Posts Tagged ‘Steven Moffat’

What Doctor Who MUST do in 2011 to not be shit

Tuesday, January 11th, 2011

I had high hopes for Doctor Who going into 2010. New head-writer Steven Moffat, who has penned such classics as The Empty Child and Blink, was set to kick off a golden era of the show and cheeky, elbow-headed Matt Smith was to be the fresh face of it. Coming from the Tennant era with a superb actor and enjoyable, if a bit oversensationalised, stories from the Who Godfather Russell T Davies, was going to be interesting but we had high hopes.

The team

What we got was not quite that. Granted, Matt Smith is a fantastic Doctor (he’s no David Tennant, but he was superb all the same), and we had some crackers in the last series, but there was a few things missing that was disappointing to an overly critical super-scrutiniser like myself. The sixth series (Eleven’s second) is already well into production and will undoubtedly have all the stories needed for filming locked down; but if Moffat wants to make sure that the hardcore Whovians aren’t beating him to death with a space-whale (seriously, wtf was that!) then here’s some tips.

1. Cut out the Amy-Rory-Doctor bullshit.

The whole back-and-forth in the last series about Amy having to choose between The Doctor and Rory was tedious and unrealistic. The Doctor’s an alien, you can understand him being oblivious to it but Rory clearly wasn’t and yet he stuck around for however-many episodes being a gormless, ineffectual moron about it. Oh yes, it was all part of his ‘character development’. Fine. But how did he manage to persuade anyone to marry him in the first place if he started off that spineless? Still, now that Amy’s had her epiphany, made her choice and they’re now married maybe it’ll stop, but it has to be complete stop. No more hints from Amy, either she stops flirting with The Doctor or Rory leaves the TARDIS, anything other than that would look stupid.

2. Put some thought into the ending of the episode

The last series had stories that were truly inspired as their premise, but it felt constantly as though the writer had only really thought through the premise and not the conclusion. Far too often did The Doctor flick a switch and the whole threat, forty-odd minutes of build-up, was completely neutralised and everything returned to normal; this is what’s known in Who-geek terms as a “fucking cop-out”. ‘The Vampires of Venice’, for example, has The Doctor effortlessly scaling a clocktower and flicking a switch, suddenly the tidal waves that threatened to flood the city were no longer an issue. There was never any feeling of danger, the little issue of height could’ve been a great source of peril but instead it felt like a minor inconvenience; they might’ve well put the switch at the top of a gentle incline and the audience would’ve felt less underwhelmed.

3. Use classic-series monsters…in moderation

Moffat always protests that he doesn’t like using the old series monsters, yet he’s guilty of doing so more than his predecessor (who was reknowned for it) in a quarter of the time. Just look at the penultimate episode of the series, not even past the first series and it looked like a Doctor Who convention on the planet ‘Cliché’. Nevertheless, there is no reason why you shouldn’t use old series monsters, it’s been done since…well, the old series…and they’re the reasons why Who is so recognisable and it’s always fun to see the reinvention of something that before would’ve been papier-mache and foam rubber. The thing that’s important to remember is that Doctor Who thrives on new ideas: use the classics, but give the lion’s share of the time to the inception of new monsters to try and create the classic-monsters of the future.

Oh and if you’re looking to save effects and costume budgets when using the Sontarans, just hire Eric Pickles.

Perfect!

4. Be scary, for fuck’s sake!

Look, Doctor Who has a reputation for being “hide behind the sofa” scary, but it hasn’t actually been that scary since 1984! Maybe I’m not in a position to comment here because, arguably, it’s a kids show (or at least a show that’s enjoyed by and is accessible to children) and I started liking Who when I was 14, but the scary-reputation and the scary-reality seem massively at variance. In the old days I guess children were made of stronger stuff, because a lot of it was scary, nightmare-inducing stuff. I agree that the source of fear should be psychological rather than simply buttering the screen with blood and gore, and the show in it’s modern guise does do that, but they’re so concious of censors, their timeslot and demographic that they intentionally tone down this horror and, as a result, create this generation protected from, and thus oversensitive to, fear. Nightmares are good, fear is fun, make the most of it!

This is not necessarily Moffat’s fault, we know how the BBC doesn’t like to frighten the horses and, as it’s funded by the license fee, will have to deal with the inevitable complaints of mollycoddling mothers instead of the quiet grumble of disappointed fanboys and fear-junkies. But Moffat should be constantly pushing the BBC, pushing the boundaries of what’s acceptable, pushing to expose children to more varied experiences than the banal, passive threats that it’s forced to do now; some of it will get through, and that will be the stuff that kids remember.

4. Stop ‘building up’ to things, because they’ll just disappoint.

I’m all for story-arcs, but they have a life-span. Russell T. Davies had a storyline that overarched the entire series, hints dropped here and there that The Doctor was usually completely blind to and were mainly for the benefit of the viewer; the smug feeling of noticing something that the Time Lord didn’t. The storyline has to come to a head at the end of the series and we have to learn most, if not all, of the detail behind it. If it’s dragged out over multiple series (as ‘The Silence’ storyline is) then, firstly, the viewer loses interest or forgets half of the details and, secondly, it seems bizarre to have The Doctor randomly knocking around the Universe being silly, like a great cosmic Harry Hill, as he (along with the viewer) learns increasingly more about what we can only presume is a massive, looming danger. If The Doctor doesn’t jump into action as soon as he knows something’s up (say, when he notices the cracks appearing in the whole fucking universe) then what’s the point of him?

Also, Whovians are fickle fellows; the fact that we practically worship a TV show should go some way to demonstrate the average attention span of us. Either the story-arc conclusion gets delivered fairly swiftly, or you make damned sure it’s worth the wait.

6. Keep it up

Ok, so I’ve been complaining but really the return of the show has been fantastic and massively enjoyable. The reimagining of it when Moffat took the rains was a well-timed reboot to keep the audience’s waning attention; I like Matt Smith and I like Steven Moffat. But I just think that these few little details could reign in the snobbish adults who dismiss it as “just a kids show” and turn it into a real phenomena.

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REVIEW: Doctor Who – The Eleventh Hour

Saturday, April 3rd, 2010

Well, that was quite an episode. Lots to say so let’s start, as many things do, at the beginning.

Opening scene, always good to see a TARDIS crashing sequence, I’m glad that just because so much is changing they haven’t just cut off from the previous episode and continued straight on with the old interior exploding and back-references. I thought too much was made of The Doctor’s meeting with Amy as a child – that sequence could’ve been cut down a bit, allowing more time for action. The Doctor has a tendency to be inactive for a while after his regeneration, usually through him sleeping for most of an episode before having a heroic reappearance at the end, though this was not the case here, it was almost worse that our first real look at the Eleventh Doctor was of him sitting in a dowdy kitchen with a child trying different foods, I’d rather he were unconcious.

Opening sequence wasn’t what I expected, the thunder cuts into the theme tune which I dislike, it’s quite dark (which I suppose fits in with Moffat’s reimagining of the show but still) and I’d heard abundant rumours that we were going to see Smith’s face in the titles like in the days of old, but no. In all honesty, it really isn’t that different, which was a bit disappointing but only a minor detail so not a massive fault. Most of the first half hour was a bit boring really, it was quite predictable what was going to happen during that time, like The Doctor overshooting his return, the “policewoman” turning out to be Amy, etc. etc. What was up with that weird eye thing The Doctor did, good for the plot I suppose but I really hope it doesn’t become a staple feature, the sheer noise of it makes my ears ache.

Characters were a mixed bag, I don’t like that we’ve got yet another Mickey, in the form of Rory, playing the hapless comic relief boyfriend of the companion. Amy, perhaps the first character with father issues projected onto The Doctor, is a good change of pace from “fiesty Londoner” that every main companion since the revival has been. Other than that, a delightful cameo by Patrick Moore, a lot of funny characters but none that appear as though they will be influential to the show in any way. Matt Smith, as The Doctor, was absolutely sublime. He was a bit haggard at first by the slow-moving plot dealing with Amy’s issues, settling into his new body and so on, but when the “20 minutes” thing started, The Doctor, and I think Smith as an actor, was in his element and became a charismatic, witty blur of plan-making machine. There was something very Doctor about this sequence but also something different that Smith has bought to the role, I can’t quite put my finger on it (which is why I don’t try to make a career out of TV reviews), it was definetely The Doctor, just not as we know him.

I wish we’d seen more of the new Sonic Screwdriver, there was a lot of old Sonic action and we saw it blow up, but I wish we’d seen more of it. I’m also a bit annoyed that the TARDIS rebuilt itself rather than The Doctor repairing it, mostly because I would’ve loved to see a montage sequence of The Doctor building a new Sonic and then using it to repair the TARDIS. The interior was definitely NOT what I was expecting – it’s so much biggger and the console itself is quite a distance from the door that, compared to all previous interiors it was odd. I like that they’ve bought back the screen hanging from the ceiling of the TV Movie and just how intricate the console is, plus the layers and the prospect of seeing different rooms with the cavernous doors is appealing. My earlier mention of expecting it to be fairly similar, owing to how relatively seldom the set is used per episode has been completely thrown out judging by just how much money they must’ve spent on that (half of it looks CGI as it is) so I expect (and really hope) that there’s a lot of inner-TARDIS action.

The alien antagonist was a nifty, but I think a little bit underplayed villain. I suppose the focus of the episode really isn’t the villain during a story like this so I got the feeling that Moffat avoided putting in an alien that would take up too much of the plot. The CG was…interesting… and, particularly during shots where Amy came face to face with the snake thing, looked a bit poorly done – I know there were budget issues so that’s probably why the villain spent most of it’s time inhabiting other bodies. The teeth of this alien are a testament to the rest of the series, Moffat’s known for writing seemingly-standard “scary” stuff and making it actually chilling – sharp teeth on a vicious alien is nothing new, but only Steven Moffat can do it in a way that could unnerve even a very masculine 19-year-old man such as myself *cough*. Also, twins from The Shining………….WHAT?

There was the obligatory scene where The Doctor, now fully stabilised after his regeneration, having picked out a new costume (hospital locker room again, love it!) and saved the day, confronts the alien and scares them off. A projection showed previous monsters and clips from the new and classic series, and there was the shot of each incarnation of The Doctor, which Smith steps through after we see David Tennant and says “Hello, I’m The Doctor” undoubtedly more to the audience than the giant eyeball he’s facing. I’m pretty sure we saw something like that quite recentely and it screws up Moffat’s proclamation that this series wouldn’t be mythology-heavy, but for a regeneration episode it’s pretty permissable.

Overall, an up and down episode, but the up parts were a fantastic introduction for The Eleventh Doctor and, for the down parts, even Smith looked a little bit bored during those scenes so he was forgiven. It’s hard not to love this Doctor, he reminds me of Sylvester McCoy in an odd way, but hopefully without the sharp decline in ratings and eventual cancellation this time.

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