Welcome to ‘The Thirteen+ Doctors’ – my special anniversary ‘Doctor Who’ story to celebrate 60 years of the TV show. I began writing this adventure back in September 2022. It took me about nine months to complete it, making it one of the most challenging and exciting stories I’ve ever written. 🙂
I’ve always wanted to do an epic ‘Doctor Who’ story to celebrate a significant anniversary year in the style of ‘The Five Doctors’. ‘The Thirteen+ Doctors’ became my ‘Lord of the Rings’-style of an epic ‘Doctor Who’ anniversary story with elements of ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ (both of them) in it. 😀
Everyone has their own interpretation of how to celebrate an anniversary year in ‘Doctor Who’. Whether you’re into multi-Doctor stories or not, there’s bound to be a different interpretation on how things are done to embrace a significant amount of years of a TV show in an anniversary special.
Terrance Dicks had his interpretation of celebrating an anniversary year of ‘Doctor Who’ in ‘The Five Doctors’ for the 20th anniversary. Gary Russell and Alan Barnes had theirs in ‘Zagreus’ for the 40th anniversary. And of course, Steven Moffat had his in ‘The Day of the Doctor’ for the 50th anniversary.
Russell T. Davies will soon share his interpretation of how to celebrate the 60th anniversary of ‘Doctor Who’ in the three upcoming TV specials for November 2023. Big Finish are currently sharing their own way of celebrating the 60th anniversary through the ‘Once and Future’ series of audios. 😐
Anticipating that RTD and Big Finish might not match to how I perceive celebrating the 60th anniversary of ‘Doctor Who’, I decided to write my own anniversary story and have it mainly feature the first thirteen TV Doctors from William Hartnell to Jodie Whittaker, joined by their many companions.
The task proved to be daunting, but I was keen to take on the challenge. Little did I realise how things would change significantly as I was writing ‘The Thirteen+ Doctors’. Originally, this was supposed to be a two-part story. As time went on, it became a three-parter, which is so astonishing.
I didn’t think my 60th anniversary stories including ‘Interdimensional Rescue’ and ‘The Thirteen+ Doctors’ would be extended. ‘Interdimensional Rescue’ was meant to be a one-parter before it became a two-parter, and ‘The Thirteen+ Doctors’ was a two-parter before it became a three-parter.
I’m sure I know how Peter Jackson and his filmmaking team felt when they adapted ‘The Hobbit’ from a two-film dualogy into a three-film trilogy. 😀 Incidentally, if this story was ever adapted into TV or a movie, I would happily welcome having Peter Jackson as the director of ‘The Thirteen+ Doctors’. 😀
Initially, I was going to have the Thirteenth, Fifth and Tenth Doctors and their companions as the main stars, whilst the rest of the Doctors and companions had guest roles. As time went on though, I couldn’t keep the other Doctors and companions in the background as I was writing this epic story. 🙂
It sounded a lot like what had been planned for the original 30th anniversary story ‘Lost In The Dark Dimension’. Therefore, I decided to let them have bigger parts to play in the story. Rewriting ‘The Thirteen+ Doctors’ and extending the episode count from two to three helped a lot in that regard. 🙂
I’d like to thank those who have helped me with improving the story and ironing out any inconsistencies from the story’s initial draft, including Timelord007, WilliamsFan92, Alan Camlann/Wolfie, AFJ Kernow and Stephen Buckley. Their contributions to the story’s production have been invaluable.
Originally, as a two-parter, there were no individual titles for the episodes. Thankfully, when it came to extending the story from two to three episodes, I decided to give each of the episodes individual titles, matching to the titles for the three parts of ‘The Lords of the Rings’ trilogy in book and film. 🙂
It also harkens back to when the ‘Doctor Who’ stories during the William Hartnell era had individual titles for each of their episodes. Incidentally, this story had the working title ‘The Legacy of the Doctor’ for a while. How ironic that it ended up being the title of the third episode of this adventure.
There’s so much I want to share about what the writing process of ‘The Thirteen+ Doctors’ was like, but that would be giving away too many spoilers. I can only say that I highly recommend you check out this epic 60th anniversary story by me, as there are surprises to look forward to and enjoy. 🙂
I hope you’ll enjoy ‘The Thirteen+ Doctors’. Whether you’re reading this whilst watching the actual 60th anniversary TV specials or not, I’m sure this ‘Doctor Who’ adventure will give you plenty of entertainment. I’m very happy that I’ve written this story to celebrate 60 years of a TV show I love. 🙂
TIM BRADLEY, September 2023
Bradley's Basement 
Happy 61st for the Whoniverse.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Wow! One year on and it’s the 61st anniversary of ‘Doctor Who’! How times flies! 😀
Thanks scifimike,
Tim 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person