Because RTD is an appallingly bad writer..
No.
Just no.
He has written some appallingly bad stuff, but he has also written some bloody fabulous stuff. Everybody has an off-day, and an outright bad writer could never have managed Casanova, which IMO is still his best work by a long way.
He could have written this generation's Citizen Kane for all I care, but I'm interested in his Doctor Who output, being a Doctor Who fan. His other most noted work, QAF, holds no appeal for me; sounds like some gay Mary Sues having underage sex. As for Casanova, I recall watching one episode of it, but don't remember much. Some people end up incesting near a volcano at the end or something. Can't have made much impression.
But his Doctor Who work is almost completely awful for me. Full of plot holes, deus ex machinae, illogic, and outright stupidity. If you have to switch your brain off to enjoy something (as surely you do with most of his fucking rubbish), then it's not doing it right. Furthermore, turning the character of the Doctor into first a completely unalien and spiteful Manc binman, and then a gurning mockney who boasts about popping cherries and sends his handclone off to nob a thick bimbo chav for the rest of its life is a complete insult to what went before. And surely you didn't watch The Sound of Drums thinking "What a great idea, the Master's had a massive headache all his life despite never having mentioned it or acting like it; wish I'd put that in The Dark Path". The man's worse than a hack, he's a vandal with no respect for the source material or a history far more intricate and brilliant than his total rubbish set on present day Earth every fucking week.
No, RTD's problem is that he's a vastly overstretched/overworked writer. Back in the classic series, they had a separate producer and script editor working together. Now we have one showrunner doing it all (even though there are other producers and exec prods on the show as well), and in RTD's case he was writing more than half the episodes, rewriting the other half, *and* in charge of SJA and Torchwood - just way too much for any one person to do, and the quality suffers as a result.
Moffatt, so far, doesn't seem to be rewriting as much, is writing fewer individual episodes, and isn't running SJA and Torchwood, so he's considerably less overstretched.
If RTD insisted on writing nearly half the season himself, gave out such strict briefs to other writers that sometimes it couldn't help but be shit, and went about rewriting everyone's stories to include a bonus gay reference or snog, then it's his own fault. If his ego couldn't handle not being in charge of every single thing and resulted in his already meagre talents being spread so thin to the point of complete incompetence in every area, then the blame rests entirely with him. I recall back with season 22 that Attack of the Cybermen was written almost entirely by Saward but then put out under a pseudonym because it wouldn't looks good if (along with Revelation) the script editor wrote one third of the whole season himself. What a shame no such qualms existed for 21st century Doctor Who, or maybe more genuinely gifted writers could have been brought in instead of 5 RTD stories a year.
I didn't think RTD wrote Planet of the Dead btw?
Cowritten with the similarly untalented Gareth Roberts.
Nonsense. Roberts is considerably
worse than RTD. The very worst of RTD is better than the very best of Roberts.
It's all much of a muchness to me. I wouldn't be sorry to never see a new story from either of them again. RTD's crimes are greater in my view though, for his complete bastardisation of the show during his time.
Option 1: Yes
Option 2: No
Option 3: It Really Is Time To Move On From This Now
I think you should be grateful and consider yourself indebted to me for bringing up this topic in a new and interesting way, allowing the most interesting and analytical discussion this forum has seen for some time during the usually fallow period we have between the series finale and Christmas special.
Perhaps a poll should gone in as well:
Option 1: Yes
Option 2: No
Option 3: It Really Is Time To Move On From This Now
Can I vote 3 please
You as well.
Can I vote 3 please
Believe it or not, I too hope this is the last thread dedicated to discussing RTD. Love him or hate him, it's time to move on.
And you.
Really though, if we can't discuss the man who held the show in his iron grip for 5 years and has changed the show in a way it may never recover from, all the while being completely polarising in reception, then what can we talk about while it's not on? McCoy's hat?
Like you say RTD wrote/exec produced a heck of a lot of stuff (even without factoring in the rewrites) and yet, going on this thread, the majority of people like more than 50% of them...cripes if people liked more 50% of my writing I'd be chuffed with that!
The man was writing for a flagship BBC show that has a history of being one of the most imaginative and mind-expanding shows about ideas ever. And even among us fans, the most kindly disposed who'd be loathe to criticise it (because we're all scared of it being taken away again), he can only manage a 50% approval rating on the whole? Considering each episode costs about a million quid and the show is responsible for much profit for the BBC, you'd hope for a bit better than that from the people who know about it and aren't the average transient fuckwits who'd probably switch over if Ant and Dec were on the other side. And he's meant to be a professional writer.
Well at the risk of
defending
RTD , I think in the first series everyone involved was still trying to get a handle on exactly what kind of a show they were trying to make, what level to pitch it at. I keep meaning to get his book on writing for Who, not sure if he mentions it or not but I know he has aknowledged misteps before (10.5 as Rose's sex doll for example!)
What's your source for his acknowledging the 10.5 sex doll as a mistake? I've not heard that before. Indeed, it's rare he'd admit any mistake; Confidential every week was a fluff piece with him wittering about how brilliant he is and how it delivers. If he really wanted to admit his mistakes and recompense, he'd make a public apology listing each and every of his stupid decisions with an explanation and apology for each, and then donate every penny he's ever made out of Doctor Who to a charity of Robert Holmes' family's choice.
I know he has aknowledged misteps before (10.5 as Rose's sex doll for example!)
Now, that genuinely improved my opinion of the man right there. Any creator that has the balls and humility to publicly acknowledge his obvious errors is due my respect.
Then you have no reason to have a poor opinion of RTD as a person, since
The Writer's Tale is full of self-criticism about what works and what doesn't work in his stuff.
I'd love to know what he's apologised for in that book. Can you remember any specific examples? As I say, going from every interview or appearance I've ever seen him make, the idea of him admitting a mistake seems completely at odds with what I've seen of the man.
Right, anyway, here's the up to the latest results of our RTD likes:
captcalhoun - 96%
Kelso - 96%
RoJoHen - 96%
Canadave - 92%
Steve Mollmann - 92%
iguana torrone - 88%
Silnet Bob - 88%
Alidar Jarok -84%
Count Zero - 84%
Jax - 84%
Kestrel - 84%
Sci - 84%
Bob the Skutter - 80%
Haggis and tatties - 80%
Pseudo - 80%
McIntee - 80%
Hanukkah Solo - 76%
HappyDayRiot - 76%
Ood Sigma - 76%
VDCNI - 76%
Admiral Young - 72%
Dennis - 72%
mimic - 72%
Saul - 72%
The - 68%
Gep Malakai - 64%
Phily B - 64%
Starkers - 64%
Takeru - 60%
AdmiralGarak - 56%
Bacl - 52%
I am not Spock - 52%
Shatnertage - 52%
Kitty Worrier - 48%
Timby - 44%
Shazam! - 32%
Captain Pike - 28%
Josan - 24%
Bones - 20%
captain crow - 0%
And I've been outhated. I ought to rewatch Smith and Jones, Gridlock, Utopia, Midnight, and Turn Left post haste so I can check whether they're actually rubbish after all.
