Goss, James
Entry updated 12 May 2023. Tagged: Author, Theatre, TV.
(1974- ) UK author, playwright and producer whose first work of genre interest was a stage adaptation with Arvind Ethan David of Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (1987) by Douglas Adams, as Dirk (first performed 1995; 2016). He has long been associated with the Doctor Who franchise, initially as the content producer in charge of the BBC's official show website from 2000 when it was part of their Cult TV site. Goss has also produced Doctor Who web animations and DVD extra features. His first novels were Almost Perfect (2008), Risk Assessment (2009) and First Born (2011), all three being Ties to the Who spinoff series Torchwood (2006-2011). Co-credited with Douglas Adams are three Doctor Who novelizations: City of Death (2015) and The Pirate Planet (2017), based on scripts by Adams, and Doctor Who and the Krikkitmen (2018), based on archive material relating to a storyline that was never produced. Further Doctor Who-related books followed, including nonfiction and Poetry [see Checklist below].
Goss's first non-tie novel is Haterz (2015), a darkly humorous tale of a man who discovers his Near Future vocation: to make the Internet a better place by systematically murdering trolls, purveyors of hate speech and other polluters of online discourse, including those who merely irritate him. [DRL]
James Goss
born 1974
works
series
Doctor Who: Torchwood
- Torchwood: Almost Perfect (London: BBC Books, 2008) [tie to Doctor Who/Torchwood: Doctor Who: Torchwood: hb/]
- Torchwood: Risk Assessment (London: BBC Books, 2009) [tie to Doctor Who/Torchwood: Doctor Who: Torchwood: hb/]
- Torchwood: First Born (London: BBC Books, 2011) [tie to Doctor Who/Torchwood: Doctor Who: Torchwood: pb/]
Doctor Who
- City of Death (London: BBC Books, 2015) with Douglas Adams [tie: novelization by Goss of the Doctor Who script by Adams with Graham Williams (from an original draft by David Fisher) writing together as by "David Agnew": Doctor Who: hb/Two Associates]
- Doctor Who: The Pirate Planet (London: BBC Books, 2018) with Douglas Adams [tie: official novelization by Goss of the 1978 Doctor Who story: Doctor Who: hb/]
- Doctor Who and the Pirate Planet (London: BBC Books, 2021) with Douglas Adams [tie: cut vt of the above: Doctor Who: Doctor Who Target: pb/]
- Doctor Who and the Krikkitmen (London: BBC Books, 2018) with Douglas Adams [tie: novel adaptation of an unmade Douglas Adams Doctor Who script originally written in the mid-1970s and which later formed the basis for the third Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy book Life, the Universe and Everything: Doctor Who: hb/]
- Doctor Who: Scratchman (London: BBC Books, 2019) with Tom Baker [tie to Doctor Who: Goss co-credited on title page but not cover: Doctor Who: hb/]
Doctor Who: Class
- Class: What She Does Next Will Astound You (London: BBC Books, 2016) [tie to Doctor Who/Class: Doctor Who: Class: hb/]
individual titles
- Haterz (Oxford, Oxfordshire: Rebellion Publishing/Solaris, 2015) [pb/Pye Parr]
- Dirk (London: Samuel French, 2016) [play: adapted with Arvind Ethan David from Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (1987) by Douglas Adams: first performed 1995: pb/]
collections
- Doctor Who: Now We Are Six Hundred (New York: Harper Design, 2017) [poetry: coll: subtitled on cover only "A Collection of Time Lord Verse": Doctor Who: Doctor Who: illus/hb/Russell T Davies]
nonfiction
Doctor Who
- The Dalek Handbook (London: BBC Books, 2011) with Steve Tribe [nonfiction: Daleks: Doctor Who: Doctor Who: hb/]
- Doctor Who: A History of the Universe in 100 Objects (London: BBC Books, 2012) with Steve Tribe [nonfiction: Doctor Who: Doctor Who: hb/]
- Doctor Who: The Doctor's Lives and Times (London: BBC Books, 2013) with Steve Tribe [nonfiction: Doctor Who: Doctor Who: hb/]
links
previous versions of this entry