Andrew Cartmel

Andrew Cartmel is a British science fiction writer and journalist, and former script editor of "Doctor Who". He has also worked as a script editor on other television series, as a magazine editor, a film studies lecturer and as a novelist.

Biography

Cartmel took a post-graduate course in Computer Studies and worked on computer-aided design for Shape Data Ltd (now UGS Corp) in Cambridge, England during the mid-1980s. He then turned more to writing and managed to gain an agent on the strength of two unproduced scripts, also attending workshops run by the BBC Television Drama Script Unit.

In 1987, when he was in his late twenties [cite web
url=http://nzdwfc.tetrap.com/archive/tsv40/andrewcartmel.html#1
title=Andrew Cartmel Interview
first=David
last=Bishop
publisher=Time Space Visualiser
quote=Christ, well, I'm 36 now, so late twenties then, I guess. .
date=1994-08-01
accessdate=2007-09-28] , Cartmel was hired as the script editor for the twenty-fourth season of the iconic science-fiction programme "Doctor Who", having been recommended to the producer John Nathan-Turner by the producer's agent, who had seen some unproduced scripts Cartmel had written. Cartmel worked on the programme for the next two years, overseeing the final three seasons of its original run on BBC One. He brought in several new writers, taking the series in a new creative direction.

The most significant legacy of this new direction could have been the so-called "Cartmel Masterplan", a backstory developed with other writers that restored some of the mystery of the Doctor's background and eventually would explain exactly who he was.Fact|date=August 2008 Although hints were dropped in the last two seasons, the proposed revelations never materialized on screen as the programme was taken off the airwaves in 1989.

However, even if "Doctor Who" had not come to an end in 1989 Cartmel would still have left the show, as he had been head-hunted to take over the script editor's role on the BBC's popular medical drama series "Casualty".

After one season working on "Casualty" in 1990, Cartmel left the television industry for the rest of the decadeFact|date=August 2008. During the 1990s he wrote comic strips for "Judge Dredd Megazine" and "Doctor Who Magazine" and three "Doctor Who" novels for Virgin Publishing in their "New Adventures" series. This series had used elements of the "masterplan" as part of their overall story arc for the Doctor, particularly the last Seventh Doctor novel "Lungbarrow", written by Marc Platt.

In 1999 his first original novel, "The Wise", was published in Virgin's short-lived series of new science-fiction novels, "Virgin Worlds". The same year, he became editor of the science-fiction magazine "Starburst", although the appointment was a short one and he left the magazine in 2000 [cite web
url=http://www.telos.cuttingsarchive.com/authors/cartmel-a.htm
title=Authors A to Z - Andrew Cartmel
publisher=Telos Publishing Ltd.
accessdate=2007-09-28] .

Since then, he has written three pieces of "Doctor Who" fiction: in 2000, "Winter for the Adept", an audio drama for Big Finish Productions'; in 2003, "Foreign Devils", a novella for Telos Publishing; and, in 2005, "Atom Bomb Blues", a novel for BBC Books.

As well as "Atom Bomb Blues", 2005 saw the publication of: "Script Doctor - The Inside Story of Doctor Who 1986-89", an account of his work on the "Doctor Who" television series; "Through Time: An Unofficial and Unauthorised History of Doctor Who"; and two 2000 AD spin-off novels, "Judge Dredd: Swine Fever" and "Strontium Dog: Day of the Dogs'.

Cartmel has also written a novel set in the world of Patrick McGoohan's "The Prisoner" television series for Powys Media. The novel, released on February 15, 2008, is entitled "Miss Freedom".

Common themes and techniques in Cartmel's novels include: animal rights; the use of animal perspectives; and extended metaphors of animal behaviour. These elements appear in the three Virgin New Adventures novels; the original novel "The Wise"; and the Judge Dredd novel "Swine Fever".

In 2001 Cartmel briefly returned to television as the script editor on the second season of Channel 5's fantasy / adventure series "Dark Knight", writing what proved to be final episode of the series [cite web
url=http://www.downthetubes.net/tv/dark_knight/dark_knight_tribute.html
title=Dark Knight RIP
first=Andrew
last=Cartmel
date=2002-04-23
publisher=Down the Tubes
accessdate=2007-09-28] .

His first stage play, "End of the Night", a thriller with gothic overtones, was produced by Long Shadow Productions in the summer of 2003 [cite web
url=http://www.indielondon.co.uk/theatre/t_endofnight_whitebear_prev.html
title=Murder in Mind at the White Bear
first=Paul
last=Nelson
publisher=IndieLondon
accessdate=2007-09-28] .

In 2007 Cartmel applied for the Nicotinell 'Lose the Smoke Keep the Fire' Comedy Auditions [Citation
title=Nicotinell searches for new talent
newspaper=Metro
url=http://www.metro.co.uk/keepthefire/article.html?in_article_id=53212&in_page_id=13
accessdate=2007-09-28] .

Bibliography

Comics

*Doctor Who (in "Doctor Who Magazine" #164-166, 175-178, 180 & 188-190, 1990-92)
*Doctor Who: "Evening's Empire" (in "Doctor Who Classic Comics" Autumn Holiday Special 1993)
*Judge Dredd (in "Judge Dredd Megazine" vol.3 #11-12, 1995)

Novels

*Doctor Who: "" (1992)
*Doctor Who: "Warlock" (1995)
*Doctor Who: "Warchild" (1996)
*"The Wise" (1999)
*Judge Dredd: "Swine Fever" (2005)
*Strontium Dog: "Day of the Dogs" (2005)
*Doctor Who: "Atom Bomb Blues" (2005)
*The Prisoner: "Miss Freedom" (Published February 2008)

Novellas

*Doctor Who: "Foreign Devils"

External links

* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/news/drwho/2004/01/01/13691.shtml Interview with Cartmel on the BBC "Doctor Who" website]
* [http://nzdwfc.tetrap.com/archive/tsv40/andrewcartmel.html "Andrew Cartmel Interview", by David Bishop ("Time Space Visualiser" issue 40, July 1994)]
*imdb name|id=0142083|name=Andrew Cartmel

References