Paul Douglas Cornell (born 18 July 1967) is a British writer. He got the chance to become a Promoted Fanboy when he was asked to write for the Doctor Who New Adventures. Among his contributions to the Doctor Who Expanded Universe was Bernice Summerfield, an Ensemble Dark Horse who spun off into her own series. He also wrote Scream of the Shalka, a (in retrospect) Alternate Continuity web-based animated series in which (he claims) the Doctor and the Master are totally doin' it. Since Doctor Who's return, he has written two stories for it: "Father's Day" and the two-parter "Human Nature"/"The Family of Blood", an adaptation of one of his New Adventures books.
He has also written for comics including Captain Britain and MI13, the "Black Ring" story arc in Action Comics, Saucer Country and Batman And Robin, and has written Pulse, a well-received medical horror pilot for BBC3. In the DC Comics' New 52, he kicked off the new Stormwatch and Demon Knights. In 2017, he announced his "retirement" from working on projects not owned by him. He has since continued contributing to Doctor Who, writing a novel, a comic and a series of short stories.
Works by Paul Cornell with their own trope pages include:
- The Black Ring
- Captain Britain and MI13
- Demon Knights
- Doctor Who: Four Doctors
- I Walk With Monsters
- Knight and Squire
- Saucer Country
- Wisdom: Rudiments of Wisdom
- Wolverine (2014)
- Scream of the Shalka (and wrote its Novelization)
- Shadow Police
- Five installments in the Doctor Who New Adventures series, including:
He and his work are known for these tropes:
- Creator Thumbprint: Owls, family ties, anti-racism, Body Horror, The Power of Friendship, homoerotica and cricket.
- Deus Angst Machina: His Doctor Who fiction in particular tends to, as he described it, take characters that you care about and put them through hell.
- Evil Twin: Pete Cornell. In fact, a typo in The DC Comics Encyclopedia which achieved
Memetic Mutation status. - Promoted Fanboy: From a mild-mannered Doctor Who fanfic writer to running one of the biggest Long-Runners in comics, all in the span of two decades. Quite the promotion.
