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']['error]>U]> a.k.a TerrorPUP |
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Who's Cybermen Lighten Up |
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LONDON—Doctor Who producer Russell T. Davies told SCI FI Wire that writer Tom MacRae's original story for the upcoming Cybermen episodes was much darker than the version that will debut on Britain's BBC1 on May 13. In the two-art story "Rise of the Cybermen"/"The Age of Steel," the Doctor (David Tennant), Rose Tyler (Billie Piper) and Mickey (Noel Clarke) find themselves trapped on an alternate Earth where a mad scientist is trying to transform the human race into bio-mechanical creatures.
The original version featured a number of different elements, including a series of "Body Shops" in which wealthy citizens could order "upgrades" for various body parts. That process leads to the ultimate upgrade, in which the brains of unwitting victims are placed within an indestructible steel shell, creating the Cybermen. "Part of my problem with it was I didn't believe it," Davies said in an interview. "We were trying to create a world where there were Body Shops on every corner where people got a new arm, and I didn't believe that, and I've never believed it. I think you have to be practical and honest about these things, and I always used to have trouble with Steve Austin's bionic arm, because it's no good just having a robot arm; it's what it's attached to, so it could just be ripped off. So it wasn't the gore and the darkness about it. I just didn't believe it. What is the point of going for a new arm? It simply doesn't work."
The alternate-world versions of several key characters were also originally quite different from their counterparts. "I think it was one of those great lessons about the freedom of SF, as well as its greatest dangers, because when you're creating a parallel world, you suddenly get excited by saying everyone can wear eyepatches," Davies said. "Actually, I think the key to a parallel world is making it very similar to the modern world, so Pete and Jackie and Mickey, even in the parallel world, are very similar to their real-world counterparts."
Davies added: "The danger is to make the characters too silly and different. There's something very grotesque and almost pantomime-ish and too inbred about doing that, so a very faithful viewer may enjoy seeing the complete opposite of Mickey, whereas the casual viewer is not interested in that. They just want a good story, and a good story is more about meeting yourself. What's the point of meeting a character that's so different? You might as well introduce a new character. So it took us a long time to get the temperature right of the series, to tell what sort of parallel world story you're going to tell. So that's why the process of rewriting the story took a long time." The Cybermen episodes will air on British television May 13 and 20.
The first season of the new Doctor Who airs in the United States Fridays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on SCI FI Channel. —Joe Nazzaro
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Posted on Thursday, May 11 @ 03:23:30 EDT by terrorpup
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