Doctor Who the complete first series
I love great science fiction. Not just things people call great science fiction because of the special effects, but great science fiction. Recently I broke down and purchased Dr. Who seasons 1-9. Yes, I had seen many of them and many of them more than once, but, I decided it deserved a place in my personal collection. The BBC kind of rules the airwaves when it comes to great drama and great science fiction. I must admit that I wasn’t a big fan of season one when it first aired. In truth I kind of stopped watching it. I originally began watching the reboot because it was Dr. Who, a series I used to watch as a child back when The Doctor wore a never ending scarf and had a mechanical dog.
Age and experience brings with it a new perspective. Having watched the current procession of “doctors” I have a different view of the first season, well, as much as I’ve managed to re-watch. If you want to be successful, you have to invest as much in your work as the BBC does.
The BBC is great for continuing a tradition American studios seems to have abandoned. Acquiring a stable of gifted actors and using them in everything. In America actors seem to jump around from studio to studio and show to show without much in the way of a common thread. The BBC keeps them working and keeps the writing interesting.
Bad Wolf
“How interesting” you ask? In the very first episode we meet Rose Tyler who will keep popping up in the show as the years progress. We also see “Bad Wolf” written on the side of the TARDIS without any idea what it means. Later we see some kid scrubbing it off and being scolded for it so we dismiss it. “Bad Wolf” keeps popping up throughout the series until, well, until The Doctor has gone through several regenerations. Many years later we found out what “Bad Wolf” really is and how it is tied to Rose Tyler.
In episode 3, “The Unquiet Dead” we meet a character named Gwyneth who will later play Gwen Cooper on the spin-off “Torchwood” series. For all intents and purposes the “Torchwood” series gets launched when we find out about “Bad Wolf.” In an odd twist of fate “Torchwood – Children of Earth” introduces us to Peter Capaldi who will not long after play The Twelfth Doctor and we get our first glimpse of him during the 50th Anniversary episode “The Day of the Doctor” which some refer to as “Gallifrey Falls No More.” (Watch the episode if you want to find out why.”
So, you, as a writer, how far out do you plan your story arcs? Are you gifted or determined enough to put hints in your very first episode/book which will not be made clear until many books/stories later in the series? Are you stalwart enough to keep writing your series, having it professionally edited and putting it out no matter how well it sells or what the feedback is you get?
That’s the level of planning and determination it takes to make it in the writing/publishing/movie world. Those one book wonders tossed onto Amazon.com for no money with little editing making the author rich, they are basically a myth. Oh sure, you can find roughly half a dozen of them from years in the past, when ebooks were a novelty, but, how many happened last year, or the year before? The odds of them happening again are less than half the odds you have of hitting a multi-state lottery. Why did they happen back then? Ebooks were new and there weren’t many of them. More ebooks are “published” each year now than existed for the first 10 years ebooks were around. Without a solid marketing force behind you, you are asking readers to choose your drop of water from a lake so wide they cannot see across to the shore where your drop is waiting.
Vincent Van Gogh died poor and by some descriptions a lunatic but his paintings are worth many fortunes today. Thankfully, in an episode which first aired in 2010, The Doctor paid him a visit.