Doctor Who? was one of those stories that almost wrote itself. I had a lot of fun with it. The inspiration began when I was looking at Blackpool’s seafront on Google Earth’s street view. I noticed that there were still images of the old Doctor Who Exhibition that closed down at the end of the 2009 season. I visited that exhibition in 2007 and was thoroughly unimpressed by it. I thought it was untidy, disorganised and run by people who actually knew nothing about Doctor Who. I also objected to pressing any of the buttons as I didn’t think they were safe. It wasn’t a patch on the old exhibit from the 1970s where I was a regular weekend visitor, or the glossy exhibition that has been on tour around the country for the past few years.

Well, that reminded me of an idea I had kicking around for a while, in which The Doctor landed in an alternative world where he was a character in a TV programme called – well, obviously, Doctor Who. I kind of had the idea originally of him ending up at a Doctor Who convention and coming second in a look-a-like contest or something. Then I saw a comedy film called FAQ about Time Travel where something very much like that happens.

But even better, bring him to Blackpool, late in the season when the illuminations are on – with a set of them on a Doctor Who theme. In fact, the Doctor Who lights are further up from where the Exhibition is, but that’s a bit of poetic licence.

What would the real Doctor think about an exhibition dedicated to himself as a fictional hero of a highly popular television series? I think I am the best person to decide. I’ve been a Doctor Who fan since about 1970 and I have always had a pretty much card index memory for the facts of the series. The only bit I had to look up was the original write up for the first episode on November 23rd, 1963. The rest was purely from memory.

What I did struggle with was an original reason why the world was so out of joint. I didn’t want to use either the Trickster or the Dreamlord since they are other people’s ideas. Then I thought of something like the Tinkerbell idea. If people believed The Doctor was just make believe he would cease to exist in the real world and his doppelganger could take over his lifeforce. It got a bit complicated at that point, and a bit less fun. But it also gave me an opportunity to let Humphrey be the hero a bit, having introduced his character into these stories.

The idea went down well, with many people enjoying the idea of the real world and fantasy world colliding. But this is a pure one off. There is no follow up to an idea like this.