{"id":2554,"date":"2021-08-02T01:01:12","date_gmt":"2021-08-01T23:01:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/?p=1293164"},"modified":"2021-08-02T01:01:12","modified_gmt":"2021-08-01T23:01:12","slug":"line-of-dutys-jed-mercurio-on-creating-gigantic-stakes-in-his-new-graphic-sci-fi-novel-sleeper","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/rss_feed\/line-of-dutys-jed-mercurio-on-creating-gigantic-stakes-in-his-new-graphic-sci-fi-novel-sleeper\/","title":{"rendered":"Line of Duty\u2019s Jed Mercurio on creating \u201cgigantic stakes\u201d in his new graphic sci-fi novel Sleeper"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mercurio has teamed up with co-author Prasanna Puwanarajah and illustrator Coke Navarro to write a space-based story set in the near future. <\/p>

By Eleanor Bley Griffiths\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Monday, 02 August 2021 at 12:00 am<\/p>

\n\n

A few hundred years into the future, the solar system is finally emerging from a devastating climate war \u2013 thanks to the discovery of a seemingly-miraculous new energy source called Titan Green. A \u201cbiologically-enhanced law enforcement marshall\u201d or \u201cSleeper\u201d called DS-5 has just returned from decades in deep space, and has been briefed with this surprising update: \u201cFive years ago, an international project solarformed Saturn, which thawed Titan, to mine a fuel. Titan Green. Makes uranium look like a twiglit fire. End of the carbon war, start of the gold rush.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the set-up for Line of Duty showrunner Mercurio\u2019s new graphic novel, Sleeper, which he\u2019s co-written with Prasanna Puwanarajah (previously seen in Critical, Defending the Guilty, Patrick Melrose, Doctor Foster and more). It\u2019s a story in which our protagonist comes up against powerful political and corporate interests, in a mission that becomes entwined with that of a geologist on the hunt for her missing father, Dr Massoud El-Bushra \u2013 a scientist who may have discovered too much.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was really about creating the gigantic stakes of the story,\u201d Mercurio tells\u00a0RadioTimes.com<\/a>. \u201cBut in order for the conspiracy thriller to work in a way that the present day readership would would recognise as being plausible, it felt like we had to borrow from the corporate world. And the idea that there would be very high value corporate interests in deep space, it felt like that was hugely important to creating a believable reality, or believable context around the story.<\/p>\n

\u201cClearly, energy is something that is going to continue to be of huge importance to to human civilisation for the foreseeable future. You know, it\u2019s hard to imagine a human society that isn\u2019t dependent on energy. And so it just felt like a very straightforward proposal to invoke that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\""Sleeper\"<\/div>\n

On this dystopian vision of future climate wars, Puwanarajah adds: \u201cI just think it\u2019s a question that\u2019s not going anywhere, anytime soon. And I think that underpins so many of our challenges globally, in terms of coastal flooding, resource management, the way that economies function, who\u2019s fighting wars with who\u2026 It sits above and beneath everything. And so it\u2019s the way, in the book, to talk about those things\u2026 I think it has a realistic take on human behaviour as it relates to governments and climates.\u201d<\/p>\n

The novel, which is illustrated by Coke Navarro, sees DS-5 arrive at an International Space Station orbiting around Titan (Saturn\u2019s moon), where he is due to be \u201cdecommissioned\u201d before he gets too old and starts glitching. But just before he is \u201cterminated\u201d (with a gun to the head), a mysterious and deadly explosion sends him crashing down to Titan \u2013 where he automatically deploys on a new and final mission to find out what happened. However, it\u2019s a race against time as his ageing technology begins to fail, and dark human memories resurface from the time before he was transformed into a Sleeper.<\/p>\n

Though the setting and the sci-fi concept are a world away from Line of Duty (quite literally), there are plenty of echoes of Mercurio\u2019s most famous show between the pages of this novel. Because DS-5 wants one thing and one thing only, Ted Hastings-style: to complete his mission and uncover the truth, no matter how inconvenient. On the way, he comes across police officers and powerful figures who have other motives.<\/p>\n

\""Adrian\"<\/div>
Adrian Dunbar as Superintendent Ted Hastings in Line of Duty (BBC)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s something universal about law enforcement stories,\u201d Mercurio tells us. \u201cUsually you have a crime, and most people would want to see justice done. So you immediately create a set of expectations and a set of stakes that the reader is invested in.\u201d<\/p>\n

While law enforcement is definitely Mercurio\u2019s beat, the screenwriter \u2013 who is a former junior doctor \u2013 is also known for medical dramas such as Bodies, Cardiac Arrest and Critical. And given that Puwanarajah also worked as a hospital doctor for three and a half years, you might expect them to team up on something closer to home.<\/p>\n

But Mercurio explains: \u201cWe wanted to do something that felt like it was a thriller, rather than medical fiction. There are elements of medical knowledge in the construction of Sleeper \u2013 the basis of the protagonist being biologically enhanced, for example, that was something that we discussed from a medical viewpoint. But ultimately, we wanted to sort of blend the western with the the science fiction conspiracy thriller.\u201d<\/p>\n

On how the collaboration with Puwanarajah came about, he adds: \u201cI knew that he\u2019d been a doctor, before he got into the arts. And so we had kind of a similar background, and then we just started talking about collaboration\u2026 he was just a new writing voice that I was really excited to work with. And so we started talking about some ideas. And because we both come from a scientific background, when it came to discussing a science fiction idea, it was very productive.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is Puwanarajah\u2019s first novel, but not Mercurio\u2019s. He\u2019s previously written Bodies (2002), which became a TV show, and Ascent (2007), which he abridged for a graphic novel a few years later.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m a big fan of graphic novels,\u201d he tells us. \u201cI think what I really like about them is that they are a combination of the very personal individual experience of reading a novel with the opportunity for the creators to focus the visual imagination down to their own aesthetics. The process of reading a novel is you take the description that\u2019s in the novel, but the imagination of the reader works to create a kind of visual model of the worlds that are being created by the author or authors.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd so the graphic novel allows people who do that repeatedly through screenwriting and television production, to direct the imagination in a particular way. And so that\u2019s why Prasanna and I then collaborated with Coke, and we worked on the visualisation \u2013 because Prasanna\u2019s a director as well as a writer and actor. And so we\u2019re accustomed to visually shaping our work.\u201d<\/p>\n

But, as Puwanarajah reveals, Sleeper actually began life as a potential TV series. He says: \u201cWe started writing scripts. Back and forth, back and forth. We did an outline or kind of show Bible type thing. And then we were talking to studios and channels in LA about doing the show. And we had two options, but we couldn\u2019t get a channel for it. So we just kind of thought, maybe there\u2019s a way of doing it here, and we spoke to some of the channels here. In general, the perception was that it was just too big to make.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd Jed is a novelist, and one of his novels he\u2019s kind of repurposed as a graphic novel. And so he had the brilliant idea to just write it as a book, as a graphic novel series.\u201d<\/p>\n

They then recruited Spanish illustrator Navarro, who tells us: \u201cI did the poster for a play that Prasanna was directing at the Royal Shakespeare Company. So, after we finished the poster, he came to me saying he had to talk to me about this project.\u201d Navarro heard the story, and signed right up: \u201cI\u2019ve been fascinated by space since I was a kid.\u201d<\/p>

Puwanarajah adds: \u201cIf, down the line, it were possible to restart conversations that we were having about it being a piece for television, yeah, we will absolutely be doing that.\u201d But for now, work on the second Sleeper graphic novel is already underway. If it\u2019s a hit, there could be many more.<\/p>\n

So what about doing things the other way around, we ask? What about making a TV drama into a graphic novel? Like, say, Line of Duty\u2026?<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve never been asked that!\u201d says Mercurio. But he doesn\u2019t wholly rule it out: \u201cIf somebody wanted to, then I imagine there would be a way that could happen. But personally, no, I think that the form that it exists in now, as a TV show, feels like the best form it could exist in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sleeper by Jed Mercurio, Prasanna Puwanarajah & Coke Navarro is published on Thursday 5th August (Scribner, \u00a316.99). <\/strong><\/p>\n

Find out all the latest on Line of Duty<\/a> season seven, check out the rest of our Drama<\/a> coverage, or take a look at our TV guide<\/a> to discover what\u2019s on this week.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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