GR+ Live at SDCC 2015: Doctor Who writer Paul Cornell explains how The Doctor took over the world

Once upon a time - say, about a decade ago - Doctor Who was little more than a fond memory in the minds of British television fans after fifteen years off the air. Of course, you'd never know looking at it now that it's become a geek tour de force, and that transformation isn't lost on series writer Paul Cornell. "It's an amazing change in the world, isn't it?" he said in an interview with GamesRadar+ at San Diego Comic Con 2015. "It was a show that was basically spat upon and marginal and tiny before it left. And in those 15 years between the old show and the new, I think people took it away and worked on it and had an idea of what it should be when it came back… It's conquered the world, and in the last two years, conquered the States as well."

Against the odds, Doctor Who has again become a driving cultural icon, one that Cornell believes can bring people together or drive them apart: "There's gonna be war in Europe over this at some point. The French rather like Troughton, but it's more Slyvester McCoy for the Germans and this'll become a big thing."

To hear all of Cornell's thoughts on the power of The Doctor, the creative process, and how he can rest when he's dead, see the full interview below: