PSAudios 1.5. Doctor Who and the Christmas Gnomes

"It can't be!" exclaimed Nick, but it was.
There in front of him stood the mythical Toy Lord, Father Christmas.

Christmas is a time for fun and cheer but when Doctor Who and his young companions arrive on the mysterious Christmas world of Tinsel, they find horror and intrigue. Doctor Who investigates some brutal murders with the help of an unexpected ally, Rob has to escape the deadly Mines of Tinsel and Nick falls into the clutches of an old enemy! But what are the deadly forces that threaten the Spirit of Christmas on Tinsel? Can Father Christmas reconcile with his new wife? And will Doctor Who be able to escape the fearsome clutches of the deadly Christmas Gnomes?

The script was written over the summer of 2007. The aim was to write the Christmass-yest Doctor Who story of all time! So it had to be the planet of Father Christmas, with his Reindeer and Christmas Gnomes. Everything that Steven remembered from his childhood Christmases went in, from Transformers to Brussels' Sprouts.

Fitting into this camp environment perfectly were the returning characters of Vera and Scott from 'Echoes of The Protii'. It adds a bit of extra frisson to the story and helps build up the PS Audios mythos to have returning characters. Especially when those returning characters are a camp old drag act and a slutty young villain!

A lot of the ideas for this were generated while Steven was wandering around Victoria and Pimlico during his lunch-breaks at work. He would spend a lot of time pounding the streets wondering how to make the Gnomes more creepy and what Kestero's motivation. Hopefully what comes across is that the heart of the story is about family and friends.

With three people carrying out the production on this story, things got especially fruity behind the scenes. The production thread ran to 32 pages. Steve had initial culture shock at the thought of allowing someone else to edit down the episodes and threw an enormous strop. This was overcome eventually and harmony returned. Pip's episode was delivered at the absolute last minute, which caused some unwarranted tension. Fortunately the episode was finished on time and sounded fantastic. After the handbags were thrown and the dust cleared, the finished product was all the better for it.

This Christmas Special had two different covers! Cover A features the TARDIS outside Tinsel Central and was a specially made model by Si Hunt. "It stood about 0.6m square and was lovingly built after a series of shopping trips to collect all the knick knacks. Then I discovered my camera was on the blink, so transported the whole thing to Clacton where my Dad and I spent an evening covering Mum's kitchen in fake snow and lighting it with table lamps! It was huge fun though and my Dad deserves a verbal credit for giving me help in shooting it."

Cover B showed the TARDIS spinning in space by the planet Bauble in the Constellation of Tinsel and was created by Pip Madeley.