Kill Someone, Moffat!
- Thread starter StCoop
- Start date
I think Moffat exists as a karmic balance to Joss Whedon. Otherwise, the universe would despair.
Still, it might be good practice for him to do a story like "Horror of Fang Rock," where the Doctor manages to repel the alien invasion but none of the guest stars survive.
Still, it might be good practice for him to do a story like "Horror of Fang Rock," where the Doctor manages to repel the alien invasion but none of the guest stars survive.
"The Horror of Fang Rock" was an awesome episode!
Frankly, I hadn't realized that Moffat was squeamish about killing people. But didn't the entire crew of the Madame de Pompadour die? OH! But you said onscreen, so that doesn't qualify.
AHA! Moffat also wrote "Silence in the Library", and quite a few people died there! HA! Oh wait, no living on in the Matrix. Hmmm ... but were they still alive? Had they been saved to the Core the way River was, or were they reconstructions? Alright, alright, let's see ... nope, no one dies.
Actually, I think that's a neat quirk. He writes some of the darkest episodes, yet people still survive!
Frankly, I hadn't realized that Moffat was squeamish about killing people. But didn't the entire crew of the Madame de Pompadour die? OH! But you said onscreen, so that doesn't qualify.
AHA! Moffat also wrote "Silence in the Library", and quite a few people died there! HA! Oh wait, no living on in the Matrix. Hmmm ... but were they still alive? Had they been saved to the Core the way River was, or were they reconstructions? Alright, alright, let's see ... nope, no one dies.
Actually, I think that's a neat quirk. He writes some of the darkest episodes, yet people still survive!
The lady Doctor in The Eleventh Hour was killed by Prisoner Zero.
Ah-HA!
And even if they died off-screen, the crew of the Madame de Pompadour sure met a grisly fate. Still, I like the idea of a writer with stories that are engaging but still not necessarily deadly.
The episode is also contradictory about if anyone was killed during the initial outbreak a hundred years prior. The closing message on the face-sculptures seem to indicate that they knew from terrible experience that the shadows were eating people, and 4,022 is a very, very small number of people to be in a planetary library, especially since that counts both staff and patrons. Hell, the Library of Congress has a staff of 3,600, and it could probably fit in just one of those skyscrapers.
On the other hand, Song's team says of the message that 4,022 was the exact number of people in the Library at the time. Unless they meant, "Based on the last message we'd gotten before that, which recorded the loss of several million people within the span of a few minutes, leaving only 4,022 remaining." And there were no bodies around, though that could mean the Vashta Nerada just got hungry enough to eat bone and clothing as well over the next hundred years.
Or maybe it really was sunday.
Moffat's first 'EVERYBODY LIVES' ending felt like a genuine relief and triumph in "The Doctor Dances", after the agonizing build up of tension and menace with the gasmask zombies that seemed to be unstoppable until that point.
The character deaths should not always be laid on thick like in some RTD stories, losing its impact, however Moffat's aversion to onscreen mass casualties seems to be a creative handicap that could peeve many viewers before long (though River Song and Co. were still very dead in the real world, despite their digital fascismiles "living on" within CAL, while the Angels simply aged their victims to death and their feasting on the TARDIS would've imploded the solar system).
The character deaths should not always be laid on thick like in some RTD stories, losing its impact, however Moffat's aversion to onscreen mass casualties seems to be a creative handicap that could peeve many viewers before long (though River Song and Co. were still very dead in the real world, despite their digital fascismiles "living on" within CAL, while the Angels simply aged their victims to death and their feasting on the TARDIS would've imploded the solar system).
I don't have a problem with it. Frankly the whole 'Where the Doctor goes, death follows.' think that started back in the Eccelston<sp?> season used to annoy the hell out of me.
I remember waaay back when I was watching JNT at a convenion panel, he said he felt an obligation that someone had to die in every story. So we ended up with the restaurant owner gettign stabbed at the end of the Two Doctors, and the tourist bus being dissintegrated in Delta & the Bannermen. It seems rather pointless. I like having a Producer who feels just the opposite.
I remember waaay back when I was watching JNT at a convenion panel, he said he felt an obligation that someone had to die in every story. So we ended up with the restaurant owner gettign stabbed at the end of the Two Doctors, and the tourist bus being dissintegrated in Delta & the Bannermen. It seems rather pointless. I like having a Producer who feels just the opposite.
The man has consistently written the best episodes of the series. If it ain't broke, why demand that he fix it? His solutions around killing characters have been far more clever and entertaining than simply killing them off lazily. They also usually have a bitter-sweet element to them, so the drama hasn't suffered from it either.
I too thought "EVERYBODY LIVES!" in "The Eleventh Hour" but apparently Prisoner Zero killed the female head Doctor and some people.
With Moffat's death count it's not so in your face like it was with RTD's era
Rose-Wilson's dead
Christmas Invasion- The major and another guy
New earth- Cassandra, that cat nurse
Runaway Bride- Lance
Smith and Jones- Old Doctor and young doctor
Voyage of the damned- well half the crew lol
Partners in Crime- Stacy and the nurse.
With Moffat's death count it's not so in your face like it was with RTD's era
Rose-Wilson's dead
Christmas Invasion- The major and another guy
New earth- Cassandra, that cat nurse
Runaway Bride- Lance
Smith and Jones- Old Doctor and young doctor
Voyage of the damned- well half the crew lol
Partners in Crime- Stacy and the nurse.
I think at some point he will kill a character off but only when the dramatic tension is so high it cannot be avoided which should hopefully make the death's deeper and more meaningful rather than just merely an act of killing off the extras or guest stars. But I agree that his approach can be a little soft. His suggestion that Jenny lives in The Doctor's Doctor actually killed the episode for me because after all of that tension and overcoming the peril of the situation it just lost its sense of realism and drama.
I remember that. I always thought that was really dumb and unnecessary to the plot.
Apparently. But we hear that from Prisoner Zero disguised as the woman with the little girls. It might have been a lie.
Hmmm, in "Blink" the Weeping Angels killed their victims in a very round about way - sent flying into the past, the two victims led quite normal and even fulfilling lives, but from Sally Sparrow's point of view they ended up just as dead if they were killed more conventionally. In some ways it was more disturbing for some reason, Sally got very close to being nullified in the present and cofined to dying in the past, so there was still tension (which was lacking in "The Beast Below").
Getting away from RTD's pechant for overkilling the extras and supporting characters is a good idea and we've still got 11 episodes to go to form a proper opinion about Moffat's direction about character fatalities, although the lack of proper death and mild peril in "The Beast Below" raises a red flag.
Getting away from RTD's pechant for overkilling the extras and supporting characters is a good idea and we've still got 11 episodes to go to form a proper opinion about Moffat's direction about character fatalities, although the lack of proper death and mild peril in "The Beast Below" raises a red flag.
if no one dies in VOTD next week, i shall be very surprised.
