Unnatural Selection

There is a modern phraseology which defines an item as ‘Marmite’. You either categorically dislike something or you evangelically adore it. Jim Mortimore’s play The Natural History of Fear has frequently been described in such terms. It pushed the envelope of audio drama and it played with the traditional format of storytelling. But it was also declared by actor Paul McGann to be ‘… the best Doctor Who script I’ve read.”

This book charts the inception of that script from the initial image of the spinning top, through to a brief existence as a book and then to its final realisation as an audio play. It shows the work that goes into producing a set of scripts and the effort that a writer, producer, director, sound engineer, musician and cast go to in order to produce a single play.

In this age of digital piracy and devalued creativity not just in the world of books but in music, film and all manner of art, the currency of a single idea has never been better realised and the creative process more clearly laid out.

As an evolution of a script it is fascinating, not least because it is the evolution of such a fascinating script.

Cover and book design: Robert Hammond

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