BritTrack Goes Inside the BBC

The British sci-fi media (Brit) track is full of goodies on Doctor Who and its spinoffs, Monty Python, Being Human, and more. On Friday afternoon, writer Louis John Robinson helped demystify the Goliath behind all of these programs at “Inside the BBC.”

Robinson’s advice to aspiring writers was sobering: “If you have a great idea,” he said, “do not give it to the BBC.” He estimated that 100 unsolicited scripts per day enter their submission process, and just about none of them get made without an actor or producer attached. The BBC itself he described as a collection of “mini-empires fighting amongst themselves”; as the world’s oldest broadcast organization, it’s nearly impossible to navigate. Robinson’s own strategy should resonate with speculative fiction fans everywhere – “if the system’s too big,” he declared, “subvert the system.”

Author of the article

Nivair H. Gabriel has whiled away her twenty-four years of life on Earth as a writer, feminist, engineer, photographer, and fangirl. She is a graduate of the Odyssey Writing Workshop and has contributed to io9.com, Fantasy Magazine, Pittsburgh Magazine, MIT's The Tech, and the Hugo Award-winning Weird Tales. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Aerospace Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and lives in Boston, Massachusetts, where she works as a technical writer by day and sometimes sleeps by night. She believes that the existence of Jon Stewart is proof of God's love for humankind. This is her fourth Dragon*Con.