Doctor Who Storybook 2008

[louisedennis]

Its sort of customary to start reviews of the Dr Who storybooks by mentioning the totally bonkers Dr Who annuals of the 1970s but I figure most people reading here either know all about them or aren't terribly interested. Suffice it to say the storybooks are their successors both in content and, in some cases, bonkersness although the storybooks

Comments

Re: Storybook

[louisedennis]

I didn't think the story you wrote was trite and I loved the idea and I liked the "hey just imagine stuff" message. And I have to agree that I can't see a way to implement my suggestions that wouldn't make the story trite. But I didn't get a "that all worked in a really cool way" feeling at the end which I felt, somehow, it should have done and that feeling stemmed from a dissatisfaction about the way the Doctor and Martha fitted in (though I'm not sure whether I wanted them to be more clearly fictious, more clearly real, or more heavily signposted ambiguity or what) but I'd hate that to be read as a plea that writers stop trying to be adventurous or personal.

The 1970s annuals are kind of special in a bizarre way but I'd hate to see the writing in these storybooks descend to the rather unadventurous, by the numbers writing I recall from a lot of the TV tie-in annuals I remember from my childhood (or don't remember the stories from, which is more damning in a way).

... and thanks for dropping by to write a comment, one of the reasons I write reviews is because I want to discuss the stories, the opportunity to discuss it with the author is an added bonus.

Re: Storybook

[louisedennis]

And thank you for writing a review which made me want to comment in the first place! It's a funny feeling with Who, ever since the new series came along - almost anything tangential to the televised episodes is sent out before the audience, but rarely merits more than the most cursory of mentions!

And I think you may be right about those problems at the heart of my story. The very first draft of it involved the Doctor and Martha getting trapped in a child's story, and only by tapping into his imagination (becoming Santa, or the shop assistant, in his memories) could they lead him to the TARDIS so he could rescue them. It was all quite nice and sweet, but (as happened in true crisis style with a few stories in this year's annual!) the BBC got concerned because it all seemed a bit too similar to the forthcoming episode in series three. (The irony being that Steven hadn't actually written Blink at that point - but it all seemed worryingly close to the bone of his proposal!) So to keep the story, I scuppered the entire second half, around from the time Harry gets into the TARDIS, and played up the ambiguity instead. I wonder now, from your comments, whether I'd really filled the hole that I'd created by removing that plot point after all...! Oh well. Never mind!

Thanks again for the constructive comments!