Doctor Who: 10 Writers We Want To See Return

One of quite a few Doctor Who writers who got their start writing original novels during the 1990s, Paul Cornell technically wrote modern Doctor Who before anybody else, penning the 40th Anniversary webcast Scream Of The Shalka. But surprisingly, it’s been a full decade since he last wrote for the series.

One of Cornell’s biggest strengths in writing Doctor Who is that he makes the build-up just as interesting and engaging as the pay-off, something that’s especially true for Series 1’s Father’s Day, where the monsters are mostly off-screen until fairly late in the episode, and the focus is on letting the story gradually escalate.

But Cornell’s no slouch when it comes to the monsters either. There’s something about the Scarecrows in his Series 3 two-parter that’s decidedly unnerving, and, combined with Harry Lloyd’s bonkers performance, Son Of Mine is downright creepy. It’s that old Doctor Who standby of taking the mundane and bringing the fear factor to it.

And while, admittedly, we obsess over every little aspect of Doctor Who, the ‘Fury Of The Time Lord’ scene from The Family Of Blood is something that has stood the test of time. At nearly ten years old, it still holds up and has a place in the hearts of fans, something that is the mark of a good writer, and one of many reasons why it’s a shame that we haven’t seen more from Cornell.