studio robb: I don’t fully remember the details (memory can be a tricky thing... reading L. J.'s comments, she seems to remember my "nose-poking" in a better light!)
, but
I’m pretty sure the "Deaf robot from Valkarnt 5" was
mostly (if not entirely) my fault. I seem to remember that I wanted an excuse
as to why Tinhead didn’t take The Doctor up on his
offer to return Tinhead to his home world, and I
wanted people to really see how arrogant Brundo was.
L. J. voiced her concern about the scene being over the top and damn! I should
have listened.
Tinhead’s back-story is fraught holes and just added
unnecessary length to the story. And because of the added length, I knew I
would be late (yet again) for the DWIS-deadline, so I cheated and once again
"borrowed" a couple of panels from "Love and Rockets".
This was the *last* time I stooped to that
crutch!
The bottom line
was that, having Tinhead get eaten was enough for
sympathy and to show Brundo’s arrogance, so there was
no need for me to stick my fingers in an already swell script. And the lesson
learned was: "let the writers stick to writing"!
don't believe me? L. J. was kind enough to provide the *actual* script for this story.
i honestly have no idea why i messed so much with this story, and i'm even more mystified that i was allowed to get away with it!
Page 5: The news reporter, "Cindy S’Monie" is another example of sticking my nose in.
the original script called for a "montage of game play to show the passage of time"
(yes, this was *long* before trey parker sang about "montage" in "Team America"!) in
order to avoid an "And later..." word box to jump time ahead from The Doctor’s pep to talk to
Ace’s defeat (L. J. knew how much i hated those!). But i had wasted a lot of page-space with that stupid "Tinhead and Wil Boo-Hoo" scene, as well as other contrivances, so that there were really only about
two, maybe three panels left to try to recap things...so
to show how things had moved along, and to mention the names of some of the
reoccurring characters, so I got the approval of having newscast panel.
For
the record, "Cindy S’Monie" was a parody of "Ginny
Simone", a local Colorado Springs news anchor woman who, just as she was
winning the News Anchor Wars that competing local stations always seem to have,
was *busted* with her politically aspired husband for running crack cocaine from
their house! I did a google-search a year-or-so back
to check on the specifics of her bust, and possibly found that she and her
husband moved to
L.J. Scott: I find I can't let studio robb continue to dangle in the wind...
Page 2 & 4: studio robb did call me about the script, though I don't remember him asking about the TV reporter. His concern was that the death of Tin-Head didn't have enough impact, as, after all, it was a robot. As studio robb had finished the first page of this installment, he wanted me to come-up with a Brundo offense that would have more impact for the Doctor. And he needed it now.
Ouch! I didn't have a clue what to do. As we hadn't shown anyone else helping Brundo in the previous strip, it wouldn't look good just to up-and-introduce a new flesh and bone assistant for Brundo just to then have them eaten by the fishies.
It took another late day inspiration to bridge the gap of what we had and what studio robb wanted. I had already noted in the previous installment that Tin-Head was a companion/tutor to young master Wil. So I just made the need for his companionship more critical. The way to explain why we didn't find this out until this installment was easy; the Doctor has always had a memory that doesn't kick-in immediately.
After working out the changes to the script, I literally 'phoned it in' to studio robb late the following night and mentioned the slight changes to the frame of Susan and the Doctor, in horror, as they connected what the name of the planet meant. Then a new frame of the Doctor confronting Brundo just before Tin-Head takes the plunge.
Much of the story then continues as originally planned, up to the point of the Doctor walking away to collect his thoughts. Then I added and replaced a number of frames as Susan explains to Ace why it's so horrifying that Tin-Head is gone. studio robb then added the enhancement of the scene showing life on Valkarnt 5.
It was because of these additional frames that studio robb either had to make this a six-page installment, or cut out more toward the end. In this case he cut out more scenes of croquet balls rolling on grass (which we probably had enough of in the last installment anyhow) and came up with the newscast to sum-up the action of many of the missing frames.
Why aren't these changes reflected in the original script? Simply because they were introduced after the script was done and printed. I didn't bother go back and insert the changes after the fact as I thought they were never going to see the light of day again. 15 years later, it's surprising how things can change.
What got lost during these last two installments? There was the Doctor brooding over his desire to get a little revenge on Brundo, and more frames of Susan and Ace discussing Time Lord society and what that meant to Susan's relationship with The Doctor. But as with all things that get cut in a continuing series, they can always be written back in later...
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