Yahoo News Neil Gaiman says Doctor Who messed with writer's script
Neil Gaiman has revealed that Doctor Who once 'messed' with a fellow writer's script in the past, and not for the better.
Last week, it was announced that the American Gods author will adapt Mervyn Peake's epic Gormenghast book series for television, alongside Being Human scribe Toby Whithouse.
During a Q&A sit down about the forthcoming series, Gaiman shared that he almost worked with Whithouse for the first time when they both worked on episodes of Doctor Who and met at a reading of their scripts.
"The nearest we'd ever come to working together was when we met at a reading of Doctor Who, Toby's episode had been read that morning and mine in the afternoon," Gaiman told Deadline .
[Toby Whithouse]
"We definitely liked each other and we liked each other's work. Because I was writing Doctor Who, I had the privilege of reading Toby's script, which I felt on the whole was rather better than the episode, I got to read the raw script before people who weren't Toby started messing with them."
Whithouse has written a number of Doctor Who episodes, but Gaiman didn't specify which of his episodes he was referring to here.
It's also worth pointing out that this is far from the first time Gaiman has appeared to be not entirely impressed with his Doctor Who experience.
"I did two episodes of Doctor Who over the last decade, one I loved and it won awards, one I do not love and it is widely regarded as having some good bits in it but being rather a curate's egg," he said to The Telegraph last month.
"As far as I'm concerned both of the scripts were of equal quality but the biggest differences were having a say in what actually got to the screen, a say in what got changed, a say in what got rewritten, a say in the colour scheme, a say in all those things."
In fact, that experience actually inspired Gaiman to get into producing for the upcoming Amazon/BBC Two series Good Omens, so he would end up with more of a say on how his scripts turn out.
[Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett]
"I'm glad my second Doctor Who episode left me with a bad taste in my mouth because that is why, when Terry said, 'You have to make this thing', I was like, 'If I'm going to to do it then I am going to be showrunner because I can't just write the scripts, hand them over to somebody and hope that I get something fantastic back, I may or I may not.
"If this is going to be f**ked up it's going to be f**cked up by me personally with love and dedication."
Doctor Who continues this Sunday on BBC One.
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