Good news for everyone who liked Neil Cross' contributions to the programme ("The Rings of Akhaten" and "Hide"); he seems keen on the idea of being showrunner. Via Stuff:
"Cross, who wrote last season's The Rings of Akhaten and Hide from his Wellington home, was recently asked by Doctor Who Magazine if he'd like to run the show when Steven Moffat steps down.
"Well, that's such a complicated question because I've got two contradictory and equally powerful responses. The 9-year-old in me thinks, 'oh God, yeah'. On the other hand, the pressure of it and the sheer visibility of it ...So the child in me absolutely says 'yes'. The adult in me wonders how on earth you deal with the pressure of a show that's that visible...It's not hard to imagine, though, that the child would eventually win ... Well, that child's been winning my entire life."
There's more interesting details about Cross going out of his way to help out with the budget.
"I sat down with Caro and Marcus and said: 'How do we make this big without any extra money? Do you have unused monster costumes? A library of CGI spaceships which were never really used?' So the story developed that way."
(And of course "Rings" is the story that made the best use of the built-up supply of extra effects that DW had been building up since its return, so it worked on that level. Moffat does have a habit of writing all the big, high-budget episodes himself.)
"It had a much more mixed response than Hide did. I had the ultimate writer's nightmare. DWM hated it. The Sun hated it. But the good reviews were really good. And I had so many emails and letters and Facebook messages from kids between 9 and 15 who had experienced bullying. The episode had affected them massively. I had one message from a girl telling me it had changed her mind about suicide."
Website here.
3 comments:
In the minority but I LOVED the Rings of Akhaten, and with the exception of the odd Romeo twist, Hide was superb too.
For me he's the only writer of 7B to do anything of interest with Clara's character and attempt to move the story arc forward without waiting half a season for Moffat to throw everything but the kitchen sink at the audience.
Throw in experience running the brilliant Luther and I for one see Cross as a decent potential showrunner after getting a few more stories under his belt.
Not a fan of Akhaten, but Hide was the first episode of the entirety of Season 7 where I was able to say "Now THAT is a good Doctor Who episode." And the only one out of that season I would re-watch, sadly.
Um bu he can't write very well at all.
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