“The best, most unputdownable behind-the-scenes book on the series ever written… The Writer’s Tale Mark II remains absorbing and insightful at every turn.”
When Russell T Davies and DWM journalist Benjamin Cook started to and fro-ing e-mails to each other about the writing of Doctor Who, they created between them the best, most unputdownable behind-the-scenes book on the series ever written. The Times serialised it and Richard and Judy’s Book Club put it at the top of their 2008 Christmas ‘must reads’, and only a fool would argue with that. This updates the story to include the Tenth Doctor Specials – the so-called Final Chapter. The title can be misleading though – this isn’t a cynical reprint with 30 or so new pages thrown in at the end; this is a doorstop – even more so than the original – with over half the book entirely new.
The first edition was characterised by Davies’ terrifying and self-punishing work ethic, in as much as he rarely starts a script until the deadline has passed, and by how many demands there are on his time – the welter of readthroughs, edits and other problems. This edition is no different. The maelstrom starts almost immediately – work on Torchwood: Children of Earth means he’s going to have to farm out two of the Specials, funding problems threaten to cut the Specials from four to three (Christmas on Mars, as it was then, is nominated as the one to lose), and Davies starts his last script The End of Time without a single idea and worries that his capacity to invent stories has all but deserted him.
The book stands and falls on the quality of Cook’s questions. When Cook asks ‘How’s the script going?’, Davies responds with a full and entertaining answer. Asked, however, if he’s sad to be leaving the show, or if he’s ever lied during their correspondence, a whole different level of thought opens up. One thread about Davies catching a repeat of The Sound of Drums spirals into a fascinating account of how he constructs an episode and how he can understand why some people hate what he does. ‘I must look like a vandal,’ he muses, ‘a kid or an amateur.’ Cook’s response is to ask Davies if he would watch his very first Doctor Who episode, Rose, and send him a critique of that. A clever ploy – as it kind of completes the circle – and one I’m sure Davies sees through immediately but plays along with for the sake of symmetry. What he finds – no timidity, no flinching – he turns into a mission statement for the revived series as a whole. I’m not sure if I agree that the series hasn’t changed since 2005, as I don’t think you can so easily divorce it from the stories it tells. Rose is confident, unfettered. The perfect reboot for the series. Whereas The End of Time is indulgent, inward-looking and, as Davies at one point says about it himself, worryingly close to fan fiction.
The Writer’s Tale Mark II remains absorbing and insightful at every turn. The first edition felt current – David Tennant was still the Doctor and the engine was still turning. With the Tenth Doctor gone and Davies now working in Los Angeles, this feels more like an epitaph. Like history.
Doctor Who returned to our screens in 2005 and grew to be the biggest drama on the box. This is how it was done.
Vanessa Bishop
