SFX has exclusively revealed that the Doctor Who Live shows are a sequel to the third Doctor story, “Carnival of Monsters”. A report from them is below.

SFX is hot off the phone from an interview with Doctor Who Live director Will Brenton who confirmed to us what some fans had already suspected (fans putting two and two together and coming up with four? What is the world coming to?): the story behind the spectacular stage show that tours the UK later this year is a sequel to the 1973 Jon Pertwee Doctor Who story, “The Carnival Of Monsters”. Of sorts anyway.

“When I first came aboard this project, it was a project very akin to the Prom offering,” says Brenton, whose background is in creating massive arena tour spectaculars. “And what I thought we needed to do was bring this space alive a lot more, by making it a narrative that takes place in real time, in that Arena at that moment. Which is what we’ve done.

“So we’ve created a brand new Doctor Who character – called Vorgenson [to be played by Nigel Planer - concept art below], but it is a character who grows out of previous Doctor Who story, called ‘Carnival Of Monsters’. All of its genealogy grows out of that episode. And the fans who spotted that reference will enjoy how it happens. It’s taken what happened in that episode and moved it on, and updated it and had some fun with it as well.

“And that’s the kind of collaboration that we’ve been having. I sat down with Steven and said, ‘I’ve got this Jurassic Park kind of feel, with a character who’s reeling out these characters,’ and he immediately said, ‘Well, ‘Carnival Of Monsters’! Let’s let it grow out of that.’”

In other news many monsters from Doctor Who invaded Nottingham Square to promote Doctor Who Live today. A BBC News report shows some footage from the event, and interviews with people passing by. To watch click HERE.

Book tickets to Doctor Who Live at www.DoctorWhoLive.com.