Jenny Colgan: The Christmas Invasion Q+A

Today marks the launch of 5 new Doctor Who target novelisations, featuring new series episodes for the first time! We spoke to Jenny Colgan about her Christmas Invasion novelisation, her favourite female Who character and more…

How does your version of The Christmas Invasion differ to the television episode?

We go a little deeper, both into how the Guinevere space programme works and meet some of the people behind that, as well as more into what life is really like for Jackie. If everyone is the hero of their own story, Jackie’s is utterly heartbreaking, certainly for the first couple of series. And Daniel Llewyllen gets a lot more screen time in the novel, I liked him a lot in the show.

How did you find writing an adaption of a pre-existing story?

Oh, brilliant! It was writing with all the difficult bits taken out! RTD is of course a genius and he’d done all the hard work for me. All I had to do was add a few ‘she saids’ onto his brilliant script (more or less :)).

How does writing for Doctor Who differ to writing your other novels?

Well you have a very clear set of physical characters and lots of established rules. But in a funny way that makes it more fun; you have to be more creative. I’ve been doing it for a while now, and I never lose the joy of someone standing at a TARDIS console.

Can you share your first memory of Doctor Who, and what is it that makes you love the show so much?

My first memory is of City of Death, seeing the second Romana’s face being drawn as a clock at the end of the episode and being immediately sucked in and fascinated by this amazing show. I must have been about 7 and I’ve loved it ever since.

What is your favourite female character in Doctor Who?

The Doctor!

Finally, could you tell us what having a female Doctor means to you?

It means this to me: it means absolutely nothing to my children (two boys and a girl). They shrugged their shoulders and will watch regardless and consider it no more extraordinary than their female doctor at the local GP practice. That’s what it means.

A massive thanks to Jenny for speaking to us about her book, the Target Collection is available now!