Okay so it's taken me two weeks to finally sit down and post my thoughts
on the season finale of Doctor Who, and I'm sure by now the details of that
episode have filtered out of the average fangirl's memory, so I thought I would
take the opportunity too to post some of my long term thoughts and opinions on
the series as a whole.
First some basic facts. I have not watched any classic Who, though I
have read enough of the basic details to have a decent understanding. I am a
diehard fan of the revived Doctor Who, and its two little siblings the Sarah
Jane Adventures and Torchwood. Favourite Doctor so far is 10 because he had an
excellent balance between serious emotion and side splitting comedy. Favourite
companion so far is Donna, because she was funny, mature, and most importantly,
did not want to bang the Doctor. Martha was fine once she got over her crush
stage, and I liked that she was very independent and capable to a degree from
the start, something which only grew and crystallised completely after she left
the Doctor. Rose I had no problems with at the time, but I now find a little
clingy and exasperating.
And then we moved into the Moffat years, and then came Amy. Oh lord how
I wanted to slap her. She irritated me terribly for reasons I still cannot
explain, but mostly because she was quick to drop her boyfriend, and run off
with a complete stranger (time machine be damned - she still effectively walked
out of her own wedding, with no idea of when she would return). Thank God they
brought Rory in later on in the series (though even that was touch and go with
him dying, being erased and then being plastic). I know companions often can't
help developing a crush or (heaven help us) fall in love with the Doctor - I do
understand that in a situation where you're being whisked off for a once in a
life time opportunity to see the wonders of the universe and where your only
constant companion is a madman with a box, you are bound to develop a serious
attachment to that person - but the best companions are ones who grow out of
their crush (the quicker the better) and use their experiences on the TARDIS to
carve their own life out.
This is why I've grown to like River so much. At first I was determined
not to like her, because she made my Mary-Sue senses go haywire - I now realise
that this is an unfortunate side effect of her timeline. We usually meet most
characters at the beginning when they're just a blob of nothing, and we watch
the story gently shape them into their personality, growing on us slowly as
they do. River did this in the opposite direction - she started out ready
shaped and moulded into her own person, and we had to go backwards and watch
her regress to her origins, which did make her come off as a bit too perfect in
the beginning.
But I like her because she's a great representation of something that
sci fi and fantasy generally (not always, but often especially in the past)
lack - a strong female character. She doesn't need the Doctor to come and save
her from the monsters, and she doesn't just stand there and shriek for help.
She pulls out her gun or hallucinogenic lipstick and gets herself out of it.
Okay she occasionally needs to be caught by the TARDIS when she flings herself
out of airlocks and buildings, but she always knows what she's doing. Yes, she
is very obsessed with the Doctor and has been from birth. But at least she's
not dependant on the Doctor
the way that most of his companions are. She very much has her own life.
Plus she's a nerd (archaeologist) and has awesome hair.
Anyway, onto the Moffat era as a whole. Moffat as a writer is not bad
when he's writing something he is good at, like Sherlock for instance (I also
make no secret of being a Sherlock fangirl). Sherlock needs complicated plots
and twists to fit the tone of the story. Sherlock has always been about holding
on to your understanding by a thread as the plot pulls and drags you through
revelation after revelation. Its deliciously complicated and genuinely
surprising.
But Doctor Who is not like Sherlock, and it is here that Moffat
struggles, especially since becoming showrunner. I will never argue that he
writes excellent monsters for Doctor Who (indeed like many fans I find myself
surreptitiously keeping an eye on every statue as I pass it in case it comes to
life and zaps me back in time) but being able to produce a good monster, and a
good plot are two different things. It is on plot in Doctor Who that Moffat
reminds me of a child off his ADHD medication. He continues to weave new plots
and ideas into the series, without properly resolving the effects of the last
one. Why did the TARDIS explode in the first place in the S5 finale? How were
the Silence related exactly to the cracks in time all over the universe (people
kept saying that 'through the cracks we saw Silence and the end of all
things')? If 'Silence must fall when the question is asked", then why did
I see no sign of any Silence at Trenzalore? And how exactly did the Great
Intelligence get involved instead? Surely if the Silence's entire founding
belief is that they will meet their end when the Doctor goes to Trenzalore and
reveals his name, they would have at least sent a few Silents along to check it
out and see just how fucked they are, even if they can't be asked to send an
entire swat team for a last ditch attempt to stop it!
It seems just as we might be tying up a couple of loose plot threads,
Moffat throws half a dozen more strings into the mess. And his set up really
leaves a lot to be desired. Would the revelation of Mels = Melody = River have
not had much more impact if we had actually met Mels before in the series as a
background character? Instead she was (almost hastily like they were hoping
none of us would notice) squashed into the beginning of S6E8 and hardly done
justice. I get that you only have thirteen/fourteen episodes per season to
resolve things, but surely it would be better to have less open plot threads,
and spend and entire season properly setting up and wrapping up one or maybe
two at a pace that the audience can stand, instead of trying to tie up five of
them hastily in the last episode? But like a child off his medication, Moffat's
attention span seems to be shorter than Amy's miniskirt.
Anyway, back to The Name of the Doctor. I have already stated my
misgivings with the Silence, and the set up, and the hype over this being one
of the most perilous moment's in the Doctor's life, so I'll say no more about
it, other than it was a giant friggin' letdown. Vastra, Jenny and Strax always
make for an appealing comedic sidekick act (with extra badassery) and I was
pleased that we got to see more of them in this series. Clara's reveal as to
why exactly she keeps dying was an interesting twist, and I admit, one that I
did not predict, but I never really warmed to Clara as a companion, mostly
because I spent most of my time yelling at the screen for the Doctor to just
explain to her very simply "I AM MARRIED!".
Speaking of married, the River and Doctor farewell scene may be my
favourite romance scene of 2013 - say what you will about the pairing, the
scene was passionate and moving enough to reduce me to tears, and that was one
of the best onscreen kisses I've seen in a long time.
Villain wise - the Great Intelligence never really felt like much of a
threat to me right from the start. It felt like a one off villain, and really
should have stayed that way. Trying to turn them into the series' big bad was a
total flop - like the Silence suddenly went on strike and they had to recycle a
villain from the Christmas special to fill the space. And while the Whispermen
had potential, I can honestly say that I have no idea exactly what they do.
Again, they felt like a stop gap measure because the finale had not checked all
its boxes by having a freaky looking new monster in it. I get that they look
creepy and are capable of murder (though was it even murder? Jenny was fine
after Strax did his nurse routine) but we never see how exactly they kill or
why they are a threat to a person. They just walk up to you with their teeth
bared and...then what?
Its not enough to look scary - after the initial shock and creepiness,
you have to give us a reason to fear you. This is true of any villain. You
can't introduce a threat to the characters, and then expect them to keep being
scared of it - you need to slowly reveal the true nature of the threat they
present in order to expect a rational person to keep fearing them. For
instance, when the Weeping Angels first appeared in Blink, we knew that the
statues kept changing position, and that people kept getting sent back in time.
That was the initial creepiness and fear that made your skin crawl. But as the
episode progressed to about two thirds of the way in, we learned the true
horror of them - that they only move when you're not looking at them, and
suddenly the creepiness upgrades itself to fully fledged terror as you realise
the implications that this has (the implication here being that even blinking
can lead to your doom). The Whispermen never do this. They're just there, being
creepy for the whole episode, and you cannot expect anyone to keep fearing that
an hour later.
In my considered opinion, Moffat needs to just take a nice long sleep,
and stop thinking of ideas for a little while. He instead needs to gather up
all his loose plot ends, and start tying them together, because no matter how
much he might be hoping, nobody has forgotten them, and they are still there.
He needs to spend a season wrapping up all the threads, and giving the audience
a conclusion that actually answers more questions that creates them. Maybe if
he gets back to work on Sherlock for a little while, and channels some of his
new ideas into that, this will actually happen. Let's give Steven a chance, but
keep the straitjacket on standby just in case.
