Television is a highly collaborative art form, but arguably no one has more power in crafting a TV narrative than the writer, who shapes the bones of any TV story.

Doctor Who series 11 is notable not only for the incredible changes it is making in front of the camera—bringing on Jodie Whittaker as the first woman Doctor, as well as Tosin Cole (Ryan), Mandip Gill (Yasmin), and Bradley Walsh (Graham) as a diverse ensemble of Companions—but also for the major changes behind the scenes.

Not only does the series have a new showrunner in the form of Chris Chibnall (Broadchurch, Torchwood), but, across its ten episodes, it boasts a line-up of writers who are (save for Chibnall, who will write the most episodes this season) all new to the production of Who and who represent the most diverse group of writers in this series’ long history. Let’s take a look at each of these storytellers to see what they bring to the rich world of Doctor Who…

Malorie Blackman

Check out: The Noughts & Crosses series; “The Ripple Effect“ Honestly, Malorie Blackman is a major score for Doctor Who. A former UK Children’s Laureate, the black British writer born in London to Bajan parents, has penned over sixty books for children and young readers. Before attending the National Film and Television School and becoming a writer, Blackman worked as a systems programmer. Blackman’s most popular series, Noughts & Crosses has a great premise: It is set in an alternate history world in which Africans gained a technological and political advantage over Europeans, and used it to enslave them. The first book in the series, published in 2004 in the U.K., is set after slavery has been abolished, but when segregation is still a major problem, with Noughts, or those with white skin, treated as second-class citizens by Crosses, or those with black skin. We follow the relationship between Callum, a Nought, and Sephy, a Cross. “I wanted to write a story about the legacy of slavery,” said Blackman in a 2016 Q&A about the series. “About how attitudes way back when, still influence all our lives and the way we think and live today. I really believe the subject of slavery is terribly important – especially in this day and age. I think it gives a context to modern day Western World thinking and attitudes regarding other races and cultures.” There’s a BBC TV adaptation in the works too. Blackman has a knack for taking the realities of our world and turning them on their head as a way to reflect back on them. She did it with Noughts & Crosses and she uses a similar tactic in a 2013 Doctor Who short story called “The Ripple Effect,” which she wrote as part of Doctor Who‘s 50th anniversary celebrations. In it, the Seventh Doctor and Ace stumble upon an alternate universe in which the Daleks have always been good. The Doctor immediately suspects the Daleks are up to something, and must face his own prejudices when Ace points out that this new universe they’ve discovered may be a more just place. “I’ve always loved Doctor Who,” said Blackman in the press release announcing the Season 11 writers. “Getting the chance to write for this series has definitely been a dream come true.”  Three words describing her Doctor Who story: “Heartfelt, thought-provoking, timely.”

Ed Hime

Check out: Skins episode “Emily”; The Incomplete Recorded Works of a Dead Body; Hime’s You Should Watch This podcast It’s been five years since British teen drama Skins went off the air, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t still having an effect on mainstream pop culture today. (Fun fact: Peter Capaldi had a supporting role as Sid’s dad on the first cycle of Skins. His character is not very nice.) Yes, I’m referring to the influence the show has had as a narrative pioneer (a notable antecedent is Norwegian sensation Skam, which has a lot of Skins in its DNA), but also to the storytellers the show has produced. Ed Hime, who got his start on Skins in the fourth and fifth seasons, is one example. Skins was revolutionary in many ways, and much of that dynamic storytelling stemmed from its decision to give young writers a real chance to be a part of the writers’ room. At one point in the show’s seven-season run, the average age of the writers’ room was just 21-years-old, and that was more or less par for the course across the series. Daniel Kaluuya, of Get Out and Black Panther fame, was writing and acting on the show when he was just 18. The Cursed Child writer Jack Thorne, who has got to have at least one clone given the sheer number of projects he’s a part of (next up: the His Dark Materials TV show), also wrote for the show.

Hime penned two episodes of Skins. His first, “Emily” (series four, episode two), won him a BAFTA for Breakthrough Talent. As you might have guessed, it focuses on the character of Emily—specifically her romantic dynamic with girlfriend Naomi, her tense relationship with her mother, and her investigation into the suicide of a classmate.

Though not without its hiccups, Skins‘ Emily and Naomi represented one of the first central queer relationships on TV, and it’s encouraging to know that Hime was an enthusiastic part of telling their story. Speaking to AfterEllen in 2010 about writing their characters and love story, Hime said:

“I felt that my only real duty was to explore them as people and tell an emotionally honest story about them and not to think about what it was saying in a wider cultural context. I think you comment on it by not commenting on it, by just treating them like everyone else in the show and treating their story as equally valid.”

Skins was a show that led with its characters and its emotionally-driven storylines, which also seems to be what Chibnall is going for in Doctor Who series eleven. Hime seems to be on board with the plan, saying in the Who writers’ announcement: “Writing for this series comes down to the adventure really, and telling emotionally-engaging stories to bring everyone along with you.”

Three words describing his Doctor Who story: “Really rather spooky…”

Vinay Patel

Check out: Murdered By My Father; An Adventure; Patel’s essay in anthology The Good Immigrant

Remember the name Vinay Patel. I think it’s one we’re going to start hearing a lot, and not only in relation to Doctor Who. The playwright and screenwriter from South-East London had two plays on the UK stage this summer: Sticks and Stones at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and An Adventure at London’s Bush Theatre through October 20th. 

Sticks and Stones, Patel told The Guardian, is a play about “how we talk to each other about what is offensive or not.”

“People push a ‘this is offensive’ thing to certain groups, and I think people having their power dismantled is good. But then I talk to someone like my dad, who works 85 hours a week and who doesn’t have time to be on the internet. If you don’t reach back, you leave a gap that people like the far-right exploit really well… I get it, people get frustrated about having to explain themselves and their lives. But the work is to go: ‘Actually, I need to bring you on board because the world feels unstable’ – that uncertainty is what I wanted to bring into the play.”

Patel’s other recent play, An Adventure, follows a young couple from 1950s India to Mau Mau-era Kenya to the UK, and is inspired by Patel’s Indian grandparents’ arranged marriage. His TV debut, Murdered By My Father, is the story of a girl who is killed by her father in an act of so-called “honour-based” violence. It won the 2016 Royal Television Society Award for Best Single Drama and was nominated for three BAFTAs. Patel drew on testimonies from those involved with similar real-life incidents and conversations with non-profits working to support survivors of honor-based abuse, including Karma Nirvana. Speaking to Spotlight about the strengths of TV vs. theatre as a medium, Patel said:

“I think with television, there are certain things you can do better than in theatre. So, with Murdered By My Father, I’d seen some plays around honour violence, but, for me, the most useful place for that story felt like television because it felt like that’s something lots more people need to understand … That acts as a permanent thing in the world. People can see it. It can find a much broader audience than people who will go see a play.”

Patel seems to be a longtime fan of speculative fiction storytelling.  “I grew up watching shows like Star Trek and Quantum Leap on the edge of my dad’s bed, and I loved how they managed to capture the imagination of a kid like me as well as acting as a moral compass,” said Patel in the series eleven writers’ announcement. “I never imagined that I’d get to write for Doctor Who – I was pretty thrilled.” Also discovered in my research for this article: Patel has two cats named Star and Bickles. Three words describing his Doctor Who story: “Educational, epic, emotional.”

Pete McTighe

Check out: Wentworth episode “No Place Like Home”  Pete McTighe gets my award for Best ‘I Am So Excited to Write For Doctor Who Season 11!’ Quote. “My entire television career has quite literally been an elaborate plan to get to write Doctor Who – and no one is more shocked than me that it paid off,” McTighe said in the press release.  McTighe went on to say: “I’ve been having the time of my life working with Chris, and writing for Jodie and the new team, and can’t wait for everyone to see what we’ve been up to.” As you might imagine, McTighe has worked in the Whoniverse before. He has written booklets, sleeve notes, and other materials for DVD releases of Classic Doctor Who episodes. A few days before McTighe’s role as a series eleven writer was announced, he posted his own sketch promoting a new Fifth Doctor release online.

McTighe has a lot of TV-writing experience, most notably he is one of the head writers for Australian female prison drama Wentworth where he has written at least three episodes (“Fear Her,” “Hell Bent,” and “The Girl Who Waited”) that appear to be named after Doctor Who episodes? (Is McTighe trolling all of us? Is he himself a time traveler? Discuss.) 

Set in a modern prison, the show follows Bea Smith in her early days in prison and her rise to the top of the prison’s hierarchy. The show is still running, with the season six premiere set for 2019. In a 2015 interview with NoWhiteNoise about Wentworth, McTighe had a chance to gush about Doctor Who, saying:

“I’m going to sound like a nutter, and I’m not, probably, but yeah that show is incredibly important to me on, like, a molecular level. It’s the show that made me fall in love with TV, and the show that gave me incentive to read and write and create. The very first story I wrote was a Doctor Who story when I was a kid. It was terrible, but the fact is that show started me writing and led me to where I am today.”

He also noted that Peter Davison is his favorite Doctor because he was his Doctor as a kid, adding: “Davison was a refreshing change. That breathless, urgent quality he brought really upped the stakes.”

Speaking more generally about his style and interests as a writer, McTighe said:

“I like writing about complex characters, whatever the genre. Psychological depth. I guess I’m more drawn to material with an edge to it … I’m also really interested in ideas that have some kind of genre bent; whether that’s supernatural or sci-fi, but those kinds of shows are notoriously difficult to get right. But that’s something I’m working on. I’d love to get a big sci-fi or genre show off the ground. I love tiny characterful stories and I’m attracted to stories that have a scale; as long as there are high stakes, I’m there, with my biscuits and my keyboard.”

Three words describing his Doctor Who story: “Creepy, fun, rollercoaster.”

Joy Wilkinson 

Check out: Nick Nickleby (if you can find it!); Land Girls episode “Farewell My Lovely”; The Sweet Science of Bruising (if you happen to be in London this October)

Playwright and screenwriter Joy Wilkinson is a Screen International Star of Tomorrow and has had two screenplays featured on the Brit List, and she’s proven her mettle through well-received TV projects like Nick Nickleby, a modern adaptation of the Dickens classic, and her work on Land Girls, which follows the lives of four women in the Women’s Land Army during World War II.

Wilkinson’s theatre work has garnered her a Verity Bargate Award. Her most recent play, The Sweet Science of Bruising, will have its world premiere this October at London’s Southwark Playhouse. Set in 1869 London, the play follows four very different Victorian women who are drawn into the underground world of female boxing. So… that sounds awesome.

Speaking about her role in Doctor Who Season 11, Wilkinson said: “I loved the show and felt like it might be a good fit for me. But I knew it was really hard to get onto. So quite frankly I’m still pinching myself to be here!”

Three words describing her Doctor Who story: “Dark, funny, squelchy!”

Doctor Who series eleven continues this Sunday the 14th of October at 6.55pm on BBC One.

The Deuce isn’t stopping at two.

HBO has officially ordered The Deuce season 3 and in the process also confirmed that the third season will be the show’s final. Variety was the first to report the renewal. 

The Deuce is just the latest in a long line of collaborations between David Simon and HBO. Former Baltimore Sun reporter Simon and his writing partner George Pelecanos were the driving forces behind GOAT TV drama candidate The Wire. Simon and Pelecanos then went on to have a fruitful relationship with HBO, creating shows and limited series like Treme, Generation Kill, and Show Me A Hero. The Deuce has arguably been the most successful of these collaborations since The Wire.

The Deuce seasons 1 and 2 have told the story of New York City in a very specific time of its lifecycle: the 1970s. The show follows the world of the sex trade in ’70s Times Square as it transitions from the streets to behind closed door and eventually in front of cameras. The Deuce season 2 premiered on September 9th and will run for nine episodes.

Simon and Pelecanos populated the cast of The Deuce  with favourites from their previous HBO go-arounds, including The Wire‘s Lawrence Gilliard Jr., Gbenga Akinnagbe, Chris Bauer, and Method Man to go along with Show Me A Hero‘s Dominique Fishback. The cast is led by two big names, however, in Maggie Gyllenhaal and James Franco. Franco was subject to allegations of sexual misconduct that came to light last year. 

The show was subject to some controversy following allegations made against Franco of sexual misconduct in January. HBO reported that they looked into Franco’s behaviour on set and “felt comfortable” moving forward with a second season. That must remain the case for a third season as well. Per a post on Simon’s Twitter, it would appear that three seasons and out has been the plan all along.

There is no word yet on when The Deuce season 3 may debut or how many episodes it will contain.

HBO’s Watchmen series is sure going to sound great. Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross have signed on to provide the original score for the series. The duo have a fine history of composing dramatic music for film, having worked together on The Social Network, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, and more.

Details on the Watchmen HBO show, which comes from The Leftovers and Lost mastermind Damon Lindelof, are still a little thin. The short version is HBO’s short logline for the series, which simply reads “Set in an alternate history where ‘superheroes’ are treated as outlaws, Watchmen embraces the nostalgia of the original groundbreaking graphic novel while attempting to break new ground of its own.”

Please indulge me while we read far too much into those few words. The use of “alternate history” seems to indicate that this is set in the past. The original Watchmen graphic novel is set in 1985 (when it was published) but covers history from about 1938 onwards. Recent Watchmen sequel Doomsday Clock opens in 1991. Set pics have hinted that at least some of this show takes place after the events of the original graphic novel, but let’s not forget, a hallmark of Watchmen‘s storytelling is how it jumps around in time.

So what does any of this have to do with the music of the show? Well, if this is set in the 1980s or early 1990s, that also opens the door for HBO to include a stack of killer tunes at appropriate moments. HBO’s Westworld has done that in ways both sneaky and overt, and while the only season of Vinyl didn’t exactly set the world on fire, no reasonable person with discerning musical taste could possibly complain about its soundtrack. With Reznor on board, it’s worth remembering how much of the first Nine Inch Nails album, Pretty Hate Machine, was influenced by ’80s synth-pop, and the band even covered an Adam & The Ants song on the Broken EP. Bring on the cool retro Watchmen tunes!

Watchmen will arrive on HBO some time in 2019.