The reason why critics like Doctor Who more than fans do

[Allyn Gibson]

Story is the apple, plot is the arrow through it. Plot is a sequence of events as revealed to the reader, but story is all the stuff in and around that.

http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2013/09/17/25-things-you-should-know-about-worldbuilding/

I think Moffat is good at writing plot, but he doesn't know how to write a story. In military parlance, story is strategy and plot is tactics. There are very few people who are good at both. Usually, a person is good at one, and lousy with the other.

I think it's the other way around; Moffat has a good sense of story, but he's lousy at plot.

Moffat effective at emotion, but he's not effective at grounding the emotion solidly enough in the plot to earn getting there. Hence, Moffat's Doctor Who often feels like a series of scenes in search of a plot.

I also think Moffat's era as a whole would've been more effective had he adopted an American writer's room approach, where the overarching season plot and the individual episodes are broken to within an inch of their lives and then farmed out to the writers.

 

[MacLeod]

I wouldn't say that this has been a great season, nor would I say it has been a bad season. For me it's had a few moments that I really enjoyed and some I didn't enjoy, but this is DW after all at that's part and parcel of the changing nature of the show. Sure I like Clara but I think her story arc was more geared towards Matt Smiths Doctor than Capaldi's, perhaps it's time for a change of companion or addign one to the mix after all the Doctro has travelled with more than one companion in the past.

 

[Captaindemotion]

Respectfully, I have to say that the original post is totally flawed at best. As has been pointed out, the series has gotten a generally pretty positive response overall. The OP seems to have difficulty in accepting that some people genuinely like what he genuinely doesn't. This does not mean that their taste is better than his or vice-versa. Simply that they have differing tastes.

 

[Lonemagpie]

So it's been pretty bad these last few seasons. An episode comes out, lots of fans like it but more fans don't

I'd say most fans do like it, but just enjoy it and then get on with the rest of their evening - but the minority who don't like it waste more time saying so instead of getting on with whatever's next.

 

[Lakenheath 72]

Well, the fans are keeping the show in the top three, right behind Strictly Come Dancing and The X-Factor. 5.46 million (23.3%) of the total television audience watched the show. SCD had 9.3 million viewers and TXF had something like 7 million.

http://doctorwhocult.com/ratings/doctor-death-in-heaven-overnight-uk-ratings/

Looking at the ratings, Doctor Who is staying stable with approximately 5 million people watching the show every week.

 

[Mr Awe]

The OP exagerates the situation. By and large, fans, casual viewers, and critics have enjoyed the last few seasons. Ratings and AI figures are stable. Polls on this BBS show that most of us like most of the episodes. Etc.

Personally, I've enjoyed all of new Who. I do think the current season is the weakest of the new series, but I'm a fan of Moffat generally, and like Capaldi and Coleman. There's just been several really bad episodes this season, include the finale. All seasons have a subpar story or two, but several this year were really, really below average. As was Time of the Doctor immediately before this season.

But, the majority of episodes I really enjoyed and overall the latest season was a worthwhile addition.

Mr Awe

 

[Mr Awe]

I think it's pretty obvious to anyone who has followed the show since 2005 that the majority of the acclaim today for Doctor Who is built largely on the Eccleston/Tennant years laying the groundwork for it.

I would definitely add in the Smith years as well. The only reason we can't add in the Capaldi year is because there hasn't been the time to develop a historical perspective yet.

I mean, certainly Series 5 was well received as well and had something to do with it,

In my opinion, series 5 was the strongest year for new Who.

Also: With the notable exception of "The Day of the Doctor," everything since the end of Series 5 has been hit or miss and entirely lacking in consistent quality.

Doctor Who has always been hit or miss. Misses like The Long Game (although I personally like it), Love and Monsters, Fear Her, Daleks in Manhattan, etc. I could go on. But, there have always been both hits and misses in all seasons. It didn't start after series 5. You're fooling yourself if you think otherwise.

Mr Awe

 

[doubleohfive]

I think it's pretty obvious to anyone who has followed the show since 2005 that the majority of the acclaim today for Doctor Who is built largely on the Eccleston/Tennant years laying the groundwork for it.

I would definitely add in the Smith years as well. The only reason we can't add in the Capaldi year is because there hasn't been the time to develop a historical perspective yet.

I wouldn't. I'm not discounting the quality of Smith's performance; certainly just like Capaldi he did the best with what he had to work with. But the real onslaught of praise and acclaim in the mainstream really started during the Matt Smith years (Series 6 was when I started to notice it here). None of which would be possible had the show not already slowly been building its reputation and audience for the previous five seasons.

I mean, certainly Series 5 was well received as well and had something to do with it,

In my opinion, series 5 was the strongest year for new Who.

I'd agree that it's been the strongest under Moffat's tenure. But Series 4 with Donna easily eclipses it for me. Your mileage may vary.

Also: With the notable exception of "The Day of the Doctor," everything since the end of Series 5 has been hit or miss and entirely lacking in consistent quality.

Doctor Who has always been hit or miss. Misses like The Long Game (although I personally like it), Love and Monsters, Fear Her, Daleks in Manhattan, etc. I could go on. But, there have always been both hits and misses in all seasons. It didn't start after series 5. You're fooling yourself if you think otherwise.

Mr Awe

I'm not concerning myself with the original run of the show as that was a completely different kind of series.

I found Series 1-4 of nuWho to be largely and consistently well done. The final series of specials with Tennant were all well done ("Planet of the Dead" is the weakest of them for me) and I've already given my praise for Series 5. Everything afterward though has been hit or miss, sometimes even pointless (Looking at these last two episodes of Series 8) whereas "The Day of the Doctor" was simply magnficent.

To each their own of course.

 

[MacLeod]

Hasn't DW been hit and miss since the 23rd November 1963? And generally speaking all shows are hit and miss. Though ideally you want a better hit ratio.

 

[Ithekro]

When did the show start to have a massively wider general audiance? It seems like the BBC started pushing for places like BCC America only around series 5 and 6.

I know it had outlets before (PBS for example), but when did Doctor Who become something mainstream outside of the UK?

 

[Allyn Gibson]

When did the show start to have a massively wider general audiance? It seems like the BBC started pushing for places like BCC America only around series 5 and 6.

I know it had outlets before (PBS for example), but when did Doctor Who become something mainstream outside of the UK?

BBC America had a lot to do with it. When they acquired the show after SyFy dropped it, they put a lot of effort and money into promoting the series to the US genre audience. BBC America saw a way to crack the American market, and they did.

 

[Captaindemotion]

^ SyFy must be kicking itself

 

[Doctorwhovian]

Did the classic series receive much critical acclaim during it's run? I know there were people against it like Michael Grade and Mary Whitehouse (although for different reasons), but they weren't exactly critics.


I seem to recall from some of the DVD docs that the Troughton era wasn't as well received as it is today.

 

[Ithekro]

Troughton era ratings seem to be quite low. I'm wondering if that had to do more with people liking Hartnell more, or if the stories seemed worse to the viewers at that time. We had a disadvantage as a lot of those stories are missing. From the audio and stills they seem fine.

Or was it a case that the BBC was just falling behind the advancments in technology? The rating went back up once it was Pertwee and the show was in color.

 

[Mr Awe]

I think it's pretty obvious to anyone who has followed the show since 2005 that the majority of the acclaim today for Doctor Who is built largely on the Eccleston/Tennant years laying the groundwork for it.

I would definitely add in the Smith years as well. The only reason we can't add in the Capaldi year is because there hasn't been the time to develop a historical perspective yet.

I wouldn't. I'm not discounting the quality of Smith's performance; certainly just like Capaldi he did the best with what he had to work with. But the real onslaught of praise and acclaim in the mainstream really started during the Matt Smith years (Series 6 was when I started to notice it here). None of which would be possible had the show not already slowly been building its reputation and audience for the previous five seasons.

I'm sure some would say that was thanks, in part, to Matt Smith!

I'd agree that it's been the strongest under Moffat's tenure. But Series 4 with Donna easily eclipses it for me. Your mileage may vary.

I enjoyed that season greatly as well and Donna was my favorite companion of the RTD years. So, definitely agree that was a high quality time!

Also: With the notable exception of "The Day of the Doctor," everything since the end of Series 5 has been hit or miss and entirely lacking in consistent quality.

Doctor Who has always been hit or miss. Misses like The Long Game (although I personally like it), Love and Monsters, Fear Her, Daleks in Manhattan, etc. I could go on. But, there have always been both hits and misses in all seasons. It didn't start after series 5.

I'm not concerning myself with the original run of the show as that was a completely different kind of series.

Me either as I was listing episodes that were misses from "nuWho." Of course, it's all subjective.

I'd say that the current season had an usually high number of misses, and they were further below par than the usual miss. I think it's the weakest season of the new DW. I suspect you agree with that part. However, I don't find that to be true with Moffat's other seasons.

Mr Awe

 

[Mr Light]

I guess I'm in the minority, I thought S5 was full of bad episodes. Vampires of Venice. Amy's Choice. Hungry Earth. Cold Blood. And "The Big Bang" was vastly disappointing (looking back, it's a typical Moffat season ender). The only truly great episodes that season were the Angels two parter and Pandorica Opens.

 

[Stevil2001]

Series 8 was my favorite series since Moffat took over.

Of course, I'm just saying that because I've been bought out by the Conspiracy of People Who Like Doctor Who More than You Do.

 

[Lakenheath 72]

The new Doctor Who was from its inception made for an international audience. This is why the episodes run for 45 minutes.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

^ SyFy must be kicking itself

From what I read BBC America gets "right of first refusal" to air the program and when they got a new head honcho he made it top priority to get it back.

 

[The Doctor]

As with any fandom, it's impossible to distill all the various factions into one coherent point-of-view. My own view of the show is that it got significantly more polished and watchable under Moffat and the two years with Matt Smith, Karan Gillan, Arthur Darvill and Alex Kingston are probably my favourite episodes of nuWho. The split year between Amy/Rory and Clara was something of a mess.

I'm still not sold on Capaldi's Doctor but there have been some good episodes this season. Unfortunately, they were let down by a terrible finale. I look forward to Capaldi's Doctor with a new companion, if only to shake things up a bit. Clara has been great this season but there's something missing in the show's dynamic.