RDA Era Vs Moffat Era

[DeadmeatDiggory]

We're are little over a week away from Steven Moffat's second year at the helm of Doctor Who, away from a season finale with a title that you should be somewhat exciting, but I'm not hanging on the edge of my seat. In fact I feel kind Meh. Truth be told I've had that feeling for the whole season; something has just been missing. I can't blame Matt Smith, he has done a great job as The Doctor, ditto for Karen Gillian and Arthur Darvill. So the blame falls to the showrunner, to Steven Moffat.

Moffat gave us some of the better episodes of the RTA Era, but as show runner it kind of reminds me of whn Vince Russo left the WWF for WCW in 1999.

I know Wrestling isn't popular here, but hang on the analogy works: Vince Russo was the head writer of WWF in the mid-to-late-90's, and work some of the best storylines and was key in making household names out of Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock. But when he jumped ship to WCW and started running their show, things just fell apart. He came up with rediculous storyline after another, and a series of events (including Scream Actor David Arquette winning the WCW Championship), that helped drive WCW out of bussiness less than two years later. It didn't take long for people to realise why it wasn't working. While Russo came up with these great storylines, they all went through and were approved (and editted) by WWF Owner Vince McMahon before hitting the airwaves. Without the McMahon-filter, Russo just didn't deliver the same gold.

It would seem without Russell T Davis doing the same for Moffat, a similar situation has happened in Doctor Who.

Say what you will about the RTA era, he gave us a lot great seasons. We had Daleks and Cybermen, The Master and The Timelords. We had the build-up of Bad Wolf, Saxon, and Torchwood. We got such great characters as Captain Jack and Donna. He often threw everything including the kitchen-sink at us in the finales, and they we're memrable.

Hell, who can forget a full week of chatter and speculation of who would be the next Doctor and that BBC had managed to keep it under wraps after we saw the ending of "The Stolen Earth"?

Last year, everybody worked out what the Pandorica was straight away. This year, we began with the death of The Doctor, the revealation of who River Song is, and aside from a couple memrable moments nothing really stands out. And now the finale is coming, and is anybody really exciting, is anybody really expecting answers?

So whats lacking in the Moffat Era? Why is such a awesome storyteller not blowing out socks off? Which era is better? I vote for the kitchen-sink... to quote The Doctor, it was "Fun."

 

[Davros]

Both have been great, and much better than the latter part of the JNT era.

 

[Kelthaz]

It's not fair to compare 4.5 years of RTD to under 2 years for Moffat. Ask me again in 2014 and I'll vote.

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

I've missed a couple episodes from Season 6 but I'm mostly up to speed. I'm not sure I can cast a fully informed vote. I think I would need to give Moffat another year before I could more definitively describe the trends of his era. It also wouldn't hurt to re-watch Season 6 once it's all said & done. (Hell, I've been meaning to re-watch most of the RTD era. It's been 3 or more years since I've seen a lot of those episodes.)

It's tough for me to define the Moffat era largely because Seasons 5 & 6 feel so very different to me. While Season 5 introduced a lot of new fairy tale-esque elements, there were still a lot of elements that felt very grounded in the conventions of Doctor Who. Season 6 has a much more unique flavor. So much of the season has been centered on River Song, and her story just keeps getting stranger & stranger. And even the non-River Song stand-alone episodes tend to have this strangely claustrophobic storybook feel to them, like "The Curse of the Black Spot," "The Doctor's Wife," and especially "The Girl Who Waited." "The Rebel Flesh"/"The Almost People" felt the most like a more conventional Doctor Who story but still wasn't a very good one. (But then, nearly every season seems to have a designated crappy 2-parter that seems to only exist to make the other 2-parters that season look good.)

 

[Neroon]

I honestly have enjoyed both eras. Of course, they're the only ones I've ever known, but be that as it may....

Seriously, I see both eras as simply different in styles. Both worked for me, though I can easily see folks having a preference for one style over the other.

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

Both have been great, and much better than the latter part of the JNT era.

Amen to that! Hell, even most of the early JNT era is no great shakes. Season 18 can't quite escape the dour cloud left by the knowledge that Tom Baker can't wait to leave. Peter Davison was saddled with lots of unlikable companions (and some bizarrely awful stories like "Mawdryn Undead" & "Warriors of the Deep"). Colin Baker had that coat and it's really tough to slog through all of his 1st season sniping with Peri (although "The Trial of a Time Lord" was a marked improvement). Then you get to the Sylvester McCoy years, which took two of the most interesting, dynamic leads in the show's history and then squandered them in a series of unfocused, incomprehensible stories.

 

[Checkmate]

I absolutely hate RDA's concepts, ideas, and execution of the show. It became a success despite him, much like Star Wars and George Lucas.

Moffat's produced a far more entertaining, stimulating, and internally consistent show. He's also been fortunate enough to cast a brilliant Doctor, and while Tennant was good enough I really don't get the near divine worship he receives. Matt Smith is far superior in just about everything, most notably his emotional range.

I feel the same way about the companions, too. Well, maybe more extremely. I found Rose and Donna to be absolutely annoying and truly, honestly, and completely have no idea why Katherine Tate is so celebrated as Donna. It has to be a cultural thing. On the reverse side, I love Rory and Amy, though I didn't care for Rory much early on. But exemplifying what I mean between RDA and Moffat, he actually grew into a really great character. And while Amy doesn't really do much of anything most of the time and just seems to be along for the ride, when she is given things to do I find it a lot more interesting than anything Donna or Rose did.

I am, however, upset that Martha was forced to be Rose 2.0. I thought she had a lot of potential but, again, that's par of the course with RDA's run in my opinion.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Like them both.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

Who are these RDA and RTA people anyway?

 

[DWF]

The Moffat era is starting to feel like the Graham Williams' era and not in a good way.

 

[Sci]

I can't objectively say one or the other is truly "better;" I love them both. But I do think I enjoyed the over-the-top mania of RTD DW more than the more emotionally restrained Moffat DW.

 

[Cutter John]

Same here. Can't really choose, as I've enjoyed both for different reasons.

 

[The Mirrorball Man]

Much as I like to nitpick things to death, I can't deny that I've enjoyed both immensely.

 

[Neroon]

I can't objectively say one or the other is truly "better;" I love them both. But I do think I enjoyed the over-the-top mania of RTD DW more than the more emotionally restrained Moffat DW.

That's a nice, succinct way of saying what I tried to say earlier.

 

[Admiral_Young]

I'm enjoying both of them. They both have very different writing styles and ways of executing their stories. I do sometimes think that Moffat sacrifices plot in favour of "emotional moments" or event moments too much, while Russell built up to his pay off moments and evolved the characters while doing so.

 

[intrinsical]

I loved them both. But comparing Russel T. Davis' first two years with Steven Moffat's first two years, I'ld say Steven Moffat has done a slightly better job with better episodes.

RTD: Rose, Father's Day, Empty Child/Doctor Dances, Dalek, Girl In The Fireplace, Love and Monsters *cringe*

SM: Eleventh Hour, Vincent and The Doctor, Pandorica Opens/Big Bang, Doctor's Wife, Girl Who Waited, God Complex

 

[Spocktapus]

I agree that it's a bit unfair to compare all of the RTD era to the Moffat era so far. I really enjoyed both series 2 and 5, and feel rather lukewarm about 2 and 6, so they're about tied for me at this point.

That said, I am a bit more annoyed by the Moffat era episodes that are sub par than those of the RTD era, but that could be just because I'm now watching the show as it comes out. Back in series 2, if there was an episode I didn't like, I just put the next one on right after and it would usually be better.

 

[23skidoo]

There should have been a third option: Both are great. I've enjoyed the show considerably, and I refuse to pick one over the other. I greatly enjoyed the Graham Williams and most of the John Nathan-Turner eras too, and the John Wiles era, the Verity Lambert era, etc etc.

I agree with the other poster who says we can't even think of passing judgment until Moffat has as many seasons under his belt as RTD did anyway.

The only thing where I'll say Moffat has exceeded RTD is in bringing in bigger name guest writers like Richard Curtis and Neil Gaiman, and his era coincidentally coincided with BBC Books doing same with Michael Moorcock, Brian Aldiss, etc. Then again, RTD was going to have Steven Fry do one at one point, and he did have Toby Whithouse, and he snagged BSG's Jane Espenson for Torchwood.

Alex

 

[captcalhoun]

i like them both, so i'm not voting.

 

[DeadmeatDiggory]

Who are these RDA and RTA people anyway?

Oooops, my bad. I guess I was daydreaming about Stargate.