beccaelizabeth (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
beccaelizabeth) wrote2012-02-10 02:36 pm
beccaelizabeth) wrote2012-02-10 02:36 pm
Entry tags:
And then I woke up and swore
Today I dreamed I was watching Doctor Who on Channel 4, a spin off version. It had 'Earth' in the title and was three words and very shiny.
It was introduced by David Tennant but he wasn't in the action of the episode, which I got more and more annoyed with for a while, when it looked like it was all companions and no Doctor.
It was set in an alternate universe, and our way in was when Maria and Clyde and a new kid, small and ginger and unaccustomed to living in a science fiction hence stupid, all fell out of the sky and into an alternate London. They were found by people who understood what just happened to them, and that they needed hiding, though we didn't know what from yet.
Maria had a head injury and so she had to go somewhere special to get patched up and they were split up. Maria got stitches easily enough, but then she found all these other kids who had been injured, and she tried to find out what had happened to them. But none of them would talk about it. They just all played a game, and it was a lot like Tag, but with a plunger, and instead of 'it' someone would yell 'EXTERMINATE'.
Clyde went with a family where he could pretend to be one of the kids, and there were a whole ton of kids of ages that didn't quite make sense until you learned most of them were orphans and some may have been as lost as he was, but for much longer. There was a kid called Athan, which is short for something that meant immortality, and like the most common name in school there. He was about the same age as Clyde, or at least the same height, and he offered to show him all the best stuff.
And then Athan did something tiny, like littering or crossing the road when he shouldn't, and suddenly there were police and little flying drones and a whole mess of authorities after him. And he was terrified and so Clyde stepped out to get their attention and probably explain but they just arrested him instead. Couldn't tell the colored kids apart, or didn't care. And they put handcuffs on him, but then there were more metal pincher bits, and the 'police' closed in around him, and Clyde did VERY BIG EYES and then when they totally blocked the view he started SCREAMING.
... and then it was a commercial break.
And when it came back we weren't with Clyde at all and it was very annoying.
The new kid was in a different home, with other white kids, and they all thought he was dead weird. And then he saw something, looked like one of those ball on a paddle toys of minor interest and infinite annoyance, and he was all 'oh, cool!' and went to grab it like it was hula hoops in fashion. And all the other kids shrank back and made faces of are you crazy, and then the paddle squealed and made faces at him.
There was something about living plastic.
Then we went outside and saw the sky was full of clouds, but not nice healthy clouds, big rolling clouds that we were given to understand were a big layer of alien plastic that had opinions and sometimes dropped parts of itself in seemingly innocuous forms. People had learned never to touch plastic. They were all in fear of the sky.
And then there was Tegan and Nyssa, and Tegan was distracting the authorities while Nyssa climbed up really high. Nyssa had a glowing under her coat. She climbed right up to the top of a building and Tegan was in trouble but was all 'go on!' and self sacrificing and then Nyssa got out in the open air and opened her coat, and it was Nyssa's hearts that were glowing, and they shone out and made like a sunbeam in reverse, right up to the clouds. And she was trying to communicate with the plastic sky.
And then we changed to a different bit of story again.
There was a woman, and we met her from the feet up. Slinky cowboy boots, black tights, little skirt, and two guns, one on each hip. She walked along with her hands on her belt, giving it a lot of slink. We couldn't see her face yet.
Then there was another woman, and she was all, sensible black boots, thick tights, tweed skirt of at least knee length, tweed jacket, hair in a bun except a bit at the front that wouldn't cooperate, and... played by Matt Smith. And this was the 11th Doctor. Who had actually been a girl this time.
... comedy ensued, since this was his first try at 'ladylike' and it wasn't really working out too well.
So now everyone wanted to see who he was travelling with, and if River Song minded this particular transformation, but instead we got a total stranger. With a flashback introduction that explained how he'd always been there, saved the Doctor's life when s/he was regenerating, dashing hero dud, and played by famous American actor, though we didn't get to see his face. And now he was in a tux and escorting the Doctor to a very important meeting.
And we saw the woman with the guns again, and the camera pulled back, and it was Amy. Long red hair and a very mean smile, not an Amy like expression. And she looked down from her viewpoint, quite hidden from below, and put her hands on the handles of her guns. And her eyes went cat and back again. Amy with the Cheetah virus? But where was it she'd gone when she jumped for home? Not Leadworth, not ever.
So the Doctor was striding along, rather grumpy, and then realising that striding in that skirt wasn't quite working, and striding a bit smaller, and complaining about how silly it all was, and his companion was wandering along behind looking massively overdressed for the industrial kind of steam pipes and catwalks and back doors alleyway they were walking through. But then they got to a door and on his direction the Doctor opened it... and there were a lot of guns waiting for them.
The new companion is all 'one Doctor, as promised'
and the Doctor makes faces but is escorted inside.
He grumbles all the way there of course.
Then a door opens on a great big office, very stark lines, lots of black, but lots of steampunky things lying around on worktables around the side. At the other end of the room, standing working at a big desk with his back to the door, there's a man in a big black robe.
Straight away the Doctor recognises him as Time Lord, and he's all "I should have known". Living plastic! Earth dominated! Everyone obsessed with immortality! Of course, of course, it's the Master behind it all!
... but the man at the other end of the room straightens up, and doesn't turn around, and says, this sort of thing isn't supposed to happen. But the war does break down everything, sooner or later.
The Doctor is all "What's not supposed to happen? I'm not supposed to find you? I always find you."
"Well it's not usually very hard," the other man says, amused, and turns around... and it's Paul McGann as the 8th Doctor, and I was all bouncy squeeful. He's in half Doctorish stuff and half Time Lordy bits, and behind him on the table is a rather silly collar that he's clearly taken off, and rather a lot of blueprints.
11 is gobsmacked. Briefly. This is the Doctor, he can always think of something. But as he rallies himself to talk, the door opens again, and this time it is the Master. He walks in and does a little inspection circle of girl!11 and laughs, and then makes a rather unambiguous comment about threesomes. 11 sputters, but 8 laughs in a warm sort of way, and when the Master comes to stand beside him they kiss.
!
And then it fades black and David Tennant is doing the same sort of thing he did at the start of the episode, only instead of sounding like Previously On Doctor Who he's sounding more involved. And he says some things that make you start to wonder which he is, 10 or Handy, who after all got dropped off in an alternate universe where he'd only seen the beach. And then it sounds like he isn't just going to be Voiceover Guy, it's actually all about a choice he's got to make, and it's a choice between timelines. 8 will have the chance to end the war the way that 10 remembers, and then this Earth and this 11 will not happen the same way. But how could 10 advise him, knowing all he knows?
And then the episode ended, after an hour and a quarter including advertising, and I was at once really annoyed, because it was just disjointed introductions of stories that hadn't even met each other yet and really sort of rubbish as a stand alone story, and really asquee, because think of all the possibilities. Alternate universe on the TV! Playing with possibilities the way tie ins and audios sometimes have, only with a big cast and a budget and all the toys! Deliberately poking the parent show because it's on another channel, but original flavour Doctor Who would still be going strong over there! Total game changer of a TV show, and only the start of the series!
... and then I woke up and said something very rude the second I realised I was awake.
With all the ideas written out it doesn't seem like a spectacularly good story, just a scatter of interesting seeds in rather a mess, but I've been turning over in my mind the idea of a whole alternate universe on TV. Not one meant to make the parent show look good or one that goes back in the box at the end of the episode or one that breaks all the toys, but one that just re-rolls the entire setup and sees how it plays through.
I think that would be kind of awesome, because it's all the best favourite toys only new and different.
But... everyone that thinks they're all the best favourite toys thinks that on the basis of the way they are already. So you'd not bring that audience with you, they'd sulk and stay with their flavour. And everyone who already doesn't like those toys will think they taste too much of the old show anyway, so you wouldn't win them. And then you end up with a tiny sliver of people like me who love it but want to change it.
So commercially the AU on TV is unlikely to be a great concept.
Sad.
It was like the description I read of Brisco County Jr:
So if I put all the different things I like into a single story idea, those who live in the intersection of that venn diagram will think it is the single most bestest thing in the whole history of creation... but the rather larger sets that make up all the different sections will be fed up I got chocolate in their peas, sort of thing.
Which is a problem for several of my story ideas.
But also potentially where the really creative stuff happens, where the paradigms meet and tensions get resolved.
It was introduced by David Tennant but he wasn't in the action of the episode, which I got more and more annoyed with for a while, when it looked like it was all companions and no Doctor.
It was set in an alternate universe, and our way in was when Maria and Clyde and a new kid, small and ginger and unaccustomed to living in a science fiction hence stupid, all fell out of the sky and into an alternate London. They were found by people who understood what just happened to them, and that they needed hiding, though we didn't know what from yet.
Maria had a head injury and so she had to go somewhere special to get patched up and they were split up. Maria got stitches easily enough, but then she found all these other kids who had been injured, and she tried to find out what had happened to them. But none of them would talk about it. They just all played a game, and it was a lot like Tag, but with a plunger, and instead of 'it' someone would yell 'EXTERMINATE'.
Clyde went with a family where he could pretend to be one of the kids, and there were a whole ton of kids of ages that didn't quite make sense until you learned most of them were orphans and some may have been as lost as he was, but for much longer. There was a kid called Athan, which is short for something that meant immortality, and like the most common name in school there. He was about the same age as Clyde, or at least the same height, and he offered to show him all the best stuff.
And then Athan did something tiny, like littering or crossing the road when he shouldn't, and suddenly there were police and little flying drones and a whole mess of authorities after him. And he was terrified and so Clyde stepped out to get their attention and probably explain but they just arrested him instead. Couldn't tell the colored kids apart, or didn't care. And they put handcuffs on him, but then there were more metal pincher bits, and the 'police' closed in around him, and Clyde did VERY BIG EYES and then when they totally blocked the view he started SCREAMING.
... and then it was a commercial break.
And when it came back we weren't with Clyde at all and it was very annoying.
The new kid was in a different home, with other white kids, and they all thought he was dead weird. And then he saw something, looked like one of those ball on a paddle toys of minor interest and infinite annoyance, and he was all 'oh, cool!' and went to grab it like it was hula hoops in fashion. And all the other kids shrank back and made faces of are you crazy, and then the paddle squealed and made faces at him.
There was something about living plastic.
Then we went outside and saw the sky was full of clouds, but not nice healthy clouds, big rolling clouds that we were given to understand were a big layer of alien plastic that had opinions and sometimes dropped parts of itself in seemingly innocuous forms. People had learned never to touch plastic. They were all in fear of the sky.
And then there was Tegan and Nyssa, and Tegan was distracting the authorities while Nyssa climbed up really high. Nyssa had a glowing under her coat. She climbed right up to the top of a building and Tegan was in trouble but was all 'go on!' and self sacrificing and then Nyssa got out in the open air and opened her coat, and it was Nyssa's hearts that were glowing, and they shone out and made like a sunbeam in reverse, right up to the clouds. And she was trying to communicate with the plastic sky.
And then we changed to a different bit of story again.
There was a woman, and we met her from the feet up. Slinky cowboy boots, black tights, little skirt, and two guns, one on each hip. She walked along with her hands on her belt, giving it a lot of slink. We couldn't see her face yet.
Then there was another woman, and she was all, sensible black boots, thick tights, tweed skirt of at least knee length, tweed jacket, hair in a bun except a bit at the front that wouldn't cooperate, and... played by Matt Smith. And this was the 11th Doctor. Who had actually been a girl this time.
... comedy ensued, since this was his first try at 'ladylike' and it wasn't really working out too well.
So now everyone wanted to see who he was travelling with, and if River Song minded this particular transformation, but instead we got a total stranger. With a flashback introduction that explained how he'd always been there, saved the Doctor's life when s/he was regenerating, dashing hero dud, and played by famous American actor, though we didn't get to see his face. And now he was in a tux and escorting the Doctor to a very important meeting.
And we saw the woman with the guns again, and the camera pulled back, and it was Amy. Long red hair and a very mean smile, not an Amy like expression. And she looked down from her viewpoint, quite hidden from below, and put her hands on the handles of her guns. And her eyes went cat and back again. Amy with the Cheetah virus? But where was it she'd gone when she jumped for home? Not Leadworth, not ever.
So the Doctor was striding along, rather grumpy, and then realising that striding in that skirt wasn't quite working, and striding a bit smaller, and complaining about how silly it all was, and his companion was wandering along behind looking massively overdressed for the industrial kind of steam pipes and catwalks and back doors alleyway they were walking through. But then they got to a door and on his direction the Doctor opened it... and there were a lot of guns waiting for them.
The new companion is all 'one Doctor, as promised'
and the Doctor makes faces but is escorted inside.
He grumbles all the way there of course.
Then a door opens on a great big office, very stark lines, lots of black, but lots of steampunky things lying around on worktables around the side. At the other end of the room, standing working at a big desk with his back to the door, there's a man in a big black robe.
Straight away the Doctor recognises him as Time Lord, and he's all "I should have known". Living plastic! Earth dominated! Everyone obsessed with immortality! Of course, of course, it's the Master behind it all!
... but the man at the other end of the room straightens up, and doesn't turn around, and says, this sort of thing isn't supposed to happen. But the war does break down everything, sooner or later.
The Doctor is all "What's not supposed to happen? I'm not supposed to find you? I always find you."
"Well it's not usually very hard," the other man says, amused, and turns around... and it's Paul McGann as the 8th Doctor, and I was all bouncy squeeful. He's in half Doctorish stuff and half Time Lordy bits, and behind him on the table is a rather silly collar that he's clearly taken off, and rather a lot of blueprints.
11 is gobsmacked. Briefly. This is the Doctor, he can always think of something. But as he rallies himself to talk, the door opens again, and this time it is the Master. He walks in and does a little inspection circle of girl!11 and laughs, and then makes a rather unambiguous comment about threesomes. 11 sputters, but 8 laughs in a warm sort of way, and when the Master comes to stand beside him they kiss.
!
And then it fades black and David Tennant is doing the same sort of thing he did at the start of the episode, only instead of sounding like Previously On Doctor Who he's sounding more involved. And he says some things that make you start to wonder which he is, 10 or Handy, who after all got dropped off in an alternate universe where he'd only seen the beach. And then it sounds like he isn't just going to be Voiceover Guy, it's actually all about a choice he's got to make, and it's a choice between timelines. 8 will have the chance to end the war the way that 10 remembers, and then this Earth and this 11 will not happen the same way. But how could 10 advise him, knowing all he knows?
And then the episode ended, after an hour and a quarter including advertising, and I was at once really annoyed, because it was just disjointed introductions of stories that hadn't even met each other yet and really sort of rubbish as a stand alone story, and really asquee, because think of all the possibilities. Alternate universe on the TV! Playing with possibilities the way tie ins and audios sometimes have, only with a big cast and a budget and all the toys! Deliberately poking the parent show because it's on another channel, but original flavour Doctor Who would still be going strong over there! Total game changer of a TV show, and only the start of the series!
... and then I woke up and said something very rude the second I realised I was awake.
With all the ideas written out it doesn't seem like a spectacularly good story, just a scatter of interesting seeds in rather a mess, but I've been turning over in my mind the idea of a whole alternate universe on TV. Not one meant to make the parent show look good or one that goes back in the box at the end of the episode or one that breaks all the toys, but one that just re-rolls the entire setup and sees how it plays through.
I think that would be kind of awesome, because it's all the best favourite toys only new and different.
But... everyone that thinks they're all the best favourite toys thinks that on the basis of the way they are already. So you'd not bring that audience with you, they'd sulk and stay with their flavour. And everyone who already doesn't like those toys will think they taste too much of the old show anyway, so you wouldn't win them. And then you end up with a tiny sliver of people like me who love it but want to change it.
So commercially the AU on TV is unlikely to be a great concept.
Sad.
It was like the description I read of Brisco County Jr:
Suppose you have a show that is romantic and paranormal and a space opera. At first you might think, “Wow, this show will appeal to romance fans AND paranormal fans AND Trekkies!” But that isn’t how it really works, is it? It appeals, in the long run, to Trekkies who like paranormal romance. In other words a subset of a subset, not three sets combined.
I think that’s what happened here. You have a great action adventure western science fiction romance comedy buddy cop story. If you, like me, are the right audience, you think, “Holy cow, this is the best thing ever!” But if one of those elements doesn’t really work for you, do you stick around for more? Probably not.
So if I put all the different things I like into a single story idea, those who live in the intersection of that venn diagram will think it is the single most bestest thing in the whole history of creation... but the rather larger sets that make up all the different sections will be fed up I got chocolate in their peas, sort of thing.
Which is a problem for several of my story ideas.
But also potentially where the really creative stuff happens, where the paradigms meet and tensions get resolved.
no subject
no subject
I can see how that would work out that way though.