#do we have more info on the editing teams? I remember Lawrence Miles posting about some of the discussions on his blog

[intuitive-revelations]

Genuine, weird question, and I don't mean this to start drama nor with the intention of personally defending Gary Russell... but do we as a fandom know for sure he's the one who gave the "death stare"?

I just ask as I remember looking this up a while ago while doing some research and of course finding the "Behind the Scenes" mention on the wiki:

[ID: An extract from a TARDIS.wiki "Behind the Scenes" section: "David A. McIntee once pitch a Fifth Doctor novel which would instead have revealed the Doctor and the Master as former spouses, in a plotline allegedly inspired by War of the Roses. The pitch was refused with a "death-stare" from Gary Russell.]

...which cites this post on Tumblr by David A. McIntee:

[ID: Extract from McIntee's post: "Mind you, back in my day they often wouldn't us. You should have seen the look I got when I pitched a story in which the subplot between Doctor and Master (Five and Ainley, if you must know - the main plot was the Master's conviction for genocide and depending on the Doctor to get him off, while Tegan wanted him executed, and Nyssa went rogue to bust him out cos he was partly her dad…) was that they were ex-spouses, inspired by the novel and film War Of The Roses. I think that one got the worst death-stare, equalled only by the Bollywood musical episode Jim Mortimore and I wanted to co-write for Big Finish. (The actual BBC response, according to Gary Russell, was "Over your dead bodies.")"]

I might be missing some info elsewhere, or misinterpreting what McIntee meant, but actually reading the paragraph, it doesn't seem to connect Russell to the rejected FiveAinley pitch at all?

Note that while Russell is mentioned, he seems instead to have been passing on the BBC's response to McIntee and Jim Mortimore's Bollywood musical Big Finish story. It's not even clear if he was the one responsible for that rejection, though it's not out of the question. Note that, while it could technically be referring to the previous subject, McIntee's parenthesis's second-hand quote says "over your dead bodies" (plural), presumably referring to him and Mortimore. (I guess he could technically be referring to himself and McIntee, which might fit the requirement for a "BBC response" more, but I dunno...)

This also makes a lot more sense to me given that, as far as I'm aware (and I could be wrong tbf), Gary Russell was never an editor for BBC or Virgin Books? He WAS, however, the editor for Doctor Who Magazine, a script editor for the TV series, and, more importantly, an executive producer for Big Finish, which seems to match this interpretation.

Is it possible that whoever first wrote the fact onto the wiki simply misinterpreted the paragraph? It did come from Tumblr, and this is the "piss-poor" reading comprehension website after all...

It also wouldn't be the first time the wiki had misinformation on it. Remember Millennia's blue hair, or the "Scendles / Scendeles" debate? One time, when researching my "Gallifreyan Astrophysics" project I even found that someone had seemingly invented a bunch of fake Karn and Polarfreyan moons which they falsely attributed to Lungbarrow. When searching for a source I found them in a fanfic, though who knows if that or the wiki article came first.

This being said, if I'm wrong and it turns out there is clearer evidence Gary Russell was the one who rejected the pitch, then by all means please do add on!

Gary Russel has got to be one of the strangest contributors to Doctor Who. Guy who has had a substantial impact on the canon of the show, while also never writing or directing a single episode. He gave us one of the worst Big Finish audios ever written, but he also gave us fucking Zagreus. He allegedly shut down the Canon Fiveainley Novel Pitch with a "death glare", but also wrote the book that's basically considered the Academy Era Thoschei Bible at this point. What a guy