Re: Not Another Spin-Off :(

On 16 Apr, 01:18, "john smith" <the_johnsm...@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
<pbow...@xxxxxxx> wrote in message

news:6bb0c7e2-fb80-401c-b489-a38a783edf75@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
On 14 Apr, 23:33, Monsieur Tabernac <mtaber...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:





On Tue, 14 Apr 2009 17:19:13 -0500, "US 71" <u...@xxxxxxx> wrote:
http://www.chortle.co.uk/news/2009/04/14/8717/dr_who_spin-off_for_lee....

Dr Who spin-off for Lee Evans?

BBC Lee Evans could land his own Doctor Who spin-off if the show's boss,
Russell T Davies, has his ways.

The producer said he was so impressed with the comic's performance as
scientist Malcom Taylor in Saturday's Easter special, Planet Of The Dead,
he
could star in a new series.

Evan's character worked for the organisation UNIT, Unified Intelligence
Taskforce, under Captain Magambo, played by Noma Dumezweni.

Davies said: 'Lee and Noma are a spin-off series waiting to happen. UNIT
soldiers often work best as half of a double-act, so Magambo needed a
foil,
though we never dreamed we'd get to cast the part so well.'

Davies, who is leaving the show after the next three specials, added that
the
spin-off could be broadcast late this year.

If it comes off, it would be the fourth from the relaunched Doctor Who,
following Torchwood, The Sarah Jane Adventures, and the forthcoming K-9.

Ah, Russell T Davies -- the homeopathic producer of Doctor Who. I
hope he knows when to stop; if he dilutes it too much, there'll be
nothing left.

Sounds as though he's just giving himself something Who-related to do
now he's off the main show.

Phil

_________________________________________________________

That's a rubbish assessment too!  As if the new production team aren't going
to bite his hand off if he does offer to write for them in the future -
which I'm sure he will do at some point.  He's rebooted the franchise
(horrible term, I know!) and I'm sure he'll come back to it when he has some
new ideas for stories

Yes. Apparently he's remaining on the writing staff. So what? He
writes for them now but also has a full-time job as producer - you
think he's going to want to sit around twiddling his thumbs when not
writing Who scripts? Or that producing a new show because he wants to
keep doing something he enjoys is a less plausible motivation than
just wanting the odd credit with "created by Russell T Davies" (right
next to the obligatory "UNIT original concept created by someone else"
line, at that)? I'm guessing you don't have much firsthand experience
with the way the media works - bylines for writing stories and public
exposure for successful work are what matter, not originality of
concept. No one is going to turn RTD down for a job on the basis that
he didn't create Dr Who, but they may well give him one for bringing
it back so successfully. In any case, RTD already has 'created by' for
Queer as Folk, Torchwood, SJA and goodness knows what else, and
whatever he went on to do he'd be able to add another 'created by'
line to his portfolio, regardless of whether or not that production
was Who-related, so your argument is spurious.

- rather than just using up the old ones he'd no doubt
stockpiled as a fan.  "Planet of the Dead" shows he's running on empty.

Does it? RTD's said all along it was a 'light-hearted' story, which
those of us who've been following his contributions to the show have
learned to dread as code for "really quite rubbish, actually". It's
still better than New Earth or Last of the Timelords. All it shows is
that he's made another bad story - but then he followed New Earth with
Tooth & Claw and his next story after Partners in Crime was Midnight,
so I don't think we can read too much into the fact that a
deliberately fluffy story was "a bit crap really".

 I'm
glad he's chosen to leave when he has - before the ideas grow *too* stale

So am I, but for a slightly different reason - many of his ideas
already are too stale, in particular his formulaic season structure
(past, present, future, two-parter with returning aliens, filler,
filler, good two-parter, filler, filler, big cinematic two-part finale
with Big Bads). Season 4 showcased his most varied writing and some of
his strongest, so I wouldn't mind seeing more of his episodes (just
not dominating the season).

Incidentally, do we know how much of this episode was RTD's work and
how much Gareth Roberts'? RTD's getting all the flak, but Roberts'
previous work for the show - Shakespeare Code and The Unicorn and the
Wasp - hasn't exactly been warmly received. It's possible it was worse
than an 'average' RTD episode because of the co-writer's input.

Phil
.

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