Have you been watching my tweets and Facebook updates? If so, you may have seen some of the AMAZING progress made in the campaign to complete and launch an unfinished project by one of my heroes from childhood – Gerry Anderson. At the time of writing this, the wonderful Anderson fans have pledged £15,659 towards our target of £24,350.
In preparing to write GEMINI FORCE ONE, I had to do a lot of thinking. Not just about the plot but about how I, as a completely new writer to the project, would find my way into it. I’m not Gerry Anderson, after all. Even with the notes, audio fragments and chapters he’d left while working on the project in the last years of his life, it’s not the same as being able to talk to Gerry in person.
Before I could agree to take on the project, I had to know two things: something about Gerry’s inner reason for writing these stories. And to understand how they worked from the inside.
With the first thing: a writer doesn’t always know WHY they write about something. But talking to Gerry’s son Jamie, we were able to find reasons, from things that Gerry has said, and from things that have happened in his life, which may well be behind his particular fascination with the ‘formula’ behind so many of his TV shows.
(No I’m not going to tell you what we decided! That’s all part of the mysterious process by which we create!)
On the second issue, understanding how these stories work from the inside, I started to think about the parallels with my own work. A question I’m often asked is about my own influences. I make some guesses, but the truth is that a lifetime of influences go into a story. So with Joshua Files I may be conscious of trying to channel INDIANA JONES, JAMES BOND, THE BOURNE IDENTITY. But that’s not all that goes into the pot. You probably need to go earlier and younger into my set of influences.
When I sat down to think about it, there were many eerie similarities with THUNDERBIRDS and THE JOSHUA FILES. Things that no-one – including me – had spotted until now.
And I’m not the only one who owes a debt to Gerry Anderson…
