Doctor Who Returns This August

[Colour Scientist]

Not too thrilled about Clara hanging around, she's been a pretty dull companion so far. Lovely but dull. I was hoping that with Capaldi, they'd shirk off all of the messy plots from the Matt Smith era but I guess not.
I'm also not sure how the dynamic is going to work considering Capaldi's age.

I'm glad to see Madame Vastra, Jenny and Strax back. I actually really enjoy their scenes so I hope Moffat doesn't drive that into the ground like he did River Song, bow-ties and fish custard.

I'm trying to remain optimistic but I recently re-watched season one through to season seven and the last season was definitely an effort to watch. Still, there's always hope.

 

[Albino Boo]

-snip-Moffat has increased viewing figures in the States since he took over running Dr Who. More bums on seats watching BBC America means more money to the BBC. The BBC is not going to kill the goose that laid the golden egg to revert to the RTD style which has less viewers and therefore brought in less money.

Viewing figures have increased while Moffat was running the show, it didn't just suddenly become a thing when Moffat took over, figures for Doctor Who had been on the rise in the US since the reboot, they've just now reached levels where it could be considered mainstream. Still, less than England (1.55 Million versus 6.4 in the UK).

There's nothing to say Moffat is directly responsible, and didn't get handed an already rolling ball. True, there's nothing to say that he in't directly responsible either, but if figures were already rising, it stands to reason that they would continue to rise, regardless of if he or someone else took over. There were less viewers for the RTD era, because it was still small and gathering a following at that point, minus old school fans.

Since Moffat has taken over Dr Who's viewing figures have increased by 51% and is now the most watched programme on BBC America. In any job if the key number sales double under you management you get the credit. Hard numbers are the only thing that counts in real world, not the amount of forum posts. If forum posts translated into bums on seats the firefly movie would have broken box office records.

 

[Toadfish1]

And we'll finally discover if the thing making the entire series completely unwatchable and unbearable was Matt Smith, or Moffat getting totally complacent again and running his show right off a cliff the second he thinks he can't be fired.

 

[Sonic Doctor]

Uuuuuggghhh Just stop trying to make Clara interesting she really isnt! Thee's no bloody flaw to work with, none of the sarcastic wit of Donna nor the intellect of Martha or (I can't believe I'm speaking highly of Rose) Rose's down to earth level-headedness.

Although at least she isn't Amy... Okay fine Moffat I'll give her another try just PLEASE let someone else write women for you because you aren't very good at it.

(Sorry.)

I was going to get after you for hating on Clara until you mentioned Amy. I've watched Doctor Who spanning old and new, and Amy was the worst companion, well, it is more of a twofer, Amy and Rory.

They were on the show for far too long, and horribly damaged it. (Them being tied to the whole who is River Song story arch, with the moronic time baby thing.)

I mean come on, who the hell comes up with the logic that sex between to people of the same species in a time machine creates a baby of an entirely different race. Boiling it down, that would be like, a cat and a cat in a cupboard with radiation in it equals a puppy.

Really, there were only a handful of episodes (can count them on one hand, maybe a bit on the second hand if I let my standards go just slightly) in the seasons with Amy and Rory as main companions, that were actually good episodes, and those were only because they let The Doctor actually feature more as the main character(as he should be).

Although at least she isn't Amy...

Again, wot....Amy was more or less Rose done proper.

i think the TARDIS has basically already been redesigned for him in the last season of Smiths run.

to do again so soon after...would raise eyebrows with BBC accountants if nothing else...

Once every four-ish years seems enough, anyway.

I'm more curious as to whether or not he gets a new sonic screwdriver. I've really come to identify the last one with Smith's run.

Really, at this point, I don't care if Clara isn't an amazingly written. Amy brought the show down, down to where I couldn't watch the show for some time, and I actually had to do my best to stomach watching the episodes to catch up when I found out Amy and Rory wouldn't be companions anymore.

They were the reason I actually hated Matt Smith as The Doctor for sometime. When they were around, it was the Amy and Rory show. The reason Matt's style took time to grow on me was that Moffat had practically sidelined him. In terms of screen time and story importance, when Amy and Rory were around, The Doctor was a secondary character. Heck, at some points it actually felt like The Doctor was in the companion role.


On the TARDIS part, I really hope they get rid of that god awful medical emblem on the front of the TARDIS. It's like they had a new designer come in that knows nothing about the show and old police public call boxes and that new designer said, "Well, deerruh, he's a 'doctor' so he should have a medical emblem on the front of his box."

Ever since I saw that medical emblem placed on the front, I've looked extensively to find some historical fact that some police public call box somewhere had a medical emblem on it, but I could find a single scrap of evidence. For me, that would be the only reason for that emblem to be on the box.

 

[Sonic Doctor]

And we'll finally discover if the thing making the entire series completely unwatchable and unbearable was Matt Smith, or Moffat getting totally complacent again and running his show right off a cliff the second he thinks he can't be fired.

Matt Smith was fine. The problem was that it took two and a half series for him finally to be focused on as the main character(like The Doctor should be).

During those two and a half series, it was let's focus on all the mischief and problems Amy and Rory get into... What? You thought the show Doctor Who was suppose to have The Doctor as the main character? Problem?

Yes, it was a problem. It showed that Moffat is only good at writing one-off stories, and not series long story arcs.


I've noticed a pattern with him. The big series long story mysteries always center around the female companion. Series 5, Amy was part of the big plot of how the universe was collapsing/being destroyed. Series 6, the convoluted point that River Song is Amy and Rory's Time Lord daughter(facepalm).

Even with Clara, Series 7: Why is there a version of Clara in all time periods. Granted that wasn't bad, because they didn't write her as a character that overshadowed The Doctor taking the place of the main character. Matt Smith finally got to play a main character in series 7.

 

[Sonic Doctor]

Can we get someone to come on and rein in Moffat's writing?

He setup so many plot points, that he didn't know what to do with them and just brushed them aside in the season finale, with no payoff.

In some respects, I think someone has been. Look back on Series 5, 6, and a third to half of series 7. When he took over, Moffat and his writing staff started treating the companions as the lead/main characters over The Doctor. Through that time period, very very gradually over that time period, you can see more and more The Doctor, as the main character, episodes popping up.

With the first section of series 7, the fog was clearing up, and in the second half, it felt like it was gone, and I was finally watching Doctor Who for the first time in years.

Really, Moffat's seeming love affair with the Amy and Rory, is what almost killed the show, at least for me. Before he took over, I couldn't miss a show, I had to see it right when it aired, and I did my best to find and watch every old series Doctor Who episodes I could get my hands on. Then, as series 5 rolled on and out, the time between when a new episode aired and the time I actually watched it, got longer and longer.

Close to the point of the longest gap, that was when I stopped using a Doctor Who gif avatar. I decided to create a more appropriate gif avatar that conveys my rage at stupid threads and posts instead of my love of Doctor Who. Of course re-watching Scrubs for the millionth time during that period, helped influence the change.

Hmmm, maybe I should find a way to replace the JD heads with Moffat heads....then it would Whack-A-Moffat.

 

[Toadfish1]

And we'll finally discover if the thing making the entire series completely unwatchable and unbearable was Matt Smith, or Moffat getting totally complacent again and running his show right off a cliff the second he thinks he can't be fired.

Matt Smith was fine.

Apart from how he kept the exact same expression no matter what emotion he was trying to convey (did the guy get a botched Botox injection or something?), had worse delivery than William Shatner, tried to play a hybrid of quirky and real that ended up giving us both boring AND unsympathetic, and kept coasting on the great things of other doctors instead of doing anything impressive up until I just gave up. But apart from that, he was fine.