Post by burrunjor on Aug 9, 2023 12:28:54 GMT
I have mixed feelings on him. I do think that Saward was the worst script editor of the original series, but he was a great writer overall. I loved The Visitation, Earthshock, Resurrection, Attack of the Cybermen and Revelation of the Daleks. He could write, clever, dark action packed stories. (Personally I like my DW to be a bit dark to be honest. Inferno, Genesis, Pyramids of Mars, Remembrance etc.) He should have been a good regular writer for the show, but never put in charge of it for the following reasons.
1/ He didn't like it or the character. That's fine if you're a writer as the nature of Who means you can just come up with a good plot, and then the producer and script editor tidies the script up to fit the show and character. Saward however it seemed like writing sci fi, but hated having to write for a less actiony, more cerebral Doctor. As a result of this he often tended to exclude BOTH of his Doctors from the action as much as he could.
2/ He was honestly very lazy. Sorry but I don't disagree with JNT's policy of looking for new writers. As seen with with the Fitzroy Crowd, we don't want one group to hold sway over the show for too long. I agree thought that it's stupid to rule out any old writers, but even then we only have Saward's word for this remember. When you look at the JNT era, he asked old series writers to come back almost every year.
His first year, a Terrance Dicks script. His third year, first Robert Holmes, then Terrance Dicks for Five Doctors. His fourth year he asked Terry Nation to write the Dalek story, and Robert Holmes the last story, the year after, Robert Holmes again. The year after that Robert Holmes again. Season 25 he asked Terry Nation again. Remember that many other old school writers were dead by the time he took over too. Also Bob Holmes made it clear that he didn't want to write for DW in the early 80s and had to be pressured into coming back.
Furthermore asking the old writers back wasn't always the best thing to do. The Two Doctors for instance I don't think was anywhere near as good as The First Sontarans. Listen to the audio of that, it's brilliant easily the best Sontaran story of all time, even above The Time Warrior. However that wasn't used because it was by a new writer and The Two Doctors was by Bob Holmes.
Honestly I think Saward's desire to use old series writers was more because he didn't have to do much work on the scripts. He even more or less says this in the tribute to Bob Holmes on the Two Doctors. This ironically often meant that their material was actually worse in his time too. Androzani aside, all of Holmes' scripts for the 80s are poor, because Saward clearly in his hero worship of Holmes hadn't dared to question him and tidy them up the way that Terrance Dicks or even Hinchcliff would. Hence we got Holmes throwing in needless scenes of violence, like Oscars death, and his terrible retcons in Two Doctors.
I also think Saward shirked duties on other scripts too like Timelash (you can read this in JNT's biography.) Where its writer complained that Saward hadn't given him feedback for weeks about what to do, hence its unfinished state.
Whilst it might be easy to blame JNT for this, ultimately that is more the script editors duty than the producers. Indeed Saward is the only script edtior in the shows history to not find a new batch of writers for the show. Even Cartmel managed it with people like Ben Aaronovitch and other fresh new talent like Rona Munro and Marc Platt and that was under JNT, so Saward really was the laziest in that regard.
3/ He wasn't assertive enough. Not trying to be macho, but I think that a good script editor, should be a bit more forceful with the producer. Saward however I think just wasn't that kind of person. As is mentioned in the JNT biography, he always bitched about JNT to Colin Baker, but never too him. Others like Nicola Bryant have backed this up.
I also think that this came at the wrong time when JNT was being praised as a great man by the fandom. This meant that Saward wasn't able to criticise the worst excesses of JNT, or hold him back like with the coat, too much continuity etc. You might say no one could have dealt with JNT, but Cartmell did. He and JNT complimented each other brilliantly and held back each others excesses. Again JNT had been a bit more humbled at that point, but still ultimately I think Saward never saying anything to him is part of why JNT got so big headed and self indulgent. When JNT mentions that he was shocked that Saward hated him so much, I honestly don't think he was lying. Sadly I think that betrayal really did stick with JNT and affected him hugely.
All of this coupled with Saward stabbing Colin in the back, which was such an unprofessional thing to do and basically killed his career on television, shows that really becoming script editor was the biggest mistake he and JNT made.
1/ He didn't like it or the character. That's fine if you're a writer as the nature of Who means you can just come up with a good plot, and then the producer and script editor tidies the script up to fit the show and character. Saward however it seemed like writing sci fi, but hated having to write for a less actiony, more cerebral Doctor. As a result of this he often tended to exclude BOTH of his Doctors from the action as much as he could.
2/ He was honestly very lazy. Sorry but I don't disagree with JNT's policy of looking for new writers. As seen with with the Fitzroy Crowd, we don't want one group to hold sway over the show for too long. I agree thought that it's stupid to rule out any old writers, but even then we only have Saward's word for this remember. When you look at the JNT era, he asked old series writers to come back almost every year.
His first year, a Terrance Dicks script. His third year, first Robert Holmes, then Terrance Dicks for Five Doctors. His fourth year he asked Terry Nation to write the Dalek story, and Robert Holmes the last story, the year after, Robert Holmes again. The year after that Robert Holmes again. Season 25 he asked Terry Nation again. Remember that many other old school writers were dead by the time he took over too. Also Bob Holmes made it clear that he didn't want to write for DW in the early 80s and had to be pressured into coming back.
Furthermore asking the old writers back wasn't always the best thing to do. The Two Doctors for instance I don't think was anywhere near as good as The First Sontarans. Listen to the audio of that, it's brilliant easily the best Sontaran story of all time, even above The Time Warrior. However that wasn't used because it was by a new writer and The Two Doctors was by Bob Holmes.
Honestly I think Saward's desire to use old series writers was more because he didn't have to do much work on the scripts. He even more or less says this in the tribute to Bob Holmes on the Two Doctors. This ironically often meant that their material was actually worse in his time too. Androzani aside, all of Holmes' scripts for the 80s are poor, because Saward clearly in his hero worship of Holmes hadn't dared to question him and tidy them up the way that Terrance Dicks or even Hinchcliff would. Hence we got Holmes throwing in needless scenes of violence, like Oscars death, and his terrible retcons in Two Doctors.
I also think Saward shirked duties on other scripts too like Timelash (you can read this in JNT's biography.) Where its writer complained that Saward hadn't given him feedback for weeks about what to do, hence its unfinished state.
Whilst it might be easy to blame JNT for this, ultimately that is more the script editors duty than the producers. Indeed Saward is the only script edtior in the shows history to not find a new batch of writers for the show. Even Cartmel managed it with people like Ben Aaronovitch and other fresh new talent like Rona Munro and Marc Platt and that was under JNT, so Saward really was the laziest in that regard.
3/ He wasn't assertive enough. Not trying to be macho, but I think that a good script editor, should be a bit more forceful with the producer. Saward however I think just wasn't that kind of person. As is mentioned in the JNT biography, he always bitched about JNT to Colin Baker, but never too him. Others like Nicola Bryant have backed this up.
I also think that this came at the wrong time when JNT was being praised as a great man by the fandom. This meant that Saward wasn't able to criticise the worst excesses of JNT, or hold him back like with the coat, too much continuity etc. You might say no one could have dealt with JNT, but Cartmell did. He and JNT complimented each other brilliantly and held back each others excesses. Again JNT had been a bit more humbled at that point, but still ultimately I think Saward never saying anything to him is part of why JNT got so big headed and self indulgent. When JNT mentions that he was shocked that Saward hated him so much, I honestly don't think he was lying. Sadly I think that betrayal really did stick with JNT and affected him hugely.
All of this coupled with Saward stabbing Colin in the back, which was such an unprofessional thing to do and basically killed his career on television, shows that really becoming script editor was the biggest mistake he and JNT made.
