst: Tell us about The City of Silk and Steel.

Mike Carey: City of Silk and Steel is a fantasy novel whose DNA is almost entirely drawn from the Thousand and One Nights. It’s not quite a pastiche, because we developed our own style and approach which is very different from the nineteenth century English editions such as Burton’s. But it’s a riff on that wonderful book, coming back to its themes and situations with a more modern sensibility.

One of the things all three of us feel when we read the Thousand and One Nights is that despite having an empowered heroine in Scheherazade, it sometimes expresses a very misogynistic view on the relationships between men and women.  We decided to explore that topic through the adventures of a group of concubines – women from a sultan’s harem, whose whole life revolves around their sexual role – who are then thrown into a very different role and have to take their fate into their own hands.

It’s set in the ancient Middle East, where a sultan, Al Bokhari, is overthrown by a cult of religious extremists. This cult first condemns the concubines to banishment and then decides on reflection to execute them. They have to survive that threat, and then they have to find a way to fend for themselves out in the deep desert, and finally they have to make some sort of decision about their future. But they’ve got three things going for them. One of the concubines used to be an assassin before she became (in effect) a sex worker. Another has a lot of political acumen and used to advise the sultan on his dealings with other city states. And they meet a woman who’s been either blessed or cursed by the seven djinni and can sometimes see the future.

Why the multiple perspectives?

I think it’s inherent in the source material. The Thousand and One Nights is this gigantic bag of stories into which many different cultures contributed over (probably) a couple of centuries or more. There’s pretty much everything in there – adventure, horror, bawdy, romance, comedy, you name it. The first ever whodunit is in there, in the form of a story about a young woman who dies and two men who both claim to be the murderer. The sultan puts his best vizier on the case and tells him to find the real killer.

So it feels like if you’re going to go there, you have to go there as some great horde and make something huge and sprawling. If City of Silk and Steel works, it’s because we found a way to have that enormous variety but to put it in the service of a strong central narrative.

What was the most difficult story to tell?

It was difficult to modulate from the very upbeat adventure elements in the first part of the book to the much darker stuff that happens in the second part. The other analogue for what we’re doing is the Arthurian cycle – the building of Camelot, and then its fall. And as with Camelot, it all happens in a single generation. So you’ve got to chart this radical progress, this cycle of making and destruction, and give full weight to both aspects of it. We did that by resorting to very different storytelling devices in successive stories. Bessa at One and Ever and In the Fullness of Time are almost like cinematic montages, and you come out of them in a very different place.

Why an Arabian Nights style format?

It seemed like the only viable option. Well, no, that’s obviously not true. It would have been entirely possible to tell this story straight and chronologically. But I think it would have had to miss out a lot, and it would have been a much sparser experience. Doing it in this way, with all the digressions and the stories-within-stories, allowed us to reflect a massive upheaval with consequences for an entire society, and to at least try to do justice to the complexity and the strangeness of it. It’s like we’re showing this unique historical moment, but we’re also showing its roots and its after-effects and the motivations of the people who were part of it and the legend it becomes in later time. All those things. The Arabian Nights model – which is similar in some ways to the Moby Dick model (and we do have a homage to Moby Dick in there) – lets you do that. And it lets you do it in a way that doesn’t automatically say “this is through-line, and that part is just backstory”.

What sort of influence did your previous work have on The City of Silk and Steel?

I think perhaps my comic book work – especially the writing I’ve done on Lucifer and on The Unwritten – was a structural influence. I got used to writing those books in arcs of three to five issues which corresponded to chapters in an ongoing story. And I used done-in-one pieces as buffers and pauses for thought between the longer arcs. That’s a model that brings a lot of built-in advantages when you’re telling a long form story in episodic form. But it works just as well – in a different way – when you’re writing a novel.

What is the weirdest thing that has ever happened to you?

We had a fellow author staying with us once when she was in London – as a favour to our agent, who was her agent too. And we got talking about the woman who was her partner, who sounded really fascinating. She was a hi-fi enthusiast who’d built up a business tracking down rare vinyl for high-end collectors. And as we chatted, various weird little synchronicities kept popping up. So I started asking more focused questions, to see if what I suspected was true. And it was. The lady in question was a relative of my wife’s. That’s probably a not uncommon coincidence, but what was weird here was hearing very familiar family stories told with a completely different spin. It was a little bit Twilight-Zoney, like we’d stepped into the universe next door.

What would the elevator pitch for the autobiography of your life be?

Snot-nosed kid from the Liverpool slums goes down to the Smoke and becomes moderately successful fantasy writer. But never does learn to wipe his nose properly.

Which of your works would you like to see on the silver screen?

It would be wonderful to see a Castor movie. We keep having talks, but things keep not quite happening. Now that Dominion is going into production, though, I’ll finally get to see people speaking my lines in a movie. Unless I get struck by lightning at the premiere.

What’s next?

I’ve just delivered a novel to Little Brown, The Girl with All the Gifts, which comes out in November. It’s kind of a retelling of the Pandora myth in a post-apocalyptic near future, but it’s also a horror novel and – in a weird way – the most realistic thing I’ve ever written. I mean, the themes are ultimately all real-world themes. It’s very character-driven, and one of the characters in particular has turned out (I think) very, very well. She’s a ten-year-old girl who’s both really loveable and really terrifying.

I’ve also got some seed money, along with a director and two producers who I’ve been working with, to write a screenplay and do some development work for a UK-set horror movie. I’m really excited about that, because these three people are all wonderful to work with. The director is Colm McCarthy, of Endeavour and Ripper Street and Outcast. I think he’s a total genius, and brainstorming story ideas with him was the most fun I’ve had in ages.

And Lin, Lou and I are working on the follow-up to City of Silk and Steel. Not a sequel, but another book that functions in a similar way.

If you were stranded on a desert island and could only have one book for company, what would that book be?

You’re going to comp me the works of Shakespeare, right? If I could cheat and make it an omnibus edition, it would be either Gene Wolfe’s Torturer quartet or China Mieville’s three Bas Lag novels. If it had to be just the one novel, maybe Zelazny’s Lord of Light.

If you could delete one thing from reality in such a way that it never existed and never will, what would it be?

Oh, man. That’s hard. I’m going to go with reality TV shows.

What fictional worlds inspire you? Which Authors are your influences?

I could rabbit on endlessly about this stuff. The first fictional world I loved and got obsessed by was Enid Blyton’s Magic Wood and Faraway Tree. Earthsea and Amber would both be in the mix, as would China Mieville’s Bas Lag, Gormenghast, The Urth of Gene Wolfe’s Torturer quartet… And those authors were all big influences on me. I think in my style I tend more towards Wolfe and early (as in Perdido Street) Mieville, but Peake’s world building has always been a point of reference for me. Just in terms of the solidity and texture of the Titus novels, he casts a massively long shadow. Other writers I admire without being even remotely like them. I think M. John Harrison is amazing, but I could never be that merciless and incisive. In horror, as soon as I started reading Joe Hill’s work I felt like a lightbulb had clicked on in my head. That goes for his comic book stuff as well as the novels.

What else inspires you (Music, TV, People)?

I listen to a lot of new-ish folk/rock music, and I use music to put me in the right frame of mind to write, even though I hardly ever listen to it as I’m actually writing. My current favourites include Beth Jeans Houghton, Shearwater, the National, Tunng, Lord Huron and Micah Hinson. I bought an MP3 player a few months back, and it’s utterly changed my life. Especially the facility to tell the machine to shuffle all the songs together and surprise me. Before that, I’d get narrowly focused on one band or genre. Now it’s like I’m being randomly bombarded with music I love.

The Simpsons or Futurama?

Futurama! The first four seasons are absolutely immaculate.

The Devil or the deep blue sea?

The Devil, always. He’s been a good friend to me, one way and another.

Truth or Beauty?

Has to be beauty, because the truth isn’t even out there. Sorry, X Files.

THE CITY OF SILK AND STEEL is out now and is reviewed HERE.

Scott Stewart began as a visual effects artist on such films as Mars Attacks!, Jurassic Park: The Lost World and Iron Man working his way up to directing Legion, Priest and his new science fiction thriller: Dark Skies.

Starburst: Were you always interested in sci-fi growing up?

Scott Stewart: Yes. I grew up in Northern California watching Night Gallery and the Bob Wilkins’ Creature Features on this huge 400lb. television. Bob Wilkins would show a lot of great films and sometimes have a guest actor or filmmaker on he’d interview after the movie. In 1979, my father owned an art gallery and we had an exhibit there featuring the talented Gahan Wilson’s work along with Bob Wilkins. My father told him that I was a fan of his and loved staying up late at night watching horror and science fiction movies, so he drew a picture for me with this little boy on a slide traveling down towards a giant frog’s open mouth signing it; “This is what happens to little boys who stay up too late watching movies.” Bob signed it saying, “Stay up late.” It’s one of my most prized possessions that hangs up in my office.

So, your family was very supportive of your dreams.

Definitely! When I was 13 years old, Industrial Light and Magic hosted a Brown Bag Day where they would invite people over, bring their bagged lunch and give them a tour. I would talk to all these great special effects people loving every minute of it. Years later, after studying writing and computers, I ended up getting a job at ILM working with the very same people that I talked to as a kid.

What inspired you to write Dark Skies?

I wanted to tell something more personal than my previous films. More nuts and bolts. A twist of the haunted house story. You read about these terrible stories about missing children and public opinion points towards the family or family member committing the crime, but what if it was more than that? What if it was a malevolent ghost or alien that actually did it and there was no concrete proof of the family’s innocence? The Grey’s in Dark Skies are like that. They are a force of nature creating chaos when they show up. They use our fears against us. I wanted to show that we are not in control.

The use of relatively unknown actors is key to the film’s believability, especially the UFO expert, Edwin Pollard played by J.K. Simmons.

Keri Russell, John Hamilton the whole cast was great to work with. With the Pollard role, I avoided casting the older British actors that are always so good in those parts. I wanted someone unusual, yet with a sense of authority. His character has this sense of menace about him combined with melancholy and resignation because he’s been through what the family has been through. His wall of newspaper clippings of missing persons shows that he’s not successful at trying to prevent the Grey’s from their mission. It’s futile to him.

The first time J.K. walked on the set he walked through it studying the room, the missing person clippings, the UFO stories, how the character lived so he got a great sense of how to play him right away. He is an amazing actor with so much range.

Jeff Higinbotham’s production design gives the picture a great Norman Rockwell/Americana look to it.

Joe’s the best! I’ve worked with Joe on several films and he found the right street so that it would look like Anywhere USA. We used 100% practical locations.

What do you have coming up?

I directed the pilot of Defiance on the Syfy channel. That got picked up for a second season. I also have a second show there and science based thriller that I’d like to do one day as a well as a TV pilot I’m writing.

So, with the ambiguous ending, is there a Dark Skies sequel in the works?

I’m not sure. We’ll see. The best thing about making a film like this, is that we can keep the budget on a low level. Certainly, there is more to tell and as Pollard says in the film, “Sometimes they come back.”

DARK SKIES is released on DVD/Blu-ray in the US on May 28th, and in the UK on August 12th.

To coincide with the release of Iron Man 3, Marvel teamed up with Madhouse to release a little title by the name of Iron Man: Rise of the Technovore. Focusing on Tony Stark coming up against a far more advanced being than himself or his suit, the story pulled heavily from the characterisations and developments that we’ve seen in the recent Marvel cinematic films. Featuring the likes of Tony Stark, James ‘Rhodey’ Rhodes, Nick Fury, Black Widow and Hawkeye, the film also had The Punisher make a typically grizzled appearance, as Stark essentially became a fugitive.

Whilst the full Starburst review can be found here, we also had the chance to pose a few questions to Marvel producers Megan Thomas Bradner and Harrison Wilcox, and writer Brandon Auman. Topics range from the anime style of the film, to the ‘90s comic book low, to Norman Reedus’ badass Punisher job, to what animated Marvel features we may see next plus much more.

Megan Thomas Bradner

Starburst: How did it feel to oversee such an aesthetically different Iron Man film?

Megan Thomas Bradner: Doing a direct-to-TV (DTV), versus the grind of doing 12 episodes concurrently with another series (the Iron Man anime series was done at the same time as the Wolverine anime) allowed us and Madhouse a bit more time to spend on the design and over-all look of the show. We wanted to make it a worldwide adventure, and have him flying all over, and feature a lot more of the Marvel Universe. We loved the opportunity to slightly tweak the Iron Man armour, as well as come up with designs for Nick Fury, Maria Hill, War Machine, Black Widow, Hawkeye and The Punisher. Iron Man’s armour and Punisher were the toughest, and we went through a few different design takes before we nailed down a version that worked.

With the use of anime, were there ever any thoughts on focusing on a different hero, or was Tony Stark always the plan from the get-go?

Iron Man was always the starting character. I think it was the idea of what Madhouse could do with his armour, the villains he could face and so on – to see that in an anime style made sense to Marvel.

Why was such a relatively obscure villain as Technovore chosen, especially given that the character is largely associated with such a downtime in comic book history?

Now, now, don’t judge a character by their time period! In a shared universe it’s not always about the starting point, but about the journey. Most creators eventually have to ‘pass the ball’ and it’s fun to see what the next person does with it, so to speak. Look at characters like Darkhawk (Abnett and Lanning and Cebulski ran with him) or Sleepwalker (Yost did a great job with him). And remember Ghost Rider, Cable, Gambit and Deadpool are ‘90s babies. Comics are rife with people taking characters once thought second or third tier and “reinventing them” (Grant Morrison and Geoff Johns have made a career of this! Or look at the recent hit –and awesome- Image books’ Propher and Glory!)

That said, I catch your drift. Technovore is a minor character in the comics (only appearing twice) – but that doesn’t mean the character didn’t and doesn’t have a lot of possibility. We liked the concept, the idea of placing that power up against Iron Man; a man aided by technology against technology unchecked.

How easy was it to cast the film, and did you always have clear visions of what you wanted from your actors for each role?

Animation takes a long time, so we had a long time to discuss our wish lists for the cast. It changed a lot as our dates firmed up and we got a better handle on release date and recording schedule. We’re really happy with the cast we managed to get – I think Matt Mercer did a really great job with Tony. Walking that line that Tony Stark walks, between charming and jerk, and still being able to play the heroism of Iron Man is no mean feat. And of course, the minute my colleague Harrison Wilcox suggested Norman Reedus for The Punisher, we knew we just had to get him, that he’d be perfect.

After landing Norman Reedus for the role of The Punisher, was there any thought given to expanding the character’s role in the film?

Unfortunately given the way animation works, we didn’t lock down the cast until well after the story and script were finished and animation was done. It was already recorded in Japanese before we got our hands on it for the English revision. Love Punisher though.

With talk from Jeph Loeb of a Punisher/Black Widow animated tale, is this something you’re at a stage to give full details on yet? Also, are there plans to move forward with any further anime style Marvel projects?

If fans want to see more anime, let us know. We’d love to make more.

Harrison Wilcox

Starburst: How easy is it to develop a standalone story like Rise of the Technovore given the looming shadow of the Marvel cinematic universe? Are there any compromises that have to be made as a result?

Harrison Wilcox: Every film in the cinematic universe stands as its own story but still fits into the larger picture of the franchise. Rise of the Technovore does the same.

What drew you to the story of Technovore out of all of the possible Iron Man stories that you could have ran with?

When you look at Tony’s suits, Technovore is a different evolutionary branch Tony could have gone down with the technology. It’s interesting to see Tony go up against something that’s different but also his equal. Following up with the Stane family from the first film was something that appealed to us also.

How hard is it to balance being truly respectful to the original source material yet making often necessary changes to attract a new audience?

We focus on telling the best stories we can while honouring what’s important about the characters, it’s what makes Tony and Iron Man special. That hasn’t changed since the original source material although in the books the characters themselves have grown and changed over time.

Is there ever a fear of backlash from the long-time Iron Man fans when making changes to certain parts of the comic book folklore?

We tell the best stories we can. With Iron Man in particular, it’s very easy to keep Marvel characters relevant and accessible for today’s audiences. It’s part of what’s so great about these characters – their timeless relatability.

With such a dialogue heavy villain, how important was it to encompass a lot of action into the film?

We pushed hard for a lot of action in this DTV; more action per minute than in the series. Whenever possible we tried to have dialog on action.

As a huge fan of the series, I have to ask, are there any plans to move forward with an Ultimate Spider-Man animated film at some point in the near future?

There are no plans for a feature length animated film at this point, but there is a big two part event that is almost done. It’s a lot of fun so stay tuned.

Brandon Auman

Starburst: Did the use of the anime style influence your writing at all?

Brandon Auman: Certainly. If you’re working with Madhouse, you want to write a lot of fun, crazy action sequences that will inspire the writer, and hopefully the board artists and animators. They definitely wanted battles between armoured characters, confrontations with other superheroes, monstrous tentacle-waving enemies… that kind of thing.

Did the Marvel cinematic universe have an influence on what you could or couldn’t do with the story? The use of Obadiah Stane would certainly seem to be an inclusion that was geared towards the recent Marvel audience, as would Black Widow, Hawkeye and S.H.I.E.L.D. Was it a case of using characters that modern audiences are now familiar with in order to grab their attention and progress into a new, exciting story?

Well the MCU wasn’t really in the back of my head at all… other than Robert Downey Jr.’s portrayal of Stark. I hadn’t seen the scripts for either Avengers Assemble or Iron Man 3. The only thing I knew about Avengers was what they would tell me, based on notes. The script was super secretive at that stage. This is a little known fact, but I had a scene where Tony leaps out of the hellicarrier to escape. He summons his armour remotely and it attaches to him, just like in Avengers Assemble. Obviously they had me change that, haha.

With Tony Stark dropping a few more jokes than his comic-book equivalent, was Robert Downey Jr. in mind during the writing of the character?

At this point, it’s impossible to divorce the two, isn’t it? Robert Downey Jr. really is Tony Stark. Even in his personal appearances, he seems to rock the goatee quite a bit! So yeah, he was forefront in my mind… but because I didn’t know who we would cast, I didn’t want to make him too jokey or Downey-ish… so I went with the comic Tony approach as well.

With heroes often having to save face and be shown as super strong characters and experts in their fields, how much of a problem was it to pit hero against hero (or anti-hero in Frank Castle’s case) in this film whilst making sure that each hero had time to show their skills?

It’s the same kind of balancing act that Joss Whedon had to do in Avengers Assemble. You want to see Black Widow kick ass, you want to see Hawkeye use some cool trick arrows, and you want to see the Punisher, well… punish. Madhouse really pulled it off. The Punisher scene was one of my favourites.

Was there any other heroes that you’d thought about incorporating into the story but who ultimately failed to make the cut?

Nope, that was pretty much it on the hero front. Although early on the concept wasn’t Technovore. It was going to be Ultron… and Zeke would have morphed into a cybernetic hybrid with its own emergent intelligence. It would have looked more like Ultron and the merging would have taken place sooner.

 ***

Despite Marvel still being way behind DC when it comes to their animated film, Iron Man: Rise of the Technovore was a welcome change of style. It had its good points, but ultimately falls into the shadow of its cinematic big brothers. Props to Marvel and Madhouse for trying a new direction and a more unconventional story, though. Here’s hoping that future Marvel animated titles can catch up with their DC counterparts.

Starburst caught up with Simon Barnard of Bafflegab (formerly Cosmic Hobo) to get an update on what we can expect later in 2013…

Starburst: Simon – this time last year you were still operating as Cosmic Hobo, now you are Bafflegab. How seamless has the transition been and has it achieved everything you hoped?

Simon Barnard: A few people took umbrage at the new name, but I’m sure I’d have upset just as many people if I’d been called Bafflegab then changed it to Cosmic Hobo. I think everyone’s calmed down now.

So far this year you’ve released Vince Cosmos by Paul Magrs. How’s the reaction been?

We had a brilliant reaction to Vince, and loads of terrific reviews, so would love to make a whole series. But we do need people to take a chance on something new and buy a copy!

Apart from Vince Cosmos, we understand you have another Paul Magrs project in mind; can you tell us anything about that?

Later this year we’re releasing four new Brenda and Effie audio stories. For anyone unaware of Brenda and Effie, they’re a series of books about the Bride of Frankenstein running a B&B in Whitby, and they’re brilliant. The audios will be prequels to the books, so you don’t need to have read any Brenda and Effie before… but if you have, and you ever wondered how Brenda met Effie, now’s your chance to find out. I’ve read the scripts and they’re great, very funny.

And of course there’s the Scarifyers range, what can we expect in 2013?

We’re due to record one called either The Hanging Tree, or maybe The Holly King, or quite possibly The King of Winter, soon. And if we get our skates on then it’ll be out this side of Christmas. We have to, it’s quite Christmassy.

And will the Scarifyers continue to be heard on Radio 4 Extra? Will this include newer titles?

I hope so! The Horror of Loch Ness is being broadcast at this very moment.

Anything else we can expect this year from Bafflegab?

Yes. In June we’re releasing a new series in collaboration with Hammer Films, called ‘Hammer Chillers.’ The first series is 6 x 30 minute downloadable episodes, written by some big horror names like Stephen Volk, Christopher Fowler and Stephen Gallagher.

Running Bafflegab looks like it must take a lot of effort; do you find time for anything else?

I do. I do a bit of freelancing as a radio and podcast producer, and I’m currently just finishing ghost-writing the autobiography of ‘70s dance Pan’s People. Not quite sure how that happened!

Finally, we notice that since Vince Cosmos was released David Bowie has re-appeared on the music scene after an extensive break. Do you take all the credit for this and what other artists are overdue a return that could be influenced by future releases?

Yes, it was all my doing. I’m now thinking of bringing back either Brotherhood of Man or the Vengaboys.

On that note we must bid you farewell before you threaten us with the Bay City Rollers – thanks for your time.

Thank you.

Starburst caught up with Big Finish writer Matt Fitton to talk about his many 2013 releases and his approach to writing for a large range of Doctors and companions…

STARBURST: Matt, your name is on a lot of Big Finish titles this year – that must make you feel like you’ve arrived given your first release (A Most Excellent Match on the Recorded Time collection) only appeared in August 2011 under two years ago?

Matt: Yes… although I’m a little disappointed not to have anything coming out between April and June… Actually it’s fantastic to play such a part in the anniversary year. I’m thrilled that I get the chance to do what I’ve always wanted to do, and just hope people are enjoying the stories. I’m certainly enjoying making them up!

Let’s take the titles that have already been released this year – The Wrong Doctors and Seeds of War; these are both Sixth Doctor and Mel stories, how did you find writing for Mel? Did you base her just on the ‘Trial of a Timelord’ episodes or did you include her other appearances for Big Finish?

Mel is such a gift, a classic companion who perfectly complements the Sixth Doctor. When I got the brief to bring her back, I re-watched her ‘Trial’ episodes and re-listened to her Big Finish tales. ‘Catch-1782’ is a fantastic Mel story. And of course not forgetting her novel appearances; it’s interesting how many of Mel’s adventures hinge on temporal anomalies: timeslips, Chronovores, alternate realities. Not to mention the whopper of her actual arrival in the show: very timey-wimey, but accidentally so, and hardly capitalised on at all. So I decided to make it part of the plot for ‘The Wrong Doctors’ – that she’s in some way a flame to the parasitic ‘moths’ of the vortex, they can sense her timeline tangling with itself.

As for her character, I’ve said elsewhere that I think the key to Mel is this moral steel at her core. It’s why Sixie likes her so much, and it’s why she’s got complete faith in him. Bonnie plays it so well, with such conviction. It was a privilege to see her at work in the studio: nailing it perfectly every time.

Do you make a point of visiting the studio for recording and does meeting the actors help you write for them?

I always try to get to the studio. I mean, once it reaches that stage I do think the writer’s job is done and you put your trust in the director and the actors. So I don’t really need to be there. But it’s nice to be on hand in case of any tweaks or suggestions, and it’s lovely that Ken, Lisa, Barnaby and Nick have all invited me along. Just to sit in that green room and hear the tales, eat the lunches…

In terms of writing for specific actors, apart from the regulars (whose voices have lived in my head for years), you don’t really know who you’re going to get. But actually, I think being in studio helps me learn about writing for actors in general; make the dialogue flow, make it say-able, and just tell the story.

July sees the second ‘Counter Measures’ boxset on which you’ve written the first story ‘Manhunt’. Can you tell us anything about that and also does this boxset carry on immediately from the first? How did you find writing this compared to ‘Artificial Intelligence’ in the first boxset?

The process of writing the first series was fascinating: discovering this world; inventing it; working out the limits of what we could and couldn’t do. What we wanted to be able to do. ‘Manhunt’ picks up some time after the first series, and… I can’t really say any more than that! We’ve a fantastic guest cast joining our regulars for this second series. And we think it really builds on what we established in the first. The production team were all really happy with how the stories worked out, and I can’t wait to hear the result.

August gives us the intriguingly named Starlight Robbery which is a Seventh Doctor story also featuring Klein. Can you tell us anything about this year’s Seventh Doctor trilogy and this story in particular?

Klein is back! And she’s got an assistant of her own. This is the Elizabeth Klein we met in ‘Dominion’, working for UNIT sometime in the 1980s. At the end of that story, the Doctor leaves her a space-time telegraph. He’s obviously open to meeting her again. But how exactly that will play out, you’ll have to wait and see. As for my story, the second in the trilogy, I have Sontarans, which is brilliant. I also have Garundel, the slippery amphibian Urodelian who played such a pivotal role in the Doctor’s fate in Black and White – though you can come to this story without knowing anything about either alien race. I was so pleased to be asked to bring Garundel back and knowing how good Stuart Milligan is at playing him, I really felt confident being able to let rip with him in the new story.

You add to your tally of Doctors with September’s Lost Story ‘The Dark Planet’; a Vicki and Ian story whose original storyline (I believe) included a twin planet to Earth (as later used in ‘Tenth Planet’). I assume you have moved this on from that setup?

I’ve already ticked off the First Doctor in Return of The Rocket Men, though Dark Planet was actually written – and recorded – much earlier than that one. It was great fun to write dialogue for Hartnell’s Doctor; I couldn’t wait to get started. There’s an early scene in the TARDIS with Barbara that I wrote first, in which he’s grand and imperious, mischievous and funny – all the things I love about him.

I’ve read the thing about a twin planet elsewhere, but essentially the documents I had to go on were those that were reproduced in a recent issue of ‘Nothing at the End of the Lane’. Brian Hayles had written a 2-page outline and synopsis of a few paragraphs per episode. This is basically a planet where light and shadow are at war. I tried to stick as closely as I could to that – with some changes for practical reasons given the narrators we had. It’s essentially a very visual story, which I had to translate to audio. I took as my template something like The Web Planet: a very alien, strange environment where the TARDIS crew encounter life-forms like nothing they’ve seen before. And as a Lost Story, I tried to imagine how it might have been realised on screen: the number of sets, how the effects might have worked, the props and costumes. It’s astonishing what they could achieve, given the budget William Russell mentions in the interviews on his ‘Doctor Who and the Zarbi’ reading! But the ambition of that era was boundless, and hopefully The Dark Planet is an example of what they might have tried to do.

Further afield you have two more stories to appear: the final Destiny of The Doctor story called the ‘Time Machine’ which will feature the Eleventh Doctor and also early next year a story in the Big Finish Quadrigger Stoyn Companion Chronicles trilogy, this being the Fourth Doctor story and featuring Lalla Ward’s Romana in the intriguingly named ‘Luna Romana’. Can you share anything on either of those? How do you find the responsibility of concluding series which are likely to receive a lot of fan attention?

As I said before, as a lifelong fan, to be writing stories in Who’s anniversary year is a massive thrill for me. I think you just write the best story that you can every time – regardless of whether it’s a special occasion or not. Though, having said that, these two I’m very happy with: both are finales and so both have a weight of expectation. But I think that gives you licence to try and do something big, something fun. I like solving puzzles, and to write a finale can be in a way a puzzle of its own. Tie up what’s come before, but stand alone as a story in its own right. I’ve tried to get the balance right.

You’re reliant on so many other aspects of direction, acting, sound design and music to create the end result – but with Big Finish I’ve absolute trust in all of those elements and I haven’t been disappointed yet. You can only do your best and put it out there. If people like it, that’s a bonus.

The list continues (you’ve been busy); can you tell us anything about ‘Dark Eyes 2’? Who persuaded Nick to share his creation?

I dropped a few hints here and there as I worked with Nick Briggs on ‘The Wrong Doctors’ and ‘Seeds of War’ that if anything ever came up, I would love to write some Eighth Doctor. I must have worn him down, as he fairly quickly came back to ask me to work with him and Alan Barnes on ‘Dark Eyes 2’.

I love the Eighth Doctor; there was a time in the noughties when his were the only on-going new adventures with Big Finish and the BBC books. We had the eras with Charley and C’Rizz, Fitz, Sam, Compassion, Anji and Trix – those were the Doctor’s on-going adventures, and for a while, it looked like that would be all we’d ever get. Then after Who came back to TV we got the Lucie Miller series, which is just a fantastic run of stories, and she is one of my favourite companions in any media. But it still means the Eighth Doctor’s era is open-ended. We’ve no idea what he’s been through by the time he gets to regenerate.

And then we had a new start last year in ‘Dark Eyes’, which is a rollercoaster ride. It’s a story told almost totally alongside the Doctor and his companion, from their perspective. And it’s been immensely popular. Paul McGann just sounds so energised, carrying his Doctor forward into a whole new era alongside Ruth Bradley as Molly O’Sullivan. I’m hugely excited to be picking that story up. Will Molly be back? Are the Daleks in it? Whose eyes are dark? Stay tuned to find out…

Have you been asked to be involved in the Charley spin-off or is it ‘no comment’?

But if I say ‘no comment’ does that imply anything? I have heard whispers of what might be happening with this. I know Nick is keen to do it, and it has been long-anticipated. But, if there were anything that could be said at this stage, you would know!

Finally, you held a writer’s workshop at the recent Tenth Planets event Big Finish Day 3. I assume that was your idea – how did you find it, did it meet your expectations and will you do it again?

Actually, David Richardson asked me to do it. After Simon Guerrier’s workshop had been so successful at the event in 2012, they were keen to do something again. I do feel a bit of a fraud fronting it with only a few years under my belt, but there must have been around a century’s worth of writing experience in that room! (Huge thanks to Simon Guerrier, Andrew Smith, Mark Wright, Cavan Scott, Nev Fountain, Joe Lidster, Peter Anghelides, John Dorney and Andy Lane.) I’d happily do it again. The thing is, once you get a few writers in a room, you can’t really shut them up. We find it fascinating to hear how others work, because in general writing is such a solitary activity. I know there are the planning stages, the meetings, the notes, and we all like to get together when we can (which is actually pretty rare – quite a few writers I chatted to for the first time myself at Big Finish Day 3). But when it comes down to it, it’s that blank page and you. And there are as many ways to fill it as there are writers.

I know that I find the stories and anecdotes that come from those years of experience to be invaluable for learning lessons. I just hope it’s the same for others who are serious about putting pen to paper. The best possible advice about writing is just to do it. Write. And be read. And write better. Repeat.

Paul Darrow, Tom Chadbon, Cavan Scott and Mark Wright:  Image © BIG FINISH

Starburst caught up with writing duo Cavan Scott and Mark Wright to discuss their recent work on Blake’s 7 ‘The Armageddon Storm’ and a wide range of other projects…

Starburst: I’m interested in how you approached ‘The Armageddon Storm’ which was released in February. Did you work out the overall arc then each take an episode to plot or was each episode a shared design?

Cavan Scott: We worked out the plot for all three episodes together. It’s how we usually work. Plots come together via many, many Skype conversations and then one of us volunteers to turn the notes from our brainstorms into an outline which is then thrown back and forth, evolving over time. Recently we’ve started using Google Drive which means we can both be working on the same document at the same time. It’s a spooky old thing, seeing words appear on the screen as Mark’s tap tapping away 200 miles away.

Mark Wright: Technology has definitely played a part in how we work these days, more than it ever used to. We knock the plots around together over the course of a few days – a mixture of email discussions, scheduled Skype sessions – even the odd text. And from there the plots gradually build up. With ‘The Armageddon Storm’, it helped that it was split up into three distinct parts, but we kept the whole in mind when plotting the individual episodes.

I liked the way that the overall concept was introduced then split into two episodes each focussing on a pair of characters. Was this a constraint of the format (previous Liberator Chronicles have been two-handers) or something you just felt appropriate?

Cavan: A bit of both. We wanted to tell a story that felt a little bigger than the previous Liberator Chronicles. By their very nature, two-handers tend to be smaller, more intimate stories. Our brief from producer David Richardson was to deliver an all-action epic. When we came up with the central concept of the doomsday weapon the idea of splitting the action between the two teams fell into place, giving us the chance to explore a cataclysmic event from two viewpoints.

Mark: It was part of the fun, really, finding ways of using the two-hander format to tell a bigger story. In some places ‘Armageddon Storm’ feels very intimate, but we were very keen to expand our scope a little – which was part of the original brief from David. We have moments where it feels like full cast, as we could have contributions from all cast members in each episode. It really opened things out.

Taking the episodes one by one; I liked the idea of the Armageddon Storm in episode 1 and its effect on the planet’s core. It reminded me of the Death Star even though you used four small spacecraft, and felt like something that would have been used at the time the series was made for TV. What was the concept you had in mind when writing it?

Mark: I’d had this one in the bottom drawer from a project that didn’t happen. It’s always good to keep some of these concepts in hand as you never know when they’ll come in handy. I wanted the Federation to have something they could port from planet to planet. In Countdown, the original TV episode to feature Del Grant, it’s a ground-based threat that the crew are searching for. Here it’s something that can orbit a planet, blast the hell out of it, then move on and do it all over again – further developing the Federation’s methods of warfare and subjugation.

The second episode was my favourite in that it took the story in a direction I hadn’t anticipated and layered the psychic powers into an already interesting story. Can you describe how you came up with this?

Cavan: It all started with Cally; all too often in the series she was left manning the teleport while the boys went off to play. We wanted to throw her into a situation that brought her freedom fighter past to the fore, playing up that spunky character we first met in Time Squad. We also needed a reason why the Federation might be targeting the planet Shorin – again the fact that Cally was involved provided the answer. How would the Federation react if their subjects started to develop powerful psychic powers?

I was surprised at the direction taken in the third episode and the way you closed down the threat of the Armageddon Storm, though it did make for an interesting story. Is there a chance that the Armageddon Storm will appear again?

Cavan: Anything is possible. It’s fair to say that Avon’s actions at the end of the story have an impact on future stories.

Mark: There’s definitely a set up at the end of episode 3, a situation that’s left hanging a little bit as Avon issues his threat. I think it tends to be forgotten that there is vast wealth aboard the Liberator, that both Blake and Avon could use this to buy soldiers, build weapons. It’s not really their style, and would take away much of the drama that’s inherent in the series, but it’s something that could be explored.

I notice that you also wrote Blake Story which we get to hear in November’s Liberator Chronicles Volume 6. Can you share any details? How closely does it link to Peter Anghelides’ Warship?

Cavan: We can’t say too much, other than the fact that it picks up Blake’s plight from Warship and leads straight into the events of ‘Blake’. And yes, we find out how Blake got that scar.

Mark: Yes, one to reveal more about closer to release. But it’s exciting to fill in these gaps, to flesh out some of the things that I’ve been wondering about since I was 8 years old! Every week during series C I was hoping that Blake would turn up again, or Jenna, and that we’d find out what had happened to them. And we never did really, so this is just a real thrill to be working with that.

Moving to the world of Doctor Who, you wrote the AudioGo Eleventh Doctor story ‘Nu Humans’ which came out last year. How did it compare to writing for Big Finish and how did you approach the Eleventh Doctor characters?

Cavan: They’re slightly different beasts, more akin to talking books as they’re in the third person with only one narrator.

As for the Eleventh Doctor characters, well, the Doctor, Amy and Rory were so well defined that before we even started we knew how they should sound. The Eleventh Doctor is fascinating to write for – more often than not he has conversations with himself as much as he does with the people around him.

Mark: It was the same for ‘Night of the Whisper’, our contribution to the Destiny of the Doctor series from AudioGO. We were lucky enough to be asked which Doctor we wanted to write for, and immediately we went for the Ninth. Aside from that one season on TV, there are so few tie-in stories for this era. Six novels are about it, so it was too good an opportunity to pass up. I loved Eccleston in the role, and the character of the Ninth Doctor was so joyous to write for. Grumpy and stoic one minute, daft and silly the next. We’re really proud to be involved with Destiny of the Doctor.

Other than Blake’s 7 and Doctor Who, you’re involved with a number of other Big Finish projects, Iris Wildthyme for instance…

Cavan: Yes, we’ve just finished recording series four of Iris Wildthyme actually. For those who don’t know, Iris is a slightly batty old lady who rattles around the universe righting wrongs and wronging rights with her best friend, a 10-inch sentient stuffed Panda. Iris is played by the force of nature who is Katy Manning (best known to Doctor Who fans as Jo Grant, the Third Doctor’s companion) and the stories are crazy, surreal adventures with a generous lashing of humour but also, I think, with real heart.

We’re especially excited as this latest series features a whole host of Doctor Who alumni, from Bernard Holley, who played Axos in ‘The Claws of Axos’ and Simon Fisher-Becker, the blue-skinned Dorium from the 2011 season. And then there’s Sophie Aldred, Ace herself, playing an alien cow queen from the future. Trust me, her performance has to be heard to be believed.

Mark, I was fascinated by the Vienna panel at Big Finish Day 3 and get the sense that this might turn into a major success for Big Finish; I got the impression that you were all excited as well, would that be an accurate observation?

Mark: Definitely accurate! I was excited to be asked to produce Vienna as it’s completely different to anything else I’ve done for Big Finish. It’s great to be working with Chase Masterson, who is so enthusiastic, and is taking the series very seriously indeed, really pushing Vienna at conventions. We did a pilot script to see if the audience would take to the character in her own adventures after appearing in Jonny Morris’ Doctor Who audio ‘The Shadow Heart’. The response to the pilot was great, so now we’re doing a three-part series, of which I’ve written the opening episode. Again, something completely different. Nev Fountain has written part two, and Jonny will be handling part three. It’s very in your face, big concept sci-fi, and will be out in February next year.

Can I also give a shout out for Graceless, which I also produce for Big Finish? We’ve just recorded series three, which is going to be the last series of adventures for tracer twins Abby and Zara. We felt that the story had come to its natural end, and it’s nice to be able to give something a rounded, definite ending. Writer Simon Guerrier has come up with three great stories for the final boxset, with episode three returning us to a setting from series two.

I’ll miss working on Graceless with Simon, director Lisa Bowerman, and Ciara Janson and Laura – who play Abby and Zara. We’re talking about other projects together, so we’ll see what happens. It’s been an enjoyable couple of years, and it’s nice to hear the episodes going out on 4Extra every now and then. Series Three is out in June.

Cavan, you seem (from your blog) to be regularly visiting schools and involved in the world of Skylanders. For those of us more familiar with your Big Finish work can you give us an insight into Skylanders?

Cavan: Skylanders is an award-winning games franchise published by Activision. The basic idea is that you collect action figures of the main Skylander characters and place them on a ‘portal of power’ accessory. As if by magic, your figure comes to life in the game you’re playing via your PlayStation, X-Box or Wii, fighting an evil little twerp by the name of Kaos. The first game – Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure came out in 2011 and swiftly became the best selling children’s game of the year.

Puffin approached me to write a chapter book for 8-10 year olds based on the characters back in 2011 and I had no idea how successful the game or the book – The Machine of Doom – would be. I have now written a further five chapter books, a quiz book, a game guide for the sequel Skylanders Giants, an A-Z guide and two annuals – and there’s more to come.

The great thing about Skylanders is that I’m repeatedly being told by parents and teachers that the books are exciting children who hardly ever pick up a book. You can’t ask for more than that.

Assuming you can both find time to keep writing together, can we expect any more in the Project series? Surely there are more tales of The Forge to be told?

Cavan: Well, we keep saying that we’re done with The Forge, but The Forge doesn’t seem to be done with us. At the moment there are no plans, but who knows what the future will bring. Or whether, if The Forge returns, it will even be linked to Doctor Who.

Mark: Just when we think we’re out, it pulls us back in again. I think at the back of our minds, there’s always a will to develop The Forge into other directions, flesh out the set up. But that’s for the future. The Forge will probably creep up on us and cosh us over the head when we least expect it.

And finally – if you could meet any of the Liberator crew, Iris Wildthyme or members of The Forge who would it be and why?

Cavan: I wouldn’t want to meet Nimrod. The survival rate isn’t great. The same goes for the Liberator crew for that matter. I think it has to be Iris. She lives life to the full, that one. And besides, she wears such spectacular hats!

Mark: I’d like to have a glass of adrenaline and soma with Vila – he’s probably the shrewdest member of the crew. And who could resist jumping on the bus with Iris and Panda for some adventures. And gin.

Slice n’ Dice: The Slasher Film Forever, a new documentary from High Rising Productions (the company behind many excellent DVD special features for Arrow Films, Synapse and Grindhouse) takes an often irreverent look at the Slasher genre with commentary from some of its top auteurs including Tobe Hooper (The Texas Chain Saw Massacre), Mick Garris (Masters of Horror), Tom Holland (Child’s Play), Patrick Lussier (My Bloody Valentine 3D), Jeffrey Reddick (creator: Final Destination), Adam Green (Hatchet), and Scott Spiegel (producer: Hostel series). We spoke to the High Rising team – director Calum Waddell and editor/animator Naomi Holwill to find out more.

Starburst: Slice n’ Dice features some rare personalities like Kevin Tenney who directed Night of the Demons. How did you decide upon your interviewees for the film?

Calum Waddell: A lot of it came down to who I knew personally. I’m lucky to have worked as a film journalist for a decade now, mainly writing about horror and sci-fi, so I cannot tell you how lucky it was that I could contact someone like Kevin directly and ask them to come onboard. It was the same process for almost everyone that we shot for Slice n’ Dice – except for the occasional name like Tobe Hooper, who we got whilst we filmed him for the Arrow Blu-ray release of The Funhouse, and Corey Feldman, who I met at a convention and who kindly agreed to give us his time. We never knew if this labour of love would ever be released, or even be completed, so I really only felt comfortable asking people I had some sort of previous connection with to get involved with it.

Naomi Holwill: Through his years of film journalism, Calum has built up a fantastic book of contacts and friends. Some of the interviewees came from this, and others were new contacts that we were lucky enough to make. Every person we filmed has worked on a slasher movie in one way or another – or at least drawn considerable inspiration from the genre – and we have some very interesting directors, stars, special effects people, writers and producers. Most importantly, every one of them is a massive horror fan!

Slice n’ Dice is obviously a labour of love for all concerned. How did the project develop over its three years of production?

Calum: Well we originally started it as just a little featurette. We were working on a great Spanish slasher movie called Pieces for Arrow and as we had no idea of what to do for it we decided that maybe we could do a little 20 minute featurette on ‘how to survive a slasher film’ – just something general. That was put on the back burner when, in 2010, we were able to get Jack Taylor for Pieces and that project took its own shape instead. So we opted to expand on what we had and turn this into a feature length project, purely as our own thing and with just myself and Naomi calling the shots. This was a no budget side project for us and done with a lot of love but not a penny to its name. We also had a great guy called Joe Venegas in LA who took care of some things for us out there. He has been a dear friend for a decade now and I really have to mention him. Most of Slice n’ Dice was, however, shot with just Naomi and myself and one camera. This is proper guerrilla filmmaking so to have you, or anyone, compliment it is just the biggest honour.

Naomi: As Calum said, Slice n’ Dice began life as an extra feature for the release of Pieces – it was devised to be short and sweet! It grew and evolved into a project that Calum and I are very proud of. We really enjoyed the whole process – meeting all of the people we filmed, and also creating the finished piece. Before I began working as an editor, I was an illustrator/graphic designer – I tried to bring some of this into Slice n’ Dice with my animation. We tried to give this little no-budget documentary a very personal and unique look.

Calum: Naomi is incredibly talented and never gets enough recognition for all the hard work she does on these projects – she spent months editing Slice n’ Dice and also filmed and animated everything you see. So I’m happy to be able to mention that!

You recently made a 50 minute documentary on Joe Pilato for inclusion on the Day of the Dead Blu-ray. What were highlights, for you, of making this documentary? Any interesting titbits from Captain Rhodes that you’d be willing to share?

Calum: We actually made this in 2009 and it was released in early 2010. That was our very first project for Arrow Video. It was daunting because Naomi had to learn to edit on the job – we actually bluffed our way into making special features – but I knew that I wanted something more than the usual 8 minute puff-piece you saw on so many horror DVD releases. I knew Joe Pilato would have some interesting stories and, thankfully, I was right. The success of Day of the Dead, and the acclaim given to our additional features, really got Arrow to trust with many other catalogue releases and for that I have to thank the fans and Joe Pilato. It all started with Captain Rhodes.

Naomi: Joe Pilato was a very interesting person to meet – he was an excellent interviewee and he was amazing with the fans! He was happy to play Captain Rhodes and never got tired of repeating the famous catch phrases for his admirers whenever he was asked. We have made quite a few extra features for a range of different films now, but I will always have a soft spot for Day of the Dead. I can actually quote whole segments of the movie!

Tell us about your next documentary, 42nd Street Memories: you have another fascinating line up with people like Lynn Lowry, Frank Henenlotter, Jeff Lieberman…

Calum: Goodness knows when that will ever be edited and done, because it is such an enormous undertaking! Naomi has an incredibly busy editing schedule and we really want to edit together our Scream Queens documentary when we get a break. I think that will be out there before 42nd Street, it is our toast to all of the wonderful horror heroines out there, spanning many generations. But 42nd Street Memories will be really interesting when it is finally done – it is a document of that infamous street, the films that played there, the theatres, the crime, the craziness and the reasons it was eventually shut down. We have some amazing stories. I just hope the fans like it and feel it is well researched. We have a trailer available on YouTube.

Naomi: The stories about 42nd Street and its history are fascinating – the grindhouse films that played in the theatres there often revolved around violence and sex, and the street outside had many of its own adventures and scandals too! It was the place to go for any vice you were looking for. We only spoke to people that went there and experienced it – some of our interviewees also made films that played there. I can’t wait to get started on editing this film – the stories we have are too good to keep under wraps for long!

You filmed Dario Argento and Daria Nicolodi for the Arrow release of Inferno. What was it like meeting these two legends?

Calum: It was great – we met Dario and Daria for the first time in 2010 and then we shot Dario again late last year for the upcoming American Blu-ray of Demons which is from Synapse Films. Dario is a real gentleman and it was an honour to meet him as Suspiria is one of my favourite movies of all time. Not just a favourite horror movie but a favourite movie. Full stop. Daria, I believe, was a big part of Dario’s most creative and rewarding period. It is perhaps no accident that after she left his side, with Opera, his films were never as good again. I was excited to meet her as well and she is funny and warm-hearted – I hope I have the chance to do something with her again.

Naomi: It was an honour to meet both of them – I am a huge fan of Argento’s early work and rate Deep Red and Suspiria among some of my favourite genre films. Daria Nicolodi is a lovely lady, very intelligent, creative and kind. I found her inspiring!

What are your distribution/exhibition plans for Slice n’ Dice?

Calum: Well it is out on May 13th from 88 Films in the UK on a two DVD set. As for the rest of the world? Who knows. We need to get a new cut together which eliminates some of the footage that has only been cleared for the British release. But Naomi is but one person and she only has so many hours during the day. I really should learn how to edit!

Naomi: Slice n’ Dice has played at several film festivals in 2012/2013, from European festivals to the US, to South Africa. We also have interest for release outside the UK but I need to get a new edit done… so little time and so much to do .

What’s next for High Rising Productions?

Calum: We just got done on new stuff for Baron Blood, Motel Hell and Foxy Brown for Arrow. I just saw Naomi’s cut of our blaxploitation documentary which we did for Foxy Brown last night and it is really, really good – it is 25 minutes long and really gives you a great insight into this often controversial genre of seventies cinema. I think the fans will enjoy it. And we have the 1974 shocker Deranged coming up for Arrow – for which we were able to get the full involvement of special effects genius Tom Savini, a real icon and a personal idol of mine. It was such an honour to get to work with him on this project. I am a big fan of Deranged, it is a crazy little film and I had the pleasure of interviewing the producer, Bob Clark, before he died so this will also be included in the booklet to the release. We have lots more Arrow stuff upcoming too – some real classics – and also Demons 1 and 2 for Synapse and Cannibal Holocaust for Grindhouse which is happening. In fact, just before this interview Bob Murawski emailed me about it. Of course, he’s about as busy as it gets, but when this comes out it will be the ultimate edition of Cannibal Holocaust. We recorded an amazing new audio commentary with the stars Francesca Ciardi and Carl Yorke for that movie and that alone is just brilliant – the two really bounce off one another. I’ve also just penned new booklets for 88 Films, for their Blu-ray releases of The Pit and the Pendulum and Castle Freak. Hopefully, our Scream Queens documentary will follow and then probably pleading with Arrow to give us a new contract, it’s not easy out here in freelance land!

Naomi: We are very excited about our next feature length project – Scream Queens. This will be a very insightful documentary featuring nothing but ladies! We were lucky enough to get some really wonderful people for this including Elvira, Brinke Stevens, Debbie Rochon, Danielle Harris, Sybil Danning, Michelle Bauer, Lisa Wilcox, Melanie Kinnaman, Irina Voronina, Christa Campbell, Adrienne King and many more. We also have some great titles to work on for Arrow Video – watch this space as there are going to be some great surprises from them this year!

Slice n’ Dice is released on Blu-ray/DVD May 13th.

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Starburst: What was your childhood like? Were you a big fan of comic books and sci-fi films?

Doug Jones: Like most in this genre, I was an awkward child who was mercilessly picked on by my three older brothers. And they were good at getting into my psyche, so escape was paramount! I don’t think I ever bought my own comics, but I did get hooked on whatever my older brothers brought home including The Archies, Superman, and Dick Tracy. Any kind of movie or TV show got my attention, but the classics like Frankenstein, The Mummy, and Creature from the Black Lagoon left the kind of impression that makes what I do today a sheer joy.

What got you interested in acting?

That childhood escape into my TV often landed me in sit-coms and variety shows. People solving all their problems in a half hour or singing and dancing their blues away was an escape, indeed. Goofy characters by Don Knotts from The Andy Griffith Show, Bob Denver from Gilligan’s Island, Jim Nabors from Gomer Pyle, Dick Van Dyke, Lucille Ball, and anyone from The Carol Burnett Show all gave me hope that there was a place for my off-beat look somewhere in show biz.

Abe Sapien is a fascinating character. How did you prepare for the role?

I love Abe. He came to me in bits. First from reviewing Mike Mignola’s Hellboy comic books to get that source material background on him. Then the film script by Guillermo del Toro informed me of his ways and relationship to the B.P.R.D. team. The gorgeous design by Steve Wang at Spectral Motion gave me a lot to go on. And finally, my goldfish at home. Watching them swim around the tank, I loved how their heads were curious and their fins so fluid and calming. I wanted to bring those physical and emotional elements to Abe, as he is the brains of the B.P.R.D., as well as a calming influence on the brutish Hellboy.

Ron Pearlman as Hellboy was spot on. He must have been a lot of fun to work with.

Ronny is the kind of actor that all other actors want to work with. And now having done both Hellboy movies with him and a radio play, I am so blessed to think of him as my very talented, good-humored, protective, and sometimes grumpy big brother.

You were in three of the new Outer Limits episodes. What were they like?

I had the pleasure of wearing three amazing and different alien designs by Steve Johnson, and co-starred alongside Melissa Gilbert, Gregory Harrison, and Lisa Zane in those episodes. I always loved that show with its surprise endings anyway, so getting to be part of such a long running TV legacy was a real honor.

You had small parts in Men In Black II and the remake of The Time Machine…

Yes, getting to play the lead Spy Morlock in The Time Machine was a full-circle experience for me. I remember watching the 1960 version of this movie on our black and white TV when I was a kid. Those Morlocks gave me the heebie-jeebies, so I had the chance to not only face my fears, but wear an incredible design by Stan Winston Studios while screeching at Guy Pearce. It was Rick Baker’s Cinnovation that brought me into Men in Black II as the post office worker, Joey, who started off looking like Joey Ramone before we all exposed our true alien selves. Hilarious fun with Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones.

John Dies at the End is a surreal horror/sci-fi/comedy/action/drama. Tell us about your character, Roger North.

I do love playing quirky characters, and Roger North is absolutely that. Roger is sort of a gatekeeper between this world and the “other” dimension that our two leads find themselves needing to crossover into. I’ve been watching these Earthlings for a while, and have so many questions with a child-like innocence, but at the same time I have the know-how to help them find their way and ultimately save Earth. A delicious character from David Wong’s book, and so brilliantly brought to the screen by writer/director Don Coscarelli.

Do you have any funny makeup stories?

One night I was sitting by myself in my car, minding my own business at a stoplight. Suddenly, a spotlight shines on me from the lane to my left. The light goes out, and that’s when I see it’s a police car that I’m looking straight at. That glance of mine evoked another beam of the spotlight. Not having a clue why the police kept shining a light on me, I turned back to my rear-view mirror, and realized I was still in my zombie make-up from a film I’d been working on that day. Of course the police wanted to know why the undead were out and about that night… driving.

What’s up next for you?

I am so excited to be joining the series regular cast for season 3 of Falling Skies, starting in June 2013 on TNT. I’m a new species of alien that landed on Earth right at the cliffhanging end of season 2. So “Friend or Foe?” is the question you were left with that should be answered by watching season 3. I absolutely love this Steven Spielberg produced show, the writing, the relationships, the challenges of the human spirit, all played out so brilliantly by the entire cast, lead by Noah Wyle. Now would also be a good time for any TV fans who like to laugh to catch up on my 6 episodes I had the pleasure of guest-starring in for season 1 of The Neighbors on ABC as the goofy alien neighbor, Dominique Wilkins.

Starburst caught up with Jonathan Morris to discuss his recent work and upcoming work for Big Finish and how he has developed as a writer since his first novel Festival of Death.

Starburst: First of all congratulations on Age Of Revolution (the first story from the fifth Jago & Litefoot boxset); I thought it balanced setting up the characters in the 1960s with some humour really well. Not only was there an almost obligatory Python scene but I really enjoyed how you sneaked in the reference to the Kinks.

Jonathan Morris: The Python scene just arose naturally out of writing that conversation, it was turning into that sketch as I went along so I had the choice of either going for it, or rewriting that scene to avoid any similarity. I’m not particularly proud of that bit, to be honest, it’s somebody else’s joke and is a bit ‘meta’, a bit ‘in’, a bit did-you-see-what-I-did-there. The Kinks reference came about because I was given a brief to write a story in the late ‘60s and was casting about for ideas – or even before ideas, just a theme. One of the things that struck me was that in that era you had a revival of Victoriana, if you look at the covers for Sergeant Pepper or Ogden’s Nut Gone Flake by The Small Faces you can see that Victorian design ethic, which also came across in the music and fashion of the time, with shops like Granny Takes A Trip where dedicated followers of fashion in top-hats would spend their days perusing red uniforms. The Kink’s Village Green Preservation Society album epitomized that, with its title track being a manifesto about a golden age of the past. But then I threw all sorts of other things into the mix, like the incident where the David Frost show was invaded by hippies, Simon Dee’s sudden fall from fame, the rise of the Nationwide Festival of Light, and of course the brief was to write something Adam Adamant-y.

Would it be fair to say that your work is using humour more than some of your earlier pieces? I’m thinking of the comedy scrap-merchants from last year’s Shadow Heart as an example.

I’m not sure I’d agree. Away from Doctor Who I’ve mainly written comedy stuff, and some of my earlier Doctor Who stories were very comedic – Flip Flop, Max Warp, The Beautiful People. I try to mix up the tone, so that if I’ve just written something terribly serious, I’ll push in the other direction. With The Shadow Heart I knew that the first two stories would be quite serious, so I thought I’d make the ‘world’ of that trilogy more expansive, outrageous and colourful, to ring the changes, avoid it getting repetitive and add a bit of light. And if you’re telling quite a sprawling, involved story, you need memorable, larger-than-life characters so it’s always clear what’s going on and who everyone is. I do worry occasionally that I might be getting typecast as the ‘funny one’ guy, so I make a conscious effort to stretch myself doing more grown-up, serious and emotional stories. ‘The Shadow Heart’ was intended to be in the mad, pulpy style of early 2000 AD comic strips and the 1980 Flash Gordon film.

A very good point, particularly with regards Max Warp one of my favourite episodes from the second series of Eighth Doctor Adventures. One thing I wanted to check about Protect and Survive – was the son named Raymond as a reference to When the Wind Blows?

Yes. I didn’t exactly hide the influence of that book on the story and so it seemed right to acknowledge it somehow. Although there’s a lot of other stuff in there too, Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead and Waiting For Godot but I suspect that was subtler. But I wouldn’t want to give the impression these stories are just a load of other people’s stories bolted together. They are starting points, inspirations. That story was quite hard work to write for several reasons. I’d deliberately made the plot very linear and slow-paced in order to ‘leave room’ for character development, suspense and atmosphere, which is outside my normal ‘comfort zone’. I also found writing all the nuclear war stuff terrifying and depressing. I suppose it was therapeutic in a way, to dramatise my nightmares, and I think it’s the case that you have to feel the emotions when you’re writing something if you want the audience to feel those emotions; you have to cry at the sad bits, laugh at the jokes, and leap out of your chair with fright when your wife walks in during a scary bit.

While we’re talking references in your work, Voyage to Venus managed to cross-check a lot of bits of canon and was really enjoyable. In the extras I remember someone mentioned the CS Lewis story of the same name (it was probably Colin) – was that story an influence at all?

Not a great influence, I have to say. I did read CS Lewis’ Out of the Silent Planet as ‘research’ but didn’t think much of it, and the fact that Voyage to Venus has the same title as the alternative title for Perelandra was just a coincidence. I’d been trying to think up an alliterative, Edgar Rice Burroughs-type title, came up with that, typed it into google and discovered the link, so decided to put it down to fate. The real influences with that story were Jules Verne, Edgar Rice Burroughs, HG Wells and particularly Olaf Stapledon, as well as capturing the ‘pulpy’ style of the ‘20s and ‘30s. Though I also managed to get some real science in there as well; it seems like a wonderfully Jules Verne-y type idea to have a city held up by zeppelins but if mankind was to colonise Venus, that’s how we’d probably do it. The same applies to the idea of humanity re-engineering themselves to survive in a new environment which meant I could do a gag about sexual dimorphism. The idea of making Venus all-female stemmed partly from the fact that a lot of the ‘pulpy’ fictions about Venus had it ruled by women, it’s a very well-worn trope, and I wanted to subvert the cliché, or at least have some fun with it. I was also very aware that with three male leads, I should balance things out in terms of gender and age.

If we move on to some upcoming titles, this month (April 2013) sees the release of Babblesphere, a Fourth Doctor story performed by Lalla Ward. I heard in a talk at Big Finish Day that you were specifically selected for this on the strength of your first novel Festival of Death (2000). You must be pleased at both that testimony and the fact that the book has just been re-released to mark the 50th anniversary.

It is pleasing, because you can imagine how indignant I would’ve been if none of my books had been chosen! To be honest, I think Touched by an Angel is much, much better, because I like to think that I’ve got better as a writer in the last ten years. Festival of Death is so long ago now it feels like it was written by a different person, somebody younger but not quite as handsome as me, so I feel kind of fraudulent when people say nice things about it, as though I’m taking credit for somebody else’s work. That must be how actors feel when they are complimented about a part they played decades ago. But I re-read Festival of Death in preparation for writing the all-new introduction, and although I cringed a lot during the opening chapters I think it starts getting good around Chapter Five, and as soon as Hoopy appeared I started laughing at my own jokes very loudly indeed.

Regarding being asked to do Babblesphere, well it was lovely; it’s always lovely to be asked. I did get a bit grumpy being commissioned on the basis of something I wrote over ten years ago – I was like ‘what about everything I’ve done since?’ – and I was very wary of revisiting that era of Doctor Who, as I’d already done a Douglas Adams-ish audio with Lalla Ward and didn’t want to repeat myself. So the challenge with Babblesphere was to make it different the second time around without losing all the things I’d got right the first time.

I also heard that Lalla Ward thought the script for Babblesphere was one of the very best she’s ever read and comparable to a Douglas Adams piece. Can you tell us anything about how you approached the story?

The story for Babblesphere was one I had kicking around for years. I came up with it about six months after Twitter started – just imagine how topical it would’ve been then. I pitched it to Big Finish as a Tom Baker story but they weren’t keen, then I pitched it to Doctor Who Magazine as a comic strip but that never happened either. So when John Ainsworth asked me if I had any ideas I pulled this one out of my bottom drawer. No, not my bottom drawer, my top drawer of all my best ideas.

Initially my instinct had been to write the story very much as it would’ve appeared on television, had it been made in 1979, with lots of grey corridors and people wearing grey pyjamas. John, to his credit, really pushed me to be more imaginative in terms of the story’s setting, and to make the rebels more interesting. The end product is a much better and more vivid story as a result, I get grumpy when I’m pushed but sometimes I need it.

Of course, it’s a satire about Twitter and Facebook (remember when Facebook started, people would update their statuses twenty times a day). It’s not intended to be subtle. It’s intended to be as subtle as The Sun Makers i.e. sledgehammer level.

The rest of the year sees another Fourth Doctor story Phantoms of the Deep, the fifth Doctor in Prisoner of Fate and Mastermind a sequel to your previous Tales from The Vault. Can you give any brief highlights of any of these?

Well, the highlight of Phantoms of the Deep for me was during the recording, the first scene with Tom Baker and John Leeson, where I heard the Doctor and K-9 saying lines I had written for them. I felt a real tingle of… well, I don’t know what it was of. That feeling you get when a huge part of your childhood becomes a huge part of your adult life but with you as a part of it. It was magical, they both sounded exactly as they did back then. And the rest of the production was very strong, the cast were all great, I think the script I wrote was strong and tight – and a huge contrast to ‘The Auntie Matter’ – so I’m very excited to hear the finished product. Hopefully it’ll be very scary. It also allowed me to combine Doctor Who with another of my obsessions, deep sea creatures. Real-life monsters!

Prisoners of Fate is a very character-based, emotional story, picking up various ongoing threads going all the way back to Cobwebs. It features Nyssa’s son, who has spent the last twenty-five years of his life thinking his mother died on Helheim, so when she turns up alive, well, and looking much younger it’s a bit of a surprise. Beyond that, though, I can’t really say anything. It’s all about predeterminism vs free will.

Mastermind is an experiment. It brings back the UNIT characters from Tales from The Vault and is a companion chronicle where the story is told by the villain. It’s a Doctor-lite tale, it’s more about what The Master gets up to when the Doctor isn’t around, and picks up events after the TV Movie left off, so it’s uncharted territory. I was at the recording and Geoffrey Beevers’ performance was absolutely astonishing, utterly chilling and moving, so I’d say buy it for that!

This year has also seen the release of Vienna starring Chase Masterson, a character you introduced to us in Shadow Heart. I think it is fair to say fans were surprised at how quickly Big Finish announced this, even before Shadow Heart was released. I think it also fair to say that like me most fans have been very pleased at the result and are looking forward to next year’s boxset which I believe is due in February. Can you describe how you first conceived of Vienna and what it was like when others spotted the potential?

Well, Vienna was conceived as part of a pantheon of larger-than-life characters for The Shadow Heart. The idea of a glamorous female assassin seemed corny, until I tried to think where it had been done before and realised I couldn’t think where it had been done before. She’s a kind of comic-book character, very 2000 AD, and even before I wrote a line of dialogue I had a very strong visual idea of the character, which I took as a good sign.

I suspect David Richardson may have already been thinking ‘returning character’ when he cast Chase in the role and certainly that light bulb was hovering above his head and flashing during the recording. As I’d only created the character as a one-off, I was surprised when it was suggested that she have her own series, particularly because it’s hard to build a format around a villainous character. So for the series I’ve had her amorally acting for the forces of good. What I wanted to do with The Memory Box was to create an audio action movie, the equivalent of Total Recall or Minority Report, very much in the mind-bending Philip K Dick tradition, with as many twists and turns as possible. Hard sci-fi, very technological, but keeping the colour and imaginative spirit of 2000 AD and Flash Gordon, with lots of weird and wonderful planets and aliens. Really to push it as far as it can go in terms of ideas.

I certainly think you achieved that with The Memory Box and I look forward to the boxset when it comes out next year. Finally, you’ve written for a whole range of characters now, are there any left that you’d like to write for and why?

I assume this question is in terms of Doctor Who? I’ve not really done a proper First Doctor story, so I’d love to do that, because I find that era so magical and I’ve got a few ideas ready to go in my top drawer. I’d love to write for Polly. I’d love to do a Cybermen story, I’ve got a few ideas ready to go there. I have an idea for an historical adventure involving a famous king. I’d love to write a story with Adric in, I had his picture on my bedroom wall. And I’d love to write a prequel to The Keys of Marinus, where we find out how Yartek got together with the Voord.

Norwegian director/writer/editor/cinematographer Aleksander Nordass’ new film, Thale deals with a mythological creature called a Huldra that two cadaver clean-up crew members discover in a basement. Aleksander recently sat down with us to discuss his latest endeavor…

Starburst: Your film has this unique feel to it as a cross between a detective story and The Island of Dr. Moreau. What was your inspiration to want to make Thale?

Aleksander Nordaas: As a Norwegian filmmaker, Norwegian mythology is very deeply set in our roots. The Huldra has always been an interesting creature to me since childhood and I felt that it was a story that needed to be told. We didn’t have a lot of money so we had to rely on creativity to tell the story. We looked at locations first to see where and what was available to shoot before the script was written, something that is reversed with most productions and I went home to write the story around them.

What were your influences on wanting to be a director?

I always enjoyed stories. Even when I was a child in school I loved writing them for class and was fascinated by creating stories that would interest people. I was the one kid that loved to do my homework. Years later, I got a camera and started to make short films.

Your actors do an amazing job, but the standout is the gifted Silje Reinamo who plays Thale. She reminds us of a young Barbara Bain (Space:1999). How did you find her?

I will tell her of the complement. Silje and I have known each other since childhood. I did a short film with her previously and when I was writing Thale, I wrote it for her in mind for the character.

The other mythological characters in the woods, Thale’s sisters if you may, were different in design and also that Thale seemed ostracized by them because she was different.

Yes. She’s the tragic heroine taken from birth and introduced to the world of human beings whereas her sisters still carry on their traditional heritage living in the woods avoiding any human contact. The sisters though are very viscous, terrifying and territorial if they are attacked or feel that any of their family are threatened by humans. Thale has become more human as she has adapted to our way of life, but she is still a Huldra.

The CGI is very good.

It was my first time using CGI and it was a learning curve. We didn’t know if we were able to use it on the budget we had, so we shot two different takes expecting to use it or not. I knew the scenes in my head and how to utilize them if we couldn’t. Fortunately, we were able to incorporate CGI into the film. It’s a scary process that knowing every frame you shoot will cost so much money in post.

THALE is out now on DVD. To read our review, click here.