The End of Resurrection: (SPOILERS!)

And so three years later Resurrection is over and I have mixed feelings. I'm happy because I feel like I've finally got through the story I wanted to tell. It feels complete (sort of) and it feels like it's finally over. It feels like it's time to start afresh. But I'm also sad because during my time writing I fell in love with the three main characters, and one character in particular.

Resurrection, in some ways, was a much more difficult series to write than Darkpaths. Darkpaths had been gestating in my mind since back to when I was a schoolboy and I had developed those stories over decades. Darkpaths was very much the series of my childhood. Resurrection had to be something different, and in some ways it was a daunting proposition to write it.

Reading back through my blog post I wrote about the end of Darkpaths in 2014, I have a smile on my face. I'd said I'd never revisit Thornsby or Caroline, but a few of those elements did pop up. Of course they had to pop up. Ultimately I've been creating a tapestry of a future world and those elements are all part of an ongoing story. As much as the next series will be a big departure from what's gone before, it ultimately is part of the same world.

Am I happy with how Resurrection turned out? Yes, mostly. It's a different animal to Darkpaths, as I

mentioned above, but not everything was as plain sailing. I set out a clear beginning, middle and end with the mystery surrounding Lilly and her rehabilitation back into the world followed by her departure to fix things with her real family and finally her reunion with the Doctor and Holly.

It wasn't always going to end how it ended though. Originally when Lilly left, Richard Hick was due to continue until the very end. As I continued to write Richard though I felt that, sadly, I had no real love for the character so I decided to give him a short-term run in the TARDIS and give him a happy ending.

Lilly and Holly weren't always going to have a happy end though. Originally Lilly was going to succomb to the infection she was suffering from and would have regenerated at the end into a totally different incarnation. She then would have left with the Doctor and carried on into the next series. But this I didn't feel fitted well with the ongoing story. The story really was about Holly and Lilly and to rip them apart at the end just felt cruel. I have to admit I fell in love with writing for both of them and I couldn't do it to them, so I gave them a happy ending.

Another aspect that I introduced was the UNIT:X team. Although they were guest characters that appeared once or twice I had intended them for something else. In the early days of Resurrection the plan for the next series was to continue with the Doctor stranded on present day Earth (ala the Third Doctor) and becoming UNIT:X's scientific advisor. It was even hinted at back in "Elsewhere" with Faith becoming a companion in the future.

Of course this leaves the UNIT:X team with a few dangling threads, but more on that later...

As for favourite stories: I really enjoyed writing the first five with the middle section slightly weaker after Lilly had left. I went through a huge bout of writers block during the last half of the series and sometimes had to force myself to write. But I think it turned out alright in the end with "Aliens Among Us", "The Edwardian Way" and "Elsewhere" being particular favourites to write.

I do have to confess that I didn't enjoy writing for McAvoy's Doctor as much as I did O'Brien's, but again that's mainly down to the O'Brien Doctor having been gestating for decades in my head. I'll miss McAvoy, but I'm eager to forge ahead with Pertwee's Doctor.

The adventures of the next Doctor, Sean Pertwee, will continue in the follow-up series, Doctor Who: Elysium, which will see the Doctor return to Earth and have a new mystery to solve with his new companions.

If you want to hop on over to Elysium then please follow this link:

https://drwhoelysium.blogspot.co.uk/

It's still the bare bones, but you'll get all the latest info on there.

And now to the future. The Doctor may be heading over to Elysium, but that doesn't mean we won't see some of our Resurrection characters again. In fact if you pop over to the new blog now you'll be able to see exactly where I'm going with it.

I hope there are readers still out there as I continue to build this future Doctor world!

Merry Christmas everyone!