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Paul Cornell

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This article is about the British writer. For the lawyer and real estate speculator, see Paul Cornell (lawyer).
Paul Cornell
Paul Cornell
Paul Cornell
Occupationwriter, novelist
NationalityBritish
Period1990 -
Genrescience fiction
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 Timewyrm: Revelation, 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".[1] In 2008, the two episodes were nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form.[2]

In February 2006, Cornell announced in a post on his weblog [3] 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.[4]

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.[5]

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 Captain Britain and MI: 13.[6] [7]

Cornell has also written Young Avengers Presents #4 (April 2008)[8] and a Fantastic Four mini-series comic, True Story, due to start in July 2008, which will feature the team encountering characters from the pages of literary classics.[9] [10]. In 2008, he wrote a comic which featured on the Doctor Who website.[11]

Personal life

In an interview on the Doctor Who: DWO Whocast, 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.[12]

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

Virgin Missing Adventures

Eighth Doctor Adventures

Other Doctor Who novels

Other novels

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: Irreverent 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

Professor Bernice Summerfield

Comics

Upcoming

Notes

  1. ^ Doctor Who Magazine, issue 378 (December 2006)
  2. ^ "2008 Hugo Nomination List". Denvention 3: The 66th World Science Fiction Convention. World Science Fiction Society. 2008. Retrieved 2008-03-21.
  3. ^ Paul Cornell's House of Awkwardness: Robin Hood and business ongoing
  4. ^ Cornell, Paul (2007-04-24). "Primeval". Paul Cornell's House of Awkwardness. Retrieved 2007-04-24. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  5. ^ SDCC 06: Paul Cornell and Nick Lowe Talk Wisdom For MAX, Newsarama, July 23, 2006
  6. ^ Cornell & Lowe talk "Captain Britain and MI:13", Comic Book Resources, February 18, 2008
  7. ^ The British Invasion: Paul Cornell on Captain Britain and MI: 13, Comics Bulletin, April 10, 2008
  8. ^ VISION QUEST: Cornell talks Young Avengers Presents, Comic Book Resources, April 23, 2008
  9. ^ Stranger Than Fiction: Cornell on “Fantastic Four: True Story”, Comic Book Resources, April 10, 2008
  10. ^ Fantastic Four: True Story, Newsarama, June 12, 2008
  11. ^ "Just Another Thursday". 2008. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |Publisher= ignored (|publisher= suggested) (help)
  12. ^ BBC - Doctor Who - Classic Series - Ebooks - Human Nature - Adaptation

References

Interviews

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