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That reminds me...
I finally watched Moffat's two parter the other day.
And it may have been because I watched it when I was quite tired, or maybe because I would have watched anything (I just wanted to watch something) but I though it was a bit, well, poor. There were so many questions raised (that I felt were irrelevant); so much that didn't really seem to tie in; Donna wasn't all that useful as a companion, or as a way for the audience to understand what was going on; there was a strange littleplot device girl minus the balloon that came out of nowhere; and just... just things that didn't make sense. I'm still very confused about it all, and maybe because of that, I don't really have much respect for it. River Song seemed very plain - I can't imagine what the Doctor saw in will see in her.
The whole thing seemed overly complicated, and like much with Doctor Who, those involved have realised how awesome they are and have made a big thing of it: it happened with Murray Gold's music, it happened with RTD's plot ideas; now it's happening with the Moff's stories.
I mean, don't get me wrong, there were some things about it which I really liked.
One was the thing which teh Moff took on and adapted as his own: The Dark. It's a fear for many, especially for younger children. Making something we are already a bit scared of even scarier is very effective. He's very good at doing that: I mean The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances was about a young boy who had turned into a monster - whose face didn't exist. Girl in the Fireplace stressed (admittedly less... believably?) the scariness of clocks (think Tom's Magic Garden) and emotionless beings. Blink (one of the best Doctor Who episodes ever, IMHO) gave the whole nation anxieties about statues that could move when we did things we were helpless to prevent, as well as [insert 'teh Moff is a genius' essay here].
Cleverly (and sadly unlike much of Doctor Who), we didn't always know when to be scared. Take Love & Monsters, or The Shakespeare Code, or even The Family of Blood. All of these tell us when to be scared: there's an unpleasant man who makes people disappear whenever they are alone with him, or a very pretty women who says things that sound like spells and make things happen, or a group of otherwise normal people who get scary look in their eye and go after others (respectively). But with SitL/FotD when people were dead, we could be sure - that clever little idea of "ghosting" ensured the "infected" could still act like there was nothing wrong. In addition, since the place was already pretty dark, we couldn't know where these dangerous creatures were - we couldn't see them. Heck, we couldn't even hear them without the aid of chicken bones, which we understood to be a resource we didn't have in abundance.
Add an eerie name like "Vasta Nerada" which echoes ancient spirits and evil that should not be named (no, not Voldemort), and it all makes for an enjoyable scare.
I also loved how it was set in a library: I'm shocked that with the Doctor's knowledge of the world, we've never once (not in the new series anyway) seen a library at all.
That said, for me at least, it didn't work. Things were a bit too obvious sometimes, although - ironically - sometimes things I was totally oblivious to, and to top it off, the aforementioned "blowing of one's trumpet".
In conclusion, I wasn't won over, and out of teh Moff's previous entries, I think this is probably the worst. Take comfort in that his worst effort is better than the "best" of some other writers (Dalek Two Parter *coughcough*) but this isn't anything as good as Blink or The Empty Child. Sorry!
And it may have been because I watched it when I was quite tired, or maybe because I would have watched anything (I just wanted to watch something) but I though it was a bit, well, poor. There were so many questions raised (that I felt were irrelevant); so much that didn't really seem to tie in; Donna wasn't all that useful as a companion, or as a way for the audience to understand what was going on; there was a strange little
The whole thing seemed overly complicated, and like much with Doctor Who, those involved have realised how awesome they are and have made a big thing of it: it happened with Murray Gold's music, it happened with RTD's plot ideas; now it's happening with the Moff's stories.
I mean, don't get me wrong, there were some things about it which I really liked.
One was the thing which teh Moff took on and adapted as his own: The Dark. It's a fear for many, especially for younger children. Making something we are already a bit scared of even scarier is very effective. He's very good at doing that: I mean The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances was about a young boy who had turned into a monster - whose face didn't exist. Girl in the Fireplace stressed (admittedly less... believably?) the scariness of clocks (think Tom's Magic Garden) and emotionless beings. Blink (one of the best Doctor Who episodes ever, IMHO) gave the whole nation anxieties about statues that could move when we did things we were helpless to prevent, as well as [insert 'teh Moff is a genius' essay here].
Cleverly (and sadly unlike much of Doctor Who), we didn't always know when to be scared. Take Love & Monsters, or The Shakespeare Code, or even The Family of Blood. All of these tell us when to be scared: there's an unpleasant man who makes people disappear whenever they are alone with him, or a very pretty women who says things that sound like spells and make things happen, or a group of otherwise normal people who get scary look in their eye and go after others (respectively). But with SitL/FotD when people were dead, we could be sure - that clever little idea of "ghosting" ensured the "infected" could still act like there was nothing wrong. In addition, since the place was already pretty dark, we couldn't know where these dangerous creatures were - we couldn't see them. Heck, we couldn't even hear them without the aid of chicken bones, which we understood to be a resource we didn't have in abundance.
Add an eerie name like "Vasta Nerada" which echoes ancient spirits and evil that should not be named (no, not Voldemort), and it all makes for an enjoyable scare.
I also loved how it was set in a library: I'm shocked that with the Doctor's knowledge of the world, we've never once (not in the new series anyway) seen a library at all.
That said, for me at least, it didn't work. Things were a bit too obvious sometimes, although - ironically - sometimes things I was totally oblivious to, and to top it off, the aforementioned "blowing of one's trumpet".
In conclusion, I wasn't won over, and out of teh Moff's previous entries, I think this is probably the worst. Take comfort in that his worst effort is better than the "best" of some other writers (Dalek Two Parter *coughcough*) but this isn't anything as good as Blink or The Empty Child. Sorry!
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like you say at least when the moff is at his worst hes still not even close to being as bad as it cld be.
as its been a few weeks since i watched them, i cant remember the exact bits that niggled at me but there were a few...like how come it took SO LONG for the doctor to work out was the Vasta Nerada meant when they described the library as their forest? i mean DUH tree=paper=books=library :(
and your right alex kingston is a great actress but river song just irritated me(not just because i think doctor/rose is the OTP)
plus the whole donna sub-plot was just cruel...instead of her getting to live happily ever after they are gonna kill her off (if the rumours are true) :( it sucks cause i actually like her.
plus im noticing a lot of little tiny nods to the messiah/heaven/god
what with the doctor frequently being reffered to as "the lonely god" (a plot device which has been heinously under used IMHO) to the messiah thing at the end of last series, and now this "digital heaven" in which river song and the astronauts live - it grinds on me a bit you know?
ah i loves these kinds of discussions :D
oh yea somethings been bothering me:
you know in series 3 martha travels the world for a whole year, before coming back to the valient, then the paradox machine thingy turns back time so that the year never took place? well did it turn back time in every universe or just ours? has it felt to rose like she has been seperated from the doctor for a year longer than ti feels to him? if u get what i mean? i am curious?
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Yeah, I'm having trouble remembering the whole thing now. It didn't really make me scared, for a start, which seemed to be what the point of it was. Oh yeah, I wondered that too. I got that waaaay quicker than the Doctor did. You're telling me DUH.
River Song - who was she? Did she have any personality at all??
I thought it was a little cruel too, and I also didn't get it. Why do that to her?
lonely god? UNDERUSED? I think it's OVERUSED, personally. As well as "oncoming storm". But then I can't stand clichés, which both of them are, so... Digital Heaven? I didn't get that either.
I think so. I mean, Rose didn't have that, did she? She doesn't have the Doctor, who doesn't turn up in Cardiff, who doesn't attract Jack, who doesn't make the TARDIS fly to the end of the universe, which doesn't have The Professor, who Martha doesn't excite about the fob watch that doesn't work, who doesn't find out that the Sound of Drums means he's a timelord, so he doesn't become the Master. There are waaaay to many negatives in that. I wonder how it makes sense.
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One thing that bugged me a bit - the Doctor's better off alone. Alright, sometimes he needs someone to control him (as Donna identified in TRB) but he can't have ties, definitely not a WIFE. I think that was part of Rusty's influence, too - trying to make it clear that he is capable of love [even if, technically, he already knows it's going to happen] so that when Rose comes back Rusty can fuck the whole thing up. I swear, he better not ruin my Mickey coming back.
But yeah, totally agree - worst Moff, but still pretty damn good in comparison to some.
And the invisible scary darkness?? It worked so much better than the crappy doodles (practically) that were used as the monster in The Lazarus Experiment - which just made me think 'oh god, where did the budget go?' rather than OHSOSCARED, which the dust did.
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Was it his wife? That's WRONG. I love that this magic mind has to have companions, and he has some of the greates friendships ever, who will literally go to the end of the earth for him (Martha, for e.g.) but a wife. Moff, that's a bit low. Even for the "I invented Jack" guy. I also didn't understand why the one woman the Doctor loved enough to *marry* was her. I mean, she didn't seem to have that much of a character at all. She wasn't brave, or exciting, or anything.
It's weird to do that: I wouldn't have doubted the Doctor can love. Sometimes I think that's all he can do. After all, he only takes the best on his TARDIS, and he makes it pretty clear if he doesn't like someone (Adam, Jack originally, people on board the Titanic, etc.) Why he needs to have a wife to do that, I dunno. I'm not a Ten/Rose shipper anymore, but was not love there? Oh Rusty... what are we gonna do with you?
It actually was the worst Moff. Watchable indeed, but unlike his others, it's never gonna get into my favourites.
I quite liked The Lazarus Experiment. It was the first episode of S3 that made me actually go "oh yeah, I remember why I liked Doctor Who". I didn't actually like it as such, but it was quirky and interesting and scary. And it was better than stuff that had come before it. Surely you're actually talking about the CRAPPY DOODLE from Fear Her that actually WAS a CRAPPY DOODLE?? lol XD
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