Warning, spoilers for Series 9 episode 1 below
As is evident by my name and general cosplay attitude, I love Doctor Who, I really do. But it's getting harder and harder to hang on to a series (or rather a writer) that to an outside observer, hates his own audience and would rather just throw darts at a wall full of post-it notes to make an over aching storyline.
Now that seems harsh, and maybe it is slightly. Let's go back to the most famous episode Moffat has ever written, 'Blink'. The stakes are high, the Doctor is a background character as best and irrelevant until the final 10 minutes at worst. The human characters are interesting, the Weeping Angels are fresh, something different and a genuine threat to everyone involved. Awesome, like everyone else, I love 'Blink'.
Then RTD left and I started hyperventilating over the next 5 years.
My main points of contention with 'The Magician's Apprentice' boil down to this;
How is Davros even alive? That explosion in season 4 was fairly big. Ok, teleportation, escape pod, etc I can get behind that, but for god sake explain it to the audience how he still lives.
How is Missy alive? "Was dead, now I'm not, get over it"
Seriously. The explanation behind two major characters returning when one flat out dies on screen is "They are alive now, deal with it"? I could maybe go along with it if the Doctor cared, but he doesn't. He neither asks Missy or Davros how they survived. He just accepts it and moves on.
Beyond those issues, the original reason for this episodes characters coming together is the Doctor dying. Again.
You can't just keep saying it and expect it to mean the same thing is did 5 years ago. It doesn't work like that. Moffat can write single episodes great, but can't write an over-arching plot to save his life.
That's not to say I would write off the entire episode, the second half is glorious Doctor-ness. Medieval arena, creepy snake creature, rebuilding of Skaro and the actual Daleks themselves are brilliant. They don't hold back before flat out killing Clara, Missy and making firewood out of the TARDIS. Brilliant! Credible threat restored. I'm even looking forward to how the Doctor travels back to the young Davros without the TARDIS or a vortex manipulator. Part of me know that young Davros isn't going to die. It complicates too many thing to kill him and erase everything he's done. It would take out the Daleks, his threats to every previous Doctor and the general mayhem the Daleks have caused over the years. Even the validity of the Time War itself. On top of that, I loved the call back to 'Genesis of the Daleks'; "If someone who knew the future pointed out a child to you and told you that child would grow up totally evil, to be a ruthless dictator who would destroy millions of lives... could you then kill that child?"
It's all very well to raise the stakes by killing off a character such as Davros in this way. But I don't think Moffat has the guts to pull the trigger. Or maybe he does, and then where would we be?
In general I feel Doctor Who has lost something very special since it began. Things change; writers, actors, the BBC. But watching an episode today compared to series 1s 'Dalek' or 'The Parting of the Ways', I don't feel the same emotion in the characters, the thought put in the story or the excitement to sit down and watch an episode every Saturday. It's not the same as it once was, and while that's not a bad thing, it's not the same program I sat down and drooled over 10 years ago.
I have nothing against any of the actors, companion or Doctor, but I flat out didn't bother making time to sit down and watch the series 9 premiere on Saturday. I watched it on Tuesday on iPlayer.
As is evident by my name and general cosplay attitude, I love Doctor Who, I really do. But it's getting harder and harder to hang on to a series (or rather a writer) that to an outside observer, hates his own audience and would rather just throw darts at a wall full of post-it notes to make an over aching storyline.
Now that seems harsh, and maybe it is slightly. Let's go back to the most famous episode Moffat has ever written, 'Blink'. The stakes are high, the Doctor is a background character as best and irrelevant until the final 10 minutes at worst. The human characters are interesting, the Weeping Angels are fresh, something different and a genuine threat to everyone involved. Awesome, like everyone else, I love 'Blink'.
Then RTD left and I started hyperventilating over the next 5 years.
My main points of contention with 'The Magician's Apprentice' boil down to this;
How is Davros even alive? That explosion in season 4 was fairly big. Ok, teleportation, escape pod, etc I can get behind that, but for god sake explain it to the audience how he still lives.
How is Missy alive? "Was dead, now I'm not, get over it"
Seriously. The explanation behind two major characters returning when one flat out dies on screen is "They are alive now, deal with it"? I could maybe go along with it if the Doctor cared, but he doesn't. He neither asks Missy or Davros how they survived. He just accepts it and moves on.
Beyond those issues, the original reason for this episodes characters coming together is the Doctor dying. Again.
You can't just keep saying it and expect it to mean the same thing is did 5 years ago. It doesn't work like that. Moffat can write single episodes great, but can't write an over-arching plot to save his life.
That's not to say I would write off the entire episode, the second half is glorious Doctor-ness. Medieval arena, creepy snake creature, rebuilding of Skaro and the actual Daleks themselves are brilliant. They don't hold back before flat out killing Clara, Missy and making firewood out of the TARDIS. Brilliant! Credible threat restored. I'm even looking forward to how the Doctor travels back to the young Davros without the TARDIS or a vortex manipulator. Part of me know that young Davros isn't going to die. It complicates too many thing to kill him and erase everything he's done. It would take out the Daleks, his threats to every previous Doctor and the general mayhem the Daleks have caused over the years. Even the validity of the Time War itself. On top of that, I loved the call back to 'Genesis of the Daleks'; "If someone who knew the future pointed out a child to you and told you that child would grow up totally evil, to be a ruthless dictator who would destroy millions of lives... could you then kill that child?"
It's all very well to raise the stakes by killing off a character such as Davros in this way. But I don't think Moffat has the guts to pull the trigger. Or maybe he does, and then where would we be?
In general I feel Doctor Who has lost something very special since it began. Things change; writers, actors, the BBC. But watching an episode today compared to series 1s 'Dalek' or 'The Parting of the Ways', I don't feel the same emotion in the characters, the thought put in the story or the excitement to sit down and watch an episode every Saturday. It's not the same as it once was, and while that's not a bad thing, it's not the same program I sat down and drooled over 10 years ago.
I have nothing against any of the actors, companion or Doctor, but I flat out didn't bother making time to sit down and watch the series 9 premiere on Saturday. I watched it on Tuesday on iPlayer.
