The Paul Spragg Competition: Still alive in 2025.
- Katherine Wheeler
- May 13
- 8 min read
Hello! I see you, budding Paul Spragg competition entrant.
My name is Katherine, I’m a writer, and every year after the announcement of the Paul Spragg competition I upload my last entry for you to read, pick apart and use as a jumping off point if you would like.
Last year, I created a synopsis and extract for the story for the Thirteenth Doctor. This year, I have looked back and reflected on what worked and what didn’t. I do this so that I can improve my entries and change each year, and to provide some analysis of the contest’s style for anyone seeking it.
For the curious (and those doing some background reading), here are all my previous entries.
My 2021 entry: Sacrosanct (developed into a Doctor Who Remnants story)
Before we launch into things, something I feel compelled to talk about.
I am really pleased with Big Finish’s decision to name strong entries this year. The one change I’ve wished for from this competition is feedback, even if that just means a thumbs up. Having an idea of what a good entry is in general is so useful to writers and it’s a great way of inspiring confidence where sometimes you can feel as if you’re running into a brick wall. The winning entry is always one that is exceptional in its ideas and so the exemplar entry changes in its style from year to year. Of course, this is the goal of the competition: to seek out new life and new civilisations, to boldly go— no hang on that’s Star Trek.
You get my point. I think if writers are named and those who make the honourable mentions list are willing to share their entries, the competition will become much more of a community event— which is always a good thing.
But on with the show. Here’s my entry for 2025 and my analysis of it below.
How to Save the World
Synopsis
Ace-97 is a world where you can bet on anything. The weather, the colour of the sky…. The love of your life. All possibilities have odds and everything has its price. Jackson Crane is stumbling through life in a call-centre job he doesn’t hate enough to quit. Every day he logs bets from the citizens of Ace-97 and watches the odds on Active Systems’ office walls rise and fall. One day, Jackson gets an unexpected call from a woman who calls herself the Doctor. She seems to know everything about him: who he is, what colour tie he’s wearing, the coffee stain on his trousers… and she’s got a grave warning. The world is going to end in 30 minutes.
Someone very rich has placed a bet on the impending apocalypse and they’re doing everything they can to make it happen, including bribing the controller of the planet’s protective shields. In exactly half an hour, a volcano will erupt and Ace-97’s protective shields will fail to fall, trapping the volcano’s deadly fumes within the atmosphere and killing all life on the planet.
The Doctor can’t fly the TARDIS through the planet’s shields, so instead she and Yaz have no choice but to talk Jackson through how to save the world. All Jackson has to do is convince as many people as he can to bet on the end of the world, by whatever means possible. If Active Systems stands to lose more money than it can make, then the company will have no choice but to call off the bet and there’ll be no payout for the mysterious bettor.
He’s reluctant to help at first, but the Doctor makes him a promise… When he was younger, Jackson had met a boy from a distant moon and ever since, he’s yearned to be reunited with him, staying up every night to stare up at the barrier between him and the stars and waking up late to scramble into work. The shield has meant offworld travel has been impossible for years, but if he can save the world then the Doctor, Yaz and their magic box can take him to the moon where his mystery boy lives.
Time’s nearly out but it’s still not quite enough. Jackson’s running out of time and there’s only one thing left he can do, find the most impossible, unpayable bet: that he will meet the boy he fell in love with all those years ago just like the Doctor promised him and if they don’t cancel the bet to save the world… well, he’s got a time machine.
With an impossible sum to pay out, Active Systems cancels the apocalypse bet and the planet’s shield is lowered just in time to let the noxious fumes of the volcano escape into the atmosphere. At the very end, the Doctor and Yaz expose the mysterious benefactor and take Jackson to fulfill the terms of his bet and to meet the boy of his dreams.
Extract
Jackson Crane hurried through the doors to his office with a spring in his step. Active Systems’ headquarters were buzzing with activity, the screens on the walls flickering between long numbers like strobes. “Morning!” Jackson waved at a coworker, quickly bringing his hand back in front of his trousers. His morning coffee had been piping hot and he’d spilled some on his last clean pair. It had made him late, again.
The chatter in the office air was exciting. Business was booming, people looked happy. He could tolerate days like this. It was hard to believe that just a few years ago, there’d been no odds, no bets and no bookmakers— but now that was the business of Active Systems. You could bet on anything: the weather, wars, peace, purple sky in the morning, would your crush like you back? The company had odds for it all. The last term had been particularly lucrative. They’d taken on some particularly wealthy clients willing to take on bigger and stupider risks, and that meant more expensive coffee and shinier shoes for people like him.
Jackson sat down at his desk, shot a quick glance at the clock on the wall and turned on his monitor. A flurry of numbers flashed across the screen. Jackson smiled and tapped the green “accept” button. It was the first call of the day. “Active Systems, what are your odds?” He said into the receiver.
“Don’t panic, but you’ve got to listen to me right now!”
Jackson frowned and squinted at the numbers on the screen. “Who is this? Who are you?”
“I’m the Doctor.” Said a woman’s voice through the speaker, and then— “I’m Yaz. Are we speaking to Jackson Crane?”
He paused. “I’m sorry, I can’t give out my details.”
“Oh, brilliant! We were hoping it’d be you Jackson. You see, the odds of you being late to work: two to one— no offence. Figured it was you running in that green suit this morning. Me and Yaz did some digging for a number and you were the first one we rang! What are the odds?” There was laughter, then a groan. “Sorry, couldn’t help it.”
“Look.” Jackson’s eyes flitted to the cameras mounted in the corner of the room. “I don’t know who you are, or why you’re calling, but if you want to place a bet, I can help you.”
“That’s not why we’re calling.” The voice trailed off. “But I suppose there is one bet I want to make. I bet you, Jackson, that you’re going to help us, because in thirty minutes.” The Doctor took a breath, and the static of silence rose between them. “This whole world’s going to die.”
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Analysis
A year gives you a lot of perspective, and looking back at this I feel like I’m peer reviewing it for a friend. I always see flaws when I revisit my entries, and those flaws seem to grow and grow in my head the more time I spend typing up these analyses, but I’d call this a fairly solid entry. Reading it back, I like the concept, but I can see why it wasn’t showstopping
‘How To Save the World’ is less mature than other entries I’ve submitted, particularly when compared to 2024’s Time War theme. It’s inventive in the use of the phone that the Doctor and Yaz are constrained by, but doesn’t add anything when it comes to the TARDIS Team’s relationship .
Limiting entries to specific Doctors isn’t something I feel strongly about. I like having some sort of limitation as it makes coming up with ideas that break the mould easier, but at the same time it can be hard to tell the story you want to with certain incarnations. I’ve written for the Thirteenth Doctor quite a bit before so had her voice rattling around my head when I was writing. This Doctor can sometimes be tricky because her style of speaking changes so drastically depending on who she’s with or where she is.
At the end of the day I’m proud of myself for rising to the occasion and for producing an entry, especially when it can sometimes feel like you’re jamming too many things in at once. This year, given the theme, I’m going to try and aim more for poignancy and get closer to emotional beats that complement the Doctor’s adventures.
Pros:
Capturing the mid-series adventure tone. It felt like I was writing in the style of a BBC Books anthology story. Whether this was well received or not, I’m glad I struck a definitive tone and style. This helps the sentences flow.
I focused on atmospheric scene setting. So, taking the premise and going “okay, so Jackson is in an office, but what does it feel like? What does he hear?” It’s also important to indicate what relationship the protagonist has with his surroundings and the people he’s close to that tells us about his personality.
Good hook. I’ve always tried to land on a pre-titles cliffhanger. I think this one’s pretty good! Very classic.
Starting ‘in media res’ and skipping setup that might have felt like it dragged or was irrelevant to a story with this runtime.
Conceptually very stand alone. A story like this doesn’t need to throw out name drops to Daleks or big bads. It stands alone because it’s from that singular perspective.
Cons:
The ending makes sense, but does it feel like it’s tying everything together properly? It needs to not feel far fetched that the story comes to that resolution. Tying together the ending with a neat bow that doesn’t feel too easy makes it more satisfying to get to.
There’s a slowdown of action in the middle section of the synopsis. What I mean by this is that whilst I’m describing the story as it moves on, I haven’t described the physically movement of the characters. Where is Jackson as the action unfolds? Does he stay where he is? Where does the phone call take him? This is probably the largest flaw in the synopsis. The emotional journey is there and the dynamics are fleshed out but the physical blocking fades in the middle. It can be very easy to get caught up in vibes and try to sell it on the “feeling”, but if you’re not describing what the action actually is, then how can those reading it imagine your plot?
It’s probably a good entry, but I’m sure if it were up against other stories, there would be “gotcha” qualities in other entries that won out.
Finally, to all of you at home…
This year more than ever I would like to encourage all of you to be proud of yourselves. You’re here! Look at you! You’re showing up to a competition with all these hopes and dreams poured out onto a word document about the show you love most in the world. You’re trying your hand at a competition which seems impossible, and doing it because you love it.
Rejection is tough. Really tough. Even if you know that the odds are a million to one! But if you’ve put the work in, you believe in the story you’re trying to tell and respond to the feedback and the challenges along the way then I want you never to think less of yourself. You’re doing something you love, and you want to be the best you can be. So…
…Keep going. It can feel rough out there, but keep going. Azbantium wall. Bird. Fist. See you next year.
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