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Have you ever dreamt

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you had the power of magical flight?

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As a child I was exposed

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to two very beautiful 
and extensive mythologies.

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I grew up immersed in the classical myths
of ancient Greece,

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and the dreamtime 
of the Australian aboriginal people.

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So I developed an addiction

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for grand, interconnected narratives

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that involved magical flight
and time travel.

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I was inspired by these stories 
of gods, heroes and spirits,

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facing and conquering
terrifying monsters,

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travelling across the landscape,
singing the world into existence.

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My childhood was one long road trip
through antiquity.

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So these stories were passed down
to me orally

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in the very sacred places
where the stories took place.

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Here I am having a family picnic
on Mount Olympus,

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where the Greek gods lived –
Well, they weren't actually real,

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but for me as a child,
they felt so close and so alive.

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So I learnt from a very young age
the importance

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of being able to elegantly
blur fiction with reality.

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Mythology is important.

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Every culture has their myths
to dream and live by.

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Every culture has this.

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So beyond entertainment and spectacle

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the function of myth
is to teach us to cope with loss.

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But what I loved most about myth


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is that it prevented me 
from thinking in a linear way,

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and an ideological shift
took place for me,

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from the contained and finite story

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with a very distinctive beginning,
middle and end

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to infinitely expanding story worlds,

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that force you to see
the inter-connectedness of everything.

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So with a childhood of being addicted
to these infinite worlds,

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you can imagine my delight
when jumping forward 25 years in time

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and I've landed at this job at the BBC,

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where I'm given responsibility
for commissioning transmedia

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for the BBC's most iconic show: 
Dr Who.

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As a child when I watched Dr Who,
I found it really scary,

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I used to watch behind the sofa.

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And occasionally
I still have to avert my gaze;

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the monsters still terrify me.

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That's because 
the essence of Dr Who

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has stayed constant
across its 48-year history.

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It's the longest running
science fiction series ever created

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and its longevity is due to the fact that
it's more than just sci-fi:

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it's an anthology show.

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It crosses all genres
from drama to horror to comedy

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and it's created to thrill 
the child in all of us.

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And of course, who doesn't want 
to take a magical time ride

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to save the world as indeed 
the Doctor does in every episode.

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Who is the Doctor?

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He's a Time lord
who travels back and forth in time

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in a police box Time Machine,

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tiny on the outside, massive 
on the inside, called the Tardis.

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The first time I visited
the Dr Who's setting in Wales,

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it was definitely a career highlight.

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There I was in the Tardis
with the Doctor's sonic screwdriver,

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amazing,

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such is the magical sway of the story.

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I knew I was on a set

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but at that moment, once again,
fiction and reality blurred

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and I thought to myself,

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"How fantastic would it be
to give all Dr Who fans

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this experience of not 
just watching the show,

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but being able to step into this
deep mythological space for themselves.

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What if you could actually be the Doctor
and save the Universe?"

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So this is the motive 
that led us to design

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the Dr Who adventure games.

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In 2010 the BBC created 
17 episodes of Dr Who.

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13 TV episodes and 4 extra episodes
that were actually games,

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3 hours of extra game play
within each.

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This has been,
I think, a very unique moment

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in television and transmedia history

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to finally have this type of seamless
TV transmedia story world integration.

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One of my favourite moments

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was when I took 
the game's designers to the Tardis

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to collaborate with the show's team.

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Charles, the game writer, asked,

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"What's that door over there?",

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and they replied,
"That's your door. Take it, use it

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do what you like with it,

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take the Doctor to places that 
we can't take him on the telly".

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So, in that moment, after years 
of working across the silos,

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traditional media organisations,

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desperately trying 
to get people to understand

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how transmedia
couldn't reach their stories,

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In that moment we'd finally achieved,
what we thought was impossible,

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to get into the very DNA of a production


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and create stories and characters 
on par with the rest of the franchise.

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With these games we've managed
to future-proof the audience

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for the new generation of kids,

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but also to give the die-hard fans

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the ability to step into a Time Machine.

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I know I've been gushing in a very
Dr Who geeky manner right now

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about this show.
It's an occupational hazard!

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But, I think all the most amazing
and effective transmedia

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is born out of connecting
with your inner fan.

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Without the feverish passion of a fan,
you can't deliver the best experience.

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You've got to tap into
the collective unconscious,

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the muse, the universe, whatever 
you want to call this unlimited energy

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that is the origin
of all grand narratives.

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I tried to get to 
this non-verbal place.

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At the core of the story, where I'm not
thinking but feeling.

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It's like learning a new language.

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Once you start 
dreaming in a language,

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you know you've finally mastered it.

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As story-tellers we need to we need to tap
into mythology

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to reach into this collective unconscious

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and tell the stories that matter,

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the stories that help people deal
with the secret pains of life,

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that no one is immune to

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the things we all have to face
at some point of love and loss,

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and love and loss,

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this never-ending dance of life.

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It's in the most recent
episode of Dr Who:

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the Doctor is lamenting
his impending death,

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for even Time lords
can't avoid this very real pain.

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We can use transmedia to try
ideas out in a game space

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before the real world

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to understand consequences,

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to connect with each other through
magic travels through time and space.

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Magical mythologies are an essential tool


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to helping people through the cycle of life.

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It's the perfect way to ease people

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through beginnings,
endings and transitions

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in a way that leads
to actual change in their life.

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At the beginning of my life,

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my mother told me stories

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to help me cope 
with the years ahead of me;

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of the Greek gods and how 
they dealt with life's traumas.

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At the end of her life,

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I told her stories that helped her
confront her last days with courage.

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What if we could comfort, inspire and
encourage each other with transmedia?

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What if we could take
that Dr Who approach,

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that successful recipe
of 48 years of entertaining,

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and find a unique way

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to add a magical layer
onto our very real world stories?

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(Applause)