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Best Producer/Showrunner? This poll is closed. |
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| Verity Lambert |
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49 | 7.04% |
| John Wiles |
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1 | 0.14% |
| Innes Lloyd |
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1 | 0.14% |
| Peter Bryant |
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3 | 0.43% |
| Derrick Sherwin |
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3 | 0.43% |
| Barry Letts |
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12 | 1.72% |
| Phillip Hinchcliffe |
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62 | 8.91% |
| Graham Williams |
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3 | 0.43% |
| John Nathan-Turner |
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15 | 2.16% |
| Philip Segal |
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3 | 0.43% |
| Russel T Davies |
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106 | 15.23% |
| Steven Moffat |
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114 | 16.38% |
| Son Goku |
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324 | 46.55% |
| Total: | 696 votes | ||
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Replacing the Sphinx ' s face with Elvis Presley' s has been my favorite Peri moment so far. They should revisit Egypt with another 20th/21st Century companion and have her wildly confused by it.
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May 9, 2014 03:44
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| # ? Apr 19, 2024 05:12 |
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So....Scherzo, eh? Zagreus marked the 40th year of Doctor Who, and was set to kick off an entirely fresh take on the Doctor by removing him from "our" universe and putting him into a divergent reality that had never known Time Lords or Daleks or Cybermen or even time itself (which becomes a problem in the next story). At roughly the same time, however, it was announced that somehow against all sense and logic the television series was about to return, run by a very highly regarded creator called Russell T. Davies and starring a very respected character actor called Christopher Eccleston. Big Finish had been the only real game in town for Doctor Who media (sure there were the books, but literally every single person on the planet was born automatically hating them) and so charting their own course had made sense. But with the show returning and Big Finish still considered canon by the BBC (or perhaps more accurately, not considered at all), it really wouldn't do to have the Doctor running about in some completely foreign universe. Even if the new television show never once mentioned the 8th Doctor (and in the end they would not only make numerous references to him but actually give him his own brief minisode prequel to the 50th Anniversary special, as well as all but explicitly confirm Big Finish's status as "in-continuity") they couldn't let listeners think of Big Finish's continuity as being a separate thing from the television show. Well, they could have, but it would have alienated some potential listeners, probably been seen as churlish, and meant they couldn't really cash in on the renewed interest in the show. So the Divergent Universe saga rather quickly wrapped up and returned the Doctor to the "real" world, little more than a brief experiment ala the Fourth Doctor's jaunt in E-Space. Reactions were mixed to the Divergent Saga, though I'm sure most agreed it was a valid and worthy experiment. Scherzo is certainly experimental, a very different type of story to anything else I've encountered from Big Finish so far, and a story that truly embraces the audio format. It's a story all about sound, each episode bookended with the Doctor telling somebody (anybody, nobody?) a bedtime story about a bad King who banished music from the land. That's appropriate given what occurs within the story, which includes amongst its concepts the idea of the Doctor and Charley having a child, an idea so out there that just writing it down feels wrong. This story is full of things that create this kind of reaction though - writing down a list of things that happen in this episode makes it sound terrible and yet somehow it not only all works, but feels completely reasonable and sensible. Unrequited love, cannibalism, murder-suicide pacts, patricide, matricide, infanticide etc etc are all things that the show and even the audios would normally not touch with a 10 foot pole, and nor should they. But it works in Scherzo, at least it does for me, and I think it is the experimental and intimate feel that makes it work. It's a "two-hander" (as evidenced by the CD cover!) that features no actors other than Paul McGann and India Fisher, so they MUST carry the whole story or it all falls apart. They do an admirable job, even if they happen to gloss over the situation set up at the end of Zagreus, ranging from confusion and anger at each other to panic over their situation to resentment to acceptance and then eventually mastering of their environment. Evolution is identified early on by the Doctor as the driving force of their strange new environment, but who is behind this obvious experiment is beyond him (and not answered, at least in THIS story) and what their presence has done to throw off this experiment leaves them caught between wanting to escape and knowing that they can't get out. The eventual mastery of their situation is well-handled, as they reject the notion of being replaced by their "child" and proving - not that it is ever actually outright stated - that evolution isn't necessarily survival of the strongest as it is those best suited to survive in the environment they find themselves in. There is also a rejection of the notion of change for its own sake (which is amusing considering the decision to do the Divergent Saga in the first place), as Charley does what the very best companions have ALWAYS done for the Doctor and keeps him grounded, preventing him from allowing himself to be carried away and "ascend" to become the new dominant "species" together with Charley (and I REALLY mean together). That ending is brilliant, because it ties in so well with the beginning - the Doctor was prepared to die, to fade away into the impossible reality of this new universe and cease to be, but it was Charley who kept him alive. Now the Doctor was prepared to "live", to grow and dominate this new universe only to be kept "himself" by Charley. Without her he would have never made it out of this story, and without him she wouldn't have survived either. It was together that they survived, and once again I really, REALLY mean it was together. The use of sound is exceptional, there is an omnipresent buzz in the air that I could actually see annoying some listeners but which I found very effective at maintaining the unsettling atmosphere of their environment. Sound effects are used to great effect, in particular the sounds of "bonding" taking place, or the noise of feeding. It's up to McGann and Fisher to carry the story with their conversations, but they're well served and enhanced by the sound effects, and everything comes together in a well presented and enjoyable package. As an introduction to the Divergent Universe, it was a promising sign of a potentially bizarre and genuinely alien set of stories - nothing in this universe exists in a way that is familiar to Charley OR the Doctor, the latter in particular pointing out that everything that seems familiar is not. The air is not really air, they can only see when they are allowed to see, they can walk for days or weeks without eating and not feel hunger even as their bodies starve to death etc. It was all very interesting set-up, and the end of the story where they break out of their environment with the ominous notion that they don't know what is out there or who was responsible for the experiment was a pretty great hook. I was very impressed by Scherzo, maybe helped by the fact that I listened to a great deal of it while walking home late at night in the middle of a sudden thunderstorm which only added to the atmosphere. As the opening taste of the Divergent Universe I was immediately eager for more, so it's kind of a shame that what followed was....  What a tremendous disappointment this was. After the tantalizing taste given by the previous story, The Creed of the Kromon was just... bland and uninspired. There was no reason this story couldn't have taken place in the "real" universe, and no reason it couldn't have been a 5th, 6th or 7th Doctor story. Even then, if it had "just" been an average story set in the regular universe it would been a disappointment, because it does nothing new or unique or even work well with established settings. After the set-up of Scherzo and the notion that this new divergent universe could be anything or everything, and that they had no idea what to expect outside of the confines of the experiment, what we discover is... just a standard planet with a standard atmosphere? Everybody speaks English (so I guess the TARDIS is still psychically helping the Doctor out even while separated from them!) and are mostly humanoid living in basically identical social structures as you'd expect to find in any other story of Doctor Who. About the only nod towards weirdness is the fact the planet is apparently divided into "zones", but that wouldn't be out of place in a regular universe story, and the chance to make truly alien aliens is fumbled badly with the utterly unthreatening and often comical Kromon. The story can't seem to decide if it wants them to be taken seriously as a threat or to be considered an utter joke. Even the so-called Spirit of the Kromon, the supposedly all-powerful influential and malignant will that holds the insectoid Kromon in sway (or does it hold the queens in sway who hold the sub-Kromon in sway?) is ineffectual. There is a brief subplot where the Doctor is supposedly cowed by its awesome will only to reveal (not going to use a spoiler because it's so blatantly obvious in the story) he was faking to get what he wanted. Similarly, the sway held over creatures like the Oroog are easily tossed off with a shoddy explanation that they found some useful natural substances to break the hold of the elixirs, which fails to explain how the one Oroog got away in order to discover this in the first place. Even L'Da, who should be completely under its sway, is apparently free to express her own will which leads to C'rizz making the fateful decision he does. In fact, about the only person who is successfully held in sway by the Spirit is Charley herself, and it's probably one of the most despicable and disgusting treatments of a character I've ever seen or heard in a Doctor Who story (I don't think I've listened to anything by Joseph Lidster though!). I was utterly revolted the entire way through, and though they never quite take that final fateful step and ACTUALLY literally use her as a breeding machine I couldn't help but feel like I was listening to somebody's very personal and disturbing fetish being acted out. I don't even want to talk about it or think about it any more than I have to, suffice to say I don't often find myself disgusted by television or audios, but this did the trick. Going back to the point about the Kromon Spirit's ineffectiveness though, once they are defeated Charley easily bounces back from the sway it supposedly held over her - you're left wondering how they ever managed to conquer anyone at all. That's the big problem with the Kromon, they're not in any way effective or able to be taken seriously. Even though they do utterly despicable things they're more often than not treated as comic relief, a very deliberate choice I'm sure given the Doctor's hilarity and disbelief when he discovers they overthrew their massively advanced former masters but ended up learning completely the wrong lessons and embracing bureaucracy as opposed to technological advancement. They defeated a race capable of building a second sun, and all they learned from what was left was how to set up bureaucratic hierarchies. It creates the very real problem of a villain that isn't taken seriously, which only really works if there is ANOTHER force somewhere behind or above them to be taken seriously. The Spirit is supposed to be that thing but only continues to serve as a reminder that the Kromon are comedically unthreatening. The Kro'ka kinda works, but it is so detached from the rest of the story and is so vaguely defined that it isn't able to carry the rest of the story. It feels more like a plot device to get the Doctor and Charley from one environment to another, and though the final line of the story indicates a more solid connection to Scherzo and an overarching plot, the fact is that it isn't an interesting enough hook to make me eager to hear more. Finally, going back to my earlier complaints that there is nothing that distinguishes this from a "regular" universe story.... what about time - does it exist? In Scherzo they rather cleverly get across the notion that time doesn't really exist as a concept in this universe, that the only way to register time is for the Doctor to find a constant (his heartbeats) and keep track of time that way, because there is nothing in the divergent universe to use otherwise. And yet in this story, apparently we're on a planet where time can be measured, where there are days and nights and seasons and mealtimes etc. Yet any mention of time by the Doctor (including time travel) are met by confusion by other characters, and (possibly due to poor writing) time seems to speed up or slow down based on what the characters say. How long is supposed to have passed when the Doctor and C'rizz hide out with the Oroog? Minutes? Hours? Days? Weeks? Charley's "change" is supposed to be on a strict timetable that at best can only be reduced to a few days and yet it seems to be compressed. The Oroog is able to become a trusted slave, escape, hide, break its conditioning, return, rescue C'rizz, rescue the Doctor, depart, free its kind, find more of the curing substance, shut down the water supplies etc, etc all in what feels like roughly a day and a half? It feels like the idea of "time doesn't exist" was one of the bullet points for the creation of the Divergent Universe, but not every writer was able to get that across in their stories. It seems to have either been ignored entirely as a concept or badly executed in this story, and since it was the first story following the Doctor and Charley's escape from the (a?) experiment, the story really needed to get that right. I almost forgot to mention C'rizz, and really that says it all. As an introduction to a new traveling companion it's hardly a ringing endorsement, he is an almost forgettable, mostly generic and uninteresting character whose "twist" is that he's supposed to be some kind of important figure in his society and one initially singled out by the Kromon as in some way genetically superior (or at least worthy of further attention). That's a twist that doesn't feel earned, the only reason to think C'rizz is anything other than a generic, one-off supporting character is because others say that he is and he gets to travel on with the Doctor. Presumably we'll get to discover more about him with future stories and hopefully he becomes more interesting, but I hope I'm not supposed to be intrigued by the "mystery" of who and what he is. So the Divergent Saga gets off to a good start with Scherzo and then badly missteps with The Creed of the Kromon. I understand the next story is MUCH better and I'm looking forward to it, and I'm hoping that Creed is as bad as this saga ever gets. Jerusalem fucked around with this message at 09:36 on May 9, 2014 |
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May 9, 2014 09:15
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Jerusalem posted:So the Divergent Saga gets off to a good start with Scherzo and then badly missteps with The Creed of the Kromon. I understand the next story is MUCH better and I'm looking forward to it, and I'm hoping that Creed is as bad as this saga ever gets.  I’m just wrapping up Creed this afternoon – I tend to listen to one episode a day, because if it was good enough during the 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s, it’s good enough for me! And I agree with you that, 3 episodes in, Creed of the Kromon is very “meh” and a bit of “Christ, that’s uncomfortable” thrown in. The CD liner notes do indeed say that, after the run of Neverland/Zagreus/Scherzo, Big Finish wanted to get back to a story that was more “classic,” the “captured/split up/Doctor fools everyone” type of serial that Who uses as its bread and butter. And Creed can’t decide if it’s serious or funny. The Kromon sound neat with the voice modulation, but their dialogue is jarring…and what happens to Charley is uncomfortable in a Nekromanteia kind of way, like I can see the writer smiling as he pens what’s happening to her. C’rizz has yet to strike me as someone who is companion material, which isn’t a ringing endorsement. Scherzo, though...that’s a story that took guts to write, guts to produce, and guts to act out. It’s one of the most un-Who stores I’ve ever heard, but IT WORKS. McGann and Fisher both loved the script, and you can hear it in their performances as they hold NOTHING back. It’s incredibly uncomfortable, but in a “good” kind of way. Shame that it’s the last full-length story Shearman has written for the Main Range, as it’s one of the few stories that I’ve broken my “one a day” rule on and plowed through in 90 minutes, the others being The Chimes of Midnight and Jubilee. By the way, one of the posters in the TV IV General Chat thread said that all this thread talks about is radio dramas, DVD restorations, and which old British guy we’d like to bang (he says Troughton). Have we ever talked about DVD restorations?!?
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May 9, 2014 11:38
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Kromon was by Phillip Martin, the guy who wrote "Vengeance on Varos" and "Mindwarp". He seems to have a stock story that he just rewrites for Doctor Who. His recent Sixie "Antidote to Oblivion" was very similar as well.
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May 9, 2014 12:12
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I think we've talked very briefly about Ed Stradling and the restoration team, perhaps? Maybe they mean the kerfuffle that comes about when new eps are found?
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May 9, 2014 12:14
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Davros1 posted:Kromon was by Phillip Martin, the guy who wrote "Vengeance on Varos" and "Mindwarp". He seems to have a stock story that he just rewrites for Doctor Who. Haha, the Kromon kept reminding me of Sil, now I know why.
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May 9, 2014 12:24
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Jerusalem posted:Haha, the Kromon kept reminding me of Sil, now I know why. Oh my...they do, don't they? All the way down to the "gurgle."
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May 9, 2014 13:13
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http://www.bigfinish.com/news/v/paul-spragg Oh man. 
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May 9, 2014 17:12
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That sucks, Paul Spragg was always really helpful whenever I had a problem (he used to be the enquiries@bigfinish.com account) and even personally answered my (probably rather inane and fan-ish) question about why they hadn't used The Master in 7 years.
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May 9, 2014 17:41
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Oh no, that's awful . I only had a couple of interactions with him, but he seemed like a really friendly and cool person.
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May 9, 2014 18:54
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It seems like even though he'd been having some trouble, it was also unexpected, which I'm sure is very difficult on his family and his co-workers. Very sad indeed.
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May 9, 2014 19:09
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Chairman Mao posted:That sucks, Paul Spragg was always really helpful whenever I had a problem (he used to be the enquiries@bigfinish.com account) and even personally answered my (probably rather inane and fan-ish) question about why they hadn't used The Master in 7 years. At the risk of sounding ghoulish, what was the reason behind that?
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May 9, 2014 22:52
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DoctorWhat posted:At the risk of sounding ghoulish, what was the reason behind that? I had contacted him in 2010, only about 6 months after The End of Time had aired, he said that the BBC wasn't preventing them from using The Master ever again, though he did speculate that they probably had requested that Big Finish not produce any Master-centric stories for a little while after his onscreen appearances. The main reason he gave, however, is that they simply had other projects they were more interested in, and I can completely understand that. If you don't have a story you really want to tell, and just have a well known character make an appearance merely to make an appearance you're more or less starting your story upside down. Dominion and Mastermind were excellent in no small part due to the fact that they were very much about The Master. He did assure me that he was fairly confident that The Master would make a return "when you least expect him" and sure enough it preceded one of the best Master reveals in history.
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May 11, 2014 03:03
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I'm going through the revival series for the first time on Netflix, just finished the two-parter that starts Season 6. There have been a couple of episodes here and there which I haven't liked but the vast majority I have really enjoyed. I've really liked each of Eccleston, Tenant and Smith, as well as all the companions. I think the episodes credited to Moffat have been my favourite, especially the ones that go a bit creepy.
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May 11, 2014 05:53
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Gough Suppressant posted:I think the episodes credited to Moffat have been my favourite, especially the ones that go a bit creepy. I still think Moffat does great stuff with Doctor Who, but it has been telling to see how opinion turned against him when he wasn't just the guy doing 1-2 stories a year that stood out so strongly against everything else. I still think he's produced consistently the best stories of the revival, some other authors have produced individual stuff as good if not better, but also far worse stories that Moffat's "worst" as well.
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May 11, 2014 07:06
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I wasn't watching the show when RTD was running it, so I'm curious if the flak that Moffett gets now is just something unique to him or something every show runner has to deal with. I think his highs are the best I've seen the show, and that the show's quality has been fairly consistent throughout his run. Plus he brought us Day of the Doctor, which was one of the most amazingly exciting 90 minutes of television I've ever watched. Compared to the RTD Era (which I also absolutely loved), I don't think the lows are as low either.
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May 11, 2014 12:57
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I can only speak for what happened here, but people went loving nuts ripping into RTD while he was running the show (sometimes the vitriol was astonishing) . He got a ton of flak and people couldn't wait for Moffat to take over. Since he left, more people have spoken up in defense of what he produced and lauded him for the things he got right, and I have to say that a very common thing across both his time as showrunner and afterwards was to praise him for bringing the show back in the first place, most people understood without him we would never have gotten the show back. Of course the thing to remember is that there is no group-think or consensus on these guys, and it wasn't the same people ripping him a new one back during his time as showrunner that were now praising him and calling for his return. Whoever is in charge gets more attention on them, and people tend to focus on/talk about negatives more than they do positives. I have no doubt that once Moffat is done on the show, people will be ripping the new guy a new one and recalling the golden age of Moffat..
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May 11, 2014 13:32
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Plenty of unhappiness toward RTD by the end, though his reputation's recovered substantially now someone else is in there. Could just be a factor of that, but I'd prefer him to Moffat right now. RTD's run had worse lows to be sure but they mostly felt like "Whoops, that was a really dumb thing we just did because we didn't think about it properly". Moffat's problems in my eyes tend more to be more systemic and persistent: things he actually has thought about and continues to think about. I can muster up more resentment toward issues that crop up again and again instead of different things going wrong. (Season 5 was still awesome though).
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May 11, 2014 13:47
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As I've said before, Davies and Moffat between them wrote what may well be my two least favourite episodes of the series since 2005 ("The End of Time" and "Let's Kill Hitler"). They have different strengths and weaknesses but I regard them about equally as writers. Neither of them have ever been as good as Son Goku, though.
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May 11, 2014 14:13
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Jerusalem posted:I still think Moffat does great stuff with Doctor Who, but it has been telling to see how opinion turned against him when he wasn't just the guy doing 1-2 stories a year that stood out so strongly against everything else. I still think he's produced consistently the best stories of the revival, some other authors have produced individual stuff as good if not better, but also far worse stories that Moffat's "worst" as well. Moffat was the brain child behind "The Doctor, The Widow, The Wardrobe." I do not believe you.
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May 11, 2014 14:36
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Burkion posted:Moffat was the brain child behind "The Doctor, The Widow, The Wardrobe." I'm not sure why, but I really liked that episode. It was sweet and christmassy. It also got my little cousins interested in Doctor Who so there's that going for it.
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May 11, 2014 14:42
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Burkion posted:Moffat was the brain child behind "The Doctor, The Widow, The Wardrobe." That's definitely the worst episode he's ever written, it's shockingly bad compared to even what I would consider his "bad" stories. It's still better than The Unicorn and the Wasp though. 
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May 11, 2014 15:23
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Jerusalem posted:Thats definitely the worst episode he's ever written, it's shockingly bad compared to even what I would consider his "bad" stories. It's still better than The Unicorn and the Wasp though. The Unicorn and the Wasp is elevated by having Donna in it. A companion who in any single episode contributes more than Moffats do over entire seasons.
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May 11, 2014 15:47
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Jerusalem posted:That's definitely the worst episode he's ever written, it's shockingly bad compared to even what I would consider his "bad" stories. It's still better than The Unicorn and the Wasp though. PriorMarcus posted:The Unicorn and the Wasp is elevated by having Donna in it. A companion who in any single episode contributes more than Moffats do over entire seasons. I always kinda liked The Unicorn and the Wasp because all the dialogue was really, really good. I mean, I guess there was some dumb stuff, but I can't think of anything too terrible. It's a celebrity historical with not quite enough of the celebrity in it, but the plot is so thematically Christie that I can't complain about that, either. And the charades sequence is incredible, one of the funniest things the show has ever done.
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May 11, 2014 15:50
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Metal Loaf posted:As I've said before, Davies and Moffat between them wrote what may well be my two least favourite episodes of the series since 2005 ("The End of Time" and "Let's Kill Hitler"). They have different strengths and weaknesses but I regard them about equally as writers. Best Showrunner ever is Nick Briggs.
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May 11, 2014 15:56
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I'm still sad they removed the framing device from that story. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTyyIsi-cgU&t=426s
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May 11, 2014 15:56
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One observation I'd make is that the endings for both "The End of Time" and "The Time of the Doctor" were both massive, self-indulgent wank-fests. We can all agree to that, yes? It is odd, however, that it didn't really bother me so much in the latter case. I'm not sure why. I might need to rewatch them both again.
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May 11, 2014 15:56
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I unabashedly love Let's Kill Hitler, and for the life of me can't understand why so many people think it's so terrible. The Doctor puts on a suit and dances with a sonic cane to convince space cops in a human-shaped ship that his killer didn't kill him, and it's amazing and fun.
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May 11, 2014 15:59
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Metal Loaf posted:One observation I'd make is that the endings for both "The End of Time" and "The Time of the Doctor" were both massive, self-indulgent wank-fests. We can all agree to that, yes? It is odd, however, that it didn't really bother me so much in the latter case. I'm not sure why. I might need to rewatch them both again. Probably because you'd had a lot more who more recently in the case of the latter. And I dunno, in it's 50th year the show's probably earned a lot of self indulgence.
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May 11, 2014 16:00
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Hey, I thought they were both crap. 
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May 11, 2014 16:04
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LividLiquid posted:I unabashedly love Let's Kill Hitler, and for the life of me can't understand why so many people think it's so terrible. For me I disliked it because it took an entire two seasons worth of development about River Song and breezed passed all that potential in one episode while also proving that she wasn't a strong independent female like Moffat would want us to think but a puppet in the Doctors life in every way possible, even giving up all of her future regenerations so that one day she might get a chance to handle that sonic cane all by herself. It also has the single sloppiest example of "and this character has always existed" I can think of.
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May 11, 2014 16:06
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Let's Kill Hitler has both one of the best and one of the worst moments in the entire Moffat Era. BEST: "Well I was on my way to a gay gypsy bar mitzvah for the disabled when I suddenly thought 'gosh the third Reich's bit rubbish I think I'll kill the Fuhrer'". That's great. It'd be great if Tom Baker said it and it's tremendously endearing. WORST: "Besides, she's a woman." UGH UGH UGH gently caress YOU MOFFAT THE DOCTOR SHOULD NEVER BE A SEXIST rear end AAAAAAAAAAARRRRGGGGGHHHHHHH! In fact, LKH is basically a microsm of the Post-S5 Moffat Era. All its faults and strengths and characterizing traits squeezed into 45 minutes, including the issue of being squeezed into 45 minutes.
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May 11, 2014 16:11
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I probably would've liked Let's Kill Hitler a lot more if all of it was about killing Hitler. Maybe using it to properly explore fixed points in time or something; just use the world's most famous time traveler to have fun with the most cliche use of time travel ever. As it stands, the greatest sin it commits in my book is the same one Dinosaurs on a Spaceship did, promise a really simple and entertaining concept that it utterly fails to deliver on. Dinosaurs at least had the Mitchell and Webb robots, though.
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May 11, 2014 16:15
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I think my biggest complaints about Moffat is he has a ton of great ideas for episodes, then puts all of those ideas in ONE episode. Let's Kill Hitler could have been three or four distinct and different stories, but suffers because they're all crammed together.
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May 11, 2014 16:23
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LividLiquid posted:I unabashedly love Let's Kill Hitler, and for the life of me can't understand why so many people think it's so terrible. There's worse episodes than "Let's Kill Hitler" and even "The End of Time" had good bits (mostly the bits with Bernard Cribbins and Timothy Dalton), but they're my least favourite episodes rather than the worst episodes.
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May 11, 2014 16:31
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So there's two things that have really changed opinion of Moffat recently: 1. At the time, with no points of comparison, we had no idea quite how god a showrunner RTD actually was. The Good Ship Doctor Who sailed on seemingly effortlessly but as soon as he leaves it all goes to poo poo (partially because Moffat is a bit of a Roddenberry allegedly) 2. From Silence in the Library onwards Moffat has been retreading himself a lot. And his "oh so clever" plots fall down because they're not actually clever, they're actually incredibly loving stupid.
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May 11, 2014 16:43
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People hate Let's Kill Hitler because it's the first Who they got after a fairly long break and it really wasn't that good. Having watched S6 as a whole unit LKH was sort of meh but would not be below average for Tennant's run.
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May 11, 2014 16:43
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I personally hated LKH because it was irredeemable drivel, not because I hadn't seen Doctor Who for a bit. I've spent a lot longer than that without new Doctor Who before
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May 11, 2014 16:46
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I mostly find the anti-Moffat, pro-RTD sentiment ridiculous, because for every awesome RTD ep (and there are quite a few), there's an ep with farting aliens or, a bad-by-children's-television-standards bumbling spider queen monster, or terrible CGI fat globule children, or that godawful cheesy head-wobbly effect when the master takes people over. Also, it's always those episodes that are on when people walk in, all "why do you watch this poo poo?"
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May 11, 2014 17:22
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At least RTD could actually do the job he was hired for. It's going to have been over a year since the last full series aired by the time Capaldi begins and all because Moffat surrounded himself with loving idiots and is one himself. I bet if RTD had still been running the show the 50th would've felt considerably more like a celebration befitting the scale of the achievement rather than the wet fart it ended up being. He'll, Moffat kissed half of the budget away on a gimmick that had been dropped by the BBC by the time the episode aired. It was old before it's time.
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May 11, 2014 17:36
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