My book: The 11th Doctor

2 responses to “My book: The 11th Doctor”

1. davecw | February 19, 2014 at 1:23 am |

   The last page of the book invites us to discuss it here, so here I am! I’m going to start with the highly important point that I enjoyed the book sufficiently to not only recommend it to a colleague at work but to stand over him while he faithfully downloaded it to Kindle. What I like the best about it I can sum up in one sentence: I, too, have never shared this view of Classic Who being some kind of golden age, and have also infinitely preferred the work of Matt Smith and Chris Eccleston over that of David Tennant in the modern period. This, of course, makes your book an incredibly comfortable place to spend some time. There’s more than enough there, however, to disagree with. I’ll try not to be dull though and present anything as mundane as a list, but I would like to make an observation now though for your consideration (please feel free to either reach for a strong drink or head off behind the sofa at any time).
   Towards the end of the book you comment on the fact that Capaldi’s more advanced age should presumably make us safe “from the threat of more Doctor/Companion romance”. Have you considered the following though:
   When we last met River alive and kicking in 1930s New York, she complained about how difficult it was being in love with someone “who insisted on having the face of a twelve year old” (I paraphrase). The point is, in selecting an actor who is older than Alex Kingston (but not too much older), do we now have a Doctor with whom River is willing to spend some quality time? A Doctor with whom she would be willing to play companion to and be with for a whole season (or two)? I have to say, that was the first thought that I had as soon as I realised that Moffat and co had decided not to go for someone on the 30 – 40 age range. And of course, this gets even scarier when you recall a comment she made back when we first met her in the library, when she said that she was always meeting the Doctor out of order. Actually, up until then, she hadn’t: all her dealings (that we;ve seen to date) had been solely with the eleventh Doctor. Anyhow, I think I shall retire and let you have that drink now…
   Dave

2. Mike Taylor | February 20, 2014 at 12:57 pm |

   Hi, Dave, thanks for dropping by! I can’t tell you how encouraging your response to the book is, and I couldn’t wish for a more practical positive response than forcing you colleague to buy it! Keep up the good work :-)

   On the relative merits of Old and New Who, I recently wrote a guest-post on the blog of Andrew Hickey, who is very much an Old Who advocate, trying to make the case for the new series. I can’t say it was well received in the comments, but no matter: we do what we can.

   The idea of a Twelve/River romance somehow hadn’t occurred to me before you mentioned it — though in retrospect of course it seems obvious. I do consider it a threat rather than a promise, though, for the simple reason that Alex Kingston’s portrayal of River consistently irritates me. Were she to become a regular companion, I’d consider that a step down from Clara (and far, far down from Amy and Rory.) Still, we should be safe from this given that River has now died twice.

   We’ll see …

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