Doctor Who: The Writer's Tale ("Doctor Who") (Doctor Who (BBC Paperback))
by Russell T. Davies, Benjamin Cook
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Book Summary Information
Author: Benjamin Cook, Russell T. DaviesEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2010-03-10
ISBN: 184607861X
Number of pages: 704
Publisher: Random House UK
Book Reviews of Doctor Who: The Writer's Tale ("Doctor Who") (Doctor Who (BBC Paperback))
Book Review: A Writer's Tale, not a Doctor Who tale
Summary: 5 Stars
I'm a big Doctor Who fan who enjoys 'behind-the-scenes' books and shows like Doctor Who Confidential. So I was super-psyched to get DW:TWT for Christmas but it wasn't what I was expecting it to be - there's not very much 'Inside Doctor Who' content. The book's subtitle, "The definitive story of the BBC series", is misleading; it's actually the story of Doctor Who's writer/executive producer, Russell T. Davies, set against the making of the series.
The project initially proposed by Doctor Who Magazine writer Ben Cook was for a "how to write" article, focusing on the human aspects and not the technical details. A problem quickly became apparent, however, in that nobody in their right mind would want to write the way that Davies does and the emails became more of a blog of Davies' daily life as it related to Doctor Who. It is fascinating to read Davies' emails as he is forced to take a look at himself and share that with Cook, to see him share his ideas with Cook and watch those ideas develop into plots and scripts. Unfortunately, we only get to see the development of the storyline - in broad terms, not in great detail - of "Voyage of the Damned" (2007 Christmas special), "Partners in Crime" (Series 4 opener w/Donna Noble), and "Turn Left" (Series 4). Most of the emails in the book concern Davies' efforts to put off actually writing scripts, his mood swings, and how hot he thinks some of his actors are although in the "Final Chapter" material, toward the end of the book, Davies finally does expound on his writing philosophy.
The emails are funny - both men are very witty - and the book over all is quite entertaining (I read it in two days, straight through). Davies is brutally honest about himself and makes no bones about his smoking problem, his being gay, his major procrastination difficulty, and the pressures of writing and producing a phenomenon like Doctor Who. What's not present in the emails are the 'inside' stories; no anecdotes about on-set pranks, no gossip (other than the hotness of certain actors). We do pick up a few background tidbits but make no mistake - this is NOT a Doctor Who book, nor a "Making of..." book and it's certainly not "the definitive story of the BBC series". This is a book about Davies' life while he was writing/producing Doctor Who Series 4 and the Specials. And it's a fascinating life, well worth reading. Just don't expect any juicy tales about David Tennant.
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