Iain McLaughlin is a writer and journalist who has written for a number of British comics including The Beano and The Dandy. He has also written a number of Doctor Who related plays and novels for Big Finish Productions and Telos Publishing, and also several plays for Imagination Theater. His regular writing partner is Claire Bartlett.
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McLaughlin was born in Dundee in 1967 and was educated in the city before joining DC Thomson's comic department in 1985. He worked on Hoot (1985–86), the Dandy (1986–88), The Beezer (1988–90), The Beezer and Topper (1990–93), the Dandy (1993–2005), Comic Projects (2005–06), the Beano (2006–present), BeanoMAX (2009–present). He was chief sub-editor on the Dandy comic from 2001-2005.
Solo, he has written the Doctor Who audio plays The Eye of the Scorpion and No Place Like Home and also the Doctor Who novella Blood and Hope for Telos. With Claire Bartlett he wrote the Doctor Who play The Veiled Leopard and the first and fourth plays in the spin-off UNIT audio series, UNIT: Time Heals and UNIT: The Wasting. Together they also wrote the novel The Coming of the Queen for Big Finish (featuring their own creation [[Erimem])], and the Time Hunter novella 'Echoes'.[1]
Additionally, they have written short stories for three of the Short Trips anthologies. Graham Dilley Saves The World for Past Tense, The Time Lord's Story for Repercussions and Far Away In A Manger for The Ghosts of Christmas. Most recently, McLaughlin has contributed a story to Obverse Books collection, Wildthyme in Purple
With Claire Bartlett he has written a number of radio plays for Imagination Theater, a radio broadcaster based in Seattle. Their work includes creating and writing all the scripts for the Kerides the Thinker series of mysteries and Hammer Horror flavoured gothic tales The Heart of Frankestein and Curse of the Mummy. He has stated a desire to write for Imagination Theater's Sherlock Holmes series.
Details of his unproduced Bernice Summerfield audio play Figure of Eight can be found in Big Finish's book, Bernice Summerfield: The Inside Story. With Claire Bartlett he was to write The Screaming Planet an episode of the cancelled 7th season of The Tomorrow People audios for Big Finish. In the third issue of "The Finished Product" fanzine, it is revealed that McLaughlin and Bartlett wrote "Helter Skelter" the original script of the story which became "Phobos" in the first season of Paul McGann audios produced by Big Finish for BBC7. The script was rewritten by and credited solely to Eddie Robson although considerable material from McLaughlin and Bartlett's original remained. The switch in writer was amicable and McLaughlin and Bartlett stated in the fanzine that they would have been uncomfortable accepting a credit for what they considered now to be Robson's story.
He wrote a Dennis the Menace short story for inclusion in Scholastic's Wow! 366 anthology book, appearing alongside other contributors such as Gordon Brown, Roddy Doyle and Charlie Higson. The book was a collection of 366 short stories, each of 366 words which was aimed at helping literacy, with proceeds from the book being donated to Childline.
He is very active in the online Doctor Who fan community and posts regularly on many fan forums, particularly Gallifrey Base.
Books
Short Stories
Audio/radio plays
Comics