Sunday, June 01, 2008

It's stuff like this that gets geeks a bad name.

6 comments:

Louise H said...

I don't think I've learned much more about Stephen Moffat from that, but I certainly know a lot more about Lawrence Miles.

Garry G said...

We've learned that Mr Miles is a bitter and twisted twat. Saying that I really don't care if Moffat's a bit of a dick as long as he continues to write good television and I'm sure that the viewing public would agree if they were aware of this stuff.

clarrie said...

I'm not really sure what I'm supposed to be railing against here, to be honest, Andrew?

While Lawrence Miles might not be the most pleasant person in the world most of that post is either his personal interpretation of episodes or (toned down slightly to account for the light paranoia caused by Miles drinking and anxiety disorder) a fairly accurate picture of Dr Who semi-pro fandom (in particular during the late nineties/turn of the century). Which while it was full of very talented - often individually very pleasant - people, really *was* adolescent, cliquey and horrible a lot of the time and did tend to bring out the worst in people.

Maybe I'm missing something important in my reading, but this just strikes me as an unnecessarily high-handed and judgemental response. Sorry.

Andrew Stevens said...

I have been known to absolutely eviscerate Mad Larry on Outpost Gallifrey, but for that post? I've got to side with Clarrie. What are we supposed to think is so terrible here?

One of the interesting things about the post is that Miles spends a lot of time explaining why he dislikes Steven Moffat and you can see exactly where he's coming from (especially if you've seen enough Steven Moffat interviews) and still believe that Steven Moffat isn't at all a terrible person. It reminds me of Doctor Who fans complaining about Jon Pertwee's Doctor being rude and patronizing, while completely ignoring his considerable charm, warmth, and compassion. I agree with all of Mr. Miles's criticisms of Moffat; I've said most of them myself. What he's missing is merely Mr. Moffat's considerable good side (which includes his considerable charm, wit, and self-deprecating humor).

nickpheas said...

It does take a particular level of monomania to turn out 5900 words only four hours after the end of the episode.

Then again, he might have written quite a lot of it beforehand.

Anonymous said...

It's kinda funny how Miles used to wail and rage about how sci-fi and cult TV fans were scum when 1) these were the only people who bought and read his pretentious bady-written fanfiction(just cause its published doesn't mean it ain't fanfiction, and really wanky fanfiction at that) and 2) Miles himself is the textbook example of the self-important, socially-retarded greasy fat nerd who never grew up