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The Stephen Moffat Thread

Clara is a great companion. Having the companion cry all the time and spend large, pointless amounts of time with their family doesn't make a character better developed. Doctor Who is a show about exploring and I for one am glad the show isn't bound to modern day London any more.

You still have your New Earth and Planet of the Dead DVDs for that vintage, classic, quality storytelling you feel the show has lost though :).
 
Re: The Steven Moffat Thread

Moffat thinks he's really clever, he's not, his "big" stories are too predictable and when they're not predictable it's because he's pulling something out of his ass (Hi Melody, Amy's and Rory's best friend since childhood, how are you? OMG, she's River, who would have though ... well no one, because no one knew she existed until 15 minutes ago).

I cannot wait to see the reaction when he pulls that trick on Sherlock fandom. I don't think it will be pretty.
 
Mmm, something's been lost this season, can't put my finger on it. It's been quite good in places but sort of dull too. I'll have to think about it. Would I mind if he was replaced? Not really. Love his earlier stories, Weeping Angels, stuff like that, but as others have said above, he's not as clever as he thinks he is.
 
I think it is good news. I've never been able to get excited about doctor who like I did when RTD was in.

Because it was aimed more at your age group at the time, you're what, around the 14/15/16 mark meaning you were 6/7/8 mark when Rose debuted in 2005, where as now, it's aimed at a broader age group.
 
I wonder if he'll tie the exploding Tardis from JttCotT, the Crack, the Great Intelligence, and Clara into one big universal reset where Clara keeps saving him rewriting history which he suddenly remembers thus making Clara his greatest secret. She'll remember his name so she can find him throughout his regenerations when she gets fractured through out time. That sounds like Moffat.
 
Given the amount of childish or badly written crap during the RTD era, anyone who doesn't think the overall standard has gone up since Moffat took over needs their head looking...
Those people mostly being Tennant fangirls who refuse to accept another actor in the role and believe the show was better as science fiction Eastenders.
Bullshit, liking the RTD era better is a valid opinion, it may not fit your tastes but can't just belittle others by calling them fangirls or in need of getting their heads checked.:rolleyes:

I liked the RTD era better, yes, it was campy, over the top and sometimes ridiculous but it was always exciting, I felt for the characters because I got to know them, they had lives, families, dreams etc., the storyarcs of each series were well written and subtly integrated into the episodes.

Steven Moffat has written fantastic episodes and created great characters but all of that happened during the RTD era, as soon as he became the showrunner it was over. The only good character he created since then is Rory, Amy was annoying and Clara? Maureen Ryan said it best, she's not a character, she's a mystery to be solved, that's boring. And River? Good riddance, a once great character was completely ruined and driven into the ground by too many appearances and her superior attitude got old really fast.
I could live with not so great companions, but the story arcs are even worse, there was no subtlety, the cracks, the pregnant/not pregnant screen etc. were all shoved into our faces, the Tardis exploding was never resolved, sure, we can fanwank an explanation but we shouldn't have to. The Doctor's "death" in series six was the worst story ever written because it was obvious from the moment they said "He's really dead" that he wasn't really dead, there was no tension, it would have been an okay storyline for 1 or 2 episodes but 13? Blergh.

Moffat thinks he's really clever, he's not, his "big" stories are too predictable and when they're not predictable it's because he's pulling something out of his ass (Hi Melody, Amy's and Rory's best friend since childhood, how are you? OMG, she's River, who would have though ... well no one, because no one knew she existed until 15 minutes ago).
He's also too in love with his timey wimey crap and the stories and characters are suffering because of it. Amy's and Rory's exit is the best example, he had set up a story that clearly showed Amy and Rory growing and moving away from their companion role, it would have made a lot of sense if their run had ended with them telling him "We love you and the time we spend with you, but we can't do this anymore, you're always welcome if you want to visit, but that's it. Thank you, goodbye!"
But instead of doing that he cooked up a nonsensical story about angels in manhattan that run a hotel and for some reason new York will explode if he tries to pick Amy and Rory up.

Thank you for articulating my thoughts on this. I embolded that one part I think is the most important. I don't really care for the Moffat-era characters (aside from Rory, we even have that in common).
The one episode that made me care about Amy was "The Girl who waited", because it actually dealt with her, and there was no easy solution.
I mean, Rory and Amy had a daughter, and she was taken away from them. Did that ever bother them afterwards?! I didn't notice it. I fell in love with Andy Diggle's current IDW comics when, in the first issue, Amy tells Rory that she misses Melody. Rory replies that she means River, and she tells him no, she means Melody. Diggle's comics got right in the first few pages what Moffat didn't in over a year worth of episodes.

Really, with Moffat it feels like there's no consequences. Like, in "Hide", where we get told that the TARDIS's energy would be sucked away in a matter of seconds if it entered that pocket universe, killing in in no time. Then the TARDIS does enter the pocket universe and ... nothing. Last week in "Nightmare in Silver", the solution is that they are just beamed up by a space ship which's been ready to do so for the entirety of the episode.

What's really frustrating about this is, I know Moffat is able to do better. He wrote awesome episodes during the RTD era, he does a fantastic job on "Sherlock". He can do it, and he chooses not to. He has great, even fantastic ideas, but he basically uses them as throw-away lines. "Asylum of the Daleks" could have been awesome, had Moffat actually taken the time to actually write about that. Those three brothers in "Journey to the Center of the TARDIS", where one of them is made to believe he is an android, that was a powerful idea, that could, no, should have been its own episode. Instead, it was just brought up and basically forgotten the next minute.

Where's the Moffat who stuck around for Miss Evangelista's "ghost" do die away. That was a fantastic idea, a very touching moment, and he played it out. It worked! He can do this stuff right. He just doesn't.


For the record, it's not an age thing, either. I'm 28, I didn't get to see Series One until 2008, when it first aired here in Germany. I also have a friend who's in her forties who hates Moffat-Who even more than I do, but loves RTD-Who just as much as I.
 
Love his earlier stories, Weeping Angels, stuff like that, but as others have said above, he's not as clever as he thinks he is.

I think he is, or at least he has been. You can't keep that sort of thing up though, and even if you could, the cleverness gets old and you end up like M Night Shyamalan, jumping through ever more unlikely hoops to less and less effect.

RTD did a great job bringing the show back but there really was far too much tat on his watch, most of which was his fault. If you can overlook that, good for you.

It could be time for a change, but to be honest, Who is on an inevitable downward trend now. It had it's peak and it will probably never completely disappear again, but I'd expect two or three specials every year to be the most we can expect in the not too distant future...
 
I personally think Moffat's stories are much more intriging and interesting to me. I also find the episodes he did alot more memorable. I also love the characters he has created. Though I have to say I am not fond yet of modern Clara. I liked the Dalek and snowman Clara.

I hope he is around for a bit longer and Matt even longer.
 
Classic Who didn't try to make the viewer cry every episode and didn't centre on patronisingly working class Doctors helping patronisingly working class companions with their council estate lives. Doctor Who should always centre on the adventure. There's no way Clara is less developed than the vast majority of classic companions and her characterisation is less obnoxious than Rose and Donna's.

I don't care that we don't visit Clara's mum every 3 episodes. That is never what Doctor Who was about.
 
Classic Who didn't try to make the viewer cry every episode and didn't centre on patronisingly working class Doctors helping patronisingly working class companions with their council estate lives. Doctor Who should always centre on the adventure. There's no way Clara is less developed than the vast majority of classic companions and her characterisation is less obnoxious than Rose and Donna's.

I don't care that we don't visit Clara's mum every 3 episodes. That is never what Doctor Who was about.
Can you believe this is actually a criticism of Moffat's Who? the families used to piss me off immeasurably. Whats wrong with having a companion who doesn't have a irritating mother that we have to endure week in week out. We only ever saw Amy's parents at her wedding and that was all. I've found that reduction of soap elements in Who over the last 3 years a refreshing change.
 
Wow, that article is making a lot of of nothing. The share is high. The AIs are still high. If they did fire him, it would be for slow script writing, not the reasons they state! Oh, and Smith has said he'll be around for the 8th season.

diankra, Matt Smith himself said that they'd start filming, with him, late this year or early 2014. I'm guessing he'd know. I hope he's right!

Mr Awe

Well, obviously Matt doesn't know for sure, or he'd know if it was 2013 or 2014 that he'd be back for next season. But I am assuming he is back for next season, just waiting to hear on shooting dates.
But my point is that if that's the case, then either Moffat is starting work on ideas for next year, or he's finishing work on the Christmas special'll that'll be his farewell, while the BBC settle the detail with a successor wh's already as good as chosen.
My guess is one more year of Matt and Moffat in 2014, but with one of them maybe bowing out in mid-season.

I think those are very logical guesses. Hollywood is calling Matt as his star rises. And, Moffat himself has said that he's more than halfway through his tenure.

Mr Awe
 
Willing to bet Green Lantern will chime in and let us all know he didn't understand it.
 
Yup, complicated storytelling is shit. I miss the days when Catherine Tate would just get turned in to a Doctor by unexplained magic. No idea what was happening but everybody in the cast was crying so it must have been good.

Gee, I wish the whole series was set in modern day London. Anything else confuses me.
 
Gee, I wish the whole series was set in modern day London. Anything else confuses me.

I miss every female companion falling head over heels in love with the Doctor, while visiting their parents every other episode. We need more episodes where the Mother has to explain to the Doctor what it does to her to have her daughter travelling around all of space and time with this alien.

Actually, now that I bring that up, if I was a parent and had a kid who was travelling the entirety of space and time with an alien who was the perfect gentleman, I'd think that was pretty fucking cool.
 
Actually, now that I bring that up, if I was a parent and had a kid who was travelling the entirety of space and time with an alien who was the perfect gentleman, I'd think that was pretty fucking cool.

Somehow, I feel like most parents would NOT be okay with it.
 
Yup, complicated storytelling is shit. I miss the days when Catherine Tate would just get turned in to a Doctor by unexplained magic. No idea what was happening but everybody in the cast was crying so it must have been good.

Gee, I wish the whole series was set in modern day London. Anything else confuses me.
Complex is good. But often enough I find that it is just badly plotted. The story arcs especially. I'm not sure I'd rather have cartoonish and childish back in exchange for it, but there is no excuse for some of the lazy storytelling we've seen over the last few years.
 
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