Is Joss Whedon's 'Ripper' still being made?

[Kaijufan]

Trent Roman wrote:

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Giles didn't seem to have any problems with the notion of aliens in "Listening to Fear", even if it turned out to be a Queller demon.

Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman

Okay maybe aliens don't exist is a bad choice of words. More like they don't seem to regularly visit Earth like on Doctor Who.

[chardman]

Kaijufan wrote:

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That would be cool, but from what I remember aliens don't exist in the Buffyverse and magic (at least how it exists in the Buffyverse) doesn't exist in the Whoverse.

As Trent said, the possibility of aliens is acceptable within the Buffyverse, and while Torchwood is undeniably tied to the Whoniverse, it has its own rules which are slightly looser. They've already done at least one episode of Torchwood that directly dealt with the paranormal, so that's that.

And the whole reason for introducing Giles to Torchwood in the first place, is to (re)introduce the audience to the actual "Ripper" character, so anything less than Head openly appearing as Giles/Ripper would be kind of pointless.

Granted, I don't think it could happen, but I still think it would be cool. I've thought so since the very first episode of Torchwood, when they explained the rift, and I thought it sounded very much like the Buffyverse description of Sunnydale's hellmouth, except temporal rather than dimensional.

[darkwing_duck1]

Unfortunately, I don't see this ever being made...the PTB in entertainment have put Joss in the "yesterday's news" file and seem content to leave him there...

[Chemahkuu]

^Umm, what?

They've given him Doctor Horrible's Singalong Blog (a muscial), they're letting him do a brand new TV show "Dollhouse" with plenty of familiar faces.

Not to mention Tiki Inc. have started a line of Buffy related statuettes that is up to about 6 models now. Those aren't cheap.

Buffy, Angel and Firefly are back now because Darkhorse and IDW comics both gave Joss a contract to continue them in individual comics and TPB's, both are outselling Marvel and DC right now.

New complete sets of all three series have been released as well as individual seasons and a new collection combining Buffy and Angel dvd's just started.

He's busier now than he's been in years with all these projects. And he is overseeing, contributing, writing for and producing for all of them.

[Bob The Skutter]

^Well no one gave him Dr Horrible, it was an independent production/self produced.

[Chemahkuu]

Bob The Skutter wrote:

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^Well no one gave him Dr Horrible, it was an independent production/self produced.

Fair enough, but look how popular its proving, nearly every board I go to has threads with fans going on about it. And this was after he'd already been given Dollhouse.

Still plenty of Whedon fans out there for projects with him involved to be profitable and popular.

[chardman]

darkwing_duck1 wrote:

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Unfortunately, I don't see this ever being made...the PTB in entertainment have put Joss in the "yesterday's news" file and seem content to leave him there...

Well, as several people have pointed out, Joss' stuff isn't old news. He's doing pretty good for himself, and is back in demand.

Also, keep in mind that TPTB in the UK entertainment industry, specifically those connected to the non-commercial BBC, have completely different values/concerns than do their almost-strictly-for-profit American counterparts.

"Ripper" is by no means a dead concept. It could still easily happen.

Moreover, it seems RTD is a huge fan of Joss' work and claims that the Buffyverse was sort of the inspiration for Torchwood, so I guess my idea for a Torchwood / Ripper crossover isn't completely unimaginable after all. http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/cult/a38...torchwood.html

[Lindley]

chardman wrote:

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Moreover, it seems RTD is a huge fan of Joss' work and claims that the Buffyverse was sort of the inspiration for Torchwood

Well, yeah, it was pretty obvious from Day One.....err....well, "Everything Changes", actually....that Jack was doing a serious Angel impression.

Actually one of the things that hurt Torchwood's credibility in the first year was that it was so obviously trying to be the Angel to Who's Buffy, but also so obviously falling short. In year 2 they started taking themselves less seriously, and that really helped the feel of the show get past that comparison.

[Ethros]

Torchwood was "sort of" inspired by the Buffyverse?

Series 1 Episode 2 of Torchwood
Series 1 Episode 2 of Angel
Hmm...


I also like how they try and ripoff Angel's LA flashcuts in between scenes, although it really doesn't work with Cardiff

[I am not Spock]

Ethros wrote:

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Torchwood was "sort of" inspired by the Buffyverse?

Series 1 Episode 2 of Torchwood
Series 1 Episode 2 of Angel
Hmm...


I also like how they try and ripoff Angel's LA flashcuts in between scenes, although it really doesn't work with Cardiff

True that. In Torchwood season one, the parallels were blatantly obvious.

Maybe Joss should approach RTD to help produce Ripper. Although he already has enough on his plate, with Who, Torchwood, and SJA.

[Sci]

Kaijufan wrote:

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That would be cool, but from what I remember aliens don't exist in the Buffyverse and magic (at least how it exists in the Buffyverse) doesn't exist in the Whoverse.

Not really. Technically, all of Buffy's "demons" could just as easily be termed "aliens from another dimension," and its conception of magic could just be written off as being the same kind of advanced science used by the Carrionites in Doctor Who's "The Shakespeare Code."

The REAL problem comes from Doctor Who's assertion that it is virtually impossible to travel between dimensions now that the Time Lords are extinct, since interdimensional travel is so much more common in the Buffyverse and doesn't necessarily lead to universal calamity like Doctor Who claims it will if it happens too often. That's not impossible to overcome, of course...

[Sci]

Re: Torchwood and Angel.

The parallels are definitely there, but I don't think that the big problem with TW S1 was that it was trying too much to be AtS or that it was taking itself too seriously. The real problem is that it would consistently undercut its own aspiration to do "Doctor Who for adults" by doing stuff that was incredibly sophomoric.

Take, for instance, the episode "Cyberwoman." That episode could have been frickin' brilliant, taking the somewhat cheesey DW villains and rendering them in a way that's very real, very visceral, very gorey, very scary, very adult. Instead, what do they do? They put the actress playing the half-Cyberfied woman into a fetish outfit with high heels... and all for no particular reason. It completely undercut the dramatic integrity of the entire episode.

Torchwood's premises in S1 were usually wonderful, but the execution was always off. Take Jack, for instance; I absolutely love the idea that for Jack, the character of the Doctor -- this sort of national icon of childhood, a la Superman in the US -- has become this unattainable aspiration that he's waiting to find again to make his life all better. The Doctor has become the absent god that he's longing for. "What are you looking for, Jack?" "The right kind of Doctor." And yet, the series never develops this notion, this very dark and adult approach to an icon of British childhood that children themselves could never understand, and when the Doctor returns to Jack's life, it all gets resolved far too quickly.

[Saul]

I remeber reading a few year back on Ceffax that BBC was going to produce this thing. I'd love to see it. I'm not a fan of Buffy but I like the character of Giles and Anthony Stewart Head is a cool actor. Loved him on Doctor Who.

[Greg Cox]

I see that Head is also playing Uther Pendragon in the BBC's new "Merlin" tv series.

[Lindley]

Sci wrote:

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The REAL problem comes from Doctor Who's assertion that it is virtually impossible to travel between dimensions now that the Time Lords are extinct, since interdimensional travel is so much more common in the Buffyverse and doesn't necessarily lead to universal calamity like Doctor Who claims it will if it happens too often. That's not impossible to overcome, of course...

"Oh, 'dimensions' is such a nonspecific term.....these are different. You can't travel between dimensions on the reality axis, but the metaphysical axis? No problem!"

(How else does the Doctor's cameo in my Firefly mod for EVN make any sense? Well, it doesn't, but it's fun. That seems to be a good enough justification for anything else the Doctor does....)