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Wibbly Wobbly Timey Wimey Stuff

Script to Neil Gaiman’s New Doctor Who Episode Gets Left in the Back of a Cab; Rescued by Good Samaritans

by Rebecca Pahle | 11:50 am, November 8th, 2012


First Neil Gaiman almost leaves his hat on an airplane, then he does leave something a bit more sensitive in a cab in Cardiff: The script for his Doctor Who episode.

Editor’s Note: The preceding sentence was based on erroneous information. The script was accidentally left in a taxi by an actress working on the show.

(Which, by the way, we now know is titled The Last Cyberman.)

A picture of the script was posted on Facebook; it was found by a woman who doesn’t watch Doctor Who and says she hasn’t read the script. A friend of hers who goes by the Reddit handle Shrimpdude posted the pic to Reddit, where he and several others tried to figure out how to get it back to the BBC.

Said Shrimpdude:

“Been in touch with various members of the production team (Nerdgasm) and we’ve arranged a return of the script. Thank you everyone that upvoted this post so it got the attention of the BBC. This thread has made my life – I never would have believed I could help out the Doctor Who production team!”

This whole story brings to mind two questions. The first one’s directed to the Doctor Who fans: If you had found this script in the back of a cab, would you have read it?

And, more importantly: When will someone create a Twitter account for the script? @NeilHimselfsHAT (which is still active, by the way) popped up fairly early in the Hat Abandonment Saga; I’m surprised no one’s jumped on this yet. They can be best friends!

(via: MTV Geek!, blastr)

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  • http://twitter.com/TechnoMistress Lisa Liscoumb

    Ooops…

    And yes, as both a DW and a Gaiman fan, I would have read the script.

  • http://twitter.com/mikemcintyre3 Michael

    Yes, I would have read it…Possibly photocopied it…maybe drooled over it…but nothing really dirty…I swear it! Honestly!

  • http://www.facebook.com/john.little.12327 John Little

    I probably would have read it. …but on the other hand, I’m not caught up with the current season anyway and I hate spoilers. …plus it’s just a readthrough draft, quite possibly not even the final product…

    I would’ve read it, but not been happy about myself for doing so. And then I wouldn’t have let anyone else read it.

  • Chris Stehlik

    Neil Gaiman didn’t leave it on a train. (The actress whose watermark on on the title page of the script left it, if people bothered to read)

  • http://www.facebook.com/BSylent Michael Offord

    I hate spoiling stuff for myself, so I would have most likely photocopied it and hidden it away until I got past that episode. THEN of course I would have returned it, on the condition that Neil Gaiman signs my old tattered copy of Good Omens

  • http://twitter.com/jinksb Joan

    I absolutely would have given it back to BBC — after I read it. :-)

  • Adam R. Charpentier

    Ahhh! And they didn’t scan it!?

  • http://technicalluddite.com/ Hannele Kormano

    I’d probably at least flip through it, I gotta admit.

  • http://twitter.com/zenoferic Erica Throne

    I’m a Doctor Who fan and I love spoilers so I would have read it. I’m also a writer and I would have photocopied it for reference later. But I never would have shared it with in the internet, and I would have returned it.

    But, I’m also very happy this person didn’t actually leak it to the internet.

  • http://twitter.com/XandraDust Alexis the Unicorn

    I would probably have photo copied it with out reading it and then sent it back to BBC so I could read the script after/during the show.

  • http://twitter.com/neilhimself Neil Gaiman

    Why on earth would you state that I left this script in the taxi? I wasn’t in the UK at the time, and it’s clearly watermarked with the actress’s name on it. (I’m sure she feels dreadful about it.) Would you mind rewriting the article so it has something to do with things that actually happened?

  • Anonymous

    One: This should be updated because it clearly wasn’t Neil Gaiman who left it.
    Two: I would be very tempted to read it, and I might even have done so, but I would have only done so after getting in touch with the BBC to get it back to them. (As a proud Whovian, I know the value they place on the secrecy!) And then I would have kept that delicious secret to myself and grinned like the cheshire cat until the episode aired, and probably after.

  • Anonymous

    My apologies for the late update to the story! I’ve attempted to correct it based on the facts present in the updated MTV Geek article.

  • http://twitter.com/neilhimself Neil Gaiman

    Thank you.

  • http://thehordeoftravesties.weebly.com/ The Horde of Travesties

    I would read it and keep it…..It’s not like the BBC need it.

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