My main contributions, though, are a Fact of Fiction on The
Eleventh Hour and a piece entitled 20
Amazing Things About Steven Moffat’s Doctor Who. It’s like a listicle, but
with a round number (important) and not bothering to put the items into any
order of precedence (because whatever we decided would be arbitrary and annoy
people).
It was a fun piece to write – I went back and re-watched every single Moffat story as ‘research’, which was no hardship at all – and it’s an interesting challenge to try to come up with new angles, new insights, and new things to say. To go, “Hey, did you notice this incredibly cool thing? You did? Oh. Well, I only just noticed it myself, you must be more observant than me”.
It was a fun piece to write – I went back and re-watched every single Moffat story as ‘research’, which was no hardship at all – and it’s an interesting challenge to try to come up with new angles, new insights, and new things to say. To go, “Hey, did you notice this incredibly cool thing? You did? Oh. Well, I only just noticed it myself, you must be more observant than me”.
Of course, it’s all about the good stuff. We could all make
our own lists of things that didn’t quite work or things that weren’t to our
taste. Which might be fun, it might even be constructive, but it wouldn’t be
appropriate for a magazine celebrating Doctor
Who and Steven Moffat’s contribution. I daresay if you want that sort of
thing it can be found on the internet.
However, inevitably with this sort of article, there are things that didn’t quite make the top 20. Things that were just ‘bubbling under’. I compiled such a list, but there wasn’t room for it in the magazine, so here it is now.
However, inevitably with this sort of article, there are things that didn’t quite make the top 20. Things that were just ‘bubbling under’. I compiled such a list, but there wasn’t room for it in the magazine, so here it is now.
HONOURABLE MENTIONS
We don’t have to stop
at twenty. We could keep going...
The Silence
Madame Kovarian
Asylum of the Daleks
The Name of the Doctor
Deep Breath
Danny Pink
Listen
Dark Water/Death in
Heaven
Ashildr/Me
Extremis
(Most other things were covered within the article – for instance,
Osgood is mentioned as part of The Day of
the Doctor).
For the Fact of
Fiction on The Eleventh I had
access to various early drafts of the script. It’s always fascinating to see
stuff which got cut or altered; without speculating as to the reasons, it’s
usually fairly obvious and dull like budgets and schedules. I was particularly
interested to find out that the part of the story that has always felt a bit iffy –
the Atraxi spaceship appearing over the village green – was a last-minute
bodge-job fix because several chunks of that section hadn’t been recorded due
to bad weather. It’s also amazing just how much stuff gets cut; odd words here
and there, that you would think were essential, reading the script, but which turn
out to be redundant.
It was also interesting to see how many different iterations the ending of the story went through, as ideas were rewritten, dropped then brought back again. Right at the end of the article I mention one such idea – something that’s never been revealed before, because it’s a bit embarrassing – and break with Fact of Fiction protocol by expressing an opinion on it. Yes, I went there. So look out for that.
It was also interesting to see how many different iterations the ending of the story went through, as ideas were rewritten, dropped then brought back again. Right at the end of the article I mention one such idea – something that’s never been revealed before, because it’s a bit embarrassing – and break with Fact of Fiction protocol by expressing an opinion on it. Yes, I went there. So look out for that.
There you go. Two excellent reasons for buying the latest Doctor Who Magazine.