Rich Morris' Comics - YAFGC and The ComixBlog

Cleverest Name pointed out to me yesterday the Fourth Doctor's line on page 150 (http://comics.shipsinker.com/2008/11/28 ... -page-150/): "What, clones, mutants, androids and blobby things? I don't think any of them count."
If you remember, there was quite a bit of controversy in the comments over whether our dear old Tom Baker would say the line, or whether it could be attributed to the War Chief, or whether it was something that the Sixth or Ninth Doctors could say. It ground to a halt when Rich said that he regretted the line.

Of course, when I come to this point in scripting audio episodes (it's there, somewhere in Episode Seven!), what lines will I pick to replace it?

I came up with three ideas, though I'm open to more. Do roll your suggestions in.

Idea one: The War Chief says The Line. Of course, it would need to be reworked into something more like "Sontaran clone warriors, Dalek mutants, Movellan androids and Rutan ameobae? None of these things count." Then there'd be a strong cut to outside the communications room as the Sontarans are trying to bust that door wide open, so any counter-arguments the Doctors may have will be silenced.

Idea two: The Fourth Doctor says something profound, then cracks wise. This could be used instead of The Line, or maybe after the War Chief's version of it. Something simple like "When war comes, needs must. Anybody for a humbug?" showing his jocular attitude to the concept... and also fore-fore-fore-fore-shadowing the Time War in a rather gruesome way.

Idea three: The Fourth Doctor has a nice little upbeat soliloquy. This could follow the War Chief's Line, instead of idea two, or it could replace the both. I'm thinking along the lines of "It's a choice between a big bunch of military races we don't like and a little defenseless planet we do. And don't we just love an underdog story?"

Any thoughts?

Idea One is good-- maybe we could do a poll?

Done and done.

Or you could ask the author how he would rewrite the line.

Idea one is what I'd do. Though I'd word the WarChief's line differently:

"Sontaran Clones? Dalek Mutants? Movellan Robots? Rutan Ameoboids? -Hmph-
I wouldn't classify any of those as 'actual lives', Doctor."


Remember that I had to keep some of the lines succinct for reasons of text space. In an audio drama one can expand the dialogue a little. And might need to for clarity since there's no facial expressions to judge.
Since it isn't the Doctor talking to himself, it works better to echo the 'actual lives' line in the retort. I try to keep from making perfect Terran analogues when possible, which isn't an unforgivable error in a Doctor Who setting. But amoeboids instead of amoebae because they look LIKE amoebae, they aren't actually amoebae. Not a mistake a Time Lord would make.

Rich, I really like the "actual lives" echo. Sounds very in-character -- which, of course, it should, since you did write the rest of the dialogue. What I mean, though, is that you always have had an ear for dialogue that is true to the original (with a couple of notable exceptions that we won't bring up here ), and that fits right in.

I'm so psyched about this whole project, and am really excited that Rich is so directly involved. Woo-hoo!