It's been said that Doctor Who has one of the most flexible formats in television drama. With the basic premise of an alien who travels throughout space and time in a box that is bigger inside than out, and which is disguised as a 1960s police public call box, it can't get much simpler than that. One week the show can be a gothic horror, the next it can be a comedic satire, while the next it could be a base-under-siege thriller – the possibilities are endless.

Doctor Who is now in its 51st year and enjoying its 12th/13th/14th/latest of many actors to take on the lead role. Every era is different, each actor brings their own style to the role, each producer and script editor makes their mark and probably Sylvester McCoy's era is one of the most divisive among fandom. It's a dynamic three years blowing cobwebs off the memory of recent cancellation. The Doctor and the series develop over 47 episodes until finally, sadly, just as things are on the up, the show is cancelled again. The Auton guide to the stories behind the Seventh Doctor's era answers all the questions fans haven't been asking:

• Cleaning Robots: What can you actually clean with a drill and a saw blade? We tried.
• Who built the Rani's lair? How long did it take?
• Harry's 70+ – How old is his wife if she's having twins in a few weeks?
• Why is the Psychic Circus so-called?
• Why do Rezzies eat Kangs when they've got a ready supply of teacakes, crumpets, muffin, basil and fresh cream?
• Now that we have a "Special Weapons" Dalek, should we relabel all the other Daleks?
• And how did Delta fit into Mel's dress?

We worry about these things so you don't have to. It's been a long time since Auton visited Doctor Who. Aided by the illustrations of Andy X Cable, it's time to get it out of our system.

Build high for happiness.

The setting is 'the near future' in terms of the original airdate of the early-mid 1970s but no specifics, please. Britain has a space programme (Ambassadors of Death) and is still seen as a prime mover in global politics (The Mind of Evil/Day of the Daleks etc).

The Doctor, after the events of The Three Doctors, has been given back use of the TARDIS, if not total control, so events are parallel with Season 10 - how do U.N.I.T cope in the Doctor's absences? Sometimes Jo is with him, so she is also absent (Carnival of Monsters, Frontier in Space, etc.), on other occasions she is present (such as when the Doctor is testing TARDIS or wants a solo exploration - re: Metebelis 3 in The Green Death).

It is worth noting that U.N.I.T did not only deal with alien threats. In the Doctor's absence the threats can be from any quarter which is 'odd' or 'unexplained'. The Silurians/Sea Devils and Inferno showed 'alien' threats can be from Earth too. They can be environmental (The Green Death) or technological (Inferno), as well as 'paranormal' (The Daemons). Inspiration can also be drawn from the Doomwatch and Quatermass series, or other similar formats like Kolchak, The X-Files, A Town Called Eureka and Warehouse 13.

Innovative looks at 1970s technology/environmental issues/paranormal/military issues would be preferred over straight sequels to televised adventures. Create new characters and threats that U.N.I.T has the remit to deal with! Remember that U.N.I.T, being United Nations, is also an international taskforce - we're not limited by a BBC budget to the home counties of England!

You are writing from the viewpoint of early 1973, and can use the U.N.I.T continuity up to and including Season 10 up to Planet of the Daleks, so you have no knowledge of any stories beyond that point. While we do not mind writers having a knowledge of U.N.I.T stories/chronology beyond this point, please do not make wholesale references or hang whole plot devices on them. In fact, we would prefer you use your knowledge to skirt any continuity-busting issues! This also applies to later related series like Torchwood, The Sarah Jane Adventures and K9.

Unlike the Cushing fannual, where we allowed a free-for-all in terms of story and scope, we would prefer initial story pitches before committing, so we have a balance and not 12/13 stories of alien invasion only. We would prefer the scope of: aliens/UFOs, space programme, supernatural/paranormal, strange creatures, unusual phenomena, ecological, technological, psychic/spiritual and if you have any unique story ideas beyond these too. There may also be a vague arc, and we want some stories to fit this.

The U.N.I.T Fannual 1974 is in the very early stages of development. I'm aiming for December 2014 for a finish date. Submissions will be kept open until the last minute but it's being suggested that after a pitch is successful the stories/art should be completed within two months.

Anyone can pitch for the art. I'm very much in need of comic strips for the fannual. Quite a few illustrators from the Cushing gig are back on board with us. Once the stories are given the green light, the art will be done straight away.

We would like at least a page of A4 detailing your idea and how the story will progress. Please don't send us just a few lines of random ideas and expect approval . . .

Once your story pitch has been approved by this date, you have two months to produce the story. Please aim for at least 4,000 words, but we are totally flexible with anything more than this figure, as long as you aren't writing a novel!

We are open to your ideas for special features too . . .

It's rare to find new adventures of Peter Cushing's Dr. Who in print. There was a comic book adaption of Dr. Who and the Daleks by Dell Publishing in 1966 and that's about it. FANNUAL is all set to change this. For the first time ever, the unofficial Dr. Who is treated to his very own unofficial annual. Most appropriate!

This really has been a labour of love for all concerned, done out of genuine affection and fondness for the films' interpretation of the Doctor Who mythology, and I've had a great response from the people who already have a copy of it.

Time travel. It's supposed to be impossible, isn't it? Well, actually, going forwards in time isn't really a problem at all is it? Just imagine if you could bend the rules . . . Well, I have managed to do just that! Moving freely forwards and backwards through time and space with my own invention is most exciting I can tell you!

1963 was the year it all began. I finally worked out how to make the machine work, and despite the fact that I am a grandfather and quite an old man now, I am still very sprightly because my adventures have given me a new lease of life! Which is just as well, as you will soon discover! Sadly, I can't turn back my own body clock and travel around the cosmos as a young man but I have shared all of the fun with my close friends and family and now I will share it with you . . .

So, let me take a rest from adventuring for a moment to regale some of the tales and the mysteries and challenges we've all faced across the galaxy from visiting our own and other strange worlds, with all of the many unusual and terrifying creatures we have encountered and the new lessons the universe has taught us in the process.

In this book you will find out about myself, my family and friends and the inner workings of my wonderful time machine with a friendly technical diagram highlighting all of the main features.

In my travels I have become caught in events surrounding the civil war of the 1600s, been to a distant alien world in a prelude to a mystery involving a couple I encountered on Barnes Common, and visited the planet Silicus, where I discovered men made of metal! Scary stuff indeed!

I've become a hostage of alien stowaways in my time machine, and on the planet Samsara my granddaughter and I were caught up in a conflict between two sides of the Brethren of Infinity as they waited for their Great Deity to save them from its imminent apocalypse . . .

My friends have even been accidentally miniaturised with one of my other inventions! Oh, the fun they had sorting that out! I've upset a couple of alien traders, encountered familiar-looking robots and landed in one of the most terrible places in human history - No Man's Land during the First World War . . .

I've explored the far side of the galaxy and managed to salvage the cultural heritage of an alien race, and I visited the strange Museum of Space Science in the year 3000 . . .

Also, on a very beautiful planet, my granddaughter encountered an alien prince and the two became romantically involved, which was very sweet. I've defeated evil terrifying robots who enslaved the people of the Earth in the year 2150AD and met intergalactic traders on the War Moon of planet Skirm, and my granddaughter befriended a strange creature on yet another alien planet, unaware that it was actually plotting to kill her at the first opportunity!

I've upset The Knights of Chronos, who are the self-styled guardians of time, and they put me on trial for creating a temporal paradox by returning a policeman I had met to 1966 before he actually left with me on my travels! Most confusing!

Anyway, you can find out about it all for yourself in detail in this marvellous book. I had hoped to write more about my adventures but I am so very busy exploring as I just don't want to miss out on all of the wonders and secrets the universe has to offer before, one day, I have to retire.

I know this sounds like the witterings of a mad old man but I can promise you that these events did actually happen! Enjoy this volume compiled by my friends and travel with me into this fantasy world that I have made a reality!

For five decades, the name Verity Lambert appeared on the end credits of many of Britain's most celebrated and talked-about television dramas, among them Adam Adamant Lives!, Budgie, The Naked Civil Servant, Minder, Edward and Mrs Simpson, Eldorado, G.B.H. and Jonathan Creek. She was the very first producer of Doctor Who, which she nurtured through its formative years at a time when there were few women in positions of power in the television industry. Later, she worked within the troubled British film business and became a pioneering independent producer, founding her own highly successful company, Cinema Verity.

Within her profession, she was hugely respected as an intensely driven, sometimes formidable but always stylish exponent of her craft, with the stamina and ability to combine quantity with quality.

Many of her productions have had a lasting cultural and emotional impact on their audiences and continue to be enjoyed to this day. But who was the woman behind all these television triumphs and what was the price she paid to achieve them?

Combining months of painstaking research and interviews with many of Lambert's closest friends and colleagues, Drama and Delight will capture the energy and spirit of this remarkable woman and explore her phenomenal and lasting legacy.