In the past I’ve made my love of Doctor Who quite clear. That said it is the type of show that is ripe for parody, with everyone from Family Guy to The Hillywood Show all giving it an affectionate roasting.
Professor Howe is a range of books that parody famous episodes of Doctor Who. Created by author Chris Stone as a reaction to what he felt were the substandard official Doctor Who novels. ‘I thought I could do better’ state’s Chris ‘so I started on Professor Howe and the Toothless Tribe (a parody of An Unearthly Child)’.
Chris found the writing process easy that was until the introduction of the cavemen. Reflecting on this writers block Chris says ‘The cavemen part had me flummoxed for a good while. It was only when I had the idea of Rump the caveman (who has an uncanny resemblance to the current president of the U.S.A.) that I managed to get the plot together’.
Not feeling comfortable about making money from his parody he decided that all profits should go to the charity Children in Need.
The first novel sold quite well leading Chris to decide to write a follow-up. It was only when he started the second novel he realised the depth of the universe he’d created; ‘I began writing the second book and I realised expanding the range would not be easy. Writing a parody – even one in the format of a faux-Target book – is very idea heavy and a lot trickier than most people think. It’s a challenge to make it funny and paying enough homage to the source material. I knew I could do another one but it would take some time. Thus I needed to recruit more authors to continue the range’.
Fellow authors Ann Worrall and the mysterious Ian K. Cimm soon joined writing the parodies of Sleep No More and Vengeance on Varos, respectively. Later Jamie Hailstone joined submitting his parodies of Spearhead from Space and Time and the Rani. Chris himself would also complete his second novel of the series with a parody of the famous ‘Who’ story Daleks.
As well as his fellow authors Chris attributes much of the series success to his cover artists, ‘None of this would have been possible without some wonderful covers from some brilliant artists (and one from me). Much credit has to go to Richard Young, Adrian Salmon, Iain Clark and Charles Waples’.
With three more novels planned later this year you can see why Chris is so proud of his creation ‘Everyone who has worked on these books has done so for free and it’s been a brilliant effort by all involved’.
The books are available via http://professorhowe.strikingly.com/ and are more than worth a look.
Current titles available:-
#1 Professor Howe and the Toothless Tribe by Christopher Samuel Stone
#2 Professor Howe and the Viciousal Vloggers by Ian K. Cimm
#3 Professor Howe and the Sinister Sneeze by Ann Worrall
#4 Professor Howe and the Plastic Peril by Jamie Hailstone
#5 Professor Howe and the Terrible Tarrants by Christopher Samuel Stone
#6 Professor Howe and the Shanghaied Scientists by Jamie Hailstone
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