more Doctor Who thoughts
Oct. 25th, 2022 11:01 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
llywelaI am back with some more thoughts!
The first of which is that I've been feeling like the episode was missing something, overstuffed though it was, and I realised what it is I was missing: the betrayal. See, the Master teaming up with a bunch of bloodthirsty aliens to further his own goals is completely in character, but usually those stories end with him being betrayed by said aliens. That didn't happen here. Both Cybermen and Daleks just...did as they were told, to the point of destruction. Which is massively out of character for both parties, even allowing for the fact that the Master in fact created these Cybermen.
Which more or less brings me to my other point, which has to do with the way Chris Chibnall has approached his writing for Doctor Who throughout, and is at the core of the most fundamental flaws in his era. It's the way he writes for characters - or, rather, doesn't write for characters. Because he doesn't. He doesn't use his characters to drive the action, and he doesn't use the action to develop his characters. The characters are simply there to join the dots of the plot, which is why none of them have had any meaningful development of any kind in all the seasons they've been there. There was just so damn much he could have done with the characters at his disposal in this story - and he did manage a few really nice little moments, I'll give him that. The little exchanges between Tegan and Five and between Ace and Seven were really well done, especially the Tegan scene, with that little mention of Adric, which hit hard mainly because the actors sold it so well, the memory of that shared trauma and how much it still hurts, but also because the moment was given time to breathe - unlike most of the rest of the episode, which had no breathing space for just about anything. But there was so much potential in the combinations going on here, all of which went begging. There was no build up to Dan leaving. He just left. There was no build up to Yaz leaving. She just left. There was no conclusion to Kate's story in the episode, or to Tegan's, or Ace's. They were just there until they weren't, and then the story moved on without them, once their part in the plot was done. No actual goodbyes. Vinder had no real characterisation or purpose at all, he was just there to carry a part of the plot, and was then unceremoniously shoved off. Even supporting characters should have a distinct beginning, middle, and end to their stories, and none of them did.
Just imagine what this story might have been if it used its characters to drive the action, instead of having them run around after the plot the whole time. If the action had been used to develop the characters and their individual stories. If each individual had had a clearly defined arc through the episode. If they had been allowed to talk to each other more, build connections. If meeting Tegan and Ace, and seeing Vinder again and talking to him about his life now, etc, had been allowed to feed into Yaz's decision to leave the TARDIS as the culmination of a four-year story-arc that had built and grown over the seasons, instead of being something she just drifts into without a single word to express her motivation, when her devotion to the Doctor and to life in the TARDIS has been her single-most defining character trait up until now. If Tegan and Ace had been allowed to express more of what it meant for them to be working with UNIT, of what it meant for them to see the Doctor again - and, crucially, what they will take from that experience going forward.
It could have been a much stronger story. And I know that Chris Chibnall is capable of writing powerful character stories. I honestly don't understand why he has consistently refused to do so in Doctor Who. Why does he believe Doctor Who must be plot-driven rather than character-led?
Ah well. He's gone now.
The first of which is that I've been feeling like the episode was missing something, overstuffed though it was, and I realised what it is I was missing: the betrayal. See, the Master teaming up with a bunch of bloodthirsty aliens to further his own goals is completely in character, but usually those stories end with him being betrayed by said aliens. That didn't happen here. Both Cybermen and Daleks just...did as they were told, to the point of destruction. Which is massively out of character for both parties, even allowing for the fact that the Master in fact created these Cybermen.
Which more or less brings me to my other point, which has to do with the way Chris Chibnall has approached his writing for Doctor Who throughout, and is at the core of the most fundamental flaws in his era. It's the way he writes for characters - or, rather, doesn't write for characters. Because he doesn't. He doesn't use his characters to drive the action, and he doesn't use the action to develop his characters. The characters are simply there to join the dots of the plot, which is why none of them have had any meaningful development of any kind in all the seasons they've been there. There was just so damn much he could have done with the characters at his disposal in this story - and he did manage a few really nice little moments, I'll give him that. The little exchanges between Tegan and Five and between Ace and Seven were really well done, especially the Tegan scene, with that little mention of Adric, which hit hard mainly because the actors sold it so well, the memory of that shared trauma and how much it still hurts, but also because the moment was given time to breathe - unlike most of the rest of the episode, which had no breathing space for just about anything. But there was so much potential in the combinations going on here, all of which went begging. There was no build up to Dan leaving. He just left. There was no build up to Yaz leaving. She just left. There was no conclusion to Kate's story in the episode, or to Tegan's, or Ace's. They were just there until they weren't, and then the story moved on without them, once their part in the plot was done. No actual goodbyes. Vinder had no real characterisation or purpose at all, he was just there to carry a part of the plot, and was then unceremoniously shoved off. Even supporting characters should have a distinct beginning, middle, and end to their stories, and none of them did.
Just imagine what this story might have been if it used its characters to drive the action, instead of having them run around after the plot the whole time. If the action had been used to develop the characters and their individual stories. If each individual had had a clearly defined arc through the episode. If they had been allowed to talk to each other more, build connections. If meeting Tegan and Ace, and seeing Vinder again and talking to him about his life now, etc, had been allowed to feed into Yaz's decision to leave the TARDIS as the culmination of a four-year story-arc that had built and grown over the seasons, instead of being something she just drifts into without a single word to express her motivation, when her devotion to the Doctor and to life in the TARDIS has been her single-most defining character trait up until now. If Tegan and Ace had been allowed to express more of what it meant for them to be working with UNIT, of what it meant for them to see the Doctor again - and, crucially, what they will take from that experience going forward.
It could have been a much stronger story. And I know that Chris Chibnall is capable of writing powerful character stories. I honestly don't understand why he has consistently refused to do so in Doctor Who. Why does he believe Doctor Who must be plot-driven rather than character-led?
Ah well. He's gone now.
