Top Ten on AO3 and good fannish news

[selenak]

Multifandom: In a new interview, Lesley Sharpe (wonderful character actress; if you're a DW fan, you've last seen her in Midnight as Sky Silvestri in a role RTD wrote for her - like Christopher Ecclestone and David Tennant, she had played in previous works of his) reveals she's in a new BBC drama with Christopher Ecclestone and is a Eleven fan,

Comments

[zahrawithaz]

This post of yours finally got me to watch "Midnight," and besides the surreal experience of seeing Colin Morgan in such a different setting Lesley Sharpe was AMAZING, truly a standout. It never fails to amaze me how DW manages to attract such incredibly skilled actors for minor one-off appearances, and I'm always curious whether they're name actors in Britain or they just have one hell of a casting director. Here I see it's RTD's experience.

(I also enjoyed your "Unicorn and the Wasp" rec--I have given up and realized that I enjoy this show more when I skip around and am flashing through the series now wildly out of order. Another case of "I can't believe they got such a good actress for a show involving a giant wasp from outer space committing Agatha-Christie-style murders." This just wouldn't work in the US, but then I suppose it's Who's iconic status.)

I have been pining for Merlin fic that takes on S3 and not finding (not sure whether this is fandom or me), so this list gave me a great opportunity to revisit your older fics,

[selenak]

Hooray! I love Midnight so much, it's one of my favourite DW episodes, and I'm thrilled you've seen and liked it. And agree on the awesomeness of Lesley Sharpe's performance. RTD had worked with her twice before - she plays the female lead in The Second Coming and in Bob and Rose, both scripted by him - , and he seems to be the type of writer/producer who forms ties with his actors. Though yes, it's also because it's Doctor Who. (Derek Jacobi for example said he always wanted to do DW and thus accepted when asked in s3 of New Who at once.) (And let's not forget - because it's work. Actors have to eat!)

Unicorn and the Wasp is on the opposite side of DWness to Midnight - it's simply a romp and a blast, and always makes me smile, so I'm glad you liked that one as well.

Colin Morgan was cast just before Merlin for Midnight, and RTD in The Writer's Tale besides raving about his cheekbones accurately says the camera loves him and that he'll have a leading man future because he's always inventive with his acting choices.

I can not

[zahrawithaz]

Derek Jacobi blew me away in his brief DW appearance--not surprising, really, because he's Derek Jacobi--and it pained me greatly that his character was so effectively written off. Anything's possible with time-travel, I suppose...

And RTD's comment cracks me up, because I spent much of "Midnight" thinking that Colin Morgan was really riveting. The camera does love him, I think--but I also think watching Merlin has conditioned me to see him as a main character, especially when he's playing an observant youth that other people ignore.

Your lack of comment makes me deliriously happy.

[selenak]

I looked up the exact RTD quote. Context: The Writer's Tale is a collection of emails between him and Benjamin Cook during his time as DW producer. So what you're reading is an email during the shooting of Midnight:

Both David and Lesley texted to say, 'We're scared to death!' More importantly, Colin Morgan is beautiful. You meet him in real life and think, yeah, nice, sweet. But he's one of those lucky bastards that the camera absolutely loves. All cheekbones and black hair and mmmmm!. He's a seriously excellent actor, too. Every line, he makes a really interesting choice.

[shezan]

Remind me to tell you how I gave Lesley Sharpe a bed in Paris when she was doing Shakespeare in rep more than twenty years ago!

[selenak]

I certainly will!