You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
4.51 AVERAGE
4.51 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
Absolutely hilarious, poignant, and inspiring. I want to become a screenwriter when I grow up.
In all seriousness, this book has made me look at Doctor Who (a show I already love) in a whole new way. I understand it so much better and Russel T. Davies is a living genius. You cannot convinced me otherwise.
In all seriousness, this book has made me look at Doctor Who (a show I already love) in a whole new way. I understand it so much better and Russel T. Davies is a living genius. You cannot convinced me otherwise.
"http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/1278783.html[return][return]This book is essential reading, not just for the Doctor Who fan, but for anyone who is even slightly interested in the show, or more broadly who is interested in the process of writing for television.[return][return]It is structured as a year-long email conversation between journalist Benjamin Cook and Russell T Davies about the process of writing the fourth season of New Who, from Voyage of the Damned to Journey's End. (Also briefly including Time Crash.) On the scale of loving or hating RTD, I am sort of in the middle: I respect and admire his achievement in reviving Who in the first place, which I think in the end puts me just slightly on the 'love' side of the divide, but I don't always like his writing, or his public persona. This book reinforced both my positive and negative prejudices about him as a professional, but it grounded them in a much deeper understanding of his personality, and in the awful responsibility of the writer on a show like Who: his loyalty and his guilt circulate around his key colleagues - Julie Gardner, Phil Collinson, David Tennant - and worrying that he won't produce the goods with adequate quality or promptness.[return][return]Vast amounts of draft script are included in the book, much of which made it to screen. I found the roads not taken rather interesting - who was the comedienne who might have played Penny, the companion who never was because Catherine Tate accepted the invitation to return? Imagine if Dennis Hopper had been available? And at the very end of the book, Cook rightly persuades Davies to drop a really awful linking script between Journey's End and The Next Doctor. [return][return]But even more interesting is to see what the fundamental idea of each story actually is. They are not always very strong. The Stolen Earth/Journey's End is almost entirely about showing rather than telling:[return][return]...Daleks, en masse. Lots of gunfire and exterminations. And the biggest Dalek spaceship ever - more like a Dalek temple. Christ almighty! The skies over the Earth need to be changed to weird outer space vistas. Also, visible in the sky, a huge Dalek ship exterior. The size of a solar system! This will probably explode. Like they do.[return][return]And Davros.[return][return]So the episodes are seen at this point largely as spectacle rather than story; the most effective bit, the end of Donna's travels with the Doctor, emerges rather late in the day from Davies' fevered imagination. One may not always like the solutions he comes up with, but the insight into the creative process. Is utterly fascinating and compelling.[return][return](Certain sections of fandom will not be pleased by what he has to say about the internet. Too bad. To paraphrase Neil Gaiman on George R.R. Martin, Russell T Davies is not your bitch.)[return][return]There is a surprising amount of death in the book: Christopher Ecclestone's driver, David Tennant's mother, Verity Lambert, and most of all Howard Attfield, called from his sick bed to reprise his role as Donna's father, but unable to complete the scripts. After his death, his scenes are reshot with Bernard Cribbins. The show must go on.[return][return]Indeed, that is the bigger lesson from the. Book. If Doctor Who is sometimes less than perfect, it happens basically because The Show Must Go On, and because the writers and producers have determined to put on screen what they can. It is rather amazing that it ended up so well as often as it did.[return][return]Anyway, this is probably the most interesting book about Doctor Who that will ever be written. If you are even slightly interested in the subject, get it."
http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/1581275.html
Davies and Cook exchanged emails and texts for the last two years of Davies' tenure as show-runner of Doctor Who (ie 2007-2009), so the narrative is spontaneous, spur of the moment, and feels very genuine (though of course the reader cannot know what has been edited out in the process). I had already read the first half, and Cook and Davies spend some time in the second half discussing the reception of the original version. Davies is perpetually struggling with deadlines, with his other responsibilities as showrunner, with his role as a public figure and spokesman not only for his own show but for his industry.
The book offers insights into the process of writing, crafting and drafting, trying to get it right, over the period of weeks and months of producing Doctor Who. Occasionally one can trace particular elements to the outside world: Ben Cook, normally a passionate but detached observer, persuades Davies not to end Journey's End with a Cyberman teaser for The Next Doctor. But more often the writers are drawing on their own emotional resources and imagination, trying as it were to find the story that is trying to get out - there is a nice moment when Davies, emailing Cook, suddenly realises that Wilf Mott should be the instrument of the Tenth Doctor's demise.
Structured as a dialogue between two writers, with lots of pretty pictures and extra amaterial, it is also about a success: whether or not one is a fan of Who or of Davies' treatment of it, the fact is that he revived a faded franchise and made it a hit, and that in itself is a good story even if we are only getting the final years. I commented about the first edition that there were a lot of deaths in it; there is only one in the second half, but it is significant - the mother of the Executive Producer, Julie Gardner, of the same illness which Davies' own mother had succumbed to a few years earlier. While of course all authors draw on many life experiences, it's not too fanciful, I think, to see a direct link between this and the creation of the Claire Bloom character in The End of Time, who in Davies' mind is very explicitly the Doctor's own mother.
The Writer's Tale, however, is probably the best book about Doctor Who that will ever be written, and of immense interest to anyone who cares about television, sf, or indeed the creative process.
Davies and Cook exchanged emails and texts for the last two years of Davies' tenure as show-runner of Doctor Who (ie 2007-2009), so the narrative is spontaneous, spur of the moment, and feels very genuine (though of course the reader cannot know what has been edited out in the process). I had already read the first half, and Cook and Davies spend some time in the second half discussing the reception of the original version. Davies is perpetually struggling with deadlines, with his other responsibilities as showrunner, with his role as a public figure and spokesman not only for his own show but for his industry.
The book offers insights into the process of writing, crafting and drafting, trying to get it right, over the period of weeks and months of producing Doctor Who. Occasionally one can trace particular elements to the outside world: Ben Cook, normally a passionate but detached observer, persuades Davies not to end Journey's End with a Cyberman teaser for The Next Doctor. But more often the writers are drawing on their own emotional resources and imagination, trying as it were to find the story that is trying to get out - there is a nice moment when Davies, emailing Cook, suddenly realises that Wilf Mott should be the instrument of the Tenth Doctor's demise.
Structured as a dialogue between two writers, with lots of pretty pictures and extra amaterial, it is also about a success: whether or not one is a fan of Who or of Davies' treatment of it, the fact is that he revived a faded franchise and made it a hit, and that in itself is a good story even if we are only getting the final years. I commented about the first edition that there were a lot of deaths in it; there is only one in the second half, but it is significant - the mother of the Executive Producer, Julie Gardner, of the same illness which Davies' own mother had succumbed to a few years earlier. While of course all authors draw on many life experiences, it's not too fanciful, I think, to see a direct link between this and the creation of the Claire Bloom character in The End of Time, who in Davies' mind is very explicitly the Doctor's own mother.
The Writer's Tale, however, is probably the best book about Doctor Who that will ever be written, and of immense interest to anyone who cares about television, sf, or indeed the creative process.
There are any number of books on writing that detail how to go about it. I've read more than my fair share of them, seeking advice on how to spark up my own literary offerings (hint: the only advice that ALL writers offer is to read a ton and write a ton and to keep doing it). To read about the process from the guy who restarted possibly-my-all-time-favourite TV show is, to coin a phrase, FANTASTIC!
Mr Davies reads like he talks, at about a mile a minute. I think I would have hated to have had him in my classroom as he appears to be that kid with an opinion on everything. But he does sparkle, and he does make you nod and he does make you understand how writing can transform a life and that, while it may seem effortless - and, when you're in the moment, rattling off several thousand words a day is pretty easy - making it read well is a completely different matter. He also really enjoys writing and telling stories and creating memorable characters and situations and, while I don't think his era of The Show was particularly brilliant about realistic SF (Season 18 was about the only time in the shows 35 seasons/ 50-something years, IMNSHO, that there were people involved who really tried to make the S as prominent as the F), he did create some terrific drama.
It helps that he has a sounding board in Benjamin Cook, who interrupts or erratically steers the conversation back on topic with some well-thought or well-targeted questions about the creative process. And, in true organic collaborative style, some of the ideas brought up influence the direction of the scripts.
And it is the scripts that are another real highlight here: we get draft versions of four episodes (Voyage Of The Damned, Partners In Crime, The Stolen Earth and Journey's End) and it is really interesting to see them in comparison to their televised counterparts, with commentary from Mr Davies about how they would/ did change from paper to screen.
Great fun, insightful and often hilarious.
What a deeply frustrating and maddening book. Davies comes across as funny, witty, passionate, thoughtful, kind and generous. He obviously slogs it out deeply for his writing. He is full of insight and wisdom and admiration for others
And to me he is 80% utterly wrong all of the time. There’s a passage where he is crackling with joy at finally working out a plot point and I can’t help but be honest and think “and that was a terrible plot point”. Because the problem is that most of the time RTD is singing the praises and extolling the virtues of his own work on the series, work which I think was almost entirely rotten
He goes to great ends to explain how his structures and writing may look like it’s thrown together but is actually carefully pieced together. And that’s astonishing to me because that means incredible effort has gone into what I see as the worst and laziest bits of writing in Doctor Who history. Because I only like two RTD episodes - Midnight and Gridlock, possibly bits of Love and Monsters, Utopia and Partners in Crime - and consider about ten of his stories as the very worst in fifty odd years of the show, this book is a struggle because it’s a very charismatic and likeable man being continually, utterly wrong
Marvel at him bemoaning using the sonic screwdriver as a plot point when he himself does it all the time! Boggle at his friendliness with Michael Grade where he throws the show under the bus for a cheap gag! Desperately try and avoid the fact RTD seems on heat 95% of the time and particularly worry for Russell Tovey who, if he ever reads this, must be genuinely a little disconcerted by the lust heading his way
But it’s also a lovely, human and generous book. But I dislike almost every product of the sweat dripping off his brow. It’s a weird old thing. A weird old thing indeed
And to me he is 80% utterly wrong all of the time. There’s a passage where he is crackling with joy at finally working out a plot point and I can’t help but be honest and think “and that was a terrible plot point”. Because the problem is that most of the time RTD is singing the praises and extolling the virtues of his own work on the series, work which I think was almost entirely rotten
He goes to great ends to explain how his structures and writing may look like it’s thrown together but is actually carefully pieced together. And that’s astonishing to me because that means incredible effort has gone into what I see as the worst and laziest bits of writing in Doctor Who history. Because I only like two RTD episodes - Midnight and Gridlock, possibly bits of Love and Monsters, Utopia and Partners in Crime - and consider about ten of his stories as the very worst in fifty odd years of the show, this book is a struggle because it’s a very charismatic and likeable man being continually, utterly wrong
Marvel at him bemoaning using the sonic screwdriver as a plot point when he himself does it all the time! Boggle at his friendliness with Michael Grade where he throws the show under the bus for a cheap gag! Desperately try and avoid the fact RTD seems on heat 95% of the time and particularly worry for Russell Tovey who, if he ever reads this, must be genuinely a little disconcerted by the lust heading his way
But it’s also a lovely, human and generous book. But I dislike almost every product of the sweat dripping off his brow. It’s a weird old thing. A weird old thing indeed
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
sad
medium-paced
As someone who’s always been interested writing and grew up on Doctor Who, this was wonderful snapshot of the process. The unique aspect of the emails provides a wonderful conversational frame to the discussion.
funny
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Not at all what I expected.
Maddening to read at times, and at others delightful.
Some nice behind-the-scenes Doctor Who stuff, but not as much as you'd think.
500 pages!!!
Davies really, really likes Russell Tovey.
After reading this, I can't decide if I like him more or less.
Now I find out there is a new edition with over 700 pages which includes writing about The End of Time, which I now, of course, have to read.
Maddening to read at times, and at others delightful.
Some nice behind-the-scenes Doctor Who stuff, but not as much as you'd think.
500 pages!!!
Davies really, really likes Russell Tovey.
After reading this, I can't decide if I like him more or less.
Now I find out there is a new edition with over 700 pages which includes writing about The End of Time, which I now, of course, have to read.
There are two ways of measuring this book, as a guide and advice to writers and as a geek's guide to the fourth season of Doctor Who. The latter is why I really wanted to read this book. In that regards, it's kind of a fun read. I love seeing how my favorite shows and movies come together. However, if I were a writer wanting to know how to work my way around the television industry or just how to better craft my scripts I would come away hopelessly lost! Russel T. Davies can occasionally be funny and/or charming, but mostly he comes across as pompous and whiny. It was his negativity and sardonic attitude that really made the book sour in parts. I really mostly enjoyed it for the glimpse into how season 4 came together.