Eleven plots from David Bowie's Diamond Dogs

For David Bowie’s birthday and now monthly, adventures based on his studio albums’ song titles, working backwards.

After album titles, ★, The Next Day, Reality, Heathen, Hours, Earthling, Outside The Buddha Of Suburbia, Black Tie White Noise, Never Let Me Down, Labyrinth. Tonight, Let’s Dance, Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps), Lodger, “Heroes”, Low, Station to Station, Young Americans...

Diamond Dogs (Wikipedia)

Now back before I was born...

Diamond Dogs from 1974 started as a proposal for a musical version of George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, shifting into Bowie’s own dystopian future but keeping some of the original plan’s titles and other references.

As such this is naturally one of the most directly SFF-ish of his albums. It introduces Halloween Jack, and Future Legend starts it off with a William S. Burroughs influenced nightmarish opening narration, which you could use as a straight-up adventure hook. But the title gave me another idea...

Future Legend

Returning to a contemporary Earth traveller’s home time... what’s with all the rayguns and rocket packs?

Diamond Dogs

The TARDIS lands in a diamond mine on a future human world, the diamonds being valuable as part of a laser defence grid and so the target of pirates.

Sweet Thing

A traveller falls in love with someone from the era they’re visiting. Who are they going to say goodbye to when the TARDIS leaves?

Candidate

In order to stop an alien invasion during the Cold War, one of the travellers will have to stand in a by-election.

Sweet Thing (Reprise)

The traveller left someone behind, never expecting to return to that time. And now here they are...

Rebel Rebel

Aliens fighting a repressive human empire. Yes I have read Nemesis The Warlock.

Rock ‘n’ Roll With Me

1955, and someone sabotages a radio station. Can the travellers put on a rock and roll show to stop the destruction of culture?

We Are The Dead

Egypt in the 1930s, and a mummy asks the travellers for help in restoring his stolen grave goods so he can return to the afterlife.

1984

George Orwell didn’t get the idea for Nineteen Eighty-Four because he met time travellers. But the idea did lead to oppressive time travellers trying to silence him to discourage dissent.

(1984 sounded way more like Shaft than I was expecting.)

Big Brother

(Doctor Who has of course already done the more modern reference. So...) Another TARDIS signal leads to a meeting with a member of the Stranger’s family. And, er, isn’t he dead?

Chant Of The Ever Circling Skeletal Family

1964 and the same oppressive time travellers try to stop The Addams Family airing and stop Goth culture happening.

Diamonds Of The Cybermen

The Cybermen debuted sixty years ago tonight.

A diamond anniversary is obviously not as funny as their golden anniversary ten years ago, but never mind

A Christmas special from Big Finish for Nine - and Susan!

The Wash, a new audio drama from Big Finish coming to the official Doctor Who YouTube December 22nd

Christopher Eccleston and Carole Ann Ford star together for the first time in The Ninth Doctor Adventures: The Wash, a special full-cast audio drama streaming free on the official Doctor Who YouTube channel this Christmas Day.

Written by Robert Valentine, The Wash reunites two generations of the Doctor's family – the Ninth Doctor himself and his granddaughter Susan – in a story that begins, improbably, in a launderette on the Powell Estate. Avoiding Jackie Tyler's early Christmas preparations, the Doctor heads to The Wash Inn; there, alongside unexpected dangers, he finds himself in conversation with a voice from the past. 

The Wash will stream live on the official Doctor Who YouTube channel on Tuesday 22nd December, giving fans the chance to listen along together. It will remain free to stream for one month afterwards – part of a selection box of Doctor Who treats from Big Finish arriving over the Christmas period, with further announcements to come.

Eight plots from David Bowie's Young Americans

For David Bowie’s birthday and now monthly, adventures based on his studio albums’ song titles, working backwards.

After album titles, ★, The Next Day, Reality, Heathen, Hours, Earthling, Outside The Buddha Of Suburbia, Black Tie White Noise, Never Let Me Down, Labyrinth. Tonight, Let’s Dance, Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps), Lodger, “Heroes”, Low, Station to Station...

Young Americans (1975) (Wikipedia)

A year before the US bicentennial, an album named after a single about a young American, recorded in the US with collaborations from the US like Luther Vandross as well as the UK like John Lennon.

Bit funky, bit synthy, best known for Fame.

Young Americans

The buildup to the American Revolution, and Benjamin Franklin is experimenting with electricity. Which is the kind of thing that has time tourists hanging around. Can the travellers redirect them?

Win

The travellers come to a 44th Century casino station (of course it’s shaped like a roulette wheel) because the Stranger has to take part in a card game with the ownership of a planet at stake.

Fascination

One of the companions falls for someone glimpsed on a distant planet. Someone who looks so familiar...

Right

There’s something just at the edge of your vision. Always on the same side.

Somebody Up There Likes Me

The travellers have to make sure an accident-prone regular guy makes it through a week that seems to be trying to kill him.

Or:

One of the travellers becomes a god for a day. How tempting is the power?

Across The Universe

In a time and place the travellers know well and where they’re well known in turn, someone they owe a favour to organises  a contest where the winner gets one trip in the TARDIS. What could go wrong?

Can You Hear Me?

One of the travellers goes missing. And you can hear their voice in the static on the radio.

Or:

The TARDIS translation system needs an update, and an otherwise straightforward adventure becomes a silent movie.

Fame

The travellers return home and are confronted by TV news crews and press asking for statements. The usual “somebody else’s problem” field has broken down and they’re suddenly as famous as time-travelling world-saving heroes should be. It’s a bit awkward.

Doctor Who TARDIS Crew

A first still for the CBeebies cartoon, due late 2027 to early 2028:

“the series follows the Doctor, a young Time Lord, and his friends Hannah, Beastie and Toast-IE as they embark on extraordinary adventures through time and space. Travelling aboard the iconic TARDIS, they encounter incredible creatures, discover amazing new worlds and come face-to-face with legendary Doctor Who foes, including the Daleks.”

Looks fun!

Looks pseudo-Aardman-y and less emoji-like than the equivalent Star Wars, Star Trek and Spidey shows.

52 11-minute episodes, which definitely bucks the live-action trend of not enough episodes.

I love the Dalek at the back clearly going “Oy!”

RTD: Goodbye Whoniverse

An extract from Russell T Davies’ new memoir The Queerest of Folk in which he talks about the regeneration twist, the next plan that didn’t happen and stepping away.

“The future can be planned by a brand-new team. Clean and bold and bright.”

“God, that was fun! I wouldn’t have missed a single second of it. What a remarkable show.”

The Satan Pit anniversary screening

The Impossible Planet / The Satan Pit in cinemas for Whosday, with deleted scenes. Trailer

What would I pitch for Doctor Who?

Based on the tender...

More shorter episodes, ten to twelve of forty-five minutes including credits. More episodes mean more variety, more room to show off the breadth of the format and play with it, and also more time to make it a regular fixture.

A regular person companion. Just one.

Maybe a second full-time or later companion who is a historical human or a scifi thingy?

Wanting to be aware of the brand, see what the planned animated CBBC series is doing. That’s all the Doctor Who well see on screens for a couple of years and for the youngest members of the audience that will be Doctor Who. Refer to their version of the Doctor, any new companions and opponents.

Mainly new monsters, ideally some toy-friendly ones.

A Dalek episode assuming we can get the rights, with a small number of Daleks, maybe an episode involving something else where the Daleks interrupt as a complication, to sell them as a threat for next time they show up en masse.

The Doctor Who tender

“We’ve published an invitation to tender for the production of Doctor Who. The contract is for a multi-episodic series (including specials) for transmission in 2028/29, with an option to extend the contract at BBC’s discretion to produce a second series. It’s offered on a work for hire basis with the BBC continuing to broadcast the programme and retaining all rights.”

The BBC site for the tender

Thanks to Ian for the link.

Most of the tender document is practical stuff, so here’s the editorial brief - what they want Doctor Who to be.

Doctor Who is one of the most enduring and distinctive brands in global television. For over sixty years, it has captivated audiences through imaginative storytelling, compelling characters, and ambitious adventures that span all of time and space. The series occupies a unique position in popular culture, combining entertainment for a broad audience with sophisticated science fiction concepts, emotional depth, humour, and spectacle.

We are commissioning a new flagship series of Doctor Who. The series should feel contemporary, and creatively ambitious, whilst remaining true to the values and characteristics that have made Doctor Who a beloved series across generations.

We invite longlisted eligible producers to first pitch, in no more than three (3) pages, a brief editorial outline for a new multi-episode series, including ideas for specials.  Shortlisted producers will then be invited to put together a comprehensive editorial pitch as part of their ITT submission. 

Aside from the central character of the Doctor, you will need to develop at least one companion for the series. Companions should be distinctive, authentic characters in their own right, whose lives, relationships, ambitions, and personal journeys enrich the series. They should serve as an access point for audiences whilst also challenging, supporting, and influencing the Doctor.

We see this pitch as an exciting opportunity to innovate and surprise us. Stories should balance high concept science fiction with strong emotional narratives, ensuring that spectacle is always grounded in character and human experience. Episodes should transport audiences to extraordinary times and places, ranging from historical settings to distant futures, alien worlds, and contemporary Earth. Successful pitches will deliver ‘back of the sofa’ scares, jeopardy and tension, whilst remaining suitable for a broad family audience. Doctor Who embraces themes that celebrate curiosity, courage, intelligence, and compassion, themes that interrogate the human condition and most of all, it should and will always be distinctively British storytelling. We are flexible in the way the series is structured i.e. serialised or ‘story-of-the-week’ and the number of episodes which make up the series.

Iconic, established villains are a mainstay of the series over 60 years and we invite you to use them, but we will want to begin to get an understanding of the original characters, aliens and themes that producers wish to bring to the show and are keen not to be overly reliant on existing Doctor Who lore. We are looking for a new perspective that ensures Doctor Who remains relevant, surprising, brave and inspiring for both long-standing fans and new audiences.

At this stage of the process, it is not a requirement to formally attach a writer. You may want to pitch with writer suggestions, or if you are already working with a writer, please do include them and their ideas/vision in your submission. We are not necessarily looking to work to a strict showrunner model and would expect once in production that the series will also use episodic writers.

Visually, the series should feel cinematic, distinctive, and ambitious, capable of competing for audience attention in a highly competitive global market. We encourage innovative approaches to production, world-building, visual effects, and storytelling that maximise the scale and emotional impact of the Doctor Who universe.

We are seeking a creative vision that embraces the breadth of what Doctor Who can be and could be. Doctor Who is a show that has sparked conversation, taken risks and inspired audiences for decades and we are looking for this series to continue that tradition. Be brave, have fun and we look forward to hearing from you. 

Six plots from David Bowie's Station to Station

For David Bowie’s birthday and now monthly, adventures based on his studio albums’ song titles, working backwards.

After album titles, ★, The Next Day, Reality, Heathen, Hours, Earthling, Outside The Buddha Of Suburbia, Black Tie White Noise, Never Let Me Down, Labyrinth. Tonight, Let’s Dance, Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps), Lodger, “Heroes”, Low...

Station to Station (1976) (Wikipedia)

Bowie recorded Station To Station before moving to another continent to get clean as he later said he hardly remembered making it.

It was the vehicle for the Thin White Duke, one of Bowie’s regenerations and the villain of the piece.

Station to Station

The travellers attend a pilgrimage to a church claiming to hold a piece of the True Cross. What is it really?

Golden Years

Visiting a spa planet, the travellers revert to their physical prime. For the Stranger this could mean almost anything. (Is this a Stephen King reference to a David Bowie reference? Possibly.)

Word on a Wing

The TARDIS door opens and a paper plane flies in, with a message written inside it, a request for help. This is doubly odd since the TARDIS is in space.

TVC 15

The song’s about a television eating someone. Sometimes these write themselves.

Stay

A travellers hovers at the brink of death. Can someone who loves him talk him back? (Yes this is a Shakespears Sister reference. This video should be the heart of a julebox musical.)

Wild is the Wind

A violent storm threatening a traveller’s home, and it’s not a natural one.

Bonus: The Thin White Duke

The Stranger recognises another of her order of travellers. Or is it another version of her? Whoever he is, he’s been here for months, maybe years, tweaking this world to be just what he needs to spring the trap.

The Doubly Unmade Season

I have not watched The Unmade Season, a near-enough-to-confuse genAI-animated episode, but have watched a fan film maker react with understandable alarm.

Would I like to make episodes such as Actual Play adaptations like this? Yes. Will I? No.

Eleven plots from David Bowie’s Low

For David Bowie’s birthday and now monthly, adventures based on his studio albums’ song titles, working backwards.

After album titles, ★, The Next Day, Reality, Heathen, Hours, Earthling, Outside The Buddha Of Suburbia, Black Tie White Noise, Never Let Me Down, Labyrinth. Tonight, Let’s Dance, Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps), Lodger, “Heroes”...

Low playlist

Low from 1977 is the first of the Berlin trilogy, Bowie working with Iggy Pop and Brian Eno among others after he and Pop moved to get clean, and some of the songs reflect on that directly.

Although the album before “Heroes”, started at the Chateau d’Hérouville in France, which is probably not an influence but I’ve always wondered.

Speed Of Life

One of the travellers gets to attend his own funeral. And it’s not at a grand old age.

Breaking Glass

A solar power satellite threatened by robot assassins sent by the backers of a rival power source.

What In The World

The TARDIS lands and everybody around notices. It and the travellers are regarded with a natural level of curiosity for how odd they are instead of being casually shrugged off by most people as usual. What’s that about?

Sound And Vision

October 1955 and someone is trying to stop the broadcast of Quatermass II. It couldn’t be an alien conspiracy worried about being uncovered, could it? Hint: Yes it could be that.

Always Crashing In The Same Car

How do you save someone who seems fated to die, reality shifting to make it happen again and again? (It reflects the song’s feeling of making the same mistake and having to break the cycle, while of course I make it way more literal.)

Be My Wife

The Stranger finds herself in a vital diplomatic marriage between two space civilisations. How long can she stick out being a queen?

Or

The travellers help a Victorian family with an interdimensional monster problem, and the eldest son is quite taken with one of the travellers.

A New Career In A New Town

The travellers have to get jobs in a publishing office to make sure a world-changing book gets published.

Warszawa

Poland 1981, with the Solidarity union and movement already active in the shadow of the USSR and threatened by both modern and future forces wanting to crush freedom before it starts.

Art Decade

1920s Berlin, the Weimar Republic, a hotbed of artistic and political activity about to be snuffed out by history, but attracting art enthusiasts from across time and space. A chance to go behind the scenes of a great lost Expressionist film, and maybe save a copy when you stop some time travelling art thieves stealing it.

Weeping Wall

An isolated house in the country and a haunting effect that focuses on one part of one wall. Is it a Stone Tape recording or something else? (Optionally a Celebrity Historical with Charlotte Perkins Gilman.)

Subterraneans

Silurian episode! Maybe with pale blind Sea Devils. And a scene of the travellers having to stay quiet to avoid detection. But ending up helping them.

Bill Oddie

Bill Oddie, of The Goodies and therefore one of three Doctors at the same time for me.

The Commonwealth Games 2026

Judging the how the opening ceremony started, the BBC bid to show the Commonwealth Games really did fall through pretty late, huh?

(Glasgow still has TARDIS style police boxes, though they’re now coffee shops and the like. Edinburgh always had wider ones.)

Sylvester McCoy from his official Bsky

Ten plots from David Bowie's "Heroes"

For David Bowie’s birthday and now monthly, adventures based on his studio albums’ song titles, working backwards.

After album titles, ★, The Next Day, Reality, Heathen, Hours, Earthling, Outside The Buddha Of Suburbia, Black Tie White Noise, Never Let Me Down, Labyrinth. Tonight, Let’s Dance, Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps), Lodger...

“Heroes”, from 1977, second of the Berlin trilogy, is of course one of the icons here. Largely extemporised in the studio and half instrumental mood pieces, it was still a big hit, and the title track became possibly Bowie’s most beloved song.

Beauty and the Beast

Tale as old as time, as the Disney version puts it. I also rambled about the tale and the 1980s TV series on ye main blog. Doctor Who has done riffs on this legend a few times, from the Jean Cocteau references in Warrior’s Gate to companions dealing with Doctors transformed by regeneration. But have we had someone trapped by a seeming monster hoping for love to break a curse and going about it badly?

Joe the Lion

Ringling Bros. Greatest Show On Earth is on tour in the 1890s, and one of the animal acts has a problem: a locked room mystery where the room is a lion’s cage, how did he get out?

“Heroes”

An alien probe shot down by the Berlin Wall on the eve of President Kennedy’s speech. Can the travellers and people from both sides get the visitor to safety?

Sons of the Silent Age

The late 1920s, and the talkie is taking over from the silent movie. But as seen in Singin’ In The Rain, switching from silent to talkie brings a host of problems. And in this case a group of aliens who would prefer no to have their voices recorded...

Or

Two generation after the Wall of Sound used in the Seventh World War, some grandchildren of the original victims are being born with hearing intact. And raised by deaf parents and grandparents, they don’t know that they shouldn’t be able to hear that.

Blackout

A refugee colony on a planet with very little sunlight, and a solar storm about to plunge it into darkness for weeks... and someone hunting them.

V-2 Schneider

The V-2 was the first ballistic missile, and a lot of German scientists got into the US space program(me) after working on it. So it would mess up the Space Race if somebody came back in time and stole one.

Sense of Doubt

A psychic shockwave hits modern London, leaving everyone unable to make guesses. Society comes to a halt as everybody stops to analyse everything just to be on the safe side.

Moss Garden

One of the breadbaskets of the Eleventh Great And Bountiful Human Empire, a planet they really don’t want taken over by Daleks.

Neuköln

Neukölln (two Ls) is a Berlin district, West Berlin at the time of the recording, home to a number of visitors, artists, spies for various nations...

The Secret Life of Arabia

The travellers find themselves in another folktale as they have to keep a king entertained through a long night...