Yesterday, I made an odd, random little Tweet:
Won’t happen, but I wish Bernard Cornwell would write a Doctor Who/Sharpe novel, preferably starring the eighth Doctor
In truth, the tweet wasn’t that random; my commute read this week has been Cornwell’s Sharpe’s Gold. Nor was it that odd; I like Cornwell’s prose and find it very readable, except for some odd POV things that he occasionally does.
And while I wish that C.S. Forester were alive to write a Doctor Who meets Horatio Hornblower novel — or Patrick O’Brian a Doctor Who meets Jack Aubrey novel — I could be very happy with a novel with the Doctor and Richard Sharpe.
Why the eighth Doctor, though? Ah, that one’s easy.
While it’s Sean Bean that most people think of when they think of Sharpe, assuming they’ve not read the novels, of course, Bean was not the actor originally cast as Sharpe. No, that was Paul McGann, who unfortunately injured himself shortly after filming began. Rather than hold up filming, the role was recast with Bean.
On that level, it would be a neat thing to have McGann in a Sharpe story. 🙂
Preferably without monsters. Doctor who can do the pure historical. Really, it can.
And the book wouldn’t look any more out of place on the shelf than any other Sharpe novel. I think there’s a uniform edition of the novels in the UK, but on this side of the Atlantic there isn’t. The first half of the series (in terms of publication, not chronologically in the series) is published by Penguin, the latter half by Harper, and the books aren’t the same size and look completely different. Of course a Doctor Who Sharpe novel wouldn’t match.
Like I said on Twitter, it’s not going to happen. But I kinda wish it would.
Just as I wish that Peter Tremayne would write a Doctor Who novel, guest-starring Sister Fidelma.
Yeah, that one’s not going to happen, either.