Youll find a link to the review at the bottom.
As part of the promotion for the book, we got to fire some questions at co-author Benjamin Cook.
The correspondence was supposed to last a few weeks.
A couple of months tops.
Two-and-a-half years later, we were still e-mailing!
You know how it is.
Wed exceeded any likely word-count by forty-fold.
If my laptop had crashed five-and-half months in, wed have been fucked.
But that didnt happen.
We e-mailed most days several times a day, sometimes for two-and-a-half years.
The schedule is in tatters!
If the correspondence could survive that, it could survive pretty much anything.
The BBC is often very protective of its properties.
Did it give you much of a free line to discuss the show?
Did it ask for much to be taken out?
Um, and thats it.
Hand on heart, the BBC never asked for anything to be taken out.
Often Russells e-mails give the impression that youre a sounding board for his ideas.
Is that how you saw it, or is that how you felt?
Did you feel awkward, particularly when you werent keen on some of the ideas he was putting across?
I had planned to be Invisible Ben.
Especially once Russell started sending me extracts of script whatever hed written each day.
I dont think I actually used the word rubbish.
I was more tactful.
Hang on, Ive just checked I did use the word rubbish.
But dont you thinkJourneys Endworked better without another What?
It didnt need it.
and Russell had written it brilliantly.
Why ruin it with Cybermen?
I thought he might tell me to piss off, but he didnt.
After that, in our second years worth of e-mails, I commented on stuff a bit more.
Yeah, a sounding board.
A little less objectivity.
But not much less because Russell is the Dennis Potter Award-winning scriptwriter, and Im not.
I mean, Russell never did bring back the Garm.
Every episode, I asked.
Was there any fallout after the book was first published, and did you find yourself slicing much out?
How did reactions to the first book shape the extra material that you included this time around?
Except for Private Eye.
Private Eye didnt likeThe Final Chapter, but I didnt care.
I was just thrilled to be reviewed in Private Eye.
That would have been silly.
And some of these things fed back into Russells scripts.
Even Minnies malfunctioning camera inThe End of Time, when she poses for a photo with the Doctor.
No, its working, just press the button on top!
That cushioned the blow.
I just had to keep track of what had been announced and what hadnt.
If Id accidentally let slip something secret and important live onBBC Breakfast, Id have been crucified.
Are there any plans to chart the Steven Moffat era in anything like the same way?
Not at the moment.
Well, not by me.
Maybe Stevens e-mailing someone else!
But look, e-mailing me isnt a prerequisite for taking the job of showrunner.
Im not handed down from head writer to head writer, like a soup recipe.
Is there anyone else youd like to tackle a project such as this with?
Matt Smith would be good.
Or The Doctors Tale!
That would be amazing.
Is it likely that well see a third book as Russell takes his work toAmerica?
Have you kept the correspondence going?
No plans for a third book.
Well, we had to step back one day, and that seemed like a natural cut-off point.
But we do still e-mail each other now and then.
I mean, who else is going to update him on the new series ofSkins?
What would you like people to most take out of the book?
Its funny, I keep getting Facebook messages from students a couple of lecturers, too!
How brilliant is that?
I mean, it has theDoctor Whologo on it!
Well, good for them.
Im still waiting for my honorary doctorate.
Writing is fucking hard, andThe Writers Taleisnt afraid to say so.
Yeah, or your money back!
(Theyre not getting their money back.)
Finally, can you tell us one thing that you know about the next series ofDoctor Whothat we dont?
Ha, ha, ha no.
Benjamin Cook, thank you very much!
Doctor Who The Writers Tale: The Final Chapter is out now.Our review is here.
