Sonny Caldinez & John Peel

This weekend, my wife and I watched “The Evil of the Daleks.”  While only Episode 2 of this seven-part serial remains, the Loose Cannon production team reconstructed the missing episodes by matching the existing audio tracks with photographs, computer generated animation, and even some of their own live-action video.  They also included some interviews with actor Sonny Caldinez, the sixth Doctor Colin Baker, and writer John Peel on the DVD.

Sonny Caldinez, a big actor with a warm smile and a deep laugh, related some of his favorite memories from his acting career.  For the British TV series “Sir Arthur Conan Doyle,” he played a mummy in the story “Lot 249.”  This episode was based on Doyle’s 1892 short story “Lot No. 249,” about an Oxford student who reanimates an Egyptian mummy.  According to Wikipedia, this is the first time in history a writer portrayed a reanimated mummy as a “sinister, predatory figure.” 

Sonny remembered riding along in a bus to a pub, where the rest of the crew went inside to eat their lunch.  He had been told he couldn’t eat, as the production team didn’t want to spend another three hours redoing his makeup.  But he got tired of sitting on the bus, so he decided to make “a grand entrance.”  He threw open the pub door, and as it slammed into the wall, he staggered inside.  To his delight, the diners seated closest to the door, who were not involved in the production, reacted to the mummy’s entrance with screams and cries of alarm.  Unfortunately, the prosthetics covering his lower jaw fell off.  So he ended up eating lunch, and spending another three hours in the makeup chair that afternoon.

Many writers yearned to write a Dalek novel for “Doctor Who,” but Terry Nation, who created the monsters for the TV show, always refused to grant them permission.  In his interview, John Peel related how he finally gained Nation’s trust, and started writing books about the Daleks, including novelizations of Doctor Who stories, such as “Evil of the Daleks.”  Eventually, Nation granted him permission to write some original Dalek adventures. 

I particularly like what Terry Nation told him in regard to the novelization of “The Dalek Masterplan.”  This first-Doctor story was twelve episodes long, so John Peel called him up and mentioned that he was wondering whether he should write it as two short novels or one long novel.  When Nation asked him his preference, Peel said, “Two novels.”  When Nation then asked him why, Peel said, “Because it means two advances instead of one.”  Terry Nation laughed. “Now,” he proclaimed, “you’re thinking like a writer!”

This morning I finished the hardcopy revisions for a chapter of my dragon novel I started working on last Friday.  This afternoon, I’ll put those into the computer.  For the most part, I’m concentrating on dialogue, grammar, and story logic during this pass.  I’m also writing down thoughts for the next pass, when I plan to concentrate mostly on the concepts and characters.  I feel as if I’m progressively refining and enriching my story, as if I’m building it up, layer by layer.  I know it’s not right yet, but I believe I can shape it into a form I’ll be proud of.  I just wish I could work faster, finish the novel more quickly.  Maybe, on the next novel, I can try a different methodology that’ll speed up the process.  Or maybe this is the fastest pace I’m capable of.  I just know that I won’t be content until I’m publishing at least one novel a year.

I may never write a story as influential as Arthur Conan Doyle’s “Lot No. 249.”  I may never create a character or race as beloved as Terry Nation’s Daleks.  Still, I’m doing my best to “think like a writer,” and finish my first dragon novel, so that I can sell it (and hopefully, get an offer for a couple more books).

Dragon Dave