Spoiling by the BBC

The BBC are spoiling me.  Really they are.

 

I had awaited, with breath bated, Christmas Day when I knew Matt Smith would regenerate into Peter Capaldi and we'd had a new era of Doctor Who.  The day was upon us and, due to it being Christmas Day and me having various Chrismassy/family things to do, I had to watch it on my tablet on catch-up later.

That was fine, I didn't mind.  I just needed to watch it.  I'm a little unsure about the episode.  When the wonderful David Tennant transformed into Matt, there was a lot more action and tension.  Probably because this hand-over was spread over 300 years or so, that tension somewhat evaporated.

 

Still.  I enjoyed it.  It was a very different episode to the normal 'Phoenix from the ashes' we're used to.  We saw The Doctor age, something that was, until now, unheard of.  I liked that touch.  It was, also, good to see the Crack back, and the Silence - though they could have been built upon.  I wonder if Clara's tears as she said goodbye to 'her' Doctor were real?  Capaldi's first line ("new kidneys") mirrored Tennant's "new teeth", which was a nice touch.  Let's hope he can shine as bright in the Whovian Universe as his predecessors have.

 

When Eccleston reinvented The Doctor, I didn't think anyone could fill his shoes, especially someone I'd only known from Casanova.  Of course, for me at least, David Tennant equalled Tom Baker. Matt Smith had a very hard act to follow and did so very well, becoming a much more physical and madcap Doctor.

 

With Capaldi, we've returned to William Hartnell's age, the previous Doctors growing steadily younger, and we have a whole new slew of regenerations available inside him.  I'm pleased he began with humour, and I'm sure he'll be able to bring a certain darkness we've not seen before.

 

So.  Doctor Who.  Cool.

 

THEN...!

 

I heard on the radio, after a multitude of 'Coming Soon' ads on the TV and the Many Happy Returns minisode on the Internet, that Sherlock is back on New Year's Day!

 

Whoop!

This is the third, and I assume final given that Cumberbatch is now known worldwide thanks to Star Trek and The Hobbit (along with Martin Freeman - his Watson), series of the updated Sherlock series.  I have loved the series so far.  Really loved it.  From the comedic elements of dogging in the Hound of the Baskervilles to Sherlock's sharpness and intellect.  And I thought the end of series 2 (no spoilers for those that haven't seen it) was EPIC!

 

So, New Year's Day, BBC1, 9pm, I know where I'll be!

 

Oh yes, and there's more.  I, myself, will be on BBC Radio Humberside from around 11:30am (UK) on Thursday January 2nd!  I'll be interviewed by Blair Jacobs on my involvement with the wonderful Christmas O'Clock charity anthology and my writing in general.  Drop by if you get chance.  Their website is http://www.bbc.co.uk/radiohumberside.

 

Oh, and if only they actually did the episode where the Doctor comes to visit Sherlock and Watson, as per the little teaser trailer someone (I don’t think it’s official) has spliced together and scattered about the internet.  It looks SO good!

 

Who knew...?

I'm a life long Doctor Who fan. Like many, I've grown up with the time travelling adventurer and enjoyed most, if not all, of his incarnations.

My first Doctor was Jon Pertwee but my favourite was always Tom Baker. He had power and gravitas and OWNED it. I thought nobody could come close. They didn't for a long time. This didn't affect my enjoyment of the show, though, I simply didn't find the other doctors as strong.

Then it was cancelled. I wonder who was the BBC executive responsible for that one. (Update: thanks to my friend Carol who reminded me it was Michael Grade, the man responsible for bringing us Neighbours... 'Nuff said...)

Saying that, the cancellation could well have been the shows lifeline. It needed a regeneration, of sorts, itself. Russell T. Davies gave it that. And Christopher Eccelston brought the Doctor back to life in a big way!

I was gutted when Eccleston left. He made the show really good again. He was needed. Who was this David Tennant bloke? Casanova? PERLEEZ!

 

Wow. Was I wrong? The answer to that is yes. Hugely. Christopher Eccleston was great. David Tennant, however, was THE Doctor. He had some powerful story lines and equally powerful performances. He also had Rose, one of the best assistants since the show began.

 

Billie Piper was one of a kind, really. She was one of the first assistants to be more than just an assistant. She had a real part to play.

I do really like Jenna Coleman as Clara, the latest companion. The introduction of her as the mind if a Dalek was very clever and she's nose and feisty too. 

Anywho. Then Tennant left and we had Matt Smith. We had now ties and a Fez. But we also had Alex Kingston and Amy. And we had one of my favourite episodes.

'The Doctor's Wife' had the wonderful Suranne Jones playing Idris who was taken over by the core of the Tardis. I bought this storyline was fab. Suranne played the part perfectly and the sentient nature of the Tardis became a former and more integral part of the show after that.

And now we change again. We have a new, twelfth Doctor. Congratulations to Peter Capaldi. The name is one I wasn't familiar with, but the face I certainly was. He's been in many shows I've seen. He was also on World War Z, a film I seriously enjoyed. More of that in a moment. 

How will he do? What sort of Doctor will he play? I don't get the impression he'll be as physical as Matt Smith. He seems more brooding and thoughtful. We shall see. Perhaps, with the advent of the Doctor's great secret (hello John Hurt!) a darker, more dangerous role will ensure. 

We shall see. I look forward to finding out.

Now, back to World War Z. It seems, according to IMDB, the identity of the new Doctor Who was revealed a good while ago. If only we'd known where to look...

 

Speaking of where to look, the Doctor has been captured on Google Maps!

http://maps.gstatic.com/m/streetview/?hl=en&ll=51.492159,-0.19092&spn=0.005291,0.013937&sll=51.492140,-0.193028&layer=c&cid=12502927659667388442&panoid=c9UMhWP_MWm9U0L48xEjYw&cbp=13,291.8,,0,18.86&gl=US&t=m&cbll=51.492132,-0.192862&z=17

The Case of the Vanishing Idea...

Don't you hate it when you get an idea, but then, when you're in a position to actually do something with it (write it down and CREATE), the idea is gone? Just on the outer edge of your memory, dancing about, leaning in just to tantalise and tease you before jumping back out of reach?

Don't you just hate it?

Hmmm...

I've been struggling, a little, with Mortal Sin. Not in a religious way, but in a creative one. Mortal Sin is the sequel to Sin and I was stuck fast with the whats, whys, whens and who-be-dos.

The 'where' was easy. I was - or rather am - setting it, once again, in Grimsby. They say 'Write what you know,' and I know Grimsby. Not quite New York or London, but it was founded by a Dane trying to protect the heir to the throne of another country from assassination. Not too shabby an origin, methinks.

I'd come up with some ideas, including a 'half-way house' where the our man (though he doesn't know he's Our Man) is taken by a woman feeling sorry for his plight. I knew exactly where this house was going to be. Welholme Road. Large homes overlooking the People's Park. Perfect. Enough room and rooms for the various odd tenants to come and go and to gradually become more... well... ODD.

Luckily, I know someone, my wife, who knows those houses inside out and can give me highly detailed plans and information about the layout etc. From the type of flooring to the colour wallpaper to the light switches, I can get a real image of what they look like inside. Not that I'll necessarily go into that amount of detail in the book. You need to picture it yourself - but I will be able to picture it myself too.

Even if yours and mine don't quite match, that's fine. It's all in the eye of the beholder, but we'll both be walking, pretty much, hand in hand.

But the rest. Sin's DEAL. What of that? Well, I had inklings. I had musings. I had odd samples of script all worked out, though they'd be forgotten by the time I came to that scene - if I ever did. But the actual MEAT, the food on which the hungry reader would satiate their appetite? Well...

A friend at work, yesterday, asked me if I'd watched the new Jonathan Creek on BBC1 on Monday night. I hadn't and I kicked myself for not realising it was on. Jonathan Creek, for the un-initiated, is an offbeat detective show starring the wonderfully strange Alan Davies as a magicians 'assistant' (in that he's the one who comes up with the illusions). He finds himself tied up in various murders and mysteries which have the police stumped and his unique outlook is the only thing that can solve them.

Jonathan Creek is... different. It's comfortable and quirky and fun and I always enjoy it. As such, I wasn't too happy that I'd missed this episode. The show finished a couple or more years ago, so I wasn't expecting it to resurface. On Monday night, oblivious to Creek’s resurrection, I'd been watching Broadchurch, an excellent drama series starring (amongst other familiar faces) ex. Doctor Who, David Tennant. So, last night, tablet in hand, I watched Jonathan Creek courtesy of the BBC iPlayer. And it was a welcome return indeed - not disappointing in the least.

So? And?

And. I don't know what, in the programme, prompted me. I really don't. But, something in that 90 minutes of conundrums and disappearing bodies, an idea popped into my head. It wandered around for a while, letting me concentrate on the show, and then, as I lay in bed, it expanded in my mind and became a plot. It became a three course meal for those ravenous readers. That was it. That was what would happen. That was the what and also the WHY.

Then I fell asleep.

Then I woke up.

Now I'm sitting here berating myself, once again (for this in not the first time) not having a notepad beside my bed.

The idea has faded. It's stepped out for a moment and may be sometime. I can just see its shadow, and its Cheshire Cat grin as it knows I'm trying to grab hold and I can't.

Maybe I'll look the other way. Pretend I'm not interested. Maybe then it'll step back within reach and I can lunge, notepad in hand, and snatch it back up, shovelling it back into my brain like coal into a bucket - fuel for the fire. No, it'd be more cramming it in, like the last pair of pants into a suitcase that you have to sit on to zip up, knowing you'll be over the weight restriction and, once opened, you'll never get it packed quite the same.

Either way, hopefully we'll be reunited, like Jonathan Creek and his not-quite sidekick Sheridan Smith. Let's hope the puzzles will be solved and the end result won't be a crime to the literary world. Eh?