The 10th Doctor (with coat)
This was only the second AFT story to feature Character's 5" figures hence Rose is her series 1 figure: the new Earth version had yet to be released.
At this stage there was still a dearth of supporting characters in the same scale so the inhabitants of Kulkaron are gladiators bought in a 3 pack in a Pound Shop in Hull.
At the time we only had the Money Box TARDIS and in September 06 got the TARDIS playset which makes a brief debut.
Mio's form swapping device comes from Spy Kids 2 figures and may make a return appearance...
10th Doctor (suit)
Rose (series 1)
Mio- £ Shop Gladiator (gold)
Karrick- £ Shop Gladiator (silver)
Extras- £ Shop Gladiators

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Originally shown in October 2006 with a cover by Luke Spillaine
At the time the story was quite odd and worried that readers wouldn't get it I posted this reassuring panel on the homepage (left)
It was restored  to the site on 11th June 2008.

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Backwards is a funny kind of story. It was written in 2005 before the new series hit our screens and was to have been one of a series of six adventures starring the 9th Doctor and Rose. Other stories in this series were The Unearthed Enemy ,Tin Soldiers and our current Axis of Fear. As such it's less about the characters of the Doctor and Rose (about whom I knew nothing at the time) and more about telling in an interesting story in an original way. The Kulkarron were originally intended to be more alien in appearance.
It was inspired by the movie Memento starring Guy Pearce as a man with no long term memory. As such, his life resets every few minutes and he has to take photos and leave notes in order to remember things.
I loved the way the director tells the story through flashbacks and you don't really see the whole truth until you get back to the beginning, so to speak. And it's that kind of story telling that I've tried to emulate with Backwards.
Hopefully Backwards kept you guessing until the end but if you're still bemused- the flashback elements (in monochrome) play forwards while the 'present' sequences play backwards. I also added a 'vortex' background to the flashbacks, just like they do on the telly. If you still don't understand the story, I've put together a "Forwards" version.

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The story was shot in late summer 2006 with some pick ups in September following the acquisition of the TARDIS playset.
The sets used for Backwards can be found in the Downloads section under 'alien streets'.

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In order for the reader to distinguish between the past and the present strands the colour saturation was taken down somewhat for the past sections making them appear less colourful. A 'vortex' image was placed on the page too.
The planet Kulkarron as seen from the air is a composite image of buildings from Greece.
The banners of Mio feature the Fonz actor Henry Winkler since I thought the figure looked a bit like him.
In the original script after the Doctor has beaten up Karrick, Rose puts the Doctor in a car. He reads the note in the reflection of the window rather than a phone box and then drives off. The confrontation with the guards then takes place on a high bridge.

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The story was written prior to the airing of series 1 with no idea of any other stories so it has no continuity links with any other stories.
It's clearly established that the Doctor has been to Kulkarron before and knows Mio personally but this is obviously in another incarnation and certainly before he met Rose.
Kulkarron and one of it's people return in The Hive Mind

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