Some tales of two writers

[selenak]

As the big Blink versus Human Nature showdown at the Hugos approaches, long interviews with Stephen Moffat and Paul Cornell were posted these recent days, and I found both interesting to listen to. Our future Scottish overlord gets quizzed hereThere is the usual American/British culture clash when they keep asking him about the children's show

Comments

[wee_warrior]

I'm mostly nodding along, as usual, but this caught my eye

because Pullo proved that Ray Stevenson can convey a lot of personal warmth

I really am the only one who hated that character, right? I mean, I could totally imagine Stevenson as Eleven, and of the suggestions so far, I'd certainly prefer him over Nesbitt and that 20something kid whose name I can't remember, but Pullo is not who I envision when thinking of personal warmth.

Also? Eight is *totally* the dishiest. And that's not my completely irrational affection for Paul McGann talking...

[selenak]

I think you probably are. Vorenus has his share of enemies, but everyone and their laptop love and adore Pullo.

I think Eight probably wins that competition in most polls.*g*

*uses utterly random new icon*

[wee_warrior]

I think you probably are. Vorenus has his share of enemies, but everyone and their laptop love and adore Pullo.

Well, given my usual track record with genuinely beloved characters, that's got to be a first. Finally, I have an entry for that Unpopular Opinions in Fandom meme.

*uses utterly random new icon*

*duely admires*

(I must really continue watching Three's adventures on Youknowwhere. They are so adorable. I recently saw Sarah Jane's first one! Does she ever meet the Brig?)

[selenak]

So you have! Although, as I recall you only watched the first few episodes, and Pullo doesn't get to exude that personal warmth big time until later, when he's busy comforting Vorenus, being nice to Octavian and chatting up Eirene. (Before he bashes her fiance's head in, but that's another matter.)

(Personally, I like Pullo, but Vorenus the difficult interests me more, plus of course I have a soft spot for those scheming Roman aristocrats.)

Sarah Jane meets the Brig quite a lot. Invasion of the Dinosaurs, which is her second adventure with Three, has quite a lot of UNIT stuff (and the "Three drags the Brig in a closet" scene the other icon is from) and is wonderful all around. But isn't the Brig actually the one to introduce her to "Dr. John Smith" at the start of The Time Warrior to begin with? Be that as it may, they definitely interact in Invasion of the Dinosaurs.

[astrogirl2]

That Moffat interview was great (even if the video/audio quality wasn't). Thanks for the link! Man, the more I hear that man talk about his attitude towards the show and his approach to it, the more delighted I am with the idea of him taking over.

[aralias]

oh, i *love* the idea of river meeting eight so much. and also that moffatt know this, or has thought about it but will never EVER show us. good for him.

interivews both sound great, so thanks you for linking them :)

[aralias]

hmm. not sure why my lockhart icon is here. i'd really meant it to be, you know, eight - given that that's who i was talking about in my comment. lj madness strikes again.

[selenak]

LOL. That sometimes happens. And I quite like Lockhart. Kenneth Branagh had so much fun with the role.

Eight: meets companions of other incarnations who rip his clothes off ALL THE TIME, clearly. (There is that precedence with Bernice Summerfield...)

*uses shiny new icon with you as well, though it has nothing to do with the subject*

[kalypso_v]

That really is very shiny.

[skywaterblue]

My favorite quote was what his objective for Doctor Who is:

"Overarching goal? There's no overarching goal to Doctor Who, other than to write 45 minutes of awesome every Saturday."

[selenak]

May he make it true!

[kalypso_v]

Well, I'm with him if he feels like that about the post-Three Gallifrey... but it would take a lot more work to make me believe in Yvonne. In fact, I'd forgotten her and initially thought that he must be talking about the Victorian Cardiff Torchwood boss, Emily, who I liked much better. I could just about believe Emily and Alice spouting stuff about the patriotic ends justifying the means, but when Yvonne did it a century later it just seemed phoney - like the Bond film where I immediately concluded his colleague was the villain because he kept shouting things like "For England, James!" with a perfectly straight face. It could be done, and if Moffat wants to write middle-aged women I can believe in I'll be very pleased.

[selenak]

Personally, I saw Yvonne as a satire on a Thatcherite (though she did get an heroic ending, true), which is part of the reason why it surprised me he picked her, as opposed to, say, Harriet Jones. (If you want to demonstrate RTD is more layered about his middle-aged ladies. Also Harriet is as purely and entirely a Rusty character as they come - she never appears in any episodes not written by RTD.) But points for originality, and it does illustrate the difference in viewer perspective.

[kalypso_v]

Oh, absolutely. There have been assorted impressive middle-aged women along the way - I'm also a big fan of Tom MacRae's Mrs Moore and was rather disappointed they never took the opportunity to bring her back in our universe (now, if her alter ego had been running Torchwood One - or found herself rallying the resistance once the Cybermen arrived...) And RTD's Professor Docherty, though she eventually fell into the traditional forced-to-treachery-by-family-hostage role. But the more [Moore?] the merrier.

PS Love the Doctor's volte-face on the Brigadier. That's so John "No one but me can be rude about Paul" Lennon!

[selenak]

Oh, I loved Mrs. Moore. Also Ida in Impossible Planet, and yes, Professor Docherty (Martha giving her the flowers at the end of LotTL was a lovely touch of grace).

That's so John "No one but me can be rude about Paul" Lennon!

Bwahahahaa. It truly is, though now that you've cast the Doctor as John and the Brig as Paul, I have to ask whether this makes Benton Ringo and Liz Shaw George?