Starburst: Interview with Steve Lyons
Steve Lyons said in this interview:
Klein is different, she is very much my creation and I’m not really sure yet how I feel about her going her own way without me. On the one hand, it’s flattering that one of my characters has been picked up by other writers and her story continued. But then, I hear about major changes being made to Klein’s background, without my being involved or consulted, and that just feels wrong. I haven’t heard the latest Klein stories yet, I probably should.
This does not surprise me at all. The new Klein trilogy put out by Big Finish really messed up Klein's backstory and clashes massively with information in Colditz. I feel sorry for Lyons that his character has been treated this way, but on the other hand I feel relieved that such a great writer had nothing to do with it.
This is hardly the first time that Doctor Who writers have taken a character someone else created, and given them a new backstory and motivations that completely contradicts everything that was established by the original creator(s).
ReplyDeleteIndeed. I'm particularly enraged about this example because it's my favorite character and one of my favorite Doctor Who writers.
DeleteAnd yet you seem to have given your seal of approval to:
ReplyDelete1)'Mortimus'
2)The Dark Path, Koschei
3)The Second Doctor having decades of adventures as a James Bond-like figure after The War Games?
4)Mike Yates being a homosexual
5)The Doctor being the Other, who was (re)loomed from the House of Lungbarrow. Oh, and Susan isn't actually his biological granddaughter.
To be honest, the character of Klein was never one of my favourites. But if nothing else, I can only hope you can now start to appreaciate how disgusting, disturbing and distressing it is when a well-defined character that you are really interested in/care for is suddenly twisted and distorted beyond all reason by a writer who had nothing whatsoever to do with the creation and evolution of that character. In the past you posted something about how it is "clear" that certain things happened. Your reason was because decades after the event new writers wrote it into the backstory. But it was never ever ever the case at the time.
You have made a fair point.
DeleteA few comments:
2) I have never read The Dark Path. I'm not completely convinced that this story is consistent with other canonical stories, but I must reserve judgement until I have read it.
3) Dr. Who was not created by any writer involved in the show. That the TV Comics don't fit with other portrayals of the Doctor would apply to any post-Season 1 stories.
As for my statements about the chronology of the TV Comic stories in relation to The War Games, this is the speculation of a fan rather than anything in the licensed products.
4) When have I ever said Mike Yates was an homosexual.
5) Susan most certainly is Dr. Who's biological granddaughter. This is a position I firmly defend on this blog. I hate the stuff about looming and the Other.
I do think there is a difference with the Steve Lyons case. Steve Lyons is a writer who currently writes for Big Finish. He could easily have been emailed and asked for his opinion on the development of Klein. What is more, he wrote the concluding part of the first Klein trilogy. Why was he not invited to be involved in the second Klein trilogy?
1) and 4) I notice you had no problem with the whole 'Mortimus' stupidity. That's Paul Cornell's absolutely awful novel No Future, the same novel that "outs" Mike Yates.
ReplyDelete2)The Dark Path contradicts the very stories it tries to make continuity references to. But its central points are that a)it's a Master "origin" story(ugh!) b)The Second Doctor hasn't met The Master since leaving Gallifrey. Oh and the Foreword states that the Master in The TV Movie is a fake.
3)As stated on other topics, the TV Comic Second Doctor's exile stories, lead directly from The War Games to the Doctor arriving at an hotel. He is then on Earth for a while, before being regenerated. AT no point is he carrying out missions for the Time Lords using Jamie and a Stattanheim Remote Control(which wasn't even invented until the Sixth Doctor's era anyway, see Mark of the Rani). Oh, and at the end of The Night Walkers, the Second Doctor still has the same dark hair, and younger face he did in The War Games, not grey hair and a wrinklier face, which is explained by Time Crash.
5)And yet looming , the Other and the Pythia form the backbone of the Virgin Books.
And you're right about Lyons and Klein. People like Malcolm Hulke and Robert Holmes had their characters grotesquely distorted after they were dead, and they could do nothing about it. Lyons is still very much alive and well, and working for the very company that altered/distorted his character.