In addition to trying to build a writing career, I do have dream writing jobs.  These are the kinds of gigs that I would sell a kidney for.  I have two real biggies.

First, I’d kill to write for Doctor Who.  I’ve been watching the show since I was two.  The show has spurred my imagination so many times.  The great thing about the Doctor, beyond being a great character, is the scope for the stories.  The canvas is limitless.  The Doctor can travel to any place, any time, and any when.  That’s writing heaven!

Now that the show is in its 43rd year, like Star Trek and Star Wars, it’s a multi-media industry, not just a show.  There are official books, audio stories, radio plays, short story anthologies and Marvel used to have comic book version.  I’ll write for the Doctor.  I don’t care in which venue–books, TV, plays, on the thin end of a grain of rice as long as I’m involved.  It really would be a dream come true.  Just the idea of it makes me fizz. 

I was watching a behind the scenes DVD from the last season.  They were interviewing one of the writers, comedian, Mark Gatiss, about writing for the show.  He expressed the same feelings as me about being given the opportunity.  He admitted that he shed a couple of tears when he saw his show being made.  I know I’d be blubbling like a little girl if I was in his shoes. 

Batman is my other dream gig.  I still love comic books and I’d love to be given a crack at writing one, but a Batman comic strip would be the dream ticket.  I’d get to be the Dark Knight.  No longer would I have to be content with running around the house with my underpants on the outside of my clothes and a bath towel tied around my neck, screaming out at Julie, “I’m Batman.  Stay away from me, Poison Ivy!”  Finally, I’d get to make Batman do what I’d always wanted him to do.  Gotham City would sleep pretty well under my watch.  Again, like Doctor Who, Batman is an industry.  Only recently, I came across a new Batman novel by John Shirley and moaned that no one had sought out this Boy Wonder to write one.

While it would be super, mega, cool to write an original Doctor Who or Batman tale in whatever format someone cared to throw at me, it would be frightening.  This wouldn’t be a light-hearted undertaking.  With great power comes great responsibility and I would be very responsible.  Both assignments come with a bucket load of pressure.  Doctor Who comes with over forty years of mythology and Batman with over sixty.  Fans have expectations.  I owe respect to Doctor Who’s creator Terry Nation and Batman’s creator, Bob Kane.  Not to mention all the legions of writers commissioned to take over from them down the years.  A wrong step from me would be sacrilege!  So I know the agony and ecstasy of the situation and I’m prepared to take it on.

All I’m waiting for is the BBC and DC Comics to give me a call.

Operators are standing by…

Yours waiting for the Bat sign,
Simon Wood