Nearing The End Of Season 4
Jun. 22nd, 2008 10:03 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
poliphiloI love Dr Who, but...
I'm glad that RTD's regime is drawing to an end. I think we need a change of direction- not because I hate what he's done (I don't) but because we know what he's got in his locker now and the tropes are becoming over-familiar.
The thing I'm most weary of is the doomsday scenario. I've lost count of the number of times the Doctor has saved the earth from total destruction over the past four years. Now he's confronting not just the end of the world but the end of the Universe. And it's going to involve Daleks. Ho hum.
The bigger the story, the sillier the resolution. An overwhelming threat, all hope lost- and then the day is saved by the power of love or faith or something like that- these final twists are almost always (a) trite and (b) incomprehensible. Last season's finale involved turning the clocks back to cancel out the horrors of a whole year. It was beyond stupid. It wouldn't be so bad if RTD didn't seem to take these episodes so seriously. Last night's warm-up for the latest Armageddon, Turn Left, with its dystopian future of atomic holocaust and concentration camps- was exceptionally grim and po-faced. This, we were told on Dr Who Confidential, is what life would be like in a Doctorless universe. Well- ahem- that's the universe we already live in, dontchaknow?
Under RTD's leadership the show has developed into a compensation fantasy for the Death of God- with the Doctor as an embarrassingly personal Jesus. He suffers, he dies; he rises again (repeatedly), he saves us, he dispenses judgement; people are always telling us how wonderful he is. The show in its earlier incarnations was never as religiose as this. If David Tennant weren't such a fun performer- and didn't now have such a reliably earth-bound companion in Catherine Tate- the character he plays would be insufferable.
Stephen Moffat is up next. He's always been the best writer in the pack- with a taste, not for apocalypse, but for elegant, intimate spookery. Odds are he'll give us smaller stories and a smaller Doctor. Here's hoping.
I'm glad that RTD's regime is drawing to an end. I think we need a change of direction- not because I hate what he's done (I don't) but because we know what he's got in his locker now and the tropes are becoming over-familiar.
The thing I'm most weary of is the doomsday scenario. I've lost count of the number of times the Doctor has saved the earth from total destruction over the past four years. Now he's confronting not just the end of the world but the end of the Universe. And it's going to involve Daleks. Ho hum.
The bigger the story, the sillier the resolution. An overwhelming threat, all hope lost- and then the day is saved by the power of love or faith or something like that- these final twists are almost always (a) trite and (b) incomprehensible. Last season's finale involved turning the clocks back to cancel out the horrors of a whole year. It was beyond stupid. It wouldn't be so bad if RTD didn't seem to take these episodes so seriously. Last night's warm-up for the latest Armageddon, Turn Left, with its dystopian future of atomic holocaust and concentration camps- was exceptionally grim and po-faced. This, we were told on Dr Who Confidential, is what life would be like in a Doctorless universe. Well- ahem- that's the universe we already live in, dontchaknow?
Under RTD's leadership the show has developed into a compensation fantasy for the Death of God- with the Doctor as an embarrassingly personal Jesus. He suffers, he dies; he rises again (repeatedly), he saves us, he dispenses judgement; people are always telling us how wonderful he is. The show in its earlier incarnations was never as religiose as this. If David Tennant weren't such a fun performer- and didn't now have such a reliably earth-bound companion in Catherine Tate- the character he plays would be insufferable.
Stephen Moffat is up next. He's always been the best writer in the pack- with a taste, not for apocalypse, but for elegant, intimate spookery. Odds are he'll give us smaller stories and a smaller Doctor. Here's hoping.
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no subject
Date: 2008-06-22 09:43 pm (UTC)Going to the fourth season, we do have some evidence of the Doctor not being totally infallible or right. In "Midnight," he really is only a character and does not save the day at all. It could be argued that he facilitates the villain's growing in power. That episode is also a strong commentary on hysteria and the madness of groupthink.
I think Moffatt is brilliant and I agree that he's overall a better writer than RTD. In "Silence in the Library," I knew that Miss Evangelista, beautiful and stupid and unnecessary, would be the first to die. I was not surprised when she was taken by the Vashta Nerada. What I was not prepared for was the horror and pathos of the Data Ghost trickling off into nothingness. That was far more chilling and tear inducing than anything I've seen on TV in a long time.
As much as I loved Martha - and I loved Martha, she's so beautiful and those big brown eyes won me over - I agree with you that Donna Noble, obnoxious as she can be sometimes, is needed. She is common and ordinary and impatient, very flawed indeed, but her humanity also includes a compassion and a realism that is very much needed with this very powerful Doctor. I hope she stays around a while.
no subject
Date: 2008-06-23 08:36 am (UTC)I don't believe Moffat has done anything better than his two-parter in Season 1- The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances. By comparison I found the Library story- fine as it was- a little forced- as if he were straining to live up to our expectations.
Catherine Tate is amazing. I'd like her to stick around too- but I doubt that she will- if only because- like Chris Eccleston before her- she's a star in her own right and has other fish to fry.