Rank & Rate: The Matt Smith Era

[Sparkle Fabulosa]

I can't argue with the no "I love you" part. But I think her acting like she didn't care about him as much was more due to the Doctor being back in her life. From the time he left her to when he came back 12 years later, she never let go of her Raggedy Doctor. So to Amy, every other guy paled in comparison. It's like what River said to Rory in Day Of The Moon.

"There's this handsome stranger, who shows her the universe, and knows everything about her." Imagine what that does to a girl."

It took Rory dying (both times) for Amy to realize that she truly loved him.

She only thought he was gay because he never voiced any interest in other girls. She never thought that he liked her that way.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

For me series 5's opener was the best episode. The 11th Hour was my personal highlight. Second place the two parter finale with the Pandorica.

I felt those were for me the strongest episodes of the series. Series 6 for me felt a bit hit and miss. I couldn't find one episode that I really liked..

 

[ihno]

Matt Smith was certainly not my doctor. It has nothing to do with him but with Moffat.
Moffat was a great scriptwriter in the RTD era but I don't think he made a good showrunner. His writing is "a little" repetitive, esp. in seasons 5 and 6: you got the same old monotone voices, strange sentences, child songs etc. pp. every week.

And the fact that parts of the fandom celebrated Moffat as a kind of Messiah didn't help either.

To me the 5th and 6th season were a mere re-use of his famous scripts of the previous seasons. And all those big story arcs couldn't keep their promises in the end. The solution was always a little lame, was it not? Uuuh, the doctor was a robot!

But Moffat managed to connect the "dots" of New Who in the 50th anniversary special nicely, so today I can live with those seasons better.

 

[Starkers]

I can't argue with the no "I love you" part. But I think her acting like she didn't care about him as much was more due to the Doctor being back in her life. From the time he left her to when he came back 12 years later, she never let go of her Raggedy Doctor. So to Amy, every other guy paled in comparison. It's like what River said to Rory in Day Of The Moon.

"There's this handsome stranger, who shows her the universe, and knows everything about her." Imagine what that does to a girl."

It took Rory dying (both times) for Amy to realize that she truly loved him.

She only thought he was gay because he never voiced any interest in other girls. She never thought that he liked her that way.

I don't think some people appreciate what enormous stress Amy was under. As a child a magical man who lived in a box showed up out of nowhere and promised to show her the universe. He didn't come back and everyone told her she's imagined him. She spent the next ten years or so obsessing on him and then he came back, only he hadn't changed! I can't imagine what kind of psychological impact something like that actually happening could have on a person. He went away again during which time she and Rory got engaged then, on the eve of her wedding (a time when I suspect even the most loved up of people have at least a moment of doubt), the Raggedy Man reappeared and dragged her off on an adventure. Jeez how mixed up must Amy be?

And this is before the events of Flesh and Stone where Amy survived a life and death situation on another planet in another time before being whisked back to Leadworth a few moments after she left and hence still on the eve of her wedding. Throw in the fact that Amy is a somewhat impulsive girl at the best of times and its a perfect storm and, frankly, one of the most 'real' character moments the show has ever done IMO.

Matt Smith was certainly not my doctor. It has nothing to do with him but with Moffat.
Moffat was a great scriptwriter in the RTD era but I don't think he made a good showrunner. His writing is "a little" repetitive, esp. in seasons 5 and 6: you got the same old monotone voices, strange sentences, child songs etc. pp. every week.

And the fact that parts of the fandom celebrated Moffat as a kind of Messiah didn't help either.

To me the 5th and 6th season were a mere re-use of his famous scripts of the previous seasons. And all those big story arcs couldn't keep their promises in the end. The solution was always a little lame, was it not? Uuuh, the doctor was a robot!

Yeah because RTD's solutions were all so well thought out...

The trouble with providing a solution to the Doctor's death is that Moffat set himself up to fail in some fans eyes, it was just unavoidable. Either he provided a solution during the season ,in which case fans would bleat "boring! I saw that coming" or else he pulled something out of his arse at the last minute in which case fans would bleat "Dues Ex Machina! He's just made that up!"

Frankly I prefer the former, the worst kind of whodunits are the ones that you, as the reader or viewer, didn't have the information to solve and Moffat did at least provide multiple possibilities (was it a Flesh doctor, was it the Tesselector, was it a temporal duplicate from the quarantined planet?)

 

[ihno]

Yeah because RTD's solutions were all so well thought out...

YES, RTD was the real Messiah.

No, seriously... I really enjoyed the seasons 1 to 4, which doesn't mean that everything was perfect for me then. Some of it was really over the top and there were annoying things too.

But the question here was about Matt Smith's doctor, wasn't it?

 

[DWF]

Rory was the one under stress, there was no indication to the Doctor that Rory and Amy were a couple. There's outward proof of them being a couple. Then at his party the Doctor pops out of cake and publically talks about kissing his bride to be. Amy continuely mistreated Rory IMO. No for a girl living on her own for years in a big house, she was very well adjusted, it was Rory who acted nervous and out of place.

 

[Starkers]

Yup living on your own really prepares you for walking alone with your eyes closed through a hoard of living stone statues that want to tear you apart.

You're so right, clearly Rory was the one under real stress here, what was I thinking...

Remind me, who was supposed to jump out of the cake? There's always been more than a hint of double standards when it comes to Amy because, when all's said and done, she acts a bit like a bloke.

 

[stardream]

when it comes to Amy because, when all's said and done, she acts a bit like a bloke.

I have seen comments made that Amy acts more like the 'guy' in an action adventure relationship as in 'let's jump right in and see what happens' and Rory acts like the girl as in he is the one who pulls back and asks "Do we really want to do this?" I thought it was a nice twist on the trope and eventually Rory reached the place where he loved adventuring as much as Amy.

Personally 11's first season is my one of my favorite seasons of any TV show ever. Right from The 11th hour to the Big Bang. I loved every minute of it. Season 6 and 7 were ok but like most I had my problems with the timey wimey turn things inside out elements.

 

[DWF]

Yup living on your own really prepares you for walking alone with your eyes closed through a hoard of living stone statues that want to tear you apart.

You're so right, clearly Rory was the one under real stress here, what was I thinking...

Remind me, who was supposed to jump out of the cake? There's always been more than a hint of double standards when it comes to Amy because, when all's said and done, she acts a bit like a bloke.

So when Mels got iin trouble at school it was always Amy who bailed her of trouble. And really we have no idea how long Amy was living alone. Also it was Rory who felt he in competition with the Doctor and literally coming up short next to him.

 

[zarkon]

Wow. While here we have been ranking episodes by era/Doctor, Charlie Jane Anders over at Io9 ranks every story ever!

Bizarre list. Some of the rankings compared to the comments don't even make sense...

I disagree entirely of course, but that's par for the course for a series with so many serials.

 

[Emperor-Tiberius]

Yeah, I don't agree with a lot of those choices, either. Some really bad serials/stories are way too high.

Speaking of which, no more ranking/rating for this era? I kinda expected more entries, to be honest.