Doctor Who and Hating Russel T. Davies

[redisforever]

I agree, the Ninth Doctor was fantastic. (See what I did there?)

My opinion of Russell is he's ok. Not great, (Steven Moffatt) not horrible (No idea, there are no writers that are horrible, most are good).

He has some fantastic episodes. And some utter shit ones.

I do give him some credit for helping bring the series back. And with Christopher Eccleston's run, his scripts were quite good.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

It was FUN to watch. It was FUN watching Tennant bouncing around the TARDIS, see these absolutely ridiculous monsters and oftentimes over the top acting.

OK I am a big Doctor who fan and I know many people are going to trak me down, come to my house and kill me for saying this but I have found many of Steven Moffat's episodes to be really boring. There I said it.

See, I don't mind that sort of thing. If you don't like it now, fair enough. But it's more "Who" than it ever was.
Cwtchy seems to like the Jackass aspect. Gizmo hates Rory and Riversong.

Actually, I hate riversong as well. Smug little smartass. But Moffat understands "Who", RTD never did. He just threw in stuff from other series.

 

[Cazza]

I feel overall Dr who has degraded. Instead over milking a scifi clear past it's useby date. They should make a new scifi. No one wants to take the risk of losing the large fan base old scifi has. It's so very sad.

Overall I'm disappointed in the lack of scifi on TV.

 

[Terminal Blue]

The problem with Russel T. Davies is that he never knew how to handle emotion. Literally every other episode he would try to tug our heartstrings with some corny 'power of love' sentiment or a shot of David Tenant doing puppy eyes and going 'abloo'. Then he'd have to throw in some pointless gurning and dicking around to stop the whole thing becoming mawkish. When he was good, sure, he was good.. but that was half the problem, he didn't know well enough to just focus on what he was good at.

I've been a bit disappointed with the new series in many ways (namely because a lot of episodes seem to have been guest written by idiots), but Moffat knows how to pace emotion, use it sparingly and ground it in things the viewer can relate to so that it is that much more of a gut punch when it happens.

 

[Something Amyss]

Personally I hated how RTD relied on some right asspulls to save the day. Season 4 finale was FULL of them.

Davies Ex Machina.

Yeah, a lot of that left a bad taste in my mouth. And Rose. She did as well.

There were a lot of enjoyable, fun episodes, but that doesn't excuse Davies from often detracting from that.

 

[Blitzwarp]

I dislike Davies because:

- Rose the fucking Mary-Sue. She's the Doctor's WUN TWU WUV and super-special and awesome and amazing and at one point I honestly thought the show was just going to turn into a soap about her and her ULTRA SPESHUL family. Honestly, during Davies' run the Doctor spent most of his time in 20th century London running around after Rose and her kin. It got so stupid. Then Martha is introduced and all the Doctor can do is ***** about how she's not as SUPER AWESOME OMG as Rose. I'm not surprised Moffat made it perfectly clear that we would never, ever see her again - it's clear that he hated her as much as (most of) the fandom came to.

- His attitude towards sexuality. In Torchwood he made it perfectly clear that he basically thinks bisexuals = sluts and that an adult show means cramming in as much sex as possible, even if it makes no sense. (See episode two - an alien who kills with orgasms. Gosh.) This could have been salvageable had he then actually put some mature writing into the show - but he didn't. In the first episode he has Owen use a date-rape drug and treats the whole thing like a huge joke. Because duping two people into sleeping with you by using an alien device is totally not date-rape, you guys. Lighten up hur hur hur!

- The way he treats the fandom. He acts like he is the only one who understands "Doctor Who" as a show, and any time a fan voiced any complaint about the direction he was taking it in he would throw a hissy fit and ***** about how he was in charge so fuck everybody else. I also notice in the "Doctor Who: Confidential" that he would barge in on episodes written by other writers and basically say they got all of their ideas from him ISN'T HE CLEVER YOU GUYS. And he takes full credit for reviving the show, ignoring everybody else involved.

- What he did with Ten. Towards the end he was practically saying the Doctor was Jesus and that he's more of a deity than an alien (which is NOT THE POINT of "Doctor Who" as a show - it is a show about an alien with a time travel machine, not Jesus and His Magic Blue Box) and had every single human fawn over him in a way that was quite frankly embarrassing. (See: Lee Evans). He also did that whole "the Doctor is way better than us dumb humans will EVER be" thing with Harriet Jones, and basically mind-raped Donna against her will but hey that's okay HE'S THE DOCTURRRR HURR HURR.

tl;dr he's a smug, self-centred arsehole who almost ruined the show by making it all about his Mary-Sue self-insert. I'm glad he's gone - had series five had him in charge I doubt I would watch it.

 

[Mr Cwtchy]

tl;dr he's a smug, self-centred arsehole who almost ruined the show by making it all about his Mary-Sue self-insert. I'm glad he's gone - had series five had him in charge I doubt I would watch it.

I'm not going to bother answering all of your post, since you're well entitled to your own opinion and I don't entirely disagree with it.

But the part I bolded is completely incorrect. Under Davies' reign the show enjoyed the highest ratings it's ever had. The only programmes that did better are soaps like Corrie and Eastenders. Who even managed to compete with international football games on a regular basis.

So unless you're saying it was nearly ruined for you, I'm afraid you're just wrong.

 

[The SettingSun]

I really enjoyed the second series finale however I dislike alot of his episodes. I used to prefer Stephen Moffat but the fifth series has changed that, he tries to be too clever.

 

[Blitzwarp]

tl;dr he's a smug, self-centred arsehole who almost ruined the show by making it all about his Mary-Sue self-insert. I'm glad he's gone - had series five had him in charge I doubt I would watch it.

I'm not going to bother answering all of your post, since you're well entitled to your own opinion and I don't entirely disagree with it.

But the part I bolded is completely incorrect. Under Davies' reign the show enjoyed the highest ratings it's ever had. The only programmes that did better are soaps like Corrie and Eastenders. Who even managed to compete with international football games on a regular basis.

So unless you're saying it was nearly ruined for you, I'm afraid you're just wrong.

...lol. Of course the show was enjoying the highest ratings it ever had. More people own a television nowadays than they did in the 60's, 70's and 80's probably combined. There's more access to the show via video recorders and BBC iPlayer - both of which are now taken into account when the ratings system is carried out - and the show is repeated on a regular basis whereas before it would only have been broadcast once. Not only that, but during the late 70's to mid-80's the show was placed in a death slot by those who wished it gone from the BBC - most notably Mary Whitehouse and the BBC Controller himself.

The show's higher ratings aren't down to RTD being a brilliant writer, but the reasons stated above. :/