Welcome to ‘The Saviour of the Daleks’ of the ‘Zorbius’ series by Tim Bradley!

After writing ‘The Nightmare of the Warrior’ and adding the ‘Zorbius’ stories for the Ninth, Tenth and Eleventh Doctors to my blog, I was looking forward to writing a new story starring the Twelfth Doctor and Bill. It was challenging, but I enjoyed writing the Twelfth Doctor and Bill in a new story. 🙂

Series 10 of ‘Doctor Who’ was a mixed bag for me back in 2017, but I still hold nostalgic memories watching it on TV. I have been told that the Twelfth Doctor can be a challenge to write for, especially when his moods keep changing during his era, but I found it enormous fun getting into his character.

It was also a nice opportunity to write for Bill Potts, who sadly didn’t have a long enough stint as the Twelfth Doctor’s companion on TV. I enjoyed doing my take on Bill’s character and with the creation of new characters in my ‘Zorbius’ story, I hope I’ve done Bill justice in terms of what she’s all about.

I should point out that I have met Pearl Mackie who played Bill Potts in ‘Doctor Who’ in real-life at the ‘MCM Birmingham Comic Con’ in November 2017. It was a brief meeting but I had a nice chat with her and I enjoyed having my photo with Pearl. This was before ‘Twice Upon a Time’ by the way.

I was disappointed that Bill didn’t have a proper Dalek story in Series 10 of ‘Doctor Who’. She briefly encountered them in ‘The Pilot’ and ‘The Many Lives of Doctor Who’, but as far as I know it so far, that’s it. This was a lovely opportunity to do a Dalek story featuring the Twelfth Doctor and Bill here.

At the end of ‘The Nightmare of the Warrior’, I divided Salvador into two. One to go with the Daleks and one to rule a planet! So, this story was an opportunity to explore what happened to the Salvador that went with the Daleks and continue the confrontation he had with the Doctor from ‘Nightmare’.

‘The Saviour of the Daleks’ was by no means a tough story to write. I had to rewrite it to make it tighter and clearer and I even changed and removed characters from the original draft. Originally, there was a robot bodyguard called Thunderbolt and there was a spaceship bartender called Ernshall.

In the end, they were surplus to requirements and don’t appear here. I’m pleased I’ve written ‘The Saviour of the Daleks’ at last and I’m looking forward to writing and adding ‘The Two Salvadors’ next. I hope you will enjoy my take on the Twelfth Doctor and Bill and I hope I’ve done them both justice here.

TIM BRADLEY, December 2020