I found a very interesting website today. It has a fair amount of TV scripts and Series Bibles. In the bible section I found the reports on Doctor Who from 1963. I thought some of you might find these interesting:
http://sites.google.com/site/tvwriting/bibles
Here's an excerpt from one:
http://sites.google.com/site/tvwriting/bibles
Here's an excerpt from one:
BBC ARCHIVE
WRITTEN DOCUMENT 1962
[Handwritten note: Report by Donald Bull to HSD. Tel. - head of Serial Drama,
television - 1962]
SCIENCE FICTION
1. We have been asked to survey the field of published science fiction, in its
relevance to BBC Television Drama.
2. In the time allotted, we have not been able to make more than a sample dip,
but we have been greatly helped by studies of the field made by Brian Aldiss,
Kingsley Amis, and Edmund Crispin, which give a very good idea of the range,
quality and preoccupations of current SF writing. We have read some useful
anthologies, representative of the best SF practitioners and these, with some
extensive previous reading, have sufficed to give us a fair view of the
subject. Alice Frick has met and spoken with Brian Aldiss, who promises to
make some suggestions for further reading. It remains to be seen whether this
further research will qualify our present tentative conclusions.
3. Several facts stand out a mile. The first is that SF is overwhelmingly
American in bulk. This presumably means that, if we are looking for writers
only, our field is exceptionally narrow, boiling down to a handful of British
writers.
4. SF is largely a short story medium. Inherently, SF ideas are short-winded.
The interest invariably lies in the activating idea and not in character drama.
Amis has coined the phrase "idea as hero" which sums it up. The ideas are often
fascinating, but so bizarre as to sustain conviction only with difficulty over
any extended treatment.
5. These remarks apply largely to the novels too. Characterisation is equally
spare. People are representative, not individual. The ideas are usually nearer
to Earth — in every sense — and nearer to the contemporary human situation.
They are thus capable of fuller treatment in depth. By and large the
differences between the short stories and the novels are also the differences
between the American and British schools of SF. This again helps to limit our
field of useful study.
6. SF writing falls into fairly well—defined genres. At one end is the simple
adventure/thriller, with all the terms appropriately translated. Any adult
interest here lies in the originality of invention and vitality of writing. On
a more adult level this merges into a genre that takes delight in imaginative
invention, in pursuing notions to the farthest reaches of speculation. The
subtlest exponents here are a group of American writers headed by Ray Bradbury,
Kathleen Maclean, Isaac Asimov. In a perhaps crude but often exciting way the
apparatus is used to comment on the Big Things — the relation of consciousness
to cosmos, the nature of religious belief, and like matters. The American writer
Edward B1ish, in "A Case of Conscience", is surpassing here. More pretentiously,
far less ably, the novels of C.S. Lewis likewise use the apparatus of SF in the
service of metaphysical ideas. Then comes the large field of what might be
called the Threat to Mankind, and Cosmic Disaster.
Most of the navels, and most of the British work find their themes here. This
is the broad mid—section of SF writing, that best known to the public and more
or lees identified with SF as such. The best practitioner is John Wyndham.
Exploiting instinctive psychic fears, the literature of Threat and Disaster
has the most compulsive pull and probably indicates the most likely vein for
TV exploitation. All "Quatermass" and "Andromeda" fall squarely into this genre.
Finally, there is a small lively genre of satire, comic or horrific, extrapolating
current social trends and techniques. Again, the practitioners are largely
American.
7. We thought it valuable to try and discover wherein might lie the essential
appeal of SF to TV audiences. So far we have little to go on except
"Quatermass", "Andromeda" and a couple of shows Giles Cooper did for commercial
TV. These all belong to the Threat and Disaster school, the type of plot in
which the whole of mankind is threatened, usually from an "alien" source. There
the threat originates on earth (mad scientists and all that jazz) it is still
cosmic in its reach. This cosmic quality seems inherent in SF; without it, it
would be trivial. Apart from the instinctive pull of such themes, the obvious
appeal of these TV SF essays lies in the ironmongery — the apparatus, the magic
— and in the excitement of the unexpected. "Andromeda", which otherwise seemed
to set itself out to repel, drew its total appeal from exploiting this facet,
we consider. It is interesting to note that with "Andromeda", and even with
"Quatermass" more people watched it than liked it. People aren't all that mad
about SF, but it is compulsive, when properly presented.
WRITTEN DOCUMENT 1962
[Handwritten note: Report by Donald Bull to HSD. Tel. - head of Serial Drama,
television - 1962]
SCIENCE FICTION
1. We have been asked to survey the field of published science fiction, in its
relevance to BBC Television Drama.
2. In the time allotted, we have not been able to make more than a sample dip,
but we have been greatly helped by studies of the field made by Brian Aldiss,
Kingsley Amis, and Edmund Crispin, which give a very good idea of the range,
quality and preoccupations of current SF writing. We have read some useful
anthologies, representative of the best SF practitioners and these, with some
extensive previous reading, have sufficed to give us a fair view of the
subject. Alice Frick has met and spoken with Brian Aldiss, who promises to
make some suggestions for further reading. It remains to be seen whether this
further research will qualify our present tentative conclusions.
3. Several facts stand out a mile. The first is that SF is overwhelmingly
American in bulk. This presumably means that, if we are looking for writers
only, our field is exceptionally narrow, boiling down to a handful of British
writers.
4. SF is largely a short story medium. Inherently, SF ideas are short-winded.
The interest invariably lies in the activating idea and not in character drama.
Amis has coined the phrase "idea as hero" which sums it up. The ideas are often
fascinating, but so bizarre as to sustain conviction only with difficulty over
any extended treatment.
5. These remarks apply largely to the novels too. Characterisation is equally
spare. People are representative, not individual. The ideas are usually nearer
to Earth — in every sense — and nearer to the contemporary human situation.
They are thus capable of fuller treatment in depth. By and large the
differences between the short stories and the novels are also the differences
between the American and British schools of SF. This again helps to limit our
field of useful study.
6. SF writing falls into fairly well—defined genres. At one end is the simple
adventure/thriller, with all the terms appropriately translated. Any adult
interest here lies in the originality of invention and vitality of writing. On
a more adult level this merges into a genre that takes delight in imaginative
invention, in pursuing notions to the farthest reaches of speculation. The
subtlest exponents here are a group of American writers headed by Ray Bradbury,
Kathleen Maclean, Isaac Asimov. In a perhaps crude but often exciting way the
apparatus is used to comment on the Big Things — the relation of consciousness
to cosmos, the nature of religious belief, and like matters. The American writer
Edward B1ish, in "A Case of Conscience", is surpassing here. More pretentiously,
far less ably, the novels of C.S. Lewis likewise use the apparatus of SF in the
service of metaphysical ideas. Then comes the large field of what might be
called the Threat to Mankind, and Cosmic Disaster.
Most of the navels, and most of the British work find their themes here. This
is the broad mid—section of SF writing, that best known to the public and more
or lees identified with SF as such. The best practitioner is John Wyndham.
Exploiting instinctive psychic fears, the literature of Threat and Disaster
has the most compulsive pull and probably indicates the most likely vein for
TV exploitation. All "Quatermass" and "Andromeda" fall squarely into this genre.
Finally, there is a small lively genre of satire, comic or horrific, extrapolating
current social trends and techniques. Again, the practitioners are largely
American.
7. We thought it valuable to try and discover wherein might lie the essential
appeal of SF to TV audiences. So far we have little to go on except
"Quatermass", "Andromeda" and a couple of shows Giles Cooper did for commercial
TV. These all belong to the Threat and Disaster school, the type of plot in
which the whole of mankind is threatened, usually from an "alien" source. There
the threat originates on earth (mad scientists and all that jazz) it is still
cosmic in its reach. This cosmic quality seems inherent in SF; without it, it
would be trivial. Apart from the instinctive pull of such themes, the obvious
appeal of these TV SF essays lies in the ironmongery — the apparatus, the magic
— and in the excitement of the unexpected. "Andromeda", which otherwise seemed
to set itself out to repel, drew its total appeal from exploiting this facet,
we consider. It is interesting to note that with "Andromeda", and even with
"Quatermass" more people watched it than liked it. People aren't all that mad
about SF, but it is compulsive, when properly presented.