Tuesday, July 13, 2021

Master Switches - An Interview with Andrew Blair


We talk to Master Switches writer Andrew Blair, whose story 'Time Signature' takes us inside the twisted workings of the Simm Master's mind...

Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

I‘m a writer and performer based in Edinburgh, mainly writing poetry, and I’ve also contributed Doctor Who articles to Den of Geek. I’ve had some fan fiction published in the first Time Shadows anthology, and last year I had a pamphlet of poems out with Speculative Books where every poem is about a version of Robert Pattinson.

What made you want to write a story for Master Switches?

I was starting to get back into writing after my son was born, and this was an anthology where I formed an idea for a story pretty quickly, so I made a pitch knowing that a deadline would help me.

How would you describe your story in a nutshell?

I wanted to explore how the Master comes up with his evil schemes, and bring together the epic and ridiculous aspects of that.

What made you decide which Master and Doctor combo to go with?

My initial pitch involved the Sacha Dhawan incarnation and we couldn’t use that, so I talked to Paul about which incarnations had fewer stories in the anthology and who I’d like to write for.

How did you find the writing process?.

Fun. The Simm Master especially is big and sassy and gleeful so you can lean into that and be bold. It gets you into the headspace of ‘I might never write another Doctor Who story so I might as well act as if I own the entire franchise’.

The brief did present some challenges which I overcame by saying ‘Sorry, this doesn’t really fit the brief, is that okay?’

What aspect of your story are you most proud of?

I think it treads a good line between interrogating the character and how they work and massive great dollops of fanwank.

What’s your favourite line from your story? 

One that came from a note from Paul:

“But you are hitting me with my own hands”.

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