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The first episode of my Sarah Jane Adventures two parter (“Warriors of Kudlak”) went out last night as a preview on the children’s channel CBBC before it hits BBC1 next Monday evening.
As ever, watching one’s own script writing made real was a fascinating experience. The cast and crew did a fantastic job, and it’s been a real, rare joy to be asked to contribute to such an imaginative series.
I started thinking back over the writing process, and in particular the way the story twisted and changed over the 8 or 9 months it took to write the screenplays. In particular, last night’s episode had a moment I don’t think many parents will have missed– a tribute to the Kate Bush “Cloudbusting” video.
I’d almost forgotten that the story I originally pitched had been inspired by the character Donald Sutherland plays in that video – a man called Wilhelm Reich. I’ve been interested writing a script about Reich for well over a decade, but when Matthew Bouche (the SJA producer) called me in to pitch last September it was coincidentally just a couple of days after I’d seen the Kate Bush video again for the first time in ages, so Reich, his son Peter, and of course that famous hill top scene, were all very much alive in my mind.
We had our first story meeting and talked about the possibilities, and the very first draft of what eventually became WoK had an discredited inventor just like Reich, who inadvertently created a device that attracted the attention of a passing alien space ship. (Reich was clearly unstable at one point, and enlisted Peter in his ongoing battles with what he believed were UFOs. Pete has written a moving account of the night they apparently defeated one). Shenanigans ensued, the father being eventually abducted to the alien ship by a lonely, almost ogreish alien, and the son finally offering up his own life to save him. (Son survived, obviously.)
Matthew and Lindsay (the wonderful script editor on the series) liked these thoughts, so I started to do some more work. Kate Bush has said she based her video on her own reading of a book written by Reich’s son Peter, called the Book of Dreams – so, ever the obsessive, I started looking for that too. Not at all necessary, but I was enjoying the research.
But I couldn’t find the book. It was out of print, and the rare ones that did turn up were going on Ebay for £50 or more – more importantly the shape and tone of the Sarah Jane Adventures was morphing almost daily at that stage, and pretty soon the story had moved in other directions. I came up with an idea for a different, darker slant, with all our characters stalked and held captive overnight by a malevolent alien in a shopping mall, which then became a Laser Quest place, which then necessarily became a war cadet story, at which point Orson Scott Card stood up and begged for attention… etc etc, on and on in the process of finding the story.
As ever, when Russell T Davies gets his hands on a Doctor Who style story, the final show has far more in it that I would have dreamed of last September – but, you know, it is so good to see the original seeds still discernible: The lonely Kudlak and his kidnapping alien spaceship, and Sarah Jane and Maria out on a hillside making rain.
And Wilhelm Reich remains, unscathed this time, fascinating as ever.
I’ll be back.
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Thanks for the insight into where the idea for Warriors of Kudlak came from.
I was actually wondering what kind of work you do to prepare for writing for an established show? I mean, to get the tone right for the show, and also to keep consistent with character mannerisms etc. Is it a matter of looking at other episodes of the show? Or something else?
It’s a tricky part of the process. It definitely involves immersing yourself in hours of dvds of the show, over a fair bit of time. You have to get so, almost unconsciously, you adopt the ‘voice’ of the show, ie you implicitly understand the parameters of the types of story you can tell, and the sorts of emtotional resolutions that are permissable, plus the way the characters interact with each other, who has low and high status, the sorts of roles they can all play in a story, etc. It’s obviously nigh on impossible to do that when you are writing for a new show, and it’s perfectly possible for very established writers to come croppers at this stage. For the SJA I had obviously watched all the Doctor Who I could find, and even then it took some doing to get the story to where Russell felt it was part of HIS vision of the show. In the end it came in through a process of the osmosis in meetings and the notes I’d get back at various stages.
Thanks for the insight Philip! You’ve got me thinking about the different aspects of film and tv scripts now. Do you think it would be easier for a writer trying to break into the scene to start with film or tv? And what would you suggest a writer wanting to get started on tv do to approach certain production companies etc? I’m interested in the way this might differ from film, where an independent writer can pitch their idea without too much concern about whether it will fit a preconceived form.
I’m afraid I know very little about getting movies made – we don’t make that many movies in the UK, so I’ve worked almost exclusively in TV. Over in the UK I would think it’s probably easier to start earning regularly by getting into TV. There are just so many more hours of TV drama made than movies, so the demand for writers is far higher.
As far as sending out your script to production companies goes, check out the post on this blog back in June called Opening The Doors. That gives a decent account of how I see the process working.
It must be a fascinating experience to see your script gaining life on the screen.
I have a question that I probably know the anwser already but I sure want to hear it from you Philip.
When you write a script that you really like, that you really enjoyed writting and picturing and when it goes on screen it doesn’t look the way you pictured, the way you imagined…how does it feels? Do you feel bad/sad? Or just happy that other people have a different view of it and still make it look good? And when it looks bad?
Regards.
It’s interesting in Australia because we only just now seem to be making more Australian-based television and film productions. A lot of writers I know of end up working in the UK actually.
Thanks for the June blog tip, I’ll check it out.
VBGirl – when it looks bad, yes it does hurt! After all, you may have spent a good few months rewriting that moment. But honestly, sometimes it can look a million times better than you hoped for. Which is nice..!
AMZ – I think the links between the Australian and UK markets are slowly strengthening – haven’t met any Australian writers lately, but we seem to be casting a lot more Australian actors with one eye clearly on the market over there.
Philip – Actually that’s a good point, the relationship between the UK and Australia does seem to be improving. Up until last year there was only one free-to-air television network which showed a lot of UK productions, and that seems to be slowly changing now!
I wasn’t aware that Australian actors were being cast more often, I’ll have to keep that in mind though (I guess I’m an actor before a writer!)
[...] Gladwin tells the story (the first part, anyhow) of Script Writing for the Sarah Jane Adventures at his Screenwriting Goldmine [...]
How can I submit scripts I’ve created too Sarah Jane Adventures?