In Praise of the Paternoster Gang

Vastra, Jenny and Strax probably deserve their own stories.  I think some really short seasons, six stories at about 45 minutes each, would be perfect.  Pitch it at three seasons and go from the beginning to the end of their particular stories, it could be fantastic.

While Vastra and Jenny have a lot going for them, they're a tiny bit box-ticky cliche and it would be really interesting to see what other writers could do with a Great Detective and her Battle Butler.  It would be particularly fun to watch their romance develop.

My particular hero at the moment is Strax.  For all sorts of reasons, Strax is currently my favourite character on TV.  Here are the main ones:

He's Not Human!
Not even a little bit.  Strax doesn't want to be human, doesn't admire humans, isn't being forced to admit that humans have any redeeming qualities or features, isn't observing the human condition from the outside and doesn't care that these things are not taking place.  He's a Sontaran.  He's perfectly happy being a Sontaran.  This comes over in the lines he's given, because Strax is intent on applying the perfectly normal standards of his race to the world he's forced to be a part of.  The result is that he's a one Sontaran fish out of water comedy, even though the character himself (cloneself?) doesn't give time to the notion that he might be out of place.

This, for me, is so refreshing.  Science fiction shows made by Americans seem to need to explain and humanise their aliens, but Strax shows that aliens can be entirely foreign without being completely inexplicable.  I wish more aliens were written this way, because they should be largely incomprehensible.

He's Kid Friendly!
In the Q&A session he did, which is up on YouTube, Strax handles himself exceptionally well without once breaking character or talking down to the audience.  This is a little bit of fried awesome on the part of the actor.  However, Strax has a very uncluttered view of the world and this means that the kids in the audience know what to expect of him.  Yes, OK, given the opportunity to size a problem up Strax will want to shoot it to bits and then throw grenades at it.  This is good news for people who like to have a bit of reliability in their lives.  Strax even has heroic qualities to him - in his own terms, he's completely reliable and although he might enjoy the combat and the shooting and the, yes, killing, it's entirely possible that a kid might find that comforting.  After all, Strax is on our side.

And he's also a bit of a kid himself.  After all, he's nearly 12.

He's Played Straight
Strax is funny because he doesn't behave the way people should behave.  We don't suggest acid filled trenches as a solution to anything (although I might start).  We don't honestly think a frontal assault is a good idea (although it would have solved a lot of problems in his recent outing).  And he's not mugging at the camera and playing things for laughs.  Stick to that principle and you have the modern equivalent of Jimmy from the Reggie Perrin series.

I Know Him
Well, sort of.  I don't know any Sontarans, and I don't know the actor.  But I'm a tabletop RPGer and I've played games with people who play just like Strax.  Heck, I've been Strax on a couple of occasions because there is nothing more fun, from time to time, in trying to solve all of your complex and multilayered problems with as many hideous weapons as you can fit in a gym bag.  As a wise man once said: "Subtlety be damned, I'm for the direct approach!".

It is incredibly relaxing to abandon your morals, principles, the rule of law and the human condition and just blow shit up.  As long as you're doing it through the medium of a roleplaying game, and not actually killing people.  Killing people is wrong.

And this is sort of worrying for Doctor Who.  The character I recognise as being most like someone I know is a Sontaran.  Oh well.  Can't have everything*.










*They confiscated my cerebrotropic mines and all of my slicepistols, for example.