1. The alien = fairies question dawned on me when I read Enchanted Glass by Diana Wynne Jones. The kid is being stalked by the Unseelie fey, and some kids who see them call them aliens, because they’re tall and thin with a bit round head and oval eyes. Which freaked me out, because fairies were always abducting people the way aliens do today. (Demons! They haven’t even changed their lie, only the word people call them!)
     
    Anyway, I agree about science fiction and fairytales. Steven Moffat, head writer of Doctor Who right now, says that he wants to make it more fairytale and less science fiction. And it’s been lovely and magical.

    • Galadriel says:

      Even more than that, what does Eleven say to the sleeping Amy Pond in the season five finale:
      We’re all stories in the end. Just make it a good one, eh? Cause it was, you know. It was the best. 
      And earlier in the season, when River warns the Doctor about the Pandorica, he laughs and says “That’s a fairy tale”
      River’s answer? “Aren’t we all?”  That’s one reason Matt Smith’s seasons have been my favorite of NuWho: because he takes the best elements of fairy tales and sets them in scifi, giving them a new richness.

  2. I’d never thought of the fairy/alien connection. Very interesting! And the use of a ladder as “technology.” What an interesting observation. Makes me think there is a boatload of story ideas within the less well-known fairytales.

    Also, Donita Paul’s last book has some similarities to the Wolfe story you looked at, Jeff. Makes me wonder if she in fact did take some inspiration either from his story or from the fairytales which influenced him.

    Becky

  3. Joanna says:

    Hey — I think all of the NuWho have been fairy tales — Ten was every bit as fairy tale-ish as Eleven — the Doctor finally starts admitting it as Eleven.
     
    And for that matter — the whole flying-through-space-and-time-in-a-blue-wooden-box thing has been a fairy tale from the beginning.

What do you think?