Series 6 Writers Confirmed
- Thread starter StCoop
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Sarah Smart?
Awe. Some.
Awe. Some.
Just curious, but what was that strict brief? I wasn't aware that there were such stipulations for Fear Her, but then again, I think I take its bloody awfulness for granted.
I'm willing to give any writer a second chance. Everyone was yelling for Helen Raynor's head after Daleks in Manhatten, but I thought she redeemed herself nicely with her Sontaran story.
I imagine it was to do with the Olympics-- but if I remember right, Graham is one of the writers Davies didn't rewrite.
I liked "Fear Her" a lot, aside from the melodramatic newscaster, and I don't get what everyone's problem with it is.
It did have the distinction of being the lowest rated New Series story in DWM's All-Time poll last year. (192 out of 200!)
So that's something.
Thank God. No Chibnall.
Now I look, the brief wasn't that strict. Graham originally wanted to do an episode about a man who sucks the beauty out of things, but Davies vetoed this in favour of his idea of some paintings doing whatever. I thought I'd heard that the Doctor carrying the Olympic torch had to be in it, but now I look I can't find a source for this.
Still, I'm not prepared to write off Graham just yet.
Fear Her was terrible, but in fairness not all of that was down to the writing as such. It was directed like it was for Ceebeebies (and not in a good way like Sarah Jane) the guest actors were terrible, and the Doctor running with the torch was just cringeworthy.
It was a short term replacement though wasn't it? For me it's way too similar to The Idiot Lantern (A major national event with bunting everywhere, a "monster" that can imprison people within media--a TV or a drawing- the Doctor or his companion imprisoned in such a way--Rose in TIL, Ten in FH-- not to mention another bad dad!)
I've liked Graham's other work so for me he definitely deserves another chance. As people have said Raynor's Dalek two parter was poor (though time has softened my view of it) but I really liked her Sontaran two parter.
It was a short term replacement though wasn't it? For me it's way too similar to The Idiot Lantern (A major national event with bunting everywhere, a "monster" that can imprison people within media--a TV or a drawing- the Doctor or his companion imprisoned in such a way--Rose in TIL, Ten in FH-- not to mention another bad dad!)
I've liked Graham's other work so for me he definitely deserves another chance. As people have said Raynor's Dalek two parter was poor (though time has softened my view of it) but I really liked her Sontaran two parter.
Agreed, that Dalek two parter was poor but I really enjoyed the Sontaran story (my first time seeing them as a viewer). Anyone remember what ever happened to that Stephen Fry script? first it was deemed to expensive then it just dropped out of the radar.
I found this...
Writers definitely deserve second chances on a show where they have constraints like shopping lists of ingredients - I mean, can you imagine some of the alternatives?
"Hey, Derrick, that Space Pirates episode was shit, ditch that hack who scribbled it, OK?"
"Hey, Derrick, that Space Pirates episode was shit, ditch that hack who scribbled it, OK?"
Fry himself has revised the story over the years. His last word on the subject was that he didn't write a single word because he was simply too busy. Years earlier, either Fry or RTD said that it was completed but budgeted out to be too expensive for season two.
We assume everyone knows everything, but frankly we can't.
You may not be aware of this, but Graham is the creator of two highly acclaimed British television series: Life on Mars (which was ruined in it's Americanized version, but which was one of the best series to come out of the UK in years in its original version; it also made a star out of John Simm and led to him being cast as the Master), and Ashes to Ashes (which I am less familiar with, but I hear is also excellent). I'm not being snarky here - a friend of mine was absolutely gobsmacked to learn that the guy who wrote the Vincent Van Gogh episode created Blackadder, and that the guy who created Being Human wrote the Venice episode. Not everyone connects the dots. They assume Matthew Graham was some talentless hack, without looking at the rest of his resume. Look at the trend - Moffat is getting some of the top TV creators in UK television to write episodes for him (and I'm not even counting Gaiman). That's the equivalent of, say, Fringe getting episodes written by the creators of Mad Men, The Wire, and Breaking Bad.
I know "Fear Her" is not a particularly popular episode. But judging Graham on that is sort of like judging the Beatles based upon only listening to "We All Live in a Yellow Submarine" without realizing they also recorded "Yesterday" and "Hey Jude".
Alex
QFT.
Excellent post. I think, in general, the nu Who does a great job of hiring prestigious writers to pen their scripts. What other show boasts the likes of Steven Moffatt, Richard Curtis, Toby Whithouse, Matthew Graham, Mark Gatiss, Paul Cornell, Simon Nye amongst their writers?
I think the next season's lineup looks great. Can't wait for the Gaiman script!
Speaking of great Who writers, I wish Paul Cornell would do one again? 'Fathers Day' and 'Human Nature/Family of Blood' were awesome!paul's a bit busy with all his comics writing stuff i think...
His CV on his agents website did list him as writing for Series six, until someone stupidly pointed it out to him and he denied it.
Tom MacRae who wrote Rise of the Cybermen/The Age of Steel is with the same agency and his CV still lists him as having a Doctor Who script in development.
There's also Toby Whithouse who was asked at Comicon whether he was writing a script and said that he was under contract to deny any such rumours. The key phrase obviously being "under contract".
Sherlock writer Steve Thompson has also been mentioned as writing for the current series by two online biographies for productions of his plays.
Possibly Jack Thorne and Amanda Coe who were rumoured to be writing for last year have had their scripts bumped to series six.
And according to a Den of Geek interview apparently Matthew Graham would like to write a two-parter... oh.
Of course, all those turned up before the season was split in two, and we only know the first half's writers...
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