We were delighted to be given the opportunity to speak to Justin Richards at the recent Doctor Who book signing which took place at the Doctor Who Experience!

Richards has written several tie-in novels for the series and has also put pen to paper for a series of reference books for both the revived and classic series.

You can read our full interview with him below. A big thanks to Penguin Books!

Q) How old were you when you realised you wanted to become a writer?
A. I was probably quite old, actually. I’ve always written - from when I was about 7 years old I used to write stories. But I don’t think it ever occurred to me that this could be a proper job or profession. So, really, I didn’t ever realise I wanted to become a writer, I sort of realised that I was a writer.

Q) Were you a fan of Doctor Who before you began writing tie-in novels for the series, and how did your first Doctor Who novel come about?
A. I was a fan of Doctor Who from when it started – which was when I was about 2 years old. So forever, really. I can’t ever remember not being a Doctor Who fan. I used to write stories about Daleks – I was a Dalek fan before I was a Doctor Who fan, I suppose. I couldn’t understand why they weren’t in the programme every week. Or why they never won!

I worked as a technical writer for a while, after I left university. So I had a full time writing job when Virgin Publishing started doing the New Adventures novels. I was at university with Andy Lane and he wrote one of those (with Jim Mortimore) and that enthused me enough to write a proposal myself for a book that ended up being called Theatre of War. My degree is in English and Theatre, so I was drawing on stuff I knew – although then setting it in the far future on an alien planet!

Anyway, Peter Darvill-Evans and Rebecca Levene at Virgin liked the proposal and asked me to write the book.

Q) Since Doctor Who’s revival, you have written for the Ninth, Tenth and Eleventh Doctors. As a writer, what would you say are the main differences between the three Doctors, and was it easy to capture the individual voice of each incarnation as you were writing?
A.) Terrance Dicks has said that actually the Doctor doesn’t change as a character. I think there are stages that a writer (and probably any fan) goes through reacting to that comment. First you think: Well, obviously that’s right because it’s still the Doctor. Then you get a bit more sophisticated and analytical and you think: Of course he changes, he’s completely different. And then you realise that actually Terrance was right – as usual – and the Doctor doesn’t change. You’re still writing about the same core character, but what changes is how he presents himself to the universe. In that sense it’s largely down to the actor’s performance. You can look at scripts for a couple of very different Doctors and they seem very similar boiled down to the bare lines. But add in the actor’s delivery and mannerisms and they become totally different and contrasted. So I don’t know if any one Doctor is harder or easier to write for than any other, they’re just different in terms of how they come across… The hardest thing of course is when we have to write for a Doctor who hasn’t appeared on TV yet – I do get to see material ahead of having to finish the book. But the way the relative TV and publishing schedulkes work, not much ahead. I think for the Tenth Doctor we saw a rough edit of The Christmas Invasion and New Earth the week before the books had to be typeset!

Q) You have also written for the Second, Fourth, Sixth and Eighth Doctors. Of all the Doctors you have written for (new series incarnations included), are there any you particularly enjoyed? If so, why is this?
A) They all present their own challenges and joys, so it’s difficult to choose one as being more or less fun than any other.

Q) Your new series novels have featured Rose Tyler, Martha Jones and Amy Pond. As the companions are the ‘human eyes’ of the adventures, were they easier to write for at all? Which of them did you enjoy writing for the most?
A) The companion tends to be the ‘point of view’ character for the reader far more than any other character in the novel, so you have to go into them much deeper – really understand their attitude and thought process as ell as their manner of speech and behaviour. Again, they all present opportunities and difficulties.

Q) Have you got any Doctor Who projects lined up for the future?
A) I have indeed. I’ve written material for the Doctor Who Annual, which I do regluarly – annually in fact! Also a Monster Miscellany which is out in April, I think. Then I’ve been very involved with the re-issued Target books as well as editing all the BBC Books novels of course. In my spare time I’ve been doing some Big Finish audio work – which I haven’t done for a long time but have really enjoyed getting back into for Jago and Litefoot and a new series of Gallifrey, as well as some other projects that are coming up. Plus I write stuff all of my own which has nothing to do with Doctor Who – look me up on Amazon/Waterstones if you want to find out what!

We’d like to thank Justin Richards for taking the time out to answer our set of questions.