Paul Cornell

Paul Cornell (born 18 July 1967^[1]) wrote several Virgin New Adventures and edited several Bernice Summerfield anthologies for Big Finish Productions.

He co-authored The Avengers Programme Guide.

Paul Cornell was responsible for several additions to the Doctor Who universe. He created Bernice Summerfield and Wolsey the cat. "A friend of mine has a cat called Wolsey, and I wanted there to be a cat in the TARDIS, and I put it to Peter Darvill-Evans and Co. And they said No no no. And then a few nights later at a nice drinking session Rebecca said, 'Thish cat Poll, Thish cat Wolsey, we'll av im we'll av im'."^[2]

He also wrote two televised stories, the first being Father's Day for the 2005 series of Doctor Who, and adapted his novel Human Nature into the two-part Human Nature / The Family of Blood for the 2007 series being the second. Both were nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form, although he lost both times to fellow Who scribe Steven Moffat.

He was later nominated in the Best Graphic Story category for The Girl Who Loved Doctor Who, making him the only person to be nominated in two separate categories for his work on Doctor Who.

Cornell pitched several Doctor Who television stories during Steven Moffat's tenure, including the script Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and adaptations of his stories Love and War and The Hopes and Fears of All the Years. None of these were produced; however, elements of The Hopes and Fears of All the Years were used in A Christmas Carol.^[3]

He also contributed to the charity reference book Behind the Sofa: Celebrity Memories of Doctor Who.

He was interviewed for the revival series' tenth anniversary. He commented that he always thought the show would return to TV. (REF: DWM 485)

The Heralds of Destruction, a comic story released from September 2016 to February 2017, was originally Cornell's final contribution to the Doctor Who universe, as he afterwards planned to cease writing for characters not of his own design. However, he later wrote the Target novelisation of Twice Upon a Time, published in April 2018, and The Shadow Passes in 2020.