Doctor Who Review!

Spoilers! Spoilers! Spoilers!

The Writer's Tale: The Final Chapter (Amazon Marketplace--an old library copy, which always makes me sad, because that means it was taken out of circulation)

Why I read it: I am a new Who fangirl and a semi-aspiring writer

WARNING. This post contains references to events in ALL of Doctor Who and oblique snarky remarks to the most recent season of Torchwood. Proceed with caution.

While I do adore Moffat & Davies (RTD) versions of Doctor Who for often separate reasons, this book reminded me why I loved Davies' Who in light of the interminable Torchwood season and being in the speculation death grip of the upcoming half season of Doctor Who. However, it also illuminated a lot of the reasons why the hardcore Rose fangirls feel like Moffat is constantly trudging over RTD's relationship arc-- they have a fundamentally different way of structuring and developing emotional arcs for their side characters. RTD may carve out a backstory, have a reason for the Doctor to intervene in the lives of a character because of some sad sap story of the side character, but Moffat often structures the entire emotional life, emotional development, emotional arc, about the character's relationship with or two the Doctor. So in episodes where RTD ostensibly is still shipping Rose & The Doctor (or arguably, the Doctor's more baser, human side), Moffat has characters who live out their entire lives in direct connection to the Doctor and have these fulfilled emotional arcs IN ONE EPISODE.

However, my favorite thing about the Writer's Tale as a book is that it is unabashedly raw--its told in a series of emails! Sometimes RTD is telling how someone's script just isn't good enough and you are feeling sorry for the script writer, like a nature special from the side of the eaten gazelle, but other times, once you see how RTD re-constructs the plot of an episode and fits the actual lines that are in the style of the EXACT character in to the episode, you see he's not the ruthless predator! It is absolutely fascinating.

My least favorite aspect though is the tacit admission that the "science fiction" aspect of Who isn't even technobabble-- it is basically just fluff. Fluff that happens and does something as a plot device, which works on screen, but not necessarily when you deconstruct it or read in it texts, which is probably why I am more willing to abide by it in television than in print, where I side eye a lot of softer science fiction.

Overall, the book is a fascinating look into the development of the overall story arc, the way individual episodes are farmed out to other script writers and then reconstructed to fit the core characters, and the personal and professional politics that come into play especially as RTD decides to leave Who. Very entertaining, very quick read, despite the heft (the revised edition clocks in at over 700 pages including the index!) and a completely fascinating look into the process of writing. While I have certainly read other books about how to write, this one never really goes that route-- plot, character, and how the story evolves is shown, rather than told, and it is highly effective and completely engaging. Definitely a must for a Who Fan and a wannabe writer, which begs the question-- will you learn anything from it if you don't know your Who? Perhaps; there are certainly footnotes that give details, some of which I'd forgotten, but it does assume some familiarity, and the fun is seeing how things change from the original idea while knowing what ended up being shown on screen.