Who Ever Imagined?

 
I don't suppose what follows is much use except as an exploration of how a writer's brain works.  How this writer's brain works, at least.

I have mentioned before that I listen to a lot of podcasts from the BBC.  They occasionally do radio episodes of the TV show Doctor Who.  (If you are not all familiar with the show I have prepared a brief primer in the sidebar.)

Why go audio with a video show?  For one thing audio is a helluvalot cheaper.  (Compare the cost of building an alien courtroom to the cost of having an actor say "Gosh, this seems to be an alien courtroom.") But it also allows actors who have "aged out" of their parts  to return.  Fans can visualize what they looked like many years ago.

Some Doctor Who episodes involve actual events in Earth's history (I don't know how many explanations we have seen there for the destruction of the dinosaurs).  A few years ago there was a nice one about Rosa Parks.  Of course there had to be a science fiction element - in this case a space-bigot who wanted to prevent the Civil Rights movement.  I noticed the show runners were very careful to avoid suggesting the Doctor and companions had influenced Parks' actions (They didn't want anyone saying: "It was actually White British aliens running things all along!")

So, one day I was listening to yet another BBC podcast, this one about history and I thought "Hey, that would make the perfect setting for a Doctor Who episode!"  So I started figuring out the premise.

And then for the next two days as I pedaled around town on my PlotCycle(tm) I figured out how the science fiction element fit in.  Finally I had it perfect!

And then what?

Then nothing.  Because I have never written a radio drama, have no connections with the BBC, and I don't write fan fiction.

All of which I knew when I first had the idea.  But I still had to prove to myself that I could work the whole thing out, because that's how a writer's mind works.  At least this writer's mind.

Now, back to a project I can possibly sell.