Paul Cornell

Infobox Writer
name = Paul Cornell


caption = Paul Cornell
pseudonym =
birthdate = birth date and age|1967|07|18
birthplace =
occupation = writer, novelist
nationality = British
period = 1990 -
genre = science fiction
notableworks =
movement =
influences =
influenced =


website = http://paulcornell.blogspot.com/

Paul Cornell (born July 18 1967) is a British writer best known for his work in television drama as well as "Doctor Who" fiction, and as the creator of one of the Doctor's spin-off companions, Bernice Summerfield.

As well as "Doctor Who", other television dramas for which he has written include "Robin Hood", "Primeval", "Casualty", "Holby City" and "Coronation Street".

Cornell has also written for a number of British comics, as well as Marvel Comics in America, and has had two original novels published in addition to his "Doctor Who" fiction.

Professional biography

Already known in "Doctor Who" fan circles, Cornell's professional writing career began in 1990 when he was a winner in a young writers’ competition and his entry, "Kingdom Come", was produced and screened on BBC Two. Soon after, he wrote "", a novel for the Virgin New Adventures series of "Doctor Who" novels. "Timewyrm: Revelation" was a reworking of a serialised fan fiction piece Cornell had penned previously for the fanzine "Queen Bat". Several other "Doctor Who" novels followed, including the award-winning "Human Nature".

Cornell then began working for Granada Television, where he wrote for the popular children’s medical drama "Children's Ward" and created his own children’s series "Wavelength" for Yorkshire Television, which ran for two series. He made the crossover to working in adult television full-time in 1996, when he was one of the main contributors to Granada’s supernatural soap opera "Springhill", which ran for two years on Sky One and later on Channel 4.

After a short stint on "Coronation Street", he began working for other production companies, including contributing an episode in 1999 to Red Production Company’s anthology drama series "Love in the 21st Century" for Channel 4. His episode, entitled "Masturbation", starred Ioan Gruffudd as Jack. He was due to be one of the writers on Red Production Company’s planned "Queer as Folk" spin-off series "Misfits", but the series was never made, being abruptly cancelled by Channel 4.

In the 21st century he has written mainly for the BBC, contributing episodes to all three of their regular medical dramas: "Casualty", "Holby City" and the daytime soap opera "Doctors". He also contributed to the 1950s-set Sunday evening prime time drama series "Born and Bred" and was one of the writers of the 2005 series revival of "Doctor Who", writing the episode "Father's Day". The episode was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form in 2006 and came third in terms of votes for its category. Cornell later wrote a two-part story for "Doctor Who"'s 2007 series, based on his 1995 Virgin New Adventures novel "Human Nature". The title of the first episode was also "Human Nature", while the second was titled "The Family of Blood". ["Doctor Who Magazine", issue 378 (December 2006)] In 2008, the two episodes were nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form.cite web
title = 2008 Hugo Nomination List
work = Denvention 3: The 66th World Science Fiction Convention
publisher = World Science Fiction Society
date = 2008
url = http://www.denvention.org/hugos/08hugonomlist.php
accessdate = 2008-03-21]

In February 2006, Cornell announced in a post on his weblog [ [http://paulcornell.blogspot.com/2006/02/robin-hood-and-business-ongoing.html Paul Cornell's House of Awkwardness: Robin Hood and business ongoing ] ] that he would be writing an episode for the BBC's forthcoming "Robin Hood", produced by Tiger Aspect Productions for the same Saturday evening family slot as "Doctor Who". He later announced on his blog that he was also writing a second "Robin Hood" episode for later in the first series. His first episode, "Who Shot The Sheriff?", aired on BBC One on October 21 2006. His second, "A Thing Or Two About Loyalty", followed on December 2 2006. He also wrote an episode for the second season of another Saturday evening family adventure programme, the ITV science-fiction series "Primeval", transmitted in February 2008.cite web|url=http://paulcornell.blogspot.com/2007/04/primeval.html|title=Primeval|first=Paul|last=Cornell|authorlink=|publisher=Paul Cornell's House of Awkwardness|date=2007-04-24|accessdate=2007-04-24]

Outside of television, he has been active in various other media, having written six "Doctor Who" novels for Virgin Publishing and BBC Books during the 1990s, three "Doctor Who" audio dramas for Big Finish Productions and a fully-animated internet-broadcast "Doctor Who" adventure, "Scream of the Shalka" (starring Richard E. Grant as the Doctor) for BBCi in 2003. He has also written two mainstream science-fiction novels, "Something More" and "British Summertime" for Gollancz, and various novels, short stories and audio dramas based around a character he created for the New Adventures, Professor Bernice Summerfield, and whom he later licensed to Big Finish Productions.

He has also co-authored (often working with Keith Topping and Martin Day) several non-fiction books on television, including "The Guinness Book of Classic British TV", "X-treme Possibilities" (a guide to "The X-Files"), and "The Discontinuity Guide" (a humorous guide to "Doctor Who"). (Topping and Day's "Doctor Who" novel "The Devil Goblins from Neptune" was also based on an original idea with Cornell.) He has also written comics, both for "Doctor Who Magazine" and "2000AD" spin-off "Judge Dredd Megazine".

He has written "Wisdom", a 6-issue limited series for Marvel Comics' MAX imprint, featuring the character Peter Wisdom, with art by Trevor Hairsine and Manuel Garcia. [ [http://www.newsarama.com/SDCC06/Marvel/Mondo/Wisdom.html SDCC 06: Paul Cornell and Nick Lowe Talk Wisdom For MAX] , Newsarama, July 23, 2006]

It was announced at the 2007 Wizard World Chicago comic book convention that Cornell would be following Chris Claremont on Marvel's "New Excalibur". Plans were to subsequently changed with the cancellation of the "New Excalibur" title and Cornell's new project was announced as being titled "". [ [http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=12587 Cornell & Lowe talk "Captain Britain and MI:13"] , Comic Book Resources, February 18, 2008] [ [http://www.comicsbulletin.com/features/120784245582350.htm The British Invasion: Paul Cornell on Captain Britain and MI: 13] , Comics Bulletin, April 10, 2008]

Cornell has also written "Young Avengers Presents" #4 (April 2008) [ [http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=16151 VISION QUEST: Cornell talks Young Avengers Presents] , Comic Book Resources, April 23, 2008] and a Fantastic Four mini-series comic, "", due to start in July 2008, which will feature the team encountering characters from the pages of literary classics. [ [http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=15944 Stranger Than Fiction: Cornell on “Fantastic Four: True Story”] , Comic Book Resources, April 10, 2008] [ [http://www.newsarama.com/comics/080612-CornellFF.html Fantastic Four: True Story] , Newsarama, June 12, 2008] . In 2008, he wrote a comic which featured on the Doctor Who website. [cite web|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/s4/news/latest/080619_news_01|title=Just Another Thursday|Publisher=Paul Cornell|date=2008]

Personal life

In an interview on the , Cornell stated that this entry in wikipedia described him as "..both a Christian and a pagan..", which he has chosen not to correct as it illustrates his sympathies for the pagan world. He then goes on to state that he is an Anglican but is very "..Low Church, almost a Calvinist.." and this is partly because he doesn't enjoy hymns.

Spiritual themes are not uncommon in his work (for example his novel "Something More"). Other frequent references in his work include owls. [ [http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/classic/ebooks/human_nature/adaptation.shtml BBC - Doctor Who - Classic Series - Ebooks - Human Nature - Adaptation ] ]

Cornell is married to Caroline Symcox, who also has written "Doctor Who"-based audio plays for Big Finish Productions on her own and with Cornell.

Bibliography

He has written novels, non-fiction, audio plays and comic scripts.

Novels

Virgin New Adventures

*Doctor Who: "" (ISBN 0-426-20360-7)
*Doctor Who: "Love and War" (ISBN 0-426-20385-2)
*Doctor Who: "No Future" (ISBN 0-426-20409-3)
*Doctor Who: "Human Nature" (ISBN 0-426-20443-3)
*Doctor Who: "Happy Endings" (ISBN 0-426-20470-0)

Virgin Missing Adventures

*Doctor Who: "Goth Opera" (ISBN 0-426-20418-2)

Eighth Doctor Adventures

*Doctor Who: "The Shadows of Avalon" (ISBN 0-563-55588-2)

Other Doctor Who novels

*Doctor Who: "Scream of the Shalka" (ISBN 0-563-48619-8)
*Bernice Summerfield: "Oh No It Isn't!" (ISBN 0-426-20507-3)
*Bernice Summerfield: "The Dead Men Diaries" (editor)
*Bernice Summerfield: "A Life of Surprises" (editor)
*Bernice Summerfield: "Life During Wartime" (editor)

Other novels

*"Something More" (ISBN 0-575-07203-2)
*"British Summertime" (ISBN 0-575-07404-3)
*"The Uninvited" (ISBN 0-7535-0220-8) (novelisation for Virgin of 1997 ITV science-fiction drama serial)

Non-fiction

*"Avengers Dossier: The Definitive Unauthorised Guide" (ISBN 0-86369-754-2) with Martin Day and Keith Topping
*"Licence Denied: Rumblings from the Doctor Who Underground" (ISBN 0-7535-0104-X) (editor)
*"X-treme Possibilities: A Paranoid Rummage Through The X-files" (ISBN 0-7535-0228-3) with Day and Topping
*"The DIScontinuity Guide" (ISBN 0-426-20442-5) with Day and Topping
*"The Guinness Book of Classic British TV" with Day and Topping
*"The New Trek Programme Guide" (ISBN 0-86369-922-7) with Day and Topping

Audio plays

Doctor Who

*"The Shadow of the Scourge" (2000)
*"Seasons of Fear" with Caroline Symcox (2002)
*"Circular Time" with Mike Maddox (2007)

Professor Bernice Summerfield

*"Oh No It Isn't!" (audio adaptation by Jacqueline Rayner of novel) (1999)
*"Death and the Daleks" (2004)

Comics

*"Doctor Who":
** "Stairway to Heaven" (with co-author John Freeman and pencils by Gerry Dolan and inks by Rex Ward, in "Doctor Who Magazine" #156, 1990)
** "Teenage Kicks" (illustrated text story, in "Doctor Who Magazine" #163, 1990)
** "The Chameleon Factor" (with pencils by Lee Sullivan and inks by Mark Farmer, in "Doctor Who Magazine" #174, 1991)
** "Emperor of the Daleks" (with co-author John Freeman and art by John Ridgway, in "Doctor Who Magazine" #197-202, 1993)
** "Time and Time Again" (with art by John Ridgway, in "Doctor Who Magazine" #207, 1993
** "Metamorphosis" (with art by Lee Sullivan, in "Doctor Who Yearbook" 1993)
** "Blood Invocation" (with art by John Ridgway, in "Doctor Who Yearbook" 1995)

*"Pan-African Judges" (with Siku, in "Judge Dredd Megazine" #2.44-2.49, 1993-94)
*"Deathwatch": "Faust & Falsehood" (with Adrian Salmon, in "Judge Dredd Megazine" #3.8-3.13, 1995-96)
* "XTNCT" (with D'Israeli, in "Judge Dredd Megazine" #209-214, 2003-2004, trade paperback, "XTNCT: CM ND HV G F Y THNK YR HRD NGH!", 48 pages, hardcover, December 2006, ISBN 1-904265-69-3)
*"Wisdom" (with Trevor Hairsine and Manuel Garcia, 6-issue mini-series, Marvel Comics, 2006, tpb, 144 pages, August 2007, ISBN 0785121234)
* "Young Avengers Presents" #4 (with Mark Brooks, Marvel, April 2008, collected in "Young Avengers Presents", 144 pages, October 2008, ISBN 0785129758)
* "" #1-ongoing (with Leonard Kirk, Marvel, May 2008-present):
**"Captain Britain and MI13: Secret Invasion" (collects "Captain Britain and MI: 13" #1-4, 104 pages, January 2009, ISBN 1846534070)
* "Fantastic Four: " #1-4 (with Horacio Dominguez, Marvel, July-October 2008)

Notes

References

*imdb name|id=0180280|name=Paul Cornell
*comicbookdb|type=creator|id=5385|title=Paul Cornell
* [http://www.2000adonline.com/?zone=droid&page=profiles&choice=PAULC 2000 AD profile]

External links

* [http://paulcornell.blogspot.com/ Paul Cornell's weblog]
* [http://www.myspace.com/paulcornell Paul Cornell] at MySpace

Interviews

* [http://www.thewhocast.com/podcast/WC-EP-55-17-09-07.mp3 Podcast Interview with Paul Cornell (in mp3 format)]
* [http://bullpenbulletinspodcast.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=241&Itemid=2 Interview with Paul Cornell on the Bullpen Bulletins Podcast]
* [http://themagazine.millarworld.tv/index.php/?p=227 Interview with Paul Cornell at Millarworld]
* [http://www.ymca.org.uk/spiritual/greenbelt/default.asp?xsl_argx=3 Interview with Paul Cornell at YMCA England]
* [http://www.sfx.co.uk/page/sfx?entry=author_interview_paul_cornell Author interview: Paul Cornell] , "SFX", June 10, 2008
* [http://www.ifanboy.com/podcasts/audio/07_03_2008_-_Paul_Cornell Special Edition Podcast: Paul Cornell] , "iFanboy", July 3, 2008
* [http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=18183 X-POSITION: Paul Cornell] , Comic Book Resources, September 23, 2008
* [http://media.libsyn.com/media/geeksyndicate/GSepisode72.mp3 Geek Syndicate Podcast Interview with Paul Cornell (in mp3 format)]
* [http://geeksyndicate.wordpress.com/2008/10/08/dave-gibbons-doug-braithwaite-paul-cornell-and-mark-buckingham-recorded-live-on-one-panel/ Paul Cornell live at BICS 2008 on the Geek Syndicate Panel]