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FishyFish

By FishyFish
in Film, TV & Radio

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HarMGM

HarMGM

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I get the impression that Steven Moffatt is obsessed with detail. Though I'm impressed that he's tried to replicate the season-long story arcs of US-based TV shows during his tenure, the time and effort involved requires an RTD-like person who can step back and take a holistic view of the story.

Bravo, I'd say that's the best way to sum up where RTD could always succeed and where Moffat generally has faltered.

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Space Renegade Ulala

Space Renegade Ulala

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RTD turned to shit, Moffat turned to shit, whoever comes next will likely do the same as well. Most shows/showrunners suffer this fate, the ones that don't are outliers. It's not so surprising really - it's like a band that pours everything great they have into their first few albums and then never hit those heights again. Sure, they can still knock it out the park once in a while but consistently being great is tough because that hunger and impetus rarely remains after you've made it.

Eye of the Tiger, man, Eye of the Tiger.

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Zio

Zio

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I do sometimes watch Doctor Who with my 4-and-a-half year old daughter. Her mum doesn't approve in the slightest, but my little girl always asks me to put it on when she's over. We watched Asylum of the Daleks together a few weeks ago and I'd totally forgotten the bit in the crashed spaceship with those Dalek-zombies. I went to cover her eyes but she pushed my hand away and told me they were only skeletons, and she's not scared of skeletons.

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LaParka

LaParka

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Not intended in any way to be a criticism of your parenting style, but do people here really watch (modern) Doctor Who with kids this young? My littlun is 4 and a half and I wouldn't dream of watching Doctor Who with him. I'd have thought it'd terrify the life out of him. There have been a couple of Matt Smith episodes (The Impossible Astronaut / Day of the Moon springs to mind especially) which I think have really pushed the boundaries of what I would consider acceptable family teatime entertainment.

Yeah, they love all that scary stuff, never have nightmares. I tried to say how scary the silence was. Their reply is that it's just an actor with a rubber head on :)

they're quite obsessed with how things are made. They've not watched any LotR films (too long) but they've watched the extra documentaries on how they built the sets and how they made people into orcs.

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Eighthours

Eighthours

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I watched Episode 1 of Series 5 again. The tension is off the scale in that one compared to the recent instalments, which, while supplying explosions and plenty of bombast, don't quite seem to 'matter'. The pacing is off and money is spent without consequence these days. The Eleventh Hour is pretty wonderful in retrospect - it's luxurious but quick, flashy but understated, funny but serious. It's so much better, and Moffat isn't writing himself into corners.

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Nick R

Nick R

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I haven't rewatched The Eleventh Hour since 2010, but your assessment doesn't surprise me. I remember it being an excellent first episode - great introductions for Eleven and Amy (and Rory, although it wasn't clear back then how major a character he'd be), a convincingly threatening villain, funny, and with some good time travel twists (albeit reminiscent of Girl in the Fireplace - time to bring out Lawrence Miles' old Moffat Times Table!). We can debate how well threads like "silence will fall" were resolved, but in that first episode, the seeds for them were planted in a really intriguing and promising way.

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mayor_mike_haggar

mayor_mike_haggar

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I get the impression that Steven Moffatt is obsessed with detail. Though I'm impressed he's tried to replicate the season-long story arcs of US shows, the time and effort involved requires an RTD-like person who can step back and take a holistic view of the story.

Thing is in American TV story arcs tend to involve coherent plots and stories being carried from episode to episode with a rough idea of where the while thing is going, and the entire series being written around the arc in the first place.

In who, the attempt at a story arc is just a crack at the end of every episode or the words bad wolf shoe horned into an episode. Which is just a recurrent meme, not an arc per se. It just feels like something tacked on last minute. There are no story arcs, just clumsy attempts at them because neither rtd or moffat seems capable of pulling them off. And tho is perhaps because who better suits contained storylines anyway. Or at least needs better writers, with much better communication about where everything is going if they want to try it.

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kensei

kensei

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The cracks in season 5 were much more integrated than the rest of the stuff, and season 6 got tangled in itself.

I think Moffat subscribe s to the BSG style of storytelling; vague outline with adjustments on the fly - great when it works, like Season 5 or seasons 1-3.5 of BSG, but a mess if it doesn't work.

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zxcvbnm

zxcvbnm

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I really enjoyed this episode. It seems plot holes are part of Doctor Who, so I don't mind them, I just go with the flow and enjoy it. The scene with Amy turning up had me......really well done. And the regeneration scared my kids, with my youngest repeatedly asking who he was and where had the doctor gone.

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geldra

geldra

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I'm assuming it has been brought up but I'm assuming I'm not alone in hearing the encoded message from the Christmas special throughout most of the bbc's trailers (specifically the Great Train Robbery ones) in the run up to Christmas Day? Which is a pretty cool touch.

Edit: this one, at the very start:

Or am I going nuts?

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Bluejam

Bluejam

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Lovely.

PLEASE tell me you've shown these children The Impossible Plant/Satan Pit. That'll sort em :)

For those that like the score like me, he music for the regeneration scene was called "Infinite Potential" :wub: :wub:

I've watched Time of the Doctor twice now and it really is better the 2nd time round. Obviously, if you hated it then no point but I've found that for all of Smith's run, most of his episodes benefit from a second viewing.

The start of the regeneration and Smith's acting had me grinning like a loon. Amy's scene was great as well.

So, Smiths reign comes to an end. To be honest, I think he has pushed Tom for being my fave Doctor. He was just perfect for the role.

Going to be very interested in seeing how the casual Who viewer reacts to Capaldi

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Nick R

Nick R

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Blogtor Who's writers have done a poll of Matt Smith's best episodes:

=11. The Girl Who Waited (2011)
=11. The Time of the Doctor (2013)
=11. A Christmas Carol (2010)
=11. The Time of Angels/Flesh and Stone (2010)
=9. The Angels Take Manhattan (2012)
=9. The Lodger (2010)
=7. The Impossible Astronaut/Day of the Moon (2011)
=7. Let's Kill Hitler (2011)
=5. Closing Time (2011)
=5. The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang (2010)
4. The Day of the Doctor (2013)
3. The Doctor's Wife (2011)
2. Vincent and the Doctor (2010)
1. The Eleventh Hour (2010)

Now they're doing a readers' poll. Submit your top three in the comments section here:

http://blogtorwho.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/the-matt-smith-era-top-11.html

Or to their Twitter account:

https://twitter.com/BlogtorWho

Apparently so far, The Rings of Akhaten is doing surprisingly well :o, and Matt Smith's Sarah Jane Adventures appearance is more popular than some of his Doctor Who episodes.

(I went for 1. The Doctor's Wife, 2. The Eleventh Hour, 3. The Girl Who Waited.)

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Mogster

Mogster

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Good list there.

The Rings of Akhaten is a real mess of an episode. Everything about the plot is ridiculous beyond the point where you can be expected to suspend your disbelief, and it's far worse than anything RTD did when it comes to stuff happening just because. Matt's climactic speech towards the end is amazing though, to the point of being possibly my favourite 11th Doctor scene. It's so good! I just wish the story that led to it was better than what we had.

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Hexx

Hexx

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Good list there.

The Rings of Akhaten is a real mess of an episode. Everything about the plot is ridiculous beyond the point where you can be expected to suspend your disbelief, and it's far worse than anything RTD did when it comes to stuff happening just because. Matt's climactic speech towards the end is amazing though, to the point of being possibly my favourite 11th Doctor scene. It's so good! I just wish the story that led to it was better than what we had.

Yeah 11's speech (and the imagery) will raise it for lots.

I think 11 is my favourite Dr - certainly of the Reboot ones (although Hurt's got close).

I'm worried that we all hated his announcement and he turned out great. We all seem excited for Capaldi...how's that gonna turn out?

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