Will the BBC ever allow spec scripts?
- Thread starter Starkers
- Start date
No. They won't ever allow spec scripts. Won't happen.
I'd like to see BBC Books try an open submissions policy (or at least an agented submissions policy), much like Virgin did, but that doesn't look likely, either.
I'd like to see BBC Books try an open submissions policy (or at least an agented submissions policy), much like Virgin did, but that doesn't look likely, either.
I always thought that the BBC writer/producer's community, by virtue of being a fraction the size of the American (or even Canadian) editions, was even more of a club than we can imagine. Furthermore, it's far more bureaucratic than what we have here, and there's relatively little competition to go to either. Beeb or bust!
Or ITV. But seriously, would YOU want to write for "Primeval"?
Mark
Or ITV. But seriously, would YOU want to write for "Primeval"?
Mark
If it's good enough for Paul Cornell, it's good enough for me.
Ba-ZING!
Though I maintain that "Primeval" is fundamentally unwatchable, and I made it from the beginning through the second episode of this season! GOOD sci-fi should make you smile, laugh, cry, and/or discuss. It should NOT make you want to groan, scream at the screen, change the channel, or throw up. "Primeval" was 4/4!
Back on topic, it's true that the jobs in GB are fewer and further between. However, this is why on balance the BBC pumps out more shining stuff than any channel or network over here. You simply HAVE to be the best to be employed, and spec scripts just doesn't fit into that model.
Mark
Though I maintain that "Primeval" is fundamentally unwatchable, and I made it from the beginning through the second episode of this season! GOOD sci-fi should make you smile, laugh, cry, and/or discuss. It should NOT make you want to groan, scream at the screen, change the channel, or throw up. "Primeval" was 4/4!
Back on topic, it's true that the jobs in GB are fewer and further between. However, this is why on balance the BBC pumps out more shining stuff than any channel or network over here. You simply HAVE to be the best to be employed, and spec scripts just doesn't fit into that model.
Mark
allowing it for books seems fair.
Fair, perhaps, but not all that practical. Unlike the Virgin books, which were all about establishing new approaches to Doctor Who and new voices, the new series novels are inevitably a safer product, and one where the ability to produce an accessible book along familiar lines without rehashing something old is much more important than the inventiveness that you'd look for with open submissions.
Now, an agented submissions policy might be more helpful, but with only nine novels a year and a range of proven writers to pick from, I'm not sure the cost would be worth the gain.
Now, an agented submissions policy might be more helpful, but with only nine novels a year and a range of proven writers to pick from, I'm not sure the cost would be worth the gain.
obviously there is also the issue of the new Doctor & new companion.
6 months back they could have invited people to write a solo 10th Doctor novel, simply becasue anyone who does not know how to write the 10th Doctor at this point should not call themselves a writer, yet with him minus a companion requires a new way to write the story's.
now BBC Books is faced with a new Doctor & new companion, so that requires a safe pair of hands.
Kinda the responses I figured...still there is one reason to encourage new writers...
They're usually cheaper
The BBC do encourage new writers.* Nobody gets to START on one of their Flagship shows, though and quite right too.
*http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/
If you look at what BBC Books has coming out in 2009, they needed "safe pair
If BBC ever restarted the PDAs, I'd hope to see writers drawn from a larger pool. Is it likely to happen, though? Not really. Either restarting the PDAs, or a larger authorial pool.
for example if you were to say, we will accpet submissions for a solo 10th Doctor story, you would get alot of 10th Doctor stories some worth while, others just going down a path that is only logical to the writer.
where as if you say, write a 10th Doctor story with the Sontarans you give the writers a guide, and you are more likely to get worthwhile submissions.
my argument is not that BBC Books should take submissions all the time, but considering where we are at with the 10th Doctor, I think this is one time where they could open it up and accpet submissions.
at the end of day, anyone can write the Sonarans or the Daleks, I could if I wanted to, but it wont matter as it wont get published, opening the process up to submissions does not mean they HAVE to print them.
I don't think so. You'll get a different kind of poor submission alongside the few worthwhile ones, but that's all. Established aliens aren't automatically easier to write for because they're established, any more than it's automatically easier to write for the Doctor than to come up with an original sci-fi protagonist.
it is at least easier to write a 10th Doctor novel now than say after The Christmas Invasion, and we may not agree, but I think it is easier for someone to write say a Sontaran story, as they are known, you know what is expected of the Sontarans, their history etc etc,
yes you will of course still get rubbish, but if its limited to agent submissions
I honestly think that you might get something worthwhile, and having a set alien increases the amount of worthwhile storys you will get.
yes you will of course still get rubbish, but if its limited to agent submissions
I honestly think that you might get something worthwhile, and having a set alien increases the amount of worthwhile storys you will get.
I don't necessarily accept the argument-- there are pluses and minuses to both scenarios. Anyway, it's not a great analogy, and I shouldn't have made it in the first place.
And that's part of the problem-- you'll get rehashes of established Sontaran stories, lame fanwank, unnecessary reimaginings... It's not a sign of genuine writing skill to be able to copy what's come before. The part that becomes easier with an established alien is a part that doesn't really matter in the construction of a novel proposal.
I doubt it. In fact, the submission guidelines for tie-in lines have often emphasized that you shouldn't use familiar aliens, because the editors involved understand how much easier it is to write poorly using Romulans or Daleks. There are some few writers who will have an easier time doing a good pitch with familiar aliens, but there are also plenty who will be too constrained by that. It's swings and roundabouts.
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Wamdue, let me be blunt. You don't have a clue what you're talking about.
The first batch of ninth Doctor novels were written without the authors having ever seen the ninth Doctor or Rose on screen. The first batch of tenth Doctor novels were written without the authors having ever seen David Tennant as the Doctor. The first Martha novels were written without any idea of how Freema Ageyman would portray Martha. And so on.
But you know what? The writers of the television series had the same problem. No one knew what the ninth Doctor would be like. "The Girl in the Fireplace," which I cannot imagine working with anyone other than Tennant (or possibly Paul McGann), was envisioned by Moffat with Eccleston as the Doctor. Things like the tenth Doctor's mannerisms, his habitual stammering and nonsense, aren't things that would naturally come through on the scripted page. There's a quality of the performance that, yes, needs to be seen to be understood.
The fortunate thing about the Doctor Who novels is that everyone, at every step of the process, cares passionately for Doctor Who. Justin Richards cares about Doctor Who (even though he's the person who famously said that Doctor Who doesn't necessarily require the Doctor). The writers that Russell commissions care passionately about Doctor Who. The people in Cardiff who approve everything, from the plots to the words to the individual commas, care passionately about Doctor Who. Gary Russell has worked with authors to make their stories "fit" better with the continuity of the series. The novelists and comics writers aren't working in a vacuum. Yes, they have to produce the manuscript, but it's vetted and approved at so many different stages that it can become part of the larger tapestry.
In some regards, an agented submission (which would not be a full novel by any means, because tie-ins don't work that way) would be a guarantee that it would be at least worthwhile.
Agents want to know that they're going to make money. They're either representing an author with a track record, or an author who they perceive to have the potential to have a track record. Either way, they're going to see the author as someone who can produce and who can earn. To quote Jerry Maguire, "Show me the money."
I don't think that's true at all.
The submission guidelines that Pocket Books has for Star Trek fiction require non-familiar races, for prospective authors to stay away from using the Klingons or the Romulans or the Borg. Douglas Adams, when he was the script editor for Doctor Who, advised that he wasn't interested in stories that brought back monsters from the past.
Yes, everyone wants to write about fan-favorite races and monsters. But the goal of the submission guidelines is to see how creative the writer can be within a stringent framework.
Lance Parkin talks at length about this on the blog he set up to discuss the writing of The Eyeless, his tenth Doctor novel. The money quote: "The BBC want you to come up with your own ideas. Yes, there have been authors allowed to bring back old monsters – but not many, and never with their first book."
Considering that the Doctor has all of time and space at his beck and call, why limit oneself to telling a story that retreads old ground? That's very not-Doctor Who-ish, y'know?
Well it did happen once on the old show, Andrew Smith wrote Full Circle but it took alot samples of his writing to let him for the show and it wasn't a spec script at any rate. Allyn's right a spec script isn't going to happen, but that doesn't mean a fan can't write for the show, just don't expect it to be an easy job of selling your writing to the professionals.
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