Writing tales

Dead Poet's Society was on telly last night. This used to be one of my favourite films as an angsty teen; I watched it with more cynical eyes this time round. Oh for the pedagogical heaven of Welton ('Hellton') prep school! Nonetheless, it still got me right there and I was suitably moved by the struggles of those pretty boys.

A friend passed on The Writer's Tale, which is a book entirely composed of emails regarding the writing, rewriting, and production of Doctor Who, series 4 (and some of series 3). It's a delicious feast for a fan - and like the true geeky fangirl that I am, I loved it. It's difficult to read in one go and retains a lot of the sporadic and disconnected feel of email and text messaging but it also captures the magic of successful and good writing and the sense of accomplishment and passion that Davies (and the cast and crew) have (had!) for the show. All of which, of course, shows in the product. Reading the drafting process was really interesting - I wish I could work it into a module somehow. It would be such a lesson to students on the value of RE-writing, drafting, failing, and starting over.

For all I didn't start out as a fan of Catherine Tate's Donna Noble at the beginning of the series - mostly cos I was a huge fan of Freema Agyeman's Martha Jones - reading Davies' scripts and impressions of the character-in-development I have reconsidered. The ending of the series is tear-jerkingly good both as evidence of talented writing and television production: it's Flowers for Algernon redux. The scene is so brief and so packed - much more so than the previous rather problematic scene between the Doctor(s) and Rose Tyler. Though it does implicitly illustrate the Doctor's tendency to tyranny - for the good, of course, always for the 'good'. I know I have read something on a similar problem arising with the Doctor's actions in Planet of the Ood - something about the problematics of ethics and authority in Doctor Who. The doctor knows best but it is difficult to watch Donna writhe and plead without being offered the choice - does she want to return to the way she was before she turned left? The doctor's implicit maxim - that all life (and any life, apparently) is better than none - seems to negate Donna's control over her own destiny. While I am not taking away from the emotional register of the series, it does place Donna (though very unusual for a doctor's companion in many ways) squarely back in a dangerously gendered role: the self-sacrificing woman. The series already demanded that Donna sacrifice herself once (in Turn Left) in order to save the Doctor - and thereby the entire planet - so I find it a bit difficult to completely accept the ending that sees her power and development curtailed by the Doctor.