Moorcock set for Doctor Who story

By Tim Masters
Entertainment correspondent, BBC News

Michael Moorcock edited the Tarzan Adventures and Sexton Blake Library in the 1950s

The BBC is in talks with the fantasy author Michael Moorcock to write a Doctor Who novel, it has confirmed.

Moorcock, who has written dozens of books including the Elric of Melnibone novels, said on his website that the Doctor Who book would appear in 2010.

"Looks like it's official," he said. "I'll be doing a new Doctor Who novel (not a tie-in) for appearance, I understand, by next Christmas."

A BBC Worldwide spokesman said that nothing had yet been signed.

Moorcock said: "Still have to have talks etc with producers and publishers, but we should be signing shortly. Should be fun."

The 69-year-old author is also known for his regular collaborations over several decades with the space rock band Hawkwind, and his own musical project The Deep Fix.

"BBC books approached my agent," Moorcock revealed on his website forum. "I didn't realise David T[ennant] was, as it were, still the Dr [sic]. I thought the new ones were already showing."

Original novel

Writer Richard Curtis is penning an episode for Matt Smith's new Doctor

Tennant has played the Doctor for the past five years but announced last year he was leaving. He will be replaced by actor Matt Smith next year.

One Moorcock fan posted the question: "If it gets adapted to TV or film, will there be a Hawkwind/The Deep Fix cover of the theme music?"

Moorcock also said he had watched the BBC show since it began in 1963.

"Haven't liked all the Doctors and after Peter Davison stopped watching regularly until the new BBC Wales series.

"Since the Tom Baker series, a lot of my ideas crept into the stories and so in many ways I'll be writing a story which already echoes my own work."

He added: "I do have to submit it to editors so they can make sure it fits into the canon and this, of course, is understandable. By saying it wasn't a tie-in I did, of course, mean that it would be an original novel, not one which was linked to previous stories."

In September, film director and Blackadder creator Richard Curtis revealed that he would write an episode of the new series of Doctor Who in 2010.

The 52-year-old is better known for romantic comedies like Four Weddings And A Funeral than for science fiction.