Neverwhere was a 1996* BBC mini-series written by Neil Gaiman and Lenny Henry. Then Gaiman wrote a novel
based on the mini-series. Later, DC Vertigo published a 9-issue comic adaptation of the novel. (Which I confess to not yet having read, as I'm not
.
 | Well, it starts with this guy:
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Richard
(Gary Bakewell) | "My name's Richard Mayhew, and I'm in securities. London? Yeah, it's all right. I've lived here for a couple of years now. I don't get lost in the Underground anymore. Let's see, I like curry and I collect those wee plastic troll things. Dislikes: heights. Hate heights. I dunno, the usual things I s'pose. Rats, blood, all that. Describe myself? Normal. Boring. Good laugh. ........ Is that okay?"
[~from the mini-series introduction]
Richard's twenty-something, moved to London from Scotland. Engaged to a socialite named Jessica, who thinks he's "the perfect matrimonial accessory" - until a girl comes stumbling out of a brick wall to land on the pavement in front of them, battered and bleeding, and Richard refuses to leave her to go to Jessica's important business dinner. Scratch one engagement.
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Door
(Laura Fraser) | This girl. *waves*
In the canon version, Door didn't come falling out into the sixth floor of Fandom High's dorm, and she didn't wake up in the Fandom Town clinic, but in Richard Mayhew's flat, incredibly well-healed for the state she was in the night before. The first thing she asks him is "Whose barony is this? Whose fiefdom?" She's a little perturbed to be told she's Newton Mansions, Little Comden Street - or as she says when she peers out the window at the liquor store below, London Above.
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Croup & Vandemar
(Hywel Bennett/
Clive Russell) |
There's not a lot of time to explain that, though, because shortly thereafter, there's a knock at the door. Lower-case d. These lovely gentlemen are Mr. Croup (that's the little one with the disturbing mustache and the large vocabulary) and Mr. Vandemar (that's the big one with the raven-skull rings who looks like he could eat your mother for breakfast. He probably did.) They're looking for a girl. Called Door. Funny that.
They don't find her, because she's mysteriously vanished from the apartment - until they've left, whereupon she reappears from the bathroom and says she was there all along.
She then proceeds to call for help - by sending a pigeon, getting a reply via rat (both of which she seems to be able to communicate with), and then sending Richard to fetch said help.
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de Carabas
(Paterson Joseph) |
He's called the Marquis de Carabas. He's really really hot gayer than a treeful of monkeys on nitrous oxide - whoops, wrong novel possessed of the awesomest leather coat ever "a little bit dodgy like rats are a little bit covered in fur" and he owes Door's father a favor. Door says she'll owe him a big one, though, if he helps her out.
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Old Bailey
(Trevor Peacock) |
De Carabas tells Richard that Door's family has remarkable recuperative powers - so it's a wonder someone managed to kill them all. Then he leads Richard back to his own apartment by way of a rooftop encounter with an odd pigeon-keeper called Old Bailey, and takes off with Door. They're out of Richard's life forever, and he can go back to his normal boring existence.
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London Below | Except not. Because when Richard wakes up the next day, his phone doesn't work. Which somehow doesn't stop him from receiving a call from Misters Croup and Vandemar threatening his life and liver. He goes out and people don't notice him unless he shouts at them, and even then they don't remember who he is. The bank machine won't acknowledge his existence. He's become a non-person.
A homeless guy asks him for some money, seems to see him, and Richard raves enough about how he's trying to find Door that the man is willing to lead him down where she went. To the London that's beneath London, and a little sideways, where the people who fall through the cracks go. London Below, where the Velvets suck out your warmth (not entirely not dirty) if they catch you alone, the trains go to stations that no longer exist, and when they tell you to mind the Gap, they mean it. Things live in the Gap.
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| So that's the deal - Door is trying to find out who hired Croup and Vandemar to kill her family -- who, like her, were Openers, with the magical trick of opening locks and making doors. Richard's trying to find her again, and get his life back. De Carabas is trying to pay off one favor and keep himself on the winning side of the ledger by earning another. |
Lord Portico
(Michael Culver) |
Door and de Carabas find her father's recorded journal, with a message - his dying one - telling her to go to Islington. The Angel Islington, who Door had always thought was just a legend, but no, he's real, and he's a real angel. |
Hunter
(Tanya Moodie) | Along the way they meet up with Richard again and hire a bodyguard, Hunter. She's a legendary fighter and killer of beasts, and she's come back to London Below after years away in the Underside of other cities, to hunt the Great Beast of London, who lives in a maze and menaces those who cross Knight's Bridge without protection.
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The Angel Islington
(Peter Capaldi) | Islington, when they find him, tells Door and Richard that it's possible to do everything they need -- find Door's answers, get Richard home -- but it'll take the help of a mystical key (JOSS WHEDON YOU GIANT COPYCAT) to do it. He sends them off to find it, with de Carabas off on his own quest for information, and Croup and Vandemar still in pursuit.
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| And that's where I stop and tell you to go find the book, DVD, or pre-order the graphic novel (which comes out in February) rather than me spoiling you on the twists or the ending. (The novel is also available as an e-book if you don't have the patience to wait for shipping or the cash to waste on it.)
Further links if you would like to spoil yourself:
Neverwhere at wikipedia
The Very Small But Quite Significant Neverwhere Page
Other Neverwhere characters who've appeared in Fandom:
Misters Croup and Vandemar were former residents of Fandom Town, providing services of a dubious nature at ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif) _the_old_firm. Door doesn't know that yet. She's not going to take it well. (I'd like to control when she does find out, though, so I'd ask as a favor that if your character was here back then, please check with me OOC before dropping that information to her.)
favouredmarquis is FH!Door's version of de Carabas, ably portrayed in guest appearances by our own sogothcally, (and former Croup & Vandemar) who may have has some Neverwhere resources of his own to add to the list!
A couple thoughts on the fandom from an RP point of view:
The great thing about it is that there's a setting full of potential for action and a rich cast of existing characters who are all canonical snarkers in some way. The frustrating thing is that despite having three different formats, the action still only covers a few days in all of them. Which is great for being able to search quickly for the answer to a canon-based question, but bad for actually... finding said answer, sometimes. The limits of Door's power are wishywashy, working or failing at the speed of the plot, and the magic system in general is similar, leaving the player of a Neverwhere character often walking a tightrope between avoiding Mary-Sue-ism, and underplaying powers and abilities that should be taken advantage of.
___
[*1996: The mini-series was made then, but aside from the tech level of the phones and fashion-cues and the like, there's nothing that actually ties it to that date in the text. For convenience' sake I've made Door's time be present-time, therefore.]
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Questions, comments, free pizza? Fire away. (...except don't fire the pizza because it's cruel to waste good pizza on throwing it at me.)
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notajar) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
fandomhigh_ooc2007-01-07 05:14 pm
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For those who have enjoyed Neverwhere, I link to a few things.
A, the Yuletide Fic written for yours truly: The Seven Habits of Highly Effective (If Somewhat Unnecessarily Violent) Assassins (http://yuletidetreasure.org/archive/27/theseven.html). It's brilliant, and has been recced up and down the Yuletide comm.
B, Neverwhere icons! (http://squishcreations.livejournal.com/tag/neverwhere), over on my fic/icon journal.
Misters Croup and Vandemar would like it known that they are very looking forward to seeing dear little Doreen again.
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*sends them cookies*
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Would snickerdoodles made by an angel be made from angels?
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*hates*
*is torn between wibble and hate*
*IS NOT NAMED DOREEN, DAMMIT*
Hate: *wins*
*asks Jane for loan of gun*
Hey, you'd probably grow your heads back, but you'd have a devil of a time getting round without them in the meanwhile.
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Though you are all person-shaped and stuff, and the Neverwhere key is a real key-shaped key.
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*eyes To Be Read bookshelf and sighs*
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And a bit more unrelated, but related Gaiman love for Mirrormask.
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Yes'm.
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