New Who writers who became openly disillusioned with the series

The two examples that come to mind to me (although feel free to discuss if there are any others) are Neil Gaiman and Gareth Roberts.

Neil Gaiman was vocally unhappy with how his Nightmare in Silver story eventually turned out, and has tellingly never written for the series since.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/on-demand/2018/10/03/neil-gaiman-doctor-experience-left-bad-taste-mouth/

Gareth Roberts was a big cheerleader of the RTD era and seemed fully onboard with the show until Series 8. The Caretaker seemed to be the last thing he wrote for the show, and to my surprise, he spent some time after making various tweets to the effect of how the era was doing everything wrong and making the Doctor utterly unappealing to the masses. Tellingly he was also not a fan of the Zygon two-parter's political angle (which I don't blame him for).

But I'd love to know what happened that made him break with the fold as he did (long before his more recent controversies).

Tellingly both of these incidents happened under Moffat's reign, and I am dying to know how many other scripts were badly compromised or lost outright to Moffat's approach (I remember reading talk of some whistleblower saying that 8 scripts had had to be abandoned in Series 6 alone), and whether more writers found him and his team difficult to work with.

Rob Shearman was the first to be dumped on. I'm not sure he's disenchanted with the show but it's telling he's never done any more.

I was in contact with someone at the time who sent me two drafts of the script for Dalek before the episode even aired, and also told me about the unrest within the Aliens of London/WWIII shoot over the treatment of staff on set. All this was confirmed by Eccleston in the last year or so.

The chap emailing me seemed pretty upset about the re-writes and confirmed elements of the aired story prior to broadcast.

Unfortunately I didn't keep the scripts, but I did share them with Rob. Rob archives everything, so you can bet he still has them.

They have started producing novelisations of NuWho stories. It would be nice if Shearman, Roberts and Gaiman adapted their stories but based the adaptations on their original scripts rather than RTD's / Fatmoff's bastardisations of them.

Boofer wrote:Rob Shearman was the first to be dumped on. I'm not sure he's disenchanted with the show but it's telling he's never done any more.

I was in contact with someone at the time who sent me two drafts of the script for Dalek before the episode even aired, and also told me about the unrest within the Aliens of London/WWIII shoot over the treatment of staff on set. All this was confirmed by Eccleston in the last year or so.

The chap emailing me seemed pretty upset about the re-writes and confirmed elements of the aired story prior to broadcast.

Unfortunately I didn't keep the scripts, but I did share them with Rob. Rob archives everything, so you can bet he still has them.

Now that is interesting, and confirms a suspicion I’ve always had. I always presumed that Shearman’s script was edited down considerably by RTD, given that the ending was so patronisingly mawkish and awful (and indeed very much in the saccharine style of RTD’s usual scripts) to the point where it contrasts greatly not just with his comparatively excellent scripts for Big Finish, but also the darker tone that Dalek itself displayed during its first half.

I’d love to see the initial drafts for Dalek, and to see how badly it was butchered in the final product.

Bernard Marx wrote:

Boofer wrote:Rob Shearman was the first to be dumped on. I'm not sure he's disenchanted with the show but it's telling he's never done any more.

I was in contact with someone at the time who sent me two drafts of the script for Dalek before the episode even aired, and also told me about the unrest within the Aliens of London/WWIII shoot over the treatment of staff on set. All this was confirmed by Eccleston in the last year or so.

The chap emailing me seemed pretty upset about the re-writes and confirmed elements of the aired story prior to broadcast.

Unfortunately I didn't keep the scripts, but I did share them with Rob. Rob archives everything, so you can bet he still has them.

Now that is interesting, and confirms a suspicion I’ve always had. I always presumed that Shearman’s script was edited down considerably by RTD, given that the ending was so patronisingly mawkish and awful (and indeed very much in the saccharine style of RTD’s usual scripts) to the point where it contrasts greatly not just with his comparatively excellent scripts for Big Finish, but also the darker tone that Dalek itself displayed during its first half.

I’d love to see the initial drafts for Dalek, and to see how badly it was butchered in the final product.

Indeed. With Shearman's work for Big Finish (Jubilee, Holy Terror, Chimes of Midnight...) one can hear in the tone, themes, structure and humour that these are all the work of the same writer. Without prior knowledge, I don't think anyone would reach that conclusion regarding Dalek. It really has nothing in common with the rest of his work, barring the cribbed bit about the imprisoned creature, which forms merely a fraction of Jubilee. Witness the humour:-

"Make the next one a Democrat"
"Why a Democrat?"
"...they're just so funny, sir…"
"I like the way you think"

Crass, puerile, unfunny and nothing like Shearman's own humour which tends to be far darker and more sophisticated. It does, however, bear the distinct imprint of a certain Welsh scribbler of our acquaintance. Jubilee, as we know, is a far more intelligent, layered and subversive piece of writing whereas Dalek could have been written by any old bugger (and probably was...). Given Davies' propensity for pitching at the lowest common denominator and his known petty professional jealousy, he had at least two 'good' reasons for dragging Shearman's work down to his level.

Boofer wrote:I'm not sure he's disenchanted with the show but it's telling he's never done any more.

I'm not so sure about that; I've caught him on Gallifrey Base 'liking' posts critical of the new series. Good for him. His comments in interview regarding his discomfort with the number of rewrites and being happier working in radio would seem to be a way of politely dressing up some deeper issues.

UncleDeadly wrote:

Bernard Marx wrote:

Boofer wrote:Rob Shearman was the first to be dumped on. I'm not sure he's disenchanted with the show but it's telling he's never done any more.

I was in contact with someone at the time who sent me two drafts of the script for Dalek before the episode even aired, and also told me about the unrest within the Aliens of London/WWIII shoot over the treatment of staff on set. All this was confirmed by Eccleston in the last year or so.

The chap emailing me seemed pretty upset about the re-writes and confirmed elements of the aired story prior to broadcast.

Unfortunately I didn't keep the scripts, but I did share them with Rob. Rob archives everything, so you can bet he still has them.

Now that is interesting, and confirms a suspicion I’ve always had. I always presumed that Shearman’s script was edited down considerably by RTD, given that the ending was so patronisingly mawkish and awful (and indeed very much in the saccharine style of RTD’s usual scripts) to the point where it contrasts greatly not just with his comparatively excellent scripts for Big Finish, but also the darker tone that Dalek itself displayed during its first half.

I’d love to see the initial drafts for Dalek, and to see how badly it was butchered in the final product.

Indeed. With Shearman's work for Big Finish (Jubilee, Holy Terror, Chimes of Midnight...) one can hear in the tone, themes, structure and humour that these are all the work of the same writer. Without prior knowledge, I don't think anyone would reach that conclusion regarding Dalek. It really has nothing in common with the rest of his work, barring the cribbed bit about the imprisoned creature, which forms merely a fraction of Jubilee. Witness the humour:-

"Make the next one a Democrat"
"Why a Democrat?"
"...they're just so funny, sir…"
"I like the way you think"

Crass, puerile, unfunny and nothing like Shearman's own humour which tends to be far darker and more sophisticated. It does, however, bear the distinct imprint of a certain Welsh scribbler of our acquaintance. Jubilee, as we know, is a far more intelligent, layered and subversive piece of writing whereas Dalek could have been written by any old bugger (and probably was...). Given Davies' propensity for pitching at the lowest common denominator and his known petty professional jealousy, he had at least two 'good' reasons for dragging Shearman's work down to his level.

Completely agree with you here. Shearman’s works tend to have an underlying black comedy to them which underpins all of his works, even when at their most serious and downright bleak, much like Robert Holmes. He even described himself as a “comedy writer” once (although I’d clarify him as absurdist myself). There was nothing remotely unique or intelligent about Shearman’s NuWho script- no dramatic irony, and no eloquence in any of the dialogue (the example you listed is very telling). It’s also noticeable that none of the political subtext of Jubilee featured in Dalek whatsoever.

I am genuinely interested to see the original drafts at this point, just to see the difference in characterisation, plotting and dialogue. And concerning your point in relation to his upvoting of scathing posts on GB, it’s no surprise- I can’t imagine him enjoying the current shite at all.

Bernard Marx wrote: Shearman’s works tend to have an underlying black comedy to them which underpins all of his works, even when at their most serious and downright bleak, much like Robert Holmes.

Yeah, I think that Shearman is really the only one of the Big Finish writers to have tapped into the rich vein of subversive black humour that runs through the Sixth Doctor era, and thus the tone of the TV stories. Mind you, the others haven't really tried (after all the Sixth Doctor and his era need to be "redeemed" and "rehabilitated", don't they? ).

Bernard Marx wrote:I am genuinely interested to see the original drafts at this point, just to see the difference in characterisation, plotting and dialogue.

So would I be, although I'm sure the experience would be a dispiriting one. After all, I would imagine that Shearman was labouring under the misapprehension that he was writing Doctor Who and, of course, he had to be quickly disabused of that notion.