Doctor Who: The Writer's Tale - Chapter 3
Chapter 3 - Bastards
In which The People’s Quiz is shunted, the internet is slated, and one beautiful day with Wynnie la Freak makes everything worthwhile
I like that each chapter has a bit of a blub, but curiously, this time the points mentioned in the blurb didn’t interest me all that much. But here’s what did:
The summary of the “Starship Titanic” episode aka Voyage of the Damned. It’s not too bad, sounds vaguely like the final episode. But what I do like is Russell’s comment when sending it to Ben: “I’m going to bed now, terrified about the budget. How the hell are we going to afford this?” It’s nice to know that the writers have budget concerns as well. It makes me wonder just what kind of budget these sorts of programs have. I sometimes wish that I could be an accountant for them, but I’m not so daft to think that they would actually get much of a chance to be on set or around the creation all that much.
Ladies who lurch - I like this idea. I can totally see Donna’s mum using a face cream and turning into a green slimy monster. Or getting botox injections and having those botox lines “erupting into green frond-ish stuff”.
Random rumours - “Kylie has been cast in this year’s Christmas Special... as a Cyberwoman!” It’s an interesting rumour, but really I don’t see how it would have worked. Because the cybermen and, I assume also the cyberwomen, are made out of metal and look essentially like a robot. So if there was a cyberwomen on screen, how would anyone know whether Kylie was inside? I suppose that she could have played a human before becoming a cyberwoman, but really, what would be the point?
Writing is an understanding of people. Maybe that’s why I don’t write too much. Or to be more to the point, maybe that’s why I don’t write much dialogue.
The creation of 10.5 - the idea of growing a second doctor from his hand was created especially so that Rose could have a Doctor of her own. However, according to Russell, this was supposed to “close off the Rose story forever”. And yet somehow she’s back for the regeneration special. I’ve never really been a Rose/Ten shipper - I just don’t understand why he likes her. So to hear that Rose is coming back for the special is a bit like déjà vu. If she’s gone, she should be gone already, and I thought that the storyline was closed off at the end of season 4 and so shouldn’t be opened again. But that’s a bit off tangent, so I suppose it’s a good point to stop on.