Revised Black Archive publication schedule
Part of the charm of The Black Archive – we hope – is our always somewhat flexible publication schedule, wherein some of the titles we’ve announced don’t come to pass for various reasons, almost always beyond our and our authors’ control.
2023 is no exception to this. While the three books published so far this year – our groundbreaking essay collection on Flux, Tom Marshall’s book on The Girl Who Died and Ian Potter’s on The Myth Makers – have been published as announced, we’re now diverting from our intended schedule for the rest of the year.
We are, however, prepared to announce our titles for the full year ahead, up to June 2024.
Following his controversial but well-received Black Archive on The Talons of Weng-Chiang, published last year, Dale Smith returns in August 2023 to examine the seventh Doctor story The Greatest Show in the Galaxy, complete with an investigation of the scary clown phenomenon and a look at the unexpected parallels between Doctor Who and the UK hip-hop scene.
In October 2023, as previously announced, Simon Guerrier (author of our earlier highly acclaimed The Evil of the Daleks) will celebrate Doctor Who’s 60th anniversary with The Edge of Destruction, the earliest story yet to receive the Black Archive treatment.
December 2023 sees another book examining a seventh Doctor story from 1988, as Mike Stack focuses on The Happiness Patrol’s queer and other political and emotional themes in the context of Thatcher’s Britain.
In February 2024 we will publish a book we previously announced for 2023, Ryan Bradley’s exploration of the pivotal 13th Doctor story Ascension of the Cybermen / The Timeless Children.
In April 2024 our range editor Paul Driscoll, author of our earlier books on Doctor Who (1996), The God Complex and Vincent and the Doctor, carries out a deep analysis of the surprisingly influential fifth Doctor story Frontios.
And June 2024 will bring Doris V Sutherland’s book probing The Aztecs, the series’ second historical story, where pulp adventure finds itself in collision with Doctor Who’s educational remit – and incidentally completing The Black Archive’s coverage of John Lucarotti’s three Doctor Who scripts.
Here’s that schedule again in full:
August 2023 – The Black Archive #66: The Greatest Show in the Galaxy by Dale Smith
October 2023 – The Black Archive #67: The Edge of Destruction by Simon Guerrier
December 2023 – The Black Archive #68: The Happiness Patrol by Mike Stack
February 2024 – The Black Archive #69: Ascension of the Cybermen / The Timeless Children by Ryan Bradley
April 2024 – The Black Archive #70: Frontios by Paul Driscoll
June 2024 – The Black Archive #71: The Aztecs by Doris V Sutherland
We hope our readers continue to enjoy them all, and we look forward to bringing you books on all the Doctors, from William Hartnell to Ncuti Gatwa and his successors, in future years.