Moffatt and his vision.....

[Ubik]

There's something about Moffat's recent "epic" two-parters (the end of last season and the beginning of this season) that has me wondering about the direction of the series. It feels like it has something to do with pacing issues, or it might be characterization issues....but that seems so surface, and I can't help but feel there's something underneath, something fundamental, that's bothering me....except I can't figure out what it is. It's been there since the beginning of last season, but it appears most obviously in these would-be epics. But like I said, I'm not sure what it is that's bothering me. Maybe someone here can help me.

For some reason, I find myself actually not caring during most of these episodes. Now, I've been watching Doctor Who faithfully all my life, and I love the show going back to the Hartnell years. I don't care for Pertwee much (except his glorious first season), but I enjoy the Tom Baker years and love much of Davison. And, I loved most of the Russell Davies years too.

My point is, I have no problem with change. I've embraced the show in most of its different guises over four decades. But somehow, since Moffat has taken over, I can't help but feel that something basic has altered, and it's putting me off, somehow, and I can't articulate to myself what's missing.

I think Matt Smith is great. He has the acting chops and the potential to be among the best Doctors. But then, why is he doing the "running around and speaking too fast" thing that Tennant had turned into an annoying cliche? Why won't he slow down and think for a minute? Why won't the show slow down and allow us to think with him?

I thought Moffat's episodes during Davies' years were the best episodes - Blink and Girl in the Fireplace were masterpieces of emotionally compelling sci-fi, balancing both clever time travel shenanigans with empathetic characterization, and a wonderful sense of pacing. Really great stuff. There were some heavy themes going on there too, which is always appreciated.

So where's that balance? Why have time travel shenanigans become the main course? Where's the pacing? Where are the themes? Where's the sense of characterization? (Realize how much well-rounded a character Sally Sparrow is, from one episode, than any of the current leads of the show.)

It's something abstract, I think - I'm honestly not sure what it is that's preventing me from really getting engaged, but ultimately, that's the result - somehow, I don't care about what I'm seeing, and maybe that's because none of it feels "real" like it used to. Davies made the Doctor and his adventures feel more real than the show had felt since the Hartnell years, but now, for some reason, Doctor Who feels to me like a Scooby Doo episode, mixed with Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. It doesn't feel real. It doesn't feel like there are real stakes, or that these are real people, undergoing real problems. Why is that? Why doesn't it feel real? Even the Tardis doesn't feel like a real place anymore. It feels so wacky, so self-consciously crazy, so off-putting - where am I supposed to ground myself? Alice has to feel like a real little girl if we're going to get involved in her adventures in Wonderland, no?

If there's anyone here who feels like I do, maybe you have a better idea of why we feel this way. 'Cause honestly, I don't have a clue.

 

[Shatnertage]

I'm torn, because I really like the show and love Smith as the Doctor, but I'm having a hard time following it right now. Maybe it's because of the pacing...I don't know.

While I was watching TIA and DotM, I was enthralled--absolutely riveted, and couldn't get enough.

When I thought about the episodes later (espeically DotM), I didn't like them quite as much.

I, too, don't know exactly why that is, and I'll have to see how the episodes hold up to another repeat viewing a few months from now.

 

[RevdKathy]

Well, I can't claim quite your pedigree, since I was forbidden to watch until the Pertwee years (Mother believing it would be too scary for me ) But I think I've seen everything since (and played catch-up with a few older stories, too).

And I think you've admirably summed up how I feel.

I made some suggestions in the comment on DotM that it may be because there are simply too many questions left hanging, or too many places where I'm left to fill in the blanks or so much left uncertain about the characters that I emotionally dis-invest for self-protection.

I will watch a few more episodes. But like you, I'm finding it hard to care. This reviewer got a lot of flak, but said exactly the same thing.

 

[Brent]

Like you, there is something that I just can't put my finger on. I've never felt this certain way about Doctor Who before. RTD had his shenanigans, making the Doctor Godlike and such, but even during all that I didn't feel the way I do right now after watching DW under Moffat, but i can't put my finger on it. Pacing? Too much clutter? No coherency? Not enough story telling? I have no idea, maybe all of it combined. I just have this weird feeling like I'm having to work at watching Doctor Who, its not as "fun" as it was. This premier really set me off on a bad start for this season. I do hope it gets better, and maybe this feeling will go away over time. I guess we will see.

 

[Ubik]

Well, I can't claim quite your pedigree, since I was forbidden to watch until the Pertwee years (Mother believing it would be too scary for me ) But I think I've seen everything since (and played catch-up with a few older stories, too).

And I think you've admirably summed up how I feel.

I made some suggestions in the comment on DotM that it may be because there are simply too many questions left hanging, or too many places where I'm left to fill in the blanks or so much left uncertain about the characters that I emotionally dis-invest for self-protection.

I will watch a few more episodes. But like you, I'm finding it hard to care. This reviewer got a lot of flak, but said exactly the same thing.

You mention dis-investing with the characters, and yes, I think you've hit on something. I think, for the first time in the series, (and I mean the series going back to the sixties), I feel distant from everyone travelling in the Tardis, including the Doctor. In the Hartnell years, I identified with Ian and Barbara. After that, for almost every period of the show, I identified with the Doctor (as I was meant to.) In the Davies years, I was able to identify with both the Doctor and his companions.

But now, for some reason, I feel like I'm watching home videos of someone I've never met. The Doctor is not my friend - he's too aloof. And his companions, who are otherwise supposed to be my entry point into the show, are so hazy and vague - I'm never clear where we are with them on a timeline, or where they are emotionally, or whether I've just missed days, weeks, or even months of their lives. I'm rarely clear on what their knowledge or motivations are from any one moment to the next; I'm rarely sure why they're doing what they're doing, or what they've experienced before, or what they hope to accomplish; I feel like that information is deliberately being kept from me, as a viewer, and I don't know why, for what purpose. And with no sense of continuity, and so many unknowns about them, I feel like they're strangers to me. And if the Doctor is too aloof, and the human companions are equally out of my reach, how am I supposed to care about what's happening to them?

Maybe that's a large part of it.

 

[Ubik]

Like you, there is something that I just can't put my finger on. I've never felt this certain way about Doctor Who before. RTD had his shenanigans, making the Doctor Godlike and such, but even during all that I didn't feel the way I do right now after watching DW under Moffat, but i can't put my finger on it. Pacing? Too much clutter? No coherency? Not enough story telling? I have no idea, maybe all of it combined. I just have this weird feeling like I'm having to work at watching Doctor Who, its not as "fun" as it was. This premier really set me off on a bad start for this season. I do hope it gets better, and maybe this feeling will go away over time. I guess we will see.

Exactly! It's frustrating not knowing what's bothering you, isn't it? It's the weirdest feeling, this odd distancing effect.....

 

[Phily B]

I've watched it twice now and I find more and more plotholes but will they be resolved? because there were -a lot-.

The regeneration scene at the end was out of no where and didn't seem to link much with the rest of the episode. I think it would've been a fantastic two parter if the silence had only been on Earth for a 100 years rather than millions (while doing nothing), and take out the horribly pointless death of the doctor stuff.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

I'm getting that feeling myself after these first two, I'm hoping it goes away in the next few episodes. I mean I loved last series, one or two faults but I think it's my favourite of the new series, but it feels like it's being far too clever for it's own good in the last couple of episodes.

 

[Sindatur]

I've watched it twice now and I find more and more plotholes but will they be resolved? because there were -a lot-.

The regeneration scene at the end was out of no where and didn't seem to link much with the rest of the episode. I think it would've been a fantastic two parter if the silence had only been on Earth for a 100 years rather than millions (while doing nothing), and take out the horribly pointless death of the doctor stuff.

Some theorize, the little girl in the Space suit is the one who killed the Doctor. When I saw the Impossible Astronaut the second time, it felt very much like it was intentional to get the Doctor to regenerate, so that essence could be shared with the executor. If this is so, it wouldn't neccessarilly be out of the blue that the little girl regenerated.

Some theorize that the little girl could be River and the Doctor's child (or some anomaly created by the Tardis for Timey-Wimey-ness). Again if this turns out to be true, the little girl regenerating doesn't come out of the blue.

I've watched every Classic Who episode, except the more recently recovered Hartnell and most of Troughton. I adore the Classic Series, and always have since I used to watch on PBS in the 80s (and 90s?). However, I can't imagine watching a 4 or 6 part story Live, only getting 1 episode a week. Talk about no plot advancement each week. I think that would be really difficult for me to get through.

IMHO, any arc'd story (Dr. Who or otherwise) is always better when you can watch a marathon of several episodes at a time. I find myself connecting with the Characters just fine, and I ahve faith that the confusion about the plot will clear up as the weeks go by.

 

[StCoop]

I'm glad it's not just me who is feeling this way. Moffat seems to be more interested in creating a puzzle than crafting a series with characters that I can care about. On a purely technical level the series looks and is directed better than it ever was in the RTD-era but the stories themselves aren't engaging me anywhere as much.

And I'm really, really, really getting fed up with him reusing the same few tropes over and over again. In the past two weeks we've had little girl in danger, spooky spacesuit, recording messages you don't remember, random event that will only make sense later on (is Francis Barber going to crop up for five seconds in every episode, I wonder?) plus the usual helping of timey-wimey bollocks.

I'm too invested after over thirty years of watching to stop but I defintely don't feel the same excitement waiting for the next episode to air as I used to.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

Re: Moffat and his vision.....

While I was watching TIA and DotM, I was enthralled--absolutely riveted, and couldn't get enough.

When I thought about the episodes later (espeically DotM), I didn't like them quite as much.

I feel much the same way about "Day of the Moon."

I loved watching it, in the moment. I loved rewatching it. But sitting down and thinking about what I saw, I didn't like it as much. And the more I thought, the less I liked.

It's much like how I enjoyed watching Star Trek: Voyager. As a visceral, popcorn, turn-off-the-brain entertainment, it was great stuff. Scratch the surface, though, and Voyager fell apart like a deflating balloon.

And that's how "The Impossible Astronaut" and "Day of the Moon" felt; the former was late-Braga-esque, and the latter was mid-Braga-esque.

 

[ROBE]

Well I have been watching Doctor Who since Planet of the Spiders and don't see any problem with the current series.
During the 1980s I did see plenty of problems with such "epics" as Twin Dilemma and Time and the Rani.

 

[ROBE]

Have people forgotten the mess Doctor Who was in during the middle to late 80s?

 

[StCoop]

Have people forgotten the mess Doctor Who was in during the middle to late 80s?

I'm not sure how being bad at one point in its history precludes it from being bad now.

 

[OmahaStar]

During the 1980s I did see plenty of problems with such "epics" as Twin Dilemma and Time and the Rani.

Oh, no, he didn't ...

 

[Ubik]

My problems are not with any particular episodes, but the style/tone/approach of the series as a whole. The feelings I have may be even more present during these recent 2-parters, but I'm less interested in criticizing individual episodes than I am in what I perceive to be the current approach to storytelling of the series as a whole.

And I'm not interested in mindless bashing, either. The show is clearly not "bad" - it's well acted, it's well-produced, and it's obviously trying to do something new and interesting.

What's more interesting is trying to figure out, if the entire approach isn't working, if it's making us indifferent, if we're feeling distant and aloof from the action, then what's causing this reaction from us, and what might the show do differently to fix it (without necessarily even losing the new and interesting thing the show is clearly attempting, whatever that may be.)

 

[Starkers]

I'm getting that feeling myself after these first two, I'm hoping it goes away in the next few episodes. I mean I loved last series, one or two faults but I think it's my favourite of the new series, but it feels like it's being far too clever for it's own good in the last couple of episodes.

Yeah unfortunately I agree with that, hoping the next one's a bit more of a romp.

It might just be that we're conditioned to the series opening with more of a fun/brain turned off romp, and this wasn't that.

 

[Shatnertage]

Well I have been watching Doctor Who since Planet of the Spiders and don't see any problem with the current series.
During the 1980s I did see plenty of problems with such "epics" as Twin Dilemma and Time and the Rani.

That's why that's the one era, for the time being at least, I'm not filling any gaps in my original viewing. There's still a few 5/6/7 episodes I haven't seen, but I've found watching the latest crop of 5s to be released so tedious I'm skipping back to 1-4.

 

[Jax]

Moffat is making the show grow up a bit and am all for it, real real complicated threads in one giant story arc. RTD did the same but Moffat is taking it to the next level no doubt.

 

[Newspaper Taxi]

I suppose I could see how a person would feel this way -- but I don't.

The fifth season of NuWho was the best season of Doctor Who I've ever seen -- and one of the most consistantly moving. The end to the fifth season really tore me up; when the Doctor is getting rewound and ends up back in amy's room and decides to walk into the Time Crack. I've only seen half of the season 6 opener but I found the first half to be quite riveting. I guess I'll see how that's resolved before I can say anything more on it.