I think it's safe to say I'm not a fan.
(Big list of spoilered comments, documenting all my complaints with the first few episodes)
Basically I thought the 5th NuWho season was alright, but nothing special. But then I hadn't really gotten into Tenant until a little later, so I thought I'd give it time. The last four episodes have made me rage more than anything else recently.
Bad acting, bad writing, terrible pacing, River Song is the most annoying character ever written, and I include Jar Jar and Navi in that description.
I'm laughing at myself a little here as well because I was quick to label the first episode as the worst I had ever seen. Clearly I wasn't thinking low enough for where it could sink. I think my biggest problem though is that Moffat is not a season runner. He's an individual episode writer and works best when someone else is telling him what to do.
(Big list of spoilered comments, documenting all my complaints with the first few episodes)
Episode 1:
THAT WAS CRAP!
There was nothing scary, nothing funny, nothing tearjerking, nothing heartwarming, nothing awesome and NOTHING NEW! Previous first episodes have managed at least one of every single type of the above.
That episode is pretty much the worst episode of Doctor Who I have ever watched, and I can even bring a little persepctive to that by saying that in the course of the last couple of weeks I have watched my way through every season of NuWho including all the specials and one offs, and this one was beyond the bottom of the barrel.
Completely assinine and pointless from start to finish and I can only hope that Stephen Moffat actually has something interesting planned for the next few weeks or I may seriously consider just not watching it, which given it has been my only regular tv viewing in the last FIVE YEARS, would be a little unfortunate.
When did Moffat stop being a good writer?
Episode 2:
Eh, shouldn't be the Doctor's kid.
Besides, regeneration is linked to the TARDIS, not the Time Lords themselves.
except that Moffat hasn't shown any inhibitions about throwing out continuity that was established in Season 1 of NuWho to make a point, so God only knows how little he regards canon from the earlier series.
More and more I think that Stephen Moffat should not be writing for the whole series. When he was given someone else's overall series construction to work in he turned in fantastic episodes that really stretched how you thought about the Doctor and Time Travel. Now he's writhing whole series and the last one was a too obvious mess with a threat that was being bludgeoned into our heads so much it got annoying. 'Yes Stephen, I know that there are cracks everywhere in the universe, but when I figured out that it was clearly the TARDIS exploding before you even showed the Doctor pulling that bit out of the crack, you're doing foreshadowing wrong.'
That could well be my problem with this series as well.
'SILENCE WILL FALL'
thirty seconds later
Rory: Even the Roman Empire fell.
Maybe he should have had a neon sign in the background that read 'THIS CONVERSATION IS SIGNIFICANT.'
Moffat can't foreshadow, and so far I don't care about Pond or Williams or Song or the Doctor even half as much as I cared about Rose and Donna and Jack and even bloody Wilfred Mott and Martha. I cared about Mickey more than I care about the main companion.
Episode 3:
I get the feeling I'm not going to like this season very much.
Maybe it's because I just finished watching all of Eccleston through Tenant and realised that Matt Smith really doesn't measure up to either of them as a Doctor, maybe it's because so far every time Moffat has gone for scary it's made me laugh, maybe it's because I think he was at his best when he was an individual episode writer and should not be in charge of the whole thing.
As for this episode, laughable 'villain' with dodgy effects, slow plot that had so many possible resolutions less boring than the one they went with, and the crowning glory:
Mr Moffat, I understand that in a show where the lead character regularly changes actor, it can be hard to create real tension over his death, I do, but the answer is to not to keep giving us 'fake out' deaths with his companions. If you want it to mean something, death has to, well, mean something.
This is the third time I believe I have watched Rory Williams 'die'. If you're not going to let one stick, then don't keep showing me those scenes. I wasn't even remotely emotionally involved in the ending scene, because I just wanted to wait the requisite thirty seconds to see if he'd really do it or not. And when I'm counting down the moments until he 'miraculously' breathes again and comes back, then you're not doing your job very well.
Thank you Mr Moffat, please improve, because Doctor Who was doing so well until you took over.
EDIT: And I nearly forgot
STOP WITH THE FUCKING ODD!
They will never be as good as The End of Time, so don't even try, because you will fail as hard as when you failed at bringing the Weeping Angels back (God I hated that episode.)
Episode 4:
I got really bored watching the episode, I have to admit. I'm starting to feel now that my antipathy towards New NuWho is less the writing and more the actors. David Tenant could make you weep with the subtlest change in facial expression, but Matt Smith can't move me with the most beautifully written lines from the hand of a master poet.
Also, really Mr Gaiman, do you have to do the insane writing on walls thing? Again? That trope is so dead it's rotted to bones in a six foot grave scrawled with the letters 'This trope is dead' in its own blood.
Interesting to see someone directly commenting on the budgetry restraints though. I learned a while ago that Doctor Who literally can't survive on the budget they're given by the BBC, they have to make it all up in revenue. Which explains why a quarter of the episode was Rory and Amy running down the exact same hallway eight or nine times. Yeah you could call it an homage to the old season but when the 'homage' is to one of the things that got Doctor Who ridiculed back in the day you really shouldn't be bringing it back again.
THAT WAS CRAP!
There was nothing scary, nothing funny, nothing tearjerking, nothing heartwarming, nothing awesome and NOTHING NEW! Previous first episodes have managed at least one of every single type of the above.
That episode is pretty much the worst episode of Doctor Who I have ever watched, and I can even bring a little persepctive to that by saying that in the course of the last couple of weeks I have watched my way through every season of NuWho including all the specials and one offs, and this one was beyond the bottom of the barrel.
Completely assinine and pointless from start to finish and I can only hope that Stephen Moffat actually has something interesting planned for the next few weeks or I may seriously consider just not watching it, which given it has been my only regular tv viewing in the last FIVE YEARS, would be a little unfortunate.
When did Moffat stop being a good writer?
Episode 2:
Eh, shouldn't be the Doctor's kid.
Besides, regeneration is linked to the TARDIS, not the Time Lords themselves.
except that Moffat hasn't shown any inhibitions about throwing out continuity that was established in Season 1 of NuWho to make a point, so God only knows how little he regards canon from the earlier series.
More and more I think that Stephen Moffat should not be writing for the whole series. When he was given someone else's overall series construction to work in he turned in fantastic episodes that really stretched how you thought about the Doctor and Time Travel. Now he's writhing whole series and the last one was a too obvious mess with a threat that was being bludgeoned into our heads so much it got annoying. 'Yes Stephen, I know that there are cracks everywhere in the universe, but when I figured out that it was clearly the TARDIS exploding before you even showed the Doctor pulling that bit out of the crack, you're doing foreshadowing wrong.'
That could well be my problem with this series as well.
'SILENCE WILL FALL'
thirty seconds later
Rory: Even the Roman Empire fell.
Maybe he should have had a neon sign in the background that read 'THIS CONVERSATION IS SIGNIFICANT.'
Moffat can't foreshadow, and so far I don't care about Pond or Williams or Song or the Doctor even half as much as I cared about Rose and Donna and Jack and even bloody Wilfred Mott and Martha. I cared about Mickey more than I care about the main companion.
Episode 3:
I get the feeling I'm not going to like this season very much.
Maybe it's because I just finished watching all of Eccleston through Tenant and realised that Matt Smith really doesn't measure up to either of them as a Doctor, maybe it's because so far every time Moffat has gone for scary it's made me laugh, maybe it's because I think he was at his best when he was an individual episode writer and should not be in charge of the whole thing.
As for this episode, laughable 'villain' with dodgy effects, slow plot that had so many possible resolutions less boring than the one they went with, and the crowning glory:
Mr Moffat, I understand that in a show where the lead character regularly changes actor, it can be hard to create real tension over his death, I do, but the answer is to not to keep giving us 'fake out' deaths with his companions. If you want it to mean something, death has to, well, mean something.
This is the third time I believe I have watched Rory Williams 'die'. If you're not going to let one stick, then don't keep showing me those scenes. I wasn't even remotely emotionally involved in the ending scene, because I just wanted to wait the requisite thirty seconds to see if he'd really do it or not. And when I'm counting down the moments until he 'miraculously' breathes again and comes back, then you're not doing your job very well.
Thank you Mr Moffat, please improve, because Doctor Who was doing so well until you took over.
EDIT: And I nearly forgot
STOP WITH THE FUCKING ODD!
They will never be as good as The End of Time, so don't even try, because you will fail as hard as when you failed at bringing the Weeping Angels back (God I hated that episode.)
Episode 4:
I got really bored watching the episode, I have to admit. I'm starting to feel now that my antipathy towards New NuWho is less the writing and more the actors. David Tenant could make you weep with the subtlest change in facial expression, but Matt Smith can't move me with the most beautifully written lines from the hand of a master poet.
Also, really Mr Gaiman, do you have to do the insane writing on walls thing? Again? That trope is so dead it's rotted to bones in a six foot grave scrawled with the letters 'This trope is dead' in its own blood.
Interesting to see someone directly commenting on the budgetry restraints though. I learned a while ago that Doctor Who literally can't survive on the budget they're given by the BBC, they have to make it all up in revenue. Which explains why a quarter of the episode was Rory and Amy running down the exact same hallway eight or nine times. Yeah you could call it an homage to the old season but when the 'homage' is to one of the things that got Doctor Who ridiculed back in the day you really shouldn't be bringing it back again.
Basically I thought the 5th NuWho season was alright, but nothing special. But then I hadn't really gotten into Tenant until a little later, so I thought I'd give it time. The last four episodes have made me rage more than anything else recently.
Bad acting, bad writing, terrible pacing, River Song is the most annoying character ever written, and I include Jar Jar and Navi in that description.
I'm laughing at myself a little here as well because I was quick to label the first episode as the worst I had ever seen. Clearly I wasn't thinking low enough for where it could sink. I think my biggest problem though is that Moffat is not a season runner. He's an individual episode writer and works best when someone else is telling him what to do.
