Sunday I head out to Los Angeles for a few days to pursue various projects. As is always the case with irons in the fire, some may wind up burning hot and others may flame out, or all or none. Such is the freelance life. Then I’ll be home for two days, having barely enough time to catch my breath, before then getting on a plane to head down to Shelton’s “Heroes” convention. We’ll have to do the Father’s Day thing belatedly.
Did a lengthy phone interview for British radio with Paul Cornell, the formidable writer of the recent “Doctor Who” two parter “Human Nature” and “The Family of Blood”, not to mention the episode “Father’s Day.” It was supposed to be for two half-hour segments, but the conversation ran for two hours, so I can’t wait to see how Alex (the moderator) manages to edit THAT sucker down.
PAD
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You and Paul Cornell in one radio show? Fantastic! Any chance you could reveal the name of the show so I can tune in?
He hasn’t mentioned it yet, but with Peter being away, keep your eye on Paul Cornell’s blog :
http://paulcornell.blogspot.com
He might discuss the interview there.
(His two parter was excellent, but not as good as Fathers Day, IMO)
I imagine half an hour of it will be an episode of I’m ready for my close-up on a thursday night in early July and then the other half an hour will be split across two episode of my new show on comics the preceeding and following monday afternoons. More info next month on http://www.readyformycloseup.blogspot.com
Are you going to make any store appearances while you’re out here?
I have some Aquaman books that are itchin for a signature…
-Baron
Are you going to make any store appearances while you’re out here?
I have some Aquaman books that are itchin for a signature…
-Baron
Wisdom was a great series. Looking forward to the trade.
Paul has written some of the best Doctor Who novels, too. I just got done watching his two parter and it was amazing. Quite possibly next year’s Hugo Winner.
I dunno about ‘Human Nature/Family of Blood’ for the Hugo–for one thing, I vastly preferred the book (as sometimes happens, I couldn’t see the episodes as anything other than an imperfect version of the book.)
For another thing, did you _see_ ‘Blink’? Holy COW, was that awesome! I could actually see Moffat pulling off a triple crown, since ‘Girl in the Fireplace’ is nominated this year, and ‘Blink’…well, if that doesn’t get nominated, it’s due to internal politics. Wow. Wow. Wow.
Oh, and wow.
What about bowling?
Hmmm. What no one is really commenting on is the fact that Peter must be in discussions with the television and/or movie industry.
My prediction. He is meeting with either the producers of Battlestar Galactic or Heroes. I could easily see Peter writing an episode for the Heroes spin-off.
We can dream, can’t we.
Interesting—a Peter David/Paul Cornell interview…I imagine inspired somewhat that Cornell states that Imzadi was an inspiration for the original Human Nature novel.
“(His two parter was excellent, but not as good as Fathers Day, IMO)”
“Father’s Day” set a hëll of a standard for future Who eps, in my opinion. Especially for a story where you knew exactly what the ending was going to be but kept the tension all the way through.
I have to say, though, that the last three weeks of Who have gone a long way towards setting a new standard for the series that future writers are going to have a hëll of a time matching. They’re especially welcome after a string of four in a row that ranged from lame to awful.
Dockeroo is tricky to definitively judge… The story premise lets a writer tell just about ANY story, so different people will get different things from different episodes.
That said, I absolutely L*O*V*E*D “Blink”, not only for the sharp characterisations and precision plotting but because a Doctor Who monster finally managed to totally creep my 15 year old daughter out. Ladies and Gentlemen, the “safe scare” has landed…
I’m looking forward even more eagerly to the 6 part ‘Jekyll’, penned by Steven Moffat, starting next week.
“Human Nature” on t’other hand… I loved the book, the adaptation was different, for any number of obvious and practical reasons, but it just didn’t push the same buttons.
That’s observation though, not criticism. I’m still delighted to see the Doctor’s adventures continuing so well, and that Paul Cornell is continuing his involvement.
It’s also well worth while tracking down his two non-Doctor novels, plus he also gets my “B@st@rd!!” award for the last two issues of Wisdom…
We saw the baddies at the end of book 5, the other two names were right in front of us and he still managed to totally blindside me with the continuity back-flip to one of my favourite old time Marvel characters…
Sigh. Sealion dementia sucks… 🙁
Cheers!
The show has a name now:
“Panel Borders”
and a website: http://www.panelborders.com
please don’t quote the dates (if any kind souls wish to re-report this info in their blogs etc.) as they are (underlined, in bold) to be confirmed… Feel free to say Mondays in July and 4.45pm BST / 11.45am EST / 8.45am PST though. Thanks!
Totally off-topic, but I ended up mentioning you and one of your signature characters in the June 12 installment of my podcast blog’s “Bizarro Files” look at history through a not-always-even-close-to-accurate lens:
http://mentalnomadshow.blogspot.com/2007/06/bizarro-files-12-june-2007.html
June 12 is the liturgical feast day of a saint called “Blessed Guido” in the Catholic church, so you can probably guess what happens from that. 🙂
For my money, Family Of Blood is the best of the new Who episodes, full stop (yes, including Father’s Day, and the Satan Pit, and The Girl In The Fireplace – my previous fave – and the other great ones). David Tennant was absolutely superb
HI, PAD HERE. JIM, I’VE EDITED OUT A CHUNK OF YOUR POSTING BECAUSE IT WAS FILLED WITH BEAT-FOR-BEAT SPOILERS OF THE TWO PARTER. THAT’S SIMPLY NOT FAIR; THIS IS NOT A COWBOY PETE POSTING THAT ALWAYS HAS SPOILERS WITHIN IT. THIS IS A GENERAL DISCUSSION THREAD ABOUT A BUSINESS TRIP, AND I SIMPLY CAN’T HAVE DETAILED DISCUSSION OF AN EPISODE THAT WON’T EVEN AIR IN THE US FOR MONTHS YET. YES, GRANTED, IT’S AN ADAPTATION OF A BOOK AND THE BOOK’S BEEN OUT FOR A WHILE, BUT I DON’T CARE. ANY MOVIE BASED ON A BOOK WOULD BE SUBJECTED TO THE SAME SPOILER SCRUTINY.
PLEASE, EVERYONE…LET’S BE CONSIDERATE ABOUT SPOILERS IN A NON-SPOILER THREAD, PARTICULARLY ABOUT TV SHOWS THAT THE VAST MAJORITY OF POSTERS COULDN’T POSSIBLY HAVE SEEN.
Awesome, awesome stuff, moving and thrilling and brilliantly made. Blink was very good too. Who is really hitting form in the home stretch this series. Bring on John Simm…
Haven’t seen Blink yet but Family of Blood was my favorite Dr.Who episode so far. The new series is great but this two parter was my absolute favorite so far. It actually had me teary-eyed at the end.
Fair point PAD, I forgot in my excitement it hadn’t been on in the US! My bad, apologies everyone.
I watched Blink last night.
Best episode of this series by far. Maybe the best of the first 2.71 series so far.
Forgive me if asking this is out of line, but for those of you who apparently are able to do so, HOW are you seeing the new BBC season of Doctor Who first run?
I live in rural Connecticut and as far as I know, have to wait until the Sci-Fi Channel starts presenting the “new” episodes (starting with The Runaway Bride) on July 6th.
Just curious.
Thanks in advance.
“Forgive me if asking this is out of line, but for those of you who apparently are able to do so, HOW are you seeing the new BBC season of Doctor Who first run?”
Sea turtles, mate.
PAD
Aprops of nothing at all, I was driving around Palm Springs the other day and saw a store called PAD. Except it stood for Posh Artistic Design.
“Posted by Peter David at June 13, 2007 11:19 PM
“Forgive me if asking this is out of line, but for those of you who apparently are able to do so, HOW are you seeing the new BBC season of Doctor Who first run?”
Sea turtles, mate.
PAD”
Part of me is really tempted to leave it at that…
The (small, withered) compassionate part, however, makes me point out that BBC is the British Broadcastig Corporation. So the series is made in the UK and airs here well before it airs in the US.
Which, after 20 odd years of American spoilers, is definitely about time too…
Cheers!
Actually, the episodes can be downloaded soon after they aired. This is probably resulted in a decreased viewership for the Sci-Fi Channel, but who knows how much.
A good friend of mine downloads each episode and usually has them by Saturday Evening.
A good friend of mine downloads each episode and usually has them by Saturday Evening.
Same here.
I do try and watch them when they air on Sci-Fi Channel, but since I’m not a Nielsen Family, nor do I have a TIVO or any other device that can be tracked, whether I watch doesn’t really matter anyways. So why wait?
“So why wait?”
You mean apart from any minor ethical, moral or legal issues that might happen to be involved…?
Cheers.