Essex comic writer Pat Mills on new Doctor Who

Patrick Mills, an ex-Colchester resident, is a celebrated ex-journalist turned comic book writer whose work has directly inspired Doctor Who’s most recent episode, The Star Beast.

The talented creative wrote a 1980 comic strip entitled Doctor Who and the Star Beast, alongside John Wagner with art by Dave Gibbons.

This comic strip has been adapted by television writer Russell T Davies in last Saturday’s thrilling Doctor Who episode which kicked off the three part 60th anniversary celebration.

Writer - Pat Mills lived in Colchester for many years and now lives in Spain (Image: Pat Mills)

Pat, 74,  who lived in Colchester from the 1970s until 2015 after relocating to the sunny climate of Spain, is thrilled that his work has been adapted by Russell.

He said: “It’s great, it was a really exciting experience that a story so long ago was the story chosen to launch this new season of Doctor Who, it is a great honour.

“I think on occasion there are adaptions that the original writers are not so keen on.

“But if you look at the original comic book version of Star Beasts, you’ll see within the constraints of the plot it is faithful to the original.

TV - Filming of Doctor Who's The Star Beast episode (Image: PA)

“It has the same tone, same approximate context, same design of the aliens, I couldn’t be happier.”

Fans across Colchester have adored seeing the return of David Tennant as the Doctor and Catherine Tate as Donna Noble the companion, in last week’s episode.

Gabi Oates, 24, of Colchester, is a self-proclaimed Doctor Who fanatic and has grown up watching the television show, she spoke about her thoughts on the episode.

She said: “I think having David Tennant and Catherine Tate back massively boosted how good the episode was.

“It was very much like a classic Doctor Who episode during the good old days, so the Russell T Davis/David Tennant era, which I personally think is the best.

Doctor - David Tennant has returned as the Doctor in the 60th anniversary episodes (Image: PA)

“I’m extremely excited about it all, for the last episode, I went home to my parents as it is such a family tradition, and it was so nice to do that."

Pat’s work surpasses more than just Doctor Who, he has been dubbed the ‘godfather of British Comics’ and is known to having played a significant contribution in the fictional character, Judge Dredd.

Over the years, he has also created the 2000 AD weekly sci-fi comic book anthology series, which originally launched in 1977, and been involved with many different projects.

Now, the creative has recently released the insightful book, Pageturners: How to write iconic stories from the creator of 2000AD.

New - Pat's new book which released in November, it's available to purchase on Amazon now (Image: Pat Mills)

You can keep up to date with Pat’s work by heading to millsverse.com.