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Every now and again I receive a WATCH YOUR MAIL advisory from the lovely Kate (aka sledpress), when she happens upon something that she feels I must have. As always, I had no idea what to expect, but this time…. WOW. She really surprised me. I wanted to see this series so much that I signed up for an Amazon free one month trial thingy and then watched it twice during that time.
I was actually thinking the other day that I’d love to see it again and wondered how long I’d have to wait before Amazon made me another free offer… but now I have this. And it’s delightful, full of interviews, behind the scenes photos, set designs and costume boards. Plus lots about dear Terry. You may recall that I got rid of more than 3/4 of my books when I downsized before moving house two years ago. Well, I kept every Pratchet book. Couldn’t bear to part with them. And so this is a lovely addition. Thanks again Kate, for this little bit of Christmas in August.
I’m so glad it was welcome! Not everyone is that keen on the “making of” type book or vid, but as soon as I was well into the opening section where there was a lot of material from Neil Gaiman about how he and Terry worked together and how he came to do the script and run the show as a posthumous devoir, I wanted you to have it. Having seen the series first and read the book second, I became yea curious about how Gaiman reworked the material thirty years on and why he made the changes he made — which is largely interesting because the original writer got a second crack. Usually when there are alterations in the leap from print to film there’s a fairly good reason, but you aren’t seeing how the author would have wanted it.
And when I got to the part about David Tennant dyeing his hair red for five months during shooting I could only think of the tenth Doctor exclaiming “STILL NOT GINGER!!!”
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I have never seen Doctor Who! Would I have to start from the beginning?
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Well not the beginning beginning, back in 1966, since I only jumped in when it rebooted with Christopher Eccleston. You know the conceit — when people of the Doctor’s alien race face death, their bodies can regenerate (so a new actor can take the role), they have about a dozen regenerations (now they’ve had to tinker that because the Doctor’s so popular). Eccleston couldn’t deal with the raving fans and David Tennant became the tenth and still I think most loved modern Doctor. As soon as he regenerates — it’s always new body, new inflection of personality, but always a manic and wing-everything energy — Tennant checks his hair, acts vexed and says he wanted to be ginger this time. They carried it on with the next Doctor, Matt Smith, who now I think it was the one who actually said STILL NOT GINGER!
It’s silly goofy stuff. I still think Eccleston’s and Tennant’s seasons were the best. After that one of he writers became the showrunner and veered in a much too soppy herp-worshipy direction. I’ll send you a couple clips.
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