Doc Theta Sigma said:
MelasZepheos said:
Okay if the writing for this series is so bad... Then what have the past series been? Absolute shit? Moffat wrote the better episodes from the past what... Three series?
The Empty Child and The Doctor Dances
The Girl in the Fireplace
Blink
Silence in the Library and Forest of the Dead
All great episodes. Better than half of what Russell T. Davies ever put out.
I've been over this a lot in previous threads so I'll try and keep it short.
While in the past the writing may not always have been solid gold, the acting of in particular Eccleston and Tenant propelled it into brilliance for me (And I also thought that Billie Piper was capable of pulling out the stops at times as well). I never liked The Girl in the Fireplace as an Episode and my absolute despising of River Song meant that the only parts of Silence in the Library and Forest of the Dead I enjoyed were when the vacuous ***** got toasted. In particular what I thought was that Russel T Davis was able to put out a good season, with long running plot threads that became relevant several episodes later, actual real foreshadowing, and actually created characters that were engaging and interesting and likable.
So far there has not been one Moffat plot I have not been able to predict, to the point of guessing (based on the fluctuating pregnancy scanner thing) that Amy was not really Amy, but some form of duplicate(although to be fair the whole convuluted mess with The Flesh was beyond even my powers of perception). I guessed the Time Vortex thing, the exposure to the the foetus thing (mainly because of Fahrenheit but what the hey), the River is Amy's duaghter thing. And more than that, the writing is still at the low low end of the scale even for Doctor Who, and this time the actors do nothing to make it better. I cared more about the Silurian and her girlfriend, who I didn't even know the names of, than I did about the Doctor or Rory or Amy.
My main complaint is that Moffat cannot write seasons. If he was under the head of a good season runner he can put out fantastic episodes, but when he's in charge of a Season his slavering over River, his boring predictable plotting, and his hamhanded attempts at drama leave me laughing at the 'serious' bits and bored during any other moment. I literally burst out laughing at the 'shock revelation' that River was Amy's dauhter, because it was so overwrought and narmish that it struck me as a bad fanfic writer trying to make someone feel by writing 'and this scene is extremely dramatic and everyone is very sad.' Even Neil Gaiman's episode felt like someone trying to do a Neil Gaiman inspired episode than the man himself.
Eccleston once had a scene where he was yelling at a Dalek that showed a man in total fear, yet trying to maintain the hardened facade that let's him face that fear. Matt Smith whacks one with a hammer in a scene straight out of Fawlty Towers. David Tenant looks gracefully over the TARDIS, says 'I don't want to go' and a nation weeps with him. Matt Smith gets 'killed for real' (yeah right) and I'm paying more attention to the fly which has gotten into my room and is buzzing at the window. Billie Piper breaks down in tears on a beach and I want nothing more than the hug the poor girl. Karen Gillan loses her fiancee and I sit stony faced wondering when the episode will end.
That went on a little longer than expected, so I'll end it there before I start deconstructing episode by episode what I feel is wrong with the Matt Smith/Moffat years.
