Tag: doctorwho

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…because my argument with my friend that started all of this was that at the end of “Children of Earth” when Jack has to sacrifice his grandson, for all the good work that Russell has done with female characters my argument was, why wasn’t that his son? Because by making it his grandson – if you remember – the mother was outside the room banging on the door. So he usurped his daughter’s power as the parent of her own child and killed him as opposed to – if it was his son – I mean you shouldn’t kill your kid – you know what I am saying – that was like this one degree of separation and that made her character useless and unempowered and I don’t know why that occurred to him at all. So that was my argument and that’s actually what my article is about – why that didn’t work dramatically for me in that it dealt with that female character but it started the whole thing and caused me to be very interested in Torchwood.

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…and I did want to make a quick bit about this yesterday. I mentioned this book to some folks it’s “The Writer’s Tale” where Russell talks not just about the last series with David Tennant but also he talks about writing “Children of Earth” and how the questions and the ideas were coming to him and what he worried about and then the actual watching the pilot and the different you know going to the edits. He really discusses the job of being Executive Producer and how much work it was. He was doing both of those things at the same time which is crazy but that’s how people do it when they do it in town. So to me, these are the many reasons why Torchwood is still worth talking about and I do wish they had kept to the alien of the week and done that for maybe five seasons before we went off into “Children of Earth” and then I would have done. I would have ended right?

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So, now that we have that happening, gee whiz, Neil Gaiman is doing “Sandman” in London and he’s brought over Alan Heinberg who’s an American writer who’s been in Shondaland for many years. He’s done several of her shows and then was the writer hired to write the first “Wonder Woman” movie. So, he’s an American guy through and through but Neil Gaiman was like “That’s the guy I need on my show.” So now, Allan has moved to London for the last nine months working with Neil, and what a – just as it was an honor for Jane to want Russell to work with her, Allan felt that way about Neil Gaiman choosing him. So, we’re going to have the two sensibilities in this one piece and this stuff didn’t happen in the past either, right? This is a new idea that we can do that. Partially that’s also built up with Netflix and the idea that we’re now watching more international television. It’s not just American shows going everywhere and Americans now have this access to newer things. So I just think that’s pretty amazing. All of this to me comes from Torchwood.

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What worked with that – at least in terms of how television is produced – is that he was producing across the pond – across the ocean. It was a cross-cultural thing, right? So he came here both to include some American actors and, for me, to include American writers which I think is really interesting right and he really wanted to do that. He actually came specifically to work with Jane Espenson who I adore brilliantly from “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” but she’s done many many things. Right now she’s on “The Nevers” and he talked about, when I met him, he talked about how he’d watched her work for so many years and it was his dream to come here and create a writer’s room, which is different from what they do, again, in England. They usually have their set guides. You’re all gonna write two or three episodes. Go home and do it. You and I will meet over lunch and chat but here, of course, we get together every day and sit around the table and talk and talk and talk and he wanted that experience. He wanted – that’s one of the reasons he came here and he wanted it with her, which is really kind of cool and she adored working with him. She admits that the show didn’t exactly work but adored the experience.

Transcript:

My favorite line in all of “Children of Earth” is “What are the school tables for? and you’re like “Oh my god. Like we do rank people all the time.” Here would be a perfect chance to say, Sorry you didn’t get your SAT score. Bye-bye. I just – yeah it was very it was chilling how real it felt for being obviously such a surreal and not real instance and also the line when all the leaders around the table and the woman says “Well certainly none of the children that belong to anyone here but wait I don’t have children but I have nieces and nephews. What about them? and suddenly you start seeing what little deals are we gonna have to play. Yeah, I think it was chilling. So I think that bingeability that was a big thing you brought to it. Now I’ve said before not a fan of “Miracle Day.” Largely because I think he didn’t check the idea that never dying isn’t inherently a problem. I mean they tried to make it a problem because yeah too many people on the earth will be a problem but actually like isn’t that what everybody wants? Nobody wants to die. So it seemed odd that like we were supposed to not like it. I don’t know it didn’t seem to me he thought his way through.

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Audience: For a lot of people, where something doesn’t affect them, they kind of like push them under the rug. You’re like we’re not gonna but like the way that they talked about the ableism from that situation I thought was really interesting because like you wouldn’t expect a team of people that are in power to kind of like think about that but it just made it like so much more realistic because like everyone watching would know exactly what ten percent would be sacrificed. Like everyone knows but they had the guts to say it which I thought was really interesting.

Rosanne: Russell does that. That’s what’s so amazing to me about his writing. I really love his writing. I’m looking forward to him coming back to Who. I’m looking forward to you know all the future stuff he does. “It’s a Sin” just ended and that was you know quite good. Most of my students were very excited about that

Audience: Did you see “Years and Years?”

Rosanne: I saw the pilot and it was so hard I – it’s in my queue. I have to take my time to watch it. So I know it was but it was so hard to ––

It was scared me too much which is really interesting and I knew that meant he was gonna go deeper and I have to be like in a mood to quietly sit and soak that in so I don’t run through it and get scared.