Giant Freakin Robot

There are sure to be lots of fun surprises this year as Doctor Who celebrates its 50th anniversary, but the BBC has already announced one project worth following. Beginning this month and running through November, each month will bring us a new Doctor Who short story, one for each incarnation of the Doctor, penned by well-known authors. Up first is writer Eoin Colfer, with his First Doctor story, “A Big Hand for the Doctor.”

The story itself won’t be released until January 23rd (although you can read an excerpt here), but to further intrigue the Whovians amongst us, now we’ve got a video of Colfer introducing his story. Take it away, Eoin:

We still don’t have any solid info on how the surviving former Doctor Who leads will be participating in the big 50th anniversary celebrations this year, but even if we don’t get to see the former Doctors reunited on-screen, they will indeed be teaming up for an adventure this year. Big Finish, the folks who have produced tons of Doctor Who audio dramas over the decades, have announced that all five living “classic” Doctors will lend their voices to The Light at the End, a new audio drama to be released in November.

For the record, those Doctors include Tom Baker (Fourth Doctor), Peter Davison (Fifth Doctor), Colin Baker (Sixth Doctor), Sylvester McCoy (Seventh Doctor), and Paul McGann (Eighth Doctor). Their respective incarnations of the Doctor will wind up crossing each other’s paths when they face “imminent destruction.” Of course, the Doctor isn’t the Doctor without a companion (or several), so several former Who companions including Louise Jameson (Leela), Sarah Sutton (Nyssa), Nicola Bryant (Peri), Sophie Aldred (Ace), and India Fisher (Charley Pollard) are part of the story too. We can likely expect a few surprise appearances as well.

Yesterday the BBC announced a very cool Doctor Who event to celebrate the show’s 50th anniversary this year: monthly short stories penned by well-known authors, each story focusing on a different incarnation of the Doctor. So far we don’t know who will be lending their talents to 10 of the stories, but the BBC has announced that Eoin Colfer (who wrote the Artemis Fowl kids’ books and the sixth Hitchhiker’s Guide book, And Another Thing…) would be penning this month’s story. It focuses, appropriately enough, on the First Doctor, played beginning in 1963 by actor William Hartnell.

The story is entitled “Big Hand for the Doctor,” and Colfer says that he was excited to write an adventure for the First Doctor because “he is a bit of a grump. Subsequent Doctors became more chipper and almost childlike and I found the first Doctor interesting because he was not so developed and I could have a little leeway with the character.” Here’s a short synopsis:

London. 1900. The First Doctor is missing his hand and his granddaughter, Susan. Faced with the search for Susan, a strange beam of soporific light, and a host of marauding Soul Pirates, the Doctor is promised a dangerous journey into a land he may never forget . . .

This year Doctor Who is celebrating its 50th anniversary, and we can expect all manner of exciting announcements as the year rolls on. Now the BBC has released word of one of those celebratory events: a series of 11 Doctor Who short stories to be written by “well-known children’s authors.”

The concept is pretty cool. Beginning later this month, the stories will go up on a monthly basis through November 2013, with each new story focusing on one of the Doctor’s regenerations, beginning with William Hartnell and taking us all the way up to Matt Smith’s current incarnation. Once they’re all published, they’ll be collected for sale as an anthology book.

Earlier today, the official Doctor Who Facebook page announced that the first story, focusing on the First Doctor, will be penned by Eoin Colfer. He’s best known for the Artemis Fowl young adult series, but genre fans might remember his for penning the sixth Hitchhiker’s Guide book, And Another Thing… published in 2009 (some eight years after original author Douglas Adams passed away). I know from past experience that And Another Thing… makes many fans’ blood boil, but hopefully he’ll bring something good to his Doctor Who outing.