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

[rm.livejournal.com]

also, fanfiction!

[kalichan.livejournal.com]

? Did we talk about fanfic? I may have been a couple of ciders in at that point. But, right, he did talk about ficcers becoming writers. That was pretty fucking cool.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Yeah, just that, but it was still pretty crazy in its unabashedness.

[kalichan.livejournal.com]

I LOVE THIS FANDOM.

[mellacita.livejournal.com]

LOL!

I am not laughing at you. I am laughing with you. Because I would totally be the one saying the same things and then adopting a "d'oh!" face.

Regardless, what a cool opportunity. Thanks for sharing it.

[kalichan.livejournal.com]

Hahahaha. Your icon says it all really.

Yeah, don't worry, I'm laughing at me too! Oh well. I suppose being a total idiot can make one stand out? He was a terribly good sport about it all too.

LOL.

[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...

[mellacita.livejournal.com]

Yes! You can just consider it as making an impression in a world of interchangeable Who fen.

[mellacita.livejournal.com]

ACK drop down icon menus FTL. I didn't mean to use that one.

[kel-reiley.livejournal.com]

i have no words other than 'COOL!"
and also, i can commiserate with you on the social awkwardness

[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.

[kalichan.livejournal.com]

LOL. I can just imagine Donna rebuking me for being such a loser! *grins*

I suppose not being a slavering fangirl is a good thing? Sometimes...

[kalichan.livejournal.com]

lol. Thank you!

Yeah, it was really awesome. Also everyone involved with new!Who is such a fan. Like he was telling us about how they all used to write fic and stuff. Isn't that so neat???

[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.

[kel-reiley.livejournal.com]

it is

we all need to be crazy about something else and revive it or something

[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.)

[kalichan.livejournal.com]

Word. or move to Britain!

[kel-reiley.livejournal.com]

i'm down with that
but srsly, anyone wants to start up a production company with me and start making movies - LET'S DO IT!

[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*

[kalichan.livejournal.com]

Sounds awesome. I wish I'd learned to do making-movie stuff when I was in school/college.

[kel-reiley.livejournal.com]

you can be the writery part of the team

[kalichan.livejournal.com]

sounds like a plan.

[kel-reiley.livejournal.com]

awesome
we need a PR guy
and a boat load of money

[thaddeusfavour.livejournal.com]

That's a funny story. He does sound charming. It's been my experience at Dragon*Con, that the British folk who come are very gracious. Anthony Daniels was an excellent MC for the Masquerade for a couple of years. Wit and style and took it all in stride.