Rich Johnston scripts Doctor Who one-shot from IDW

By John Freeman on April 6, 2009

(with thanks to Matthew Badham): A new Doctor Who one shot from US publisher IDW, Room With A Deja View, is in the pipeline, written by British comics columnist Rich Johnston and drawn by Rex Mundi artist EricJ, with a cover by Grimjack artist Tom Mandrake.

It’s described as “an internally complex time travel story, a good third of which happens backwards,” by Johnston, “set on a patchwork space station filled with multiple races all hiding from the rest of the galaxy.

“This was a story I’ve had knocking around my head for far too long (most British writers, hell, most British people have at least one Doctor Who story inside them),” he reveals, “and I was stunned that it breezed through the IDW and BBC approval processes as easily as it did.

“I was offered the gig a month ago, on the day I was made redundant. No wonder I went a bit doolally.”

• Doctor Who: A Room With A Deja View is published by IDW this July, alongside the first issue of the ongoing series. Read more about the project on Lying in the Gutters

John Freeman

The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.

He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.