Partners In Crime
Last night I rewatched episode 4x01 of Doctor Who, Partners In Crime, and I was reminded of the conversation between RTD (writer) and James Strong (director) that's transcripted on pg 295-296 of The Writer's Tale. I went and re-read it, and it made me lol so much, AGAIN, that I had to share it with you!
"If my favourite thing in 4.1 is the hillside scene, my least favourite is those bloody guards being electrocuted in the doorway, isn't it? I never could think of a solution. Well, at 3.36 am - I noted the time - my phone rings. They're on a night shoot - oh God, red alert - so I grab my phone and, sure enough, it's James Strong. Oh no, what's wrong?
JAMES
Russell! David's asking, about these guards, the ones who get electrocuted. How does the Doctor know where they are, to electrocute them?
RUSSELL
Well, he doesn't. He's discovered the wiring that Miss Foster's used to convert the building into a Levitation Post, and he uses that to electrocute all the doorways.
JAMES
Ah. Right.
(pause)
They aren't coming through a doorway.
RUSSELL
Right. Why not?
JAMES
The doorways here are rubbish.
RUSSELL
Oh-kaaay. So how do they get electrocuted? In your version?
JAMES
They come through a sort of archway.
RUSSELL
So the archway electrocutes them?
JAMES
Yes.
RUSSELL
But they don't actually touch anything?
JAMES
No.
RUSSELL
And you've already shot this?
JAMES
Yes.
(pause)
The doorways really are rubbish.
RUSSELL
So the Doctor electrified every single archway in the building, with such strong electricity that anyone passing through one would get electrocuted.
JAMES
Yes! That works!
RUSSELL
Good. Oh, and James? You tell David that's your version. Not mine.
JAMES
Okay.
RUSSELL
Night then.
JAMES
Night.
And don't you love the way that I made myself sound good there? But it just proves something (poor James, it's not his fault at all): if something is a problem, it'll always be a problem unless you fix it. Like the best problems, it comes back to haunt you - on the page, on the shoot, in the Edit, on transmission. I failed to fix that. Clearly failed. It would always have gone wrong from the start. I bleated about it to you*, but I didn't actually do anything. Lesson learnt. Well, maybe."
I love this book, for all these little insights it gives us into their work process. How all of the things that we fans nitpick (I distinctly remember someone on my flist pointing out the ridiculousness of this electrocution), well, they were struggling with them and criticizing them long before we ever saw them, but because of time constraint/lack of money/whatever, they just couldn't fix them.
Oh, and I love that David is such a fan and pays as much attention as we the fans do, to the point of POINTING OUT PLOTHOLES and demanding answers! And they all obviously struggle and scramble to give them to him.
*For those who don't know how the book works, he's emailing Benjamin Cook
"If my favourite thing in 4.1 is the hillside scene, my least favourite is those bloody guards being electrocuted in the doorway, isn't it? I never could think of a solution. Well, at 3.36 am - I noted the time - my phone rings. They're on a night shoot - oh God, red alert - so I grab my phone and, sure enough, it's James Strong. Oh no, what's wrong?
JAMES
Russell! David's asking, about these guards, the ones who get electrocuted. How does the Doctor know where they are, to electrocute them?
RUSSELL
Well, he doesn't. He's discovered the wiring that Miss Foster's used to convert the building into a Levitation Post, and he uses that to electrocute all the doorways.
JAMES
Ah. Right.
(pause)
They aren't coming through a doorway.
RUSSELL
Right. Why not?
JAMES
The doorways here are rubbish.
RUSSELL
Oh-kaaay. So how do they get electrocuted? In your version?
JAMES
They come through a sort of archway.
RUSSELL
So the archway electrocutes them?
JAMES
Yes.
RUSSELL
But they don't actually touch anything?
JAMES
No.
RUSSELL
And you've already shot this?
JAMES
Yes.
(pause)
The doorways really are rubbish.
RUSSELL
So the Doctor electrified every single archway in the building, with such strong electricity that anyone passing through one would get electrocuted.
JAMES
Yes! That works!
RUSSELL
Good. Oh, and James? You tell David that's your version. Not mine.
JAMES
Okay.
RUSSELL
Night then.
JAMES
Night.
And don't you love the way that I made myself sound good there? But it just proves something (poor James, it's not his fault at all): if something is a problem, it'll always be a problem unless you fix it. Like the best problems, it comes back to haunt you - on the page, on the shoot, in the Edit, on transmission. I failed to fix that. Clearly failed. It would always have gone wrong from the start. I bleated about it to you*, but I didn't actually do anything. Lesson learnt. Well, maybe."
I love this book, for all these little insights it gives us into their work process. How all of the things that we fans nitpick (I distinctly remember someone on my flist pointing out the ridiculousness of this electrocution), well, they were struggling with them and criticizing them long before we ever saw them, but because of time constraint/lack of money/whatever, they just couldn't fix them.
Oh, and I love that David is such a fan and pays as much attention as we the fans do, to the point of POINTING OUT PLOTHOLES and demanding answers! And they all obviously struggle and scramble to give them to him.
*For those who don't know how the book works, he's emailing Benjamin Cook