Moffat: The Whole Rotten Saga

[TommyR01D]

We are approaching the tenth anniversary of Journey's End - a decade since we experienced a full series that didn't have Steven Moffat as showrunner. Now that he has stepped down, we can look back on his eight-year tenure which totals, by my reckoning, eighty-four episodes across series 5-10.

What where the highs? What were the lows? What were the middle bits? This is essentially a rank & rate thread, but also a chance to comment on the characteristics of his era as a whole.

Geronimo!

 

[Emperor-Tiberius]

I think his best scripts were sadly before he became a showrunner. The Empty Child and Blink are still top tiers.

But he undeniably had his moments. I'm glad he run the show when he did, and that he strengthened the bond between Old and NuWho both via the show itself and the viral marketing of it. I do wish he'd have left with Matt Smith, though.

 

[David cgc]

Personally, while they both had tiresome, bullshitty habits, Moffat's aligned much closer to my own than RTD's (ooh, look, someone's immediate family! I wonder if they'll get along!), so on balance, I enjoyed his section of the series quite a bit more than the first four seasons. I often felt like it was in dialogue with the RTD years, and where RTD would raise incisive issues that deconstructed Doctor Who qua Doctor Who to the core and then moved on with a shrug and a "Yeah, probably," (the best example probably being Davros accusing the Doctor of corrupting innocent people into doing his dirty work for him in "Journey's End"), while Moffat would go through the same criticisms and bother to repudiate them ("The Day of the Doctor" and "Death in Heaven"). RTD would ask if the Doctor was worse than the monsters he found, but Moffat actually bothered to say, "No, don't be silly," and a lingering sense that your lead is a destructive, myopic anti-hero the world would be better off without isn't a great look for a story that, at it's best, is "about the triumph of intellect and romance over brute force and cynicism."

That being said, I strongly suspect that in the years to come, it'll become easy to consider the RTD/Moffat years as one big era that has far more similarities than differences, and aspects we see currently as being part of doing Doctor Who in the 21st century will prove to be more specific to them after we've seen what Chibnall and his successors do with the show.

 

[Emperor-Tiberius]

Moffat's main weakness was with speeches. The Doctor always had them, but with the Moff, poor Matt Smith and especially Peter Capaldi had to struggle with them. He often wrote long-winded, empty-air diatribes about the Doctor's supposed capability for wrath, when he clearly was a pussycat throughout those eight years. So they're one part of his that wears tiresome in repeat.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

I know everyone praises the anti-war speech in the Zygon two-parter; I've seen friends talk about it on social media as one of Doctor Who's finest moments. For me, it's a good speech, but what keeps it from greatness is that it's twice as long as it needs to be.

In the Smith era, the only speech that didn't work for me was the Pandorica speech, because nothing about that sounded natural. (There's a video of Sylvester McCoy reading it at a convention, and it doesn't work in his voice.) Speeches fit Smith; he's the long-winded professor and he could play them in an understated way, and it would come out sounding natural. Capaldi was, frankly, too brash to handle those long-winded diatribes (which makes it ironic that he's the one who becomes the college professor). Less, for Capaldi, would have been more.

 

[Qonundrum]

The sex jokes got to be much, but the Angels and Monks (from series 10) were pretty darn amazing.

Capaldi is easily his best Doctor, though Smith's first year was put together very nicely as well.

Series 9, 6, and 7 were his worst. Series 10 and 5 were easily his best. 8 was not the best, but it contains two all-time classics... But Capaldi made almost even the nadir of it all watchable. Series 9, though, what a mess... 10 was a major improvement. He and Pearl Mackie were phenomenal and fun, even if the scripts sometimes wavered.

 

[The Wormhole]

Moffat's main weakness was with speeches. The Doctor always had them, but with the Moff, poor Matt Smith and especially Peter Capaldi had to struggle with them. He often wrote long-winded, empty-air diatribes about the Doctor's supposed capability for wrath, when he clearly was a pussycat throughout those eight years. So they're one part of his that wears tiresome in repeat.

The Moffat Monologues got really bad when Clara joined the show. Just look at Name of the Doctor, for example where she spends two and a half minutes talking about going into the Doctor's timestream before doing that. And then, more infamously, there was Face the Raven in which the Raven apparently was gracious enough to let her deliver a long winded monologue before killing her. Hell, all three season finales for Capaldi's run have climaxes which are basically just monologues being delivered, and indeed Twice Upon a Time has Capaldi rant on and on just prior to his regeneration.

Honestly, someone should have reminded Moffat television is a visual medium. Which means it works better to see people doing things rather than talk about doing things.

 

[Emperor-Tiberius]

Even Six's regeneration scene in The Brink of Death doesn't have nearly as much monologuing in it, compared to Twelfth. And it made sense to Six because he didn't expect to die that day, it was totally sudden.

Heck, even 11's long speech in Time of the Doctor makes a lot of sense because he's about to change and he wants to make Clara feel comfortable about the change.

 

[Steve Roby]

I'd just like to see a few seasons where it would never occur to anyone to have the Doctor pull that "I'm the Doctor. You know who I am. Basically, run." kind of stuff. Just have a Doctor who roams around and everyone doesn't actually know who (s)he is.

 

[Green Lantern]

Funny enough I'm going through NuWho and re-watching them at the moment, so I'll hopefully have a clearer perspective on Moffat after that (although I don't have Series 6-10 minus Day of the Doctor on DVD, so I'll either need to shell out for that or call it a day). From memory though, Series 5 was meh, nowhere near as good as the RTD era but still somewhat competent in places I guess? Series 6 was a definite low point, and from memory easily the worst NuWho series of all and possibly the worst series in all Doctor Who, certainly a contender anyway. Series 7, part 1 anyway was still fairly bad, to my mind especially by part 2 things picked up a tiny but, but seeing as it came straight after series 6 anything would look like an improvement. Day of the Doctor up until that point was the highlight of the Moffat era and probably stands as the Smith era's best piece (mostly due to the other two Doctors though), and Time of the Doctor managed to bitterly disappoint once again. Series 8 was a stark improvement, actually began to enjoy the show again as opposed to moaning about everything in it constantly. Series 9 whilst having some good moments also had some worse moments than series 8, I guess it was less consistent generally, mostly due to the lows lasting longer thanks to them being mostly two-parters but the highs also lasting longer due to that. Overall another okay one, I struggle to decide where it stands compared with series 8 though. Characterization was better in 8 I guess... Series 10 meanwhile is almost certainly the Moffat-Era's highlight, he went out on a bang I reckon. One of my favourite series to memory, if nothing else definitely the best Moffat series (re-watching series 2 which was previously my least favourite RTD series, that being better than I remembered it puts how high series 10 ranks with me in jeopardy, we'll have to see where everything lies after I finish). So yeah in conclusion, started off meh to okay in hindsight with 5 (will need to seriously watch and re-evaluate), went extremely downhill in series 6, plodded along mostly for series 7, picked up in series 8 and reached its high point in series 10. That year break Moff took from Doctor Who seems to have really paid off.

 

[kirk55555]

For me, series 5 and 6 are (so far) the pinnacle of NuWho, and Series 8 is probably the worst season, while the Zygon 2 parter in series 9 is the worst story in NuWho. When Moffat was good he was spectacular, better then RTD. When he was bad he was intolerable. RTD was probably more consistently good, while Moffat had both higher highs and lower lows. Not that RTD didn't have some astonishing lows (Love & Monsters and Fear Her).

Moffatt had the best companions in NuWho (Amy and Rory, Bill) and supporting characters (River Song, paternoster gang, Nardole, the Master). But, he also had the worst supporting companion in the franchise (Clara) and one or two really bad supporting characters (Osgood). Really, Moffat put in two and a half good to spectacular seasons, but 7B was when everything started going downhill. He should have left with Matt Smith, honestly. As it is, he did some great stuff, but I'll always remember the bad with the great.

 

[M.A.C.O.]

Series 5 and 6 were solid for me. Series 7, 8 and 9 were a load of bollocks. The taste in my mouth was so bad, I still haven't watched Series 10. This with the year and a half hiatus from the end of Series 9, to Series 10. X(

Can't deal with it.

 

[FredH]

I know everyone praises the anti-war speech in the Zygon two-parter; I've seen friends talk about it on social media as one of Doctor Who's finest moments. For me, it's a good speech, but what keeps it from greatness is that it's twice as long as it needs to be.

A tangent, I suppose: It's a decent speech, but I don't buy for a second that the Zygon Osama bin Laden would suddenly turn around and agree with it when she's been busily committing the very horrors it warns about.

 

[Jedman67]

I just watched Twice Upon a Time after skipping 9-10 (except christmas). I think Capaldi got a bit too wild as the Doctor, towards the end, and having "Hartnell" as his companion was pretty slick (but a little too much "im an old man from last century" business).
David Bradley was exceptional as William Hartnell's First Doctor, both in the christmas special and the earlier An Adventure in Space and Time.
As far as Moffat; he was at his best creating single stories and short arcs; complicated mythologies and cumbersome speeches most certainly dragged down the show. In my opinion, S5 and S6 were the best for Matt Smith, and S8 was Capaldi's best.

 

[Starkers]

Series 5 and 6 were solid for me. Series 7, 8 and 9 were a load of bollocks. The taste in my mouth was so bad, I still haven't watched Series 10. This with the year and a half hiatus from the end of Series 9, to Series 10. X(

Can't deal with it.

Whilst not perfect, 10 is Capaldi's best season for me.

 

[Burning Hearts of Qo'nos]

I felt like a lot of Moffat's era was a waste of talent and time. There are a few gems, but overall at least half of it was meh at best. I absolutely hated how much time he wasted on the Paternoster gang. I was not a fan of them at all, and every episode featuring them felt like he was trying so hard to convince me that they were great, when they were not. As if I had missed an entire series of great development that awarded them legendary status in the world of Doctor Who. I loved all his real companions, but each one suffered from ridiculous storylines and convoluted twists. As an individual writer, Moffat is THE MAN. But as a showrunner... he just felt messy and as time went on, the show just felt like it believed it was way more clever than it really was.

What I liked about RTD was how he embraced campiness and soap opera drama. Stories were simple and fun. That era felt like it didn't take itself too seriously, but still provided serious moments. Moffat's era took itself WAY too seriously, when serving up a lot of ludicrous nonsense. When Matt Smith actually yells, 'And the clock strikes 12!!!!' I knew I officially had enough of Moffat. Capaldi gave some great performances in a lot of hit or miss Moffat stories. I foolishly thought that series 10 was correcting itself from the Moffatness of Moffat, but only to be given that damn pyramid trilogy which pretty much highlights everything wrong with the Moffat era. I felt blessed at the end of Twice Upon a Christmas when I was like, "Well that was really, really, okay!"

 

[Allyn Gibson]

Whilst not perfect, 10 is Capaldi's best season for me.

It wasn't what I wanted (after "The Pilot," what I really wanted was an entire year of the Doctor teaching at St. Cedd's... err, St. Luke's), but Series 10 was probably the most... what's the word I want here...? traditional season Moffat produced. He wasn't screwing around with form. He wasn't trying to build up his own mythology. He could (generally) get down to the basic template -- Doctor, companion(s), adventure -- and run with it.

 

[Mr Awe]

Whilst not perfect, 10 is Capaldi's best season for me.

I definitely agree with that as well. Also, Bill was an inspired choice for the new companion. Season 5 was probably Moffat's best as showrunner. I think his best stories were before he ran the show.

 

[The Wormhole]

Moffat's best material was definitely before he took over. Just prior to Christmas, in preparation for the Era of the Moff coming to a close I decided to sit and re-watch The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances. And wow, that was simply amazing, even over a decade later it still holds up. Sure, today one can find many of Moffat's tropes all over it, but even after eight years of Moffat's writing, that story still feels fresh and fun.

I think part of the problem might be the fact that Moffat, if left to his own devices would probably write a significantly shorter season and have it be as lean and to the point as possible. After all, it genuinely feels like he gets much more done in a season of three 90 minute episodes of Sherlock than he gets done in a dozen or so 45 minute episodes of Doctor Who. I kind of wonder, had he done say six episodes a year of Doctor Who with episodes split between himself, and two other writers, could the show have been of better quality?

I absolutely hated how much time he wasted on the Paternoster gang.

Five episodes were spent on them. Five out of eighty-four episodes Moffat was producer of really isn't that much.

Series 10 was probably the most... what's the word I want here...? traditional season Moffat produced. He wasn't screwing around with form. He wasn't trying to build up his own mythology.

Absolutely. From season 6 to 9 Moffat had a weird fixation with trying to reinvent Doctor Who's wheel and the suffered from it. Season 10 was more or less back to basics and it certainly was all the better for it. Plus, the season had a really great TARDIS team, Capaldi was at the top of his game with his Doctor performance, Bill was a great character, and Nardole was a really entertaining comic relief sidekick.

 

[Burning Hearts of Qo'nos]

Five episodes were spent on them. Five out of eighty-four episodes Moffat was producer of really isn't that much.

This is absolutely true. I guess I just didn't care for them to such a degree that I felt like they were always popping up. I was very glad they hadn't appeared again after Deep Breath. When I heard they were talking about spinning them off to their own series, I was thinking, 'Does the whole world besides me just love these fools?'