It's been awhile since I posted on this site, but I just watched the episode and I needed somewhere to talk about it.
As a I watched the episode, my thoughts played out like this:
Interesting, interesting, getting awesome, getting terrifying, terrifying.......and Moffat you bastard. The ending was totally out of left field and uncalled for. Yeah, cute, The Doctor as a boy. But then making Clara part of his memory, she was the hand in grabbing his leg in his version of the "dream". Kind of interesting that it was the barn that the War Doctor ended up at, but this was not an episode for such at thing.
The whole, "It was nothing, all in your head," that was bullshit. It's like two scripts were written, one about the whole scary concept "that we are never alone" with the bed monster and all that, and the other script about Clara mucking around in the Doctor's history again, but then both scripts fell out of their folders and the ending of the second script accidentally got put in place of the proper ending for the first script, because the papers of the script got mixed up.
In my mind, there is no resolution to this episode. The beginning and middle part was a scary and awesome episode, but then there was no punch at end. Saying, "It was nothing," is crap. You don't show the things like, chalk moved, and the word "listen" written on the board, thing appearing out of nowhere onto the bed under the covers(moving about menacingly), and creature/being sounds at the end of the universe and the door opening by itself, then all of a sudden you say, "It was nothing." That is bad writing. If those things really turn out to be nothing, with no resolve this series, then really, Moffat needs to step down.
I seriously thought he had changed for the better as Series 7 started to pick up and the focus was finally back where it should have been on the Doctor. Clara had her bits but it was properly kept back as a side story bit. Considering how little focus there was on the Doctor this episode, and it was Clara, Clara, Clara, and her relationship with the Pink guy, it looks to me that Moffat is back into his swing he was all on about when he was big into making Doctor Who about, Amy and Rory this, Amy and Rory that.
It's starting to be a pattern, and now that I think about it, it can be seen all the way back in Moffat's Blink story back in Series 3 with the Sally Sparrow and Nightingale's brother in a sense becoming a couple in the end. If you think about it, other than the DVD Easter egg bits that the two watched during the episode, it was a Doctor light episode, with him only truly appearing in person in the 1969 bit, and the end.
I can see the dangerous pattern now. Moffat really only wants to write stories about couples, and really doesn't care for writing about the Doctor. I just thought of that Blink realization, it actually quite depressingly fascinating.
We also have his pattern of the girl companion overshadowing the Doctor's story and becoming stupidly important. Special Amy, the girl that wished the universe back into existence, and impossibly gave birth to a Time Lord, because TARDIS(derp). Then we have Clara, the Impossible girl, which that story bit was fine, because it basically played itself out in the background of stories until it got resolved, but now with the ending of Listen, Moffat is bringing that story right onto front stage and beating the dead horse some more. The whole thing with Clara effecting his past part, should have ended with the whole jumping into the time stream stuff. Leave it be Moffat, the show is about the Doctor, not the companions, companions should stay as background side stories. They tag along with the Doctor and experience his stories.
This is actually getting depressing, if Moffat continues with the Non-Doctor focus being right up front, like with Series 5 and Series 6, I'm going to end up not watching it until I come back to get caught up, because I end up having hopes he might get right how the show should be run, in the next series. Series 7 was a clear showing that he can do it, but with the way series 8 is going, it looks like Moffat is having a horrible relapse.
Really, are we going to have to put him back into bad writing rehab again? Tell the truth Moffat, have you been falling back on your horrible go to writing and focus points again? I know you have, so come on, back to rehab at the "This is how Doctor Who is properly done" clinic, "Where bad Doctor Who writers go to get clean of putting side plot points ahead of the main plot, and they learn to keep side characters in their place as side characters." We've set you straight once Moffat, do we have to do it again?
