In 2003, I shared a newsgroup with Jim Smith, who had co-written some of the Kaldor City series. When Checkmate was released, the subject came up and – based on what I heard – I decided to give the series a go. I was hooked before the first instalment had even finished, and quickly became a fan. Then, shortly after Checkmate, the series lead Russell Hunter sadly died, and it seemed to underline that Kaldor City had reached its natural conclusion.
Then Daniel O’Mahoney – another Dr Who writer and member of the same newsgroup – wrote an outstanding drama called Storm Mine, which picked up where Checkmate had finished and seemed to say that there were plenty more possibilities for Kaldor City to continue. Half of my love of Kaldor City comes from Storm Mine: it is dense and theatrical and intelligent, and my frustration at seeing it dismissed by some listeners for not exploring the consequences of Checkmate led to me posting an article online about how I saw Storm Mine relating to – and continuing on – the rest of the series.
This led to series producer Alan Stevens getting in touch and asking if I’d be willing to write a review of Storm Mine for Celestial Toyroom, the magazine of the Doctor Who Appreciation Society (DWAS).