Stephen Cole (writer)

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Stephen Cole (born 1971) is an author of children's books and science fiction. He was also in charge of BBC Enterprises' merchandising of the BBC Television series Doctor Who between 1997 and 1999: this was a role which found him deciding on which stories should be released on video, authorising requests for licences to create merchandise, and acting as executive producer on the Big Finish Productions range of Doctor Who audio dramas.

Cole was also the range editor of BBC Books Eighth Doctor Adventures and Past Doctor Adventures, taking over from the previous editor Nuala Buffini. Buffini had commissioned the first six books in the Eighth Doctor Adventures range, although one of these — Legacy of the Daleks — was held back for publication later on in the range to prevent two Dalek stories being published in consecutive months. This means that the first novel commissioned by Cole was actually the sixth published, Lawrence Miles' Alien Bodies.

Cole also edited the BBC's Short Trips short story collections, for which he began to write under the pseudonym of "Tara Samms". He has since published other work under this pen-name, including the Doctor Who novella Frayed, published by Telos Publishing Ltd. in 2003. He has also written several short stories and audio plays for Big Finish Productions. A clue to Samm's true identity can be found in the "About the author" section at the end of Frayed in which the author's insomniac dog is described with the enigmatic phrase "he slept once" — an anagram of "Stephen Cole".