On Recent Doctor Who
Jan. 9th, 2014 04:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lenora_roseNow that The Moffat/Matt Smith combination run is over, and after looking back at a couple of episodes in the past while, I think I can come to my final conclusions about the Doctor we were calling eleven (Whatever his actual number be). And I think this is my ultimate judgement.
While I'm looking forward to seeing what Peter Capaldi does with an older looking Doctor, we didn't actually need a new Doctor. We need to get rid of Steven Moffat as head writer.
Moffat is brilliant in short stretches but also has some tics and habits that have hampered his run as Head writer.
You can see them even in his first appearance in the new series: The story the Empty Child starts in Media Res, at rapid pace, and continues the pace wherever possible. It has some stunning visual moments and an undeniably creepy "ordinary thing turned dark" in the child himself. Also, child. Moffat has a thing about children who aren't quite children. It has a "Throw in everything we possibly can and blend" plot. It also has a relatively casual breaking of the rules of time travel -- in this case, it's only "Don't tell anyone what happens in the future" -- but feels odd after the "You can't do that" power and punch of Father's Day.
It also has the people who don't actually just sit down and discuss things which people who truly trusted one another would discuss -- which works fine with a newly introduced character with no reason to trust, but less well when he does it to Amy Pond in her second season, for instance. ("You're fine with going and telling people about a future you're not supposed to discuss but not fine with, 'Um, about your pregnancy? Your bodily autonomy? There's something weird going on...' ").
It even has the confusing as hell to a feminist double whammy that seems to be Moffat's trademark: Create a powerful, interesting, independant, and fascinating female character, then reduce most of her importance to either how she matters to the Doctor or to her relations as Mother or Wife.
It also ends with "Everybody lives!": A rare bright moment of triumph after multiple episodes where victory has come at a cost, be it emotional or physical. Usually, in the Christopher Eccleston season in particular, but also through most of Tennant, the idea that there can be serious costs and deep emotional scars carries through.
But it's a rare episode in Moffat's era that has the same depth of sacrifice. The most memorable tragic ending in the last three seasons is probably Vincent and the Doctor, which was (Surprise) NOT WRITTEN by Moffat (But By Richard Curtis, who hadn't written Doctor Who before but does have an absurdly long list of prior projects to his credit). Similarly for the Gaiman-penned The Doctor's Wife, which gives - then takes away - a chance for the Tardis to speak and breathe and live. Generally, you can pretty much assume that if a companion or one-shot character dies tragically and doesn't have some special "Rescue" at the last moment, it's because it wasn't written by Moffat.
Moffat, instead, will raise the stakes to grandiose and ridiculous levels (They destroy the universe! The Doctor DEFINITELY for reals dies, no regeneration, this time here. Etc.) and somehow magically reset everything without obvious consequence. Saving one man's life in Father's Day" Nearly destroys the world. But sparing the Doctor from his fixed point in time death? Not a peep. Oh, and the "But I can't tell people I'm alive" consequence vanishes in as long as it takes to pen the Christmas Special.
And of course the Christmas Specials. The Christmas Special at least are the obvious PLACE for "everybody lives" brightness.
"Everybody lives!" stopped being a moment of triumph and turned into an Eyeroll. Of COURSE everybody lives. That's what you do.
(Had your baby stolen again? It's okay, we already know how she grows up... never mind that that wouldn't be anything like my reaction.)
Can't we sometimes have a PRICE for all that? One that doesn't go away?
Thing is, given the chance to really focus on one story or two a season, and not on a huge complicated crazy arc, he can write a story that works. The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances worked. Blink worked. And the 50th Anniversary special worked like blazes for me and many others (Even though it has the ultimate in "Everybody lives" implanted into it -- a fact I could easily pardon without every one of Moffat's prior season-enders undermining the rarity and power of "Everybody Lives"). A rapid fire story starting in media res and going through an absurd number of details and loops backward and time tricks and all that can be great... if it isn't the only meal we're served.
Honestly? The only Moffat penned episode I can currently think of that involves a genuine loss that lingers is the Girl in the Fireplace.
And as for his final episode for Matt Smith? This Last Christmas Special? No. Just, no.
Where I can use his start with the Empty Child to exemplify what happens when he does things right, I could as easily pick apart the Time of the Doctor as everything he does wrong encapsulated in one. "Let's throw everything we can at the wall and see what sticks." craziness, "Let's just break the rules of space/time", "Let's introduce an awesome seeming woman who is ALL ABOUT THE DOCTOR not herself", plus "Let's try to tie together ALL MY SEASONS AT ONCE". Et fucking cetera. (I'm also fairly sure that the Davies-era "Regeneration" during Journey's End was meant to Not Count, in big flashing letters. Retroactively saying "Yes it does" is ... awkward?)
I want a new head writer.
While I'm looking forward to seeing what Peter Capaldi does with an older looking Doctor, we didn't actually need a new Doctor. We need to get rid of Steven Moffat as head writer.
Moffat is brilliant in short stretches but also has some tics and habits that have hampered his run as Head writer.
You can see them even in his first appearance in the new series: The story the Empty Child starts in Media Res, at rapid pace, and continues the pace wherever possible. It has some stunning visual moments and an undeniably creepy "ordinary thing turned dark" in the child himself. Also, child. Moffat has a thing about children who aren't quite children. It has a "Throw in everything we possibly can and blend" plot. It also has a relatively casual breaking of the rules of time travel -- in this case, it's only "Don't tell anyone what happens in the future" -- but feels odd after the "You can't do that" power and punch of Father's Day.
It also has the people who don't actually just sit down and discuss things which people who truly trusted one another would discuss -- which works fine with a newly introduced character with no reason to trust, but less well when he does it to Amy Pond in her second season, for instance. ("You're fine with going and telling people about a future you're not supposed to discuss but not fine with, 'Um, about your pregnancy? Your bodily autonomy? There's something weird going on...' ").
It even has the confusing as hell to a feminist double whammy that seems to be Moffat's trademark: Create a powerful, interesting, independant, and fascinating female character, then reduce most of her importance to either how she matters to the Doctor or to her relations as Mother or Wife.
It also ends with "Everybody lives!": A rare bright moment of triumph after multiple episodes where victory has come at a cost, be it emotional or physical. Usually, in the Christopher Eccleston season in particular, but also through most of Tennant, the idea that there can be serious costs and deep emotional scars carries through.
But it's a rare episode in Moffat's era that has the same depth of sacrifice. The most memorable tragic ending in the last three seasons is probably Vincent and the Doctor, which was (Surprise) NOT WRITTEN by Moffat (But By Richard Curtis, who hadn't written Doctor Who before but does have an absurdly long list of prior projects to his credit). Similarly for the Gaiman-penned The Doctor's Wife, which gives - then takes away - a chance for the Tardis to speak and breathe and live. Generally, you can pretty much assume that if a companion or one-shot character dies tragically and doesn't have some special "Rescue" at the last moment, it's because it wasn't written by Moffat.
Moffat, instead, will raise the stakes to grandiose and ridiculous levels (They destroy the universe! The Doctor DEFINITELY for reals dies, no regeneration, this time here. Etc.) and somehow magically reset everything without obvious consequence. Saving one man's life in Father's Day" Nearly destroys the world. But sparing the Doctor from his fixed point in time death? Not a peep. Oh, and the "But I can't tell people I'm alive" consequence vanishes in as long as it takes to pen the Christmas Special.
And of course the Christmas Specials. The Christmas Special at least are the obvious PLACE for "everybody lives" brightness.
"Everybody lives!" stopped being a moment of triumph and turned into an Eyeroll. Of COURSE everybody lives. That's what you do.
(Had your baby stolen again? It's okay, we already know how she grows up... never mind that that wouldn't be anything like my reaction.)
Can't we sometimes have a PRICE for all that? One that doesn't go away?
Thing is, given the chance to really focus on one story or two a season, and not on a huge complicated crazy arc, he can write a story that works. The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances worked. Blink worked. And the 50th Anniversary special worked like blazes for me and many others (Even though it has the ultimate in "Everybody lives" implanted into it -- a fact I could easily pardon without every one of Moffat's prior season-enders undermining the rarity and power of "Everybody Lives"). A rapid fire story starting in media res and going through an absurd number of details and loops backward and time tricks and all that can be great... if it isn't the only meal we're served.
Honestly? The only Moffat penned episode I can currently think of that involves a genuine loss that lingers is the Girl in the Fireplace.
And as for his final episode for Matt Smith? This Last Christmas Special? No. Just, no.
Where I can use his start with the Empty Child to exemplify what happens when he does things right, I could as easily pick apart the Time of the Doctor as everything he does wrong encapsulated in one. "Let's throw everything we can at the wall and see what sticks." craziness, "Let's just break the rules of space/time", "Let's introduce an awesome seeming woman who is ALL ABOUT THE DOCTOR not herself", plus "Let's try to tie together ALL MY SEASONS AT ONCE". Et fucking cetera. (I'm also fairly sure that the Davies-era "Regeneration" during Journey's End was meant to Not Count, in big flashing letters. Retroactively saying "Yes it does" is ... awkward?)
I want a new head writer.
no subject
Date: 2014-02-09 04:28 pm (UTC)I've linked to this post at my blog: http://kathrynmckade.blogspot.com/2014/02/writing-links.html
no subject
Date: 2014-02-09 09:18 pm (UTC)