From: ph9991_manfr@rivers.acc.uwrf.edu
Newsgroups: rec.arts.drwho
Subject: Re: Doctor Who: The OLD Adventures?
Date: 12 Dec 92 11:01:51 -0600
Organization: University of Wisconsin - River Falls

In article <17421@umd5.umd.edu>, jblum@hamlet.umd.edu (Hi ho -- Kermit the Frog here...) writes:
> In article <1992Dec7.214945.450@rivers> ph9991_manfr@rivers.acc.uwrf.edu writes:
>>> Consult the original authors, yes, I'd recommend it.  Kowtow to them, no.
> 
>>I hope Johnny Byrne doesn't see this...
> 
> Oh, unless I'm mistaken, Mr. Byrne knows all about having his ideas discarded.
> After all, if I remember my DWM correctly, Chris Bidmead wrote the last
> draft or two of "Keeper of Traken" and made some pretty major changes.  (Am
> I right, JB, if you're reading this?)  Anyone who writes for TV has to be
> used to not being in a position of authority to dictate the final shape of
> a story.

True, but in this case the guy is being paid to accept that fact, and he
does know what changes are being made, and if he doesn't like them, he
has the right to take his name off the project in protest.  Not true of
any "Old" Adventures.

> 
>>Yes, that might be dreadful, but the point is he doesn't have that power
>>does he?  I think that on the whole, the stories someone would want to
>>visit again would be good stories, and good stories are usually written
>>by good, honest, and open-minded people.
> 
> All right, then, what if your Valeyard story was vetoed by Pip and Jane
> Baker?  I wouldn't call them eminently qualified to judge the future fate
> of the program -- especially of that character, since they only wrote
> about five episodes for him -- but since Robert Holmes is dead and they've
> got co-author credit, they'd be the final authority now. 

Neither Pip and Jane Baker nor Robert Holmes can have copyright control
over the character of the Valeyard since he is just another Doctor, and
Pip and Jane Baker certainly didn't dream him up.  Everyone knew going
into "Mysterious Planet" that the Valeyard was going to turn out to be
the Doctor (well at least Jayston knew), thus making his conception
either the work of JNT, Eric Saward, or Robert Holmes, and again, none
of them can have strict copyright control over the Doctor himself.

> 
> The sad thing to say is, we can't always assume that writers are fair
> and open-minded.  (I'm a writer... need I say more?  :-)  The very nature
> of the backbiting between Peter Grimwade and Eric Saward, for example, shows
> that writers are human too, and they come in all shades of gray.

Very true, however, that doesn't destroy their rights to control their
own ideas.

> 
>>He didn't perhaps muck with the factual continuity, but I'm mainly concerned
>>with the "atmospheric" continuity.  Could you for example see Hartnell
>>in a "Caves of Androzani" type of story?  
> 
> 
> 
> Anyway, my point is, the original authors of "The War Games" knew that they
> were writing for a series, just like all the authors, and they knew that
> they wouldn't have much of a say in where the series went after they left.
> Terrance Dicks and Malcolm Hulke probably never would have dreamed that one
> day their non-interventionist Time Lords would be dragging Earth halfway
> across the galaxy as part of a sinister cover-up.  But their ideas are
> subject to evolution and re-interpretation... and this is a healthy process,
> and should continue.  As long as the show's new producers/editors treat
> the program with the same respect that they always have, we can trust them
> to expand on the Whoniverse wherever they want.  Just like we always have.
> 
> Soapbox mode off.

Agreed.  The evolution *should* continue, but I don't think going back into
the past of the show and revisiting old Doctors is the way to do it.
Evolution should be a process of going *forward* in time, or in our case,
forward in the Doctor's lifetime.  I have no objection to writers of the
New Adventures shedding some light on past events, but I hope no one
will actually invent a past event and give us a story set in that era.
I want the future, not the past.

Steven.K.Manfred