Interview: Mick Lewis

Interview with the author of Combat Rock.

I hear that you spent some time with real cannibal tribes before writing about them for Combat Rock. What did you learn from the experience?

What I learned is difficult to describe. I don't think I've come to terms with it completely even now after four years. To see men and women living at the absolute opposite spectrum of existence to yourself. Forty metre-high tree houses blasted by lightening and rainforest downpours. Living off jungle animals, bananas and yes, each other. When they showed me their bone shrine deep in a jungle glade, it really was the furthermost point of my entire journey, and the most extreme moment of my life. When one of the tribesmen put an arrow to his bow and pointed it at me as I stood next to the tree stuffed with human bones, I was sure I was going to die. But I was so exhausted and blasted by Larium I hardly cared.

They showed me how they killed, and then, fearing this new missionary-borne God, they lied: and it was a big and very important lie. They told me they had stopped eating men five years before. A subsequent visit to the same region proved otherwise. This entire adventure has put everything else in my life into perspective.

Combat Rock seems more than a little anti-female. Why was that? Is that an attitude you encountered a lot during your travels?

Combat Rock anti-female????!!!! ROOOARRR!!! Anyone coming away with that perception really hasn't read it carefully enough. That would be confusing the mercenaries and cannibals' viewpoints with that of the author.

The Dogs are low, whoring, vicious beasts; the cannibals are acting according to their own culture. I think there's an absolute celebration of women in CR, whether its through the feisty, no-nonsense characters of Santi and Wina who are more than capable of kicking any man's ass in the book, or through Victoria's bravery.

The copious use of the word þwhore' may be troublesome for some people; not for me. Clown is the conscience of the book (to a point!) and I'm sure he parries the psychotic misogyny of Pan. Whores... Hmmm. I based some of the characters on real Indonesian prostitues, and I have absolutely no hesitation in describing them as some of the warmest, funniest, and most open-minded people I've ever met.

A good friend (a Dayak from Borneo) has recently been forced into prostitution by woeful circumstances so I know how dismal life can be for them. I also know how some of them thrive on the life, and choose the marks they want to þuse' for the night. As Pan would say: þWhores: Bless þem!'

What was your experience of writing for the Second Doctor?

Writing for the second Doctor was fun, because he is my favourite. Having such a wonderful actor as a basis certainly made me spend more time trying to get his mannerisms right. I just hope I succeeded in capturing some of his complexity. He was certainly the Doctor with the most shadings, and always struck me as teetering between childishness and genius with a definite sinister aspect for good measure.

Did you make a conscious decision to involve the Doctor and his companions more in this one? One frequently made comment about Rags seemed to be that the Third Doctor and Jo weren't in it enough.

The Doctor and his companions are more in this one because the story allowed them to be. I wasn't trying to shut them out of Rags, but sometimes other stuff was going on that really didn't need them to be in it. The nature of the story dictated it, and I didn't want to force them in where they weren't welcome.

We heard that the violence in Combat Rock was toned down a little from your original submission. Which gruesome bits got chopped (as it were)

What was cut? A suggested rape of the barman's daughter in Jayapul, which had Justin applying the taste brakes. We cut away before Pan becomes too loathsome. The impalement of the Indoni soldiers was shortened. (Though, like a naughty schoolboy I sneaked an extra line back in on the second proofs! Sshh... don't tell Justin. Various bits of grue, and a few þf**ks' here and there. Pan saying þF**k me!' when he finally sees the Krallik, and Santi's signature phrase of þHey, f**k you, man.'

Justin slapped an X certificate on it, basically, and wanted me to turn in a PG -13 equivalent. I'm not sure he got that in the end!! But is it more violent than Rags? It's different. Let's look at it in animal terms. I see Rags as a snarling, rending wolf, while Combat Rock is more of a slinking Komodo Dragon, lurking in the bushes waiting to lunge and drag you down. Or something like that.

How do you gauge how far you should go when it comes to gore?

How far [to go] with the gore? I see gore as my equivalent of a punk riff. It scores the action. It adds rhythm and energy. Blood and semen are the punctuation of my books. I don't use gore just for the sake of it - it articulates the rage. Others will disagree. Let them.

What feedback get you get from your first novel, Rags? How did it affect your approach to Combat Rock?

The fans turned me into a pariah! Wonderful. Rags became the Never Mind the Bollocks of the Who range. Who can be disappointed with a reaction like that? People were objecting to a character having an erection.

They said þIck' and they said (note the especially annoying Californian version) þeuu!' They said it was the only book they'd ever sent back to the shops. What could I do but laugh. It was a very amusing time.

Of course there were those who got what I was trying to do, and posted reviews to tell others and I'd like to thank them for their appreciation. But did the vilification affect my approach to Combat Rock? Not a bit of it. I write what I want to write. If you don't like it, well thank you for your £5.99 anyway and move along...

What made you want to become a writer?

What made me become a writer? The contents of my head. Needed an outlet. So it was all about letting the devils out of my head and soul, I suppose. Write or pick up a chainsaw maybe...

Any particular actors in mind for the characters when you wrote Combat Rock?

Actors? No. Real people. Pan has a little of me in him, and Wina has a little of her. Santi has a hell of a lot of Santi!

If you could regenerate the Doctor, what kind of character would you turn him into?

Regenerate? I'd bring him back as a whorin', drinkin' b*****d. One of the Wild Bunch with a sort of conscience, but you're never too sure. That or bring her back as a prostitute. Doctor Whore? Am I being glib? Yeah, but imagine the possibilities...

What do you find are the strengths and limitations of Doctor Who in print at the moment? What are the untapped areas that writers should be exploring further?

Untapped areas? Well taste and limitations really shouldn't come into it, as readers of Rags and Combat Rock will doubtless be aware. The mind's a jungle: there are many beasts of expression waiting to leap or slither from the steaming dark. Don't be afraid of the dark. Write what you feel. Don't be afraid of going too far.

• Mick Lewis
  

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