Prattling what, now?

One of my most frustrating, tedious, and oft-regretted tasks as an author is choosing a title with which I am happy. I am absolutely confident that my first e-novel (published at age 21, so fairly high marks for precociousness, if not actual skill) did not benefit from its unbearable pretentious title, "Demogorgon Rising": a pointless nod to Shelley's Prometheus Unbound. Mind you, the basically Tolkien-plagiarised story probably didn't do much for my readership or reputation ...

The title of this blog - "Prattling Jackanapes", pending the time I shall regret it - is a nod to a less highbrow but more influential source on my work than Shelley: namely the late Robert Holmes (1926-86, if Wikipedia are to be believed: Robert Holmes' Wikipedia Entry). "Jackanapes" was a favourite insult of his, in the scripts for the old series of "Doctor Who", mainly coming from the mouths of villains, though once being uttered by Jon Pertwee's Doctor: possibly one of the few actors who could say such a word with credibility. Try to imagine that coming from Matt Smith's lips ...

Lewis Carroll insults aside, Robert Holmes is fondly (and justly) remembered among fans of the original series for many reasons. His scripts were a deft mixture of melodrama and grittiness; whimsy and horror; Dickensian caricature, and grim, unsentimental realism, as occasion demanded. He never wrote for the series' recurring villains, such as the Daleks and Cybermen (though it is widely considered that his script editing on "Genesis of the Daleks" practically amounted to a re-writing), but his own villains were extremely memorable creations, from the eerie insectoid Wirrn (a low-budget but very creepy prefiguring both of "Alien" and the Borg Collective) and the childishly murderous alien god Sutekh, to the mundanely corrupt and vicious politicians, businessmen, and gangsters who often populated his works in both "Doctor Who" and its underrated BBC cousin "Blakes Seven". His tenure as script editor of the former show, during the mid-70s, is widely regarded as a high point in the series' original run, and the benchmark against which later serials were measured (much to the chagrin of long-term 1980s producer John Nathan-Turner, who nonetheless re-recruited Robert Holmes to boost the standard of the show from 1984-86).

One particularly admirable aspect of Robert Holmes' writing was the deftness with which he was able to conjure up impressions of full-scale, fully-functioning alien and interplanetary civilisations, economies, and empires, with none of the vast technical resources of "Star Wars" to spoon-feed the viewer. Rather, without resorting to obvious "infodumping", he had a knack for seeding his dialogue with just the right amount of references to wider goings-on in his fictional universe, letting the imagination of the fans visualise the unseen locations, governments, armies etc. without the BBC having to spend a fortune on special effects and crowd scenes (for which they were no doubt grateful ...). It could all be done on CG nowadays, of course, which may explain why I am finding most of the scripts for the new series to be imaginatively underwhelming ... sorry to be unpatriotic about the most famous product of Wales in this day and age.

He is also known for having shown no respect to the series ongoing continuity whatsoever in his scripts, but that is forgivable within a series that embraces the concept of alternative timelines ... if suspiciously convenient.