Memories of Rachel Talalay’s talk at Sherlocked 2018, as they come to me
I had the delight of attending Rachel Talalay’s presentation on the deleted “Six Thatchers” transitions while sitting next to @fffinnagain, whose reporting on the event can be found here. I elected to take no notes at all, all weekend, so I could just absorb in the moment. But as things come back to me, I will post them here.
My favorite thing is RT telling us about one of her favorite quotes from working with Steven Moffat. For a Doctor Who episode she was directing, he asked her to create something spectacular and implausible (”and you’re always being told, ‘There’s no money, there’s no money’”), and she was trying to talk to him about just how she was expected to make this implausible thing work, because physics. And budget.
And he said to her, “The logic is flexible, but the poetry is immutable.”
In her extremely reasonable way, she looked at the audience and said, “I mean, who talks like that?”
My heart was bursting with mirth and identification. Um, me? I love that, yes, of course, that’s what he does, he finds the emotional truth of it and that’s what makes everything work, etc. etc. etc...
After the event, @fffinnagain -- who, in case you don’t know, is an accomplished supergeek in music and science and math and tech -- mentioned that quote from Moffat.
“Ah, yes!” I said happily. “What was it? Hmm...” [affectionate dreamy smile] “The poetry is immutable!”
Finn said, “That was PART of it. The FIRST part of it went, ‘The logic is flexible.’”
I am still not finished laughing over the fact that I forgot the part that was pertinent to Finn. The part in which Moffat leaves all the figuring and labor up to the director and, as Finn noted, indicated how much he didn’t care, heh.
I said at least as a piece of communication, it’s extremely clear. You know exactly what’s expected of you after that!
Anyway, I now think of that quote as the two-person Halloween costume that @fffinnagain and I could put together someday. Finn going as “The logic is flexible,” with clenched teeth and an outraged expression on their face, while I go as “the poetry is immutable,” smiling spacily with happy clouds floating over my head while I walk into things and hum.
