Team TARDIS meets Paul Cornell

[fictional]

You guys. So... a couple of days ago, rm said, "Hey, you coming to the Doctor Who New York meet-up?"

And I said, "Uh... do I ever?"

And she said, "...Paul Cornell's¹ gonna be there."

And I said, "Oh."

Thus it was that tonight, I girded up my loins, and called up magnetgirl and said, "hey, want to come to this thing at this pub and meet Paul Cornell?"

And she (being much smarter than me) said, "Hell, yeah."

So we did.

Dude, it was AWESOME. I made an ass of myself only twice! Once, when we were all chatting, and the conversation turned to BBC Robin Hood? And I was like, "Wow, that show was terrible. I watched the pilot, and then (because it's not fair to judge a show merely on the basis of the pilot)... I tried to watch another one, but was unable to get through it."

And he said (in his innimitably charming British way), "Er... hope that wasn't one of my episodes."

You guys can probably picture the look on my face?

He hastened to add that he didn't think less of me. I believe his exact words were, "I'm not proud..."

(magnetgirl quickly covered for me, making sure that he knew I hadn't made it to one of his while I tried not to swallow my own tongue in embarrassment.)

AND THEN, unsatisfied with the sheer level of savoir faire I'd displayed thus far, when he brought up sexism and homophobia in genre television? (He was talking about how there was a lot of sexism and homophobia in genre tv, but he didn't think that just because characters have drama (and bad things happen to them), means that the show is sexist) and I decided that would be a good time to tell him about magnetgirl's and my argument about Steven Moffat.

"So," I say, "I mean, I think he's a fabulous writer and everything, but there have been accusations of sexism, and I have to say that she and I watched Coupling together... and though she disagrees with me, frankly, I think it is incredibly sexist..." (I was going to go on to say that it didn't mean I wasn't a fan of his Doctor Who episodes...)

But I am interrupted. "Er...," he says, all but scuffing his feet, "before you go on, in the interests of well, everyone, I have to tell you that Steven was the best man at my wedding, and I was the best man at his, so..."

You guys can definitely picture the look on my face now, right??? Yeah, take that previous look and multiply by... a billion.

He saw the look too, and hurriedly said, "I have to tell you that I spend most of my life apologizing for him though. We go into a room, and five minutes later, I'm all, 'yeah, sorry about the village, he didn't mean it really' and if we're lucky, we make it out without being killed. So I completely get where you're coming from."

As you can see, I have clearly missed my calling as a socialite.

Even despite all this, I had a brilliant time. Seriously, he was very smart and cool, we actually got to talk in detail about writing process, doctor who in specific & fandom in general, being social when you have social anxiety...and spend most of your time behind a keyboard, and the art of writing villains. It was great, and hearing him talk about story boarding with Russel and Steven and David fucking Tennant, was fairly squee inducing. He was completely gracious, and made sure to talk to everyone in the pub, but he came back to our group at least three times, which was pretty rocking. He and rm got to bond about the clusterfuck their panel at Gallifrey is gonna be, and basically, he was charming, funny, and despite my attack of foot-in-mouth disease seemed charmed by us, which is always nice.

Yeah. I may need to do this meeting people thing more often. It was fairly spectacular. The pub also seemed to have a live band? Which had... an itinerant flautist? Seriously. He wandered around the pub playing his flute. There was an attempt made to get him to play the Doctor Who theme, but it failed. Instead, endless renditions of Michael Jackson's ouevre. You haven't lived till you've heard "Beat It" played on the flute, bass, and synthesizer.


¹You may know Paul Cornell as author of DW episodes such as "Father's Day", "Human Nature", and "Family of Blood".

Comments

[lefaym.livejournal.com]

Haha, that's great. :) I love Cornell's episodes.

As for sexism in Moffat's episodes -- I definitely agree that it's there, but I don't think it's any better in Rusty's episodes, it just tends to manifest itself in a different way. Of course, Moffat was silly enough to say some very misogynist things in interviews, so...

[kalichan.livejournal.com]

For me, I don't actually find Moffat's DW episodes sexist per se or more sexist than the rest of DW... which is a show about a guy who is the awesomest being in the universe, so it all revolves around him, and he is male. It doesn't do much to rectify sexism, but I don't really see that it propagates it either. I can find misogyny in all of it if I look really hard, but I can do that with most of the things I love, honestly.

Coupling, on the other hand, I do find sexist, and I think it's the same things that he says in interviews. coming out. I'd certainly never describe him as a feminist writer. And if DW S5 has that tonal quality, I'll be rather disappointed. But I don't actually think it will.

I'm far more worried that the Doctor will become even more romantic in his hands however. But still... *crosses fingers and hopes for the best*

Cornell was totally awesome. I liked his episodes a lot, and now that I've met him, I fangirl him even more actually.

[lefaym.livejournal.com]

My worry with Moffat and romance is that he'll have the Doctor fall in love with a new woman every episode, without any ongoing development. He'll have a new soulmate every week, and then we'll never hear from her again, a la, Reinette and River Song. At least Rusty's romances tended to have a bit more substance to them.

[kalichan.livejournal.com]

I liked Reinette. River Song... did not do it for me, as I found her insufferably smug. But. I think Moffat's unlikely to do his whole "romance of the week" thing when he's actually running the whole kit & caboodle.

OTOH, Moffat seems really willing to bring shagging into the TARDIS, and I, like David Tennant, feel marginally uncomfortable about that.

Still! Must. Embrace. Change. (I am convinced this is the message I'm meant to learn from this whole Doctor Who thing.)

[lefaym.livejournal.com]

Oh, I liked Reinette too -- and I liked River Song for that matter. My problem isn't with the characters themselves, but more with the whole whirlwind-romance-then-forgotten attitude. And with Reinette, too, the Doctor suddenly seemed ready to completely forget about Rose when he was trapped, like it didn't bother him at all. The Doctor who will destroy a sun for a two-minute goodbye just didn't care.

And yeah, canon TARDIS-shagging... not so good. Unless it's with Jack. Fic TARDIS-shagging on the other hand... :D

[kalichan.livejournal.com]

Oh, yeah, I hated the whole whirlwind romance then forgotten thing too. It displayed a serious lack of concern for continuity which I found depressing. But I think that was evidence of Moffat trying to write against the rest of the show (he obviously didn't like Rose at all, or at least Rose with the Doctor, so tried to diminish the importance of that relationship in every episode he wrote... the only exception I can think of is with "Blink" which alone didn't seem to have a Rose tag at all...) Presumably when he's in charge, he'll care more about a continuous story arc?

For some reason fic TARDIS shagging doesn't bother me as much (I mean, obviously... *grins*) but canon? I just don't want it nailed down. In my head, I almost think that might be why DT is leaving. "You're going to have the Doctor do what? Yeah. Sorry. Can't be having of that. Not in my TARDIS."

*laughs*

[miep.livejournal.com]

it just seems rude to me. if the TARDIS is a being, wouldn't it be a bit impolite to be shagging, non-consensually, one would assume, IN someone else?

[kalichan.livejournal.com]

*grins* she seems pretty in tune with the Doctor, so one assumes she might communicate her consent or lack of consent to him?

[miep.livejournal.com]

*runs away from the ten/TARDIS/Shakespeare fic that is doubtless being written right now *

[darthhellokitty.livejournal.com]

For all we know, the poor thing has been dropping hints for AGES.

[neifile7.livejournal.com]

Umm. Gotta risk sounding a little wanky here, but it's relevant.

I really like River Song. I give huge props to Moffat for giving the Doctor a future companion who's female, not young and nubile, an intellectual equal, and not someone he has to rescue/transform. To that extent I guess she's a kind of Mary Sue for me. And that means that she mirrors the Doctor in arrogance and wit, and runs the usual risk of being less sympathetic because she's a woman. I'm not trying to accuse anyone of sexism here, but I do think she points to some of the cultural double standard that informs the show, and I actually think Moffat did a lot to bring that into question with this story arc.

That said, I would have hated on River in a nanosec if she hadn't shown Donna something approaching reverence!

And also: yeah, I don't like the one-off romances either, and I don't think Moffat should get a free ride where he's more obviously sexist. I do like his writing, though, and I can forgive a lot in the man who gave us both River AND Jack. (Hmm. Two 51st-century humans. Do I smell a ship?)

Anyway, thanks to you and Rach for giving us the update on Cornell. It's all kinds of awesome that you met him and he sounds lovely.

[kalichan.livejournal.com]

Not wanky at all; differing opinions welcome. As you can see, I totally disagree with my chum magnetgirl re: Moffat's sexism, and we still manage to get along!

I don't like River Song because the idea that a human -- regular old human male OR female -- comes along and just *happens* to know more than the Doctor is annoying to me, frankly. The Doctor is a bloke; I would've found it annoying in anyone, I think. Also, the idea that she "knows his name" etc etc made me furious; I felt like she was devaluing all other companions that we'd ever seen. Moffat, I think, has a tendency to do this, making sure his storyline trumps the ongoing one, and it shows a lack of concern for continuity which I find troubling. Presumably, however, this won't be an issue when the main story lines are his.

That said, the fact that River Song was older and not conventionally sexy was awesome (for the record, Donna is my favorite of the new!Who companions). But I would have been more convinced of him pointing out the show's double standard if she hadn't been coded as the Doctor's wife, or whatever.

But yes, we totally agree. The timey-wimey aspect of the SitL and FotD episodes is staggeringly awesome; the man is clearly a genius, and I too can forgive much of the writer who gave us Jack. We are in total accord there.

[magnetgirl.livejournal.com]

Don't worry, I'm going to wipe that smug smile off that bitches' face veeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeery soon ;)

[kalichan.livejournal.com]

can't wait, sugarplum!