Kill the Moon
Oct. 5th, 2014 07:08 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
llywelaI waited overnight to see if my feelings would change, but they haven't.
And to think I had such high hopes for this season.
Contrived conflict. Characters used as devices. Awful storytelling.
I don't even have the energy to pick it all apart any more. I really dislike this narrative style. I hate that the show and the Doctor are being thrown under a bus to serve Clara's story arc. It is possible to give a primary story arc to one character while also developing other characters and stories alongside them. Everything does not have to be subsumed by that single story to the exclusion of all other development. I can see what they are trying to do here, but the writing is so heavy-handed that it's crushing the life out of the show.
This new Doctor has not been allowed to have his personality developed beyond the abrasive detachment established in his first episode, because Clara's story for the season - which apparently revolves around disliking the Doctor and being miserable while with him - relies on him being unpleasant, and Moffat has decided that Clara is now the hero of the show, the only person who gets to have a storyline or a valid point of view.
Capaldi's Doctor is just so...graceless. And, you know, plenty of previous Doctors have been rude, whether by accident or design, but they all had charm to offset it, they all had layers, multi-faceted personalities. They were more than just one thing. We should be peeling back the layers of Capaldi's Doctor by now, we should be getting to know him - and the thing is, if we were doing that, if he were being explored in any depth, it would strengthen Clara's storyline by adding tension. If we were shown the strengths of their relationship instead of just tearing it down to make Clara look good, it would make her dilemma stronger and more real, instead of leaving us wondering why she bothers with this bastard she dislikes so much.
In this episode, continuing the seasonal trend, the entire population of Earth got to be wrong so that perfect Clara could be right.
And once again Moffat's Who avoids consequences. Make a choice that for all you know could end all life on Earth (which is what would happen if the moon disappeared) and presto chango, as if by magic, there are no consequences, plot magic saves the day, even though the characters had no way of knowing that.
It all feels so contrived. Manipulative. Hollow.
Who am I supposed to be rooting for here? None of these characters are likeable. Well, I suppose Courtney might be fun if she existed as a person with a life and story of her own, rather than as a device to support Clara's story - from what we've seen of her, I'd far rather see Courtney develop a spiky, 'gruff mentor-rebellious pupil' relationship with the Doctor (something that would give both of them the opportunity to peel back layers) than watch Clara being always right and always miserable, feeling tied to the Doctor not because she likes him or enjoys travelling with him but because she feels responsible for keeping him on the straight and narrow. Their dynamic is horrible. The characters are not being given room to breathe and simply be.
I resent it when realistic characterisation and reactions are shafted in service of a plot contrivance. Like...as a teacher, with one of her students having been taken on a trip in the TARDIS by a Doctor she neither likes nor trusts, Clara's reaction should have been "What were you thinking?" not "How could you say something mean to her?" The focus and emphasis are in all the wrong places.
I can see what Steven Moffat is aiming for. I can see what he is trying to do. The 6th Doctor was presented as unlikeable in the wake of his regeneration, with the intention of mellowing him as time went along. It didn't work, the writing was too weak and the audience was alienated, and that incarnation didn't last long enough to become who he could have been (although he mellowed a good sight faster than Capaldi's Doctor!). Tegan Jovanka was presented as very much the reluctant companion who frequently clashed with the Doctor and was horrified by the disasters she witnessed. I quite like her story, but many fans hate her for it. Both were controversial characters in the 1980s. Moffat seems to think he can repeat those experiments and do it better this time, but he's just making the same mistakes all over again - and adding many more of his own, while not even managing to replicate the things those earlier attempts got right (such as Tegan's close bond with Nyssa or the 6th Doctor's passion and heart).
Moffat loves his callbacks to the classic show - this episode was crammed with them. But cherry-picking a few moments from classic stories that appear 'cool' or 'significant' or 'popular', removing them from context and jamming them together hoping to make a similar impact...it doesn't work, it just feels flimsy and forced. This Doctor needs to be allowed to find himself, not just copy what other Doctors did in a different context.
One of my major criticisms of the Moffat era has been that it tells its stories in broad brushstrokes, using characters as devices to service the plots rather than using the plots to explore the characters. That's still true, and the flipside is that he also tends to have a very narrow focus on his primary plot, to the exclusion of all else. No matter what issues are thrown up along the way, they aren't explored and they aren't resolved, because the overarching Plot is what matters. It makes for a disjointed viewing experience and is part of what has prevented me bonding with any of his characters.
I'd really hoped for better with a new Doctor and a new era, but no.
This season disappoints me enormously.
And to think I had such high hopes for this season.
Contrived conflict. Characters used as devices. Awful storytelling.
I don't even have the energy to pick it all apart any more. I really dislike this narrative style. I hate that the show and the Doctor are being thrown under a bus to serve Clara's story arc. It is possible to give a primary story arc to one character while also developing other characters and stories alongside them. Everything does not have to be subsumed by that single story to the exclusion of all other development. I can see what they are trying to do here, but the writing is so heavy-handed that it's crushing the life out of the show.
This new Doctor has not been allowed to have his personality developed beyond the abrasive detachment established in his first episode, because Clara's story for the season - which apparently revolves around disliking the Doctor and being miserable while with him - relies on him being unpleasant, and Moffat has decided that Clara is now the hero of the show, the only person who gets to have a storyline or a valid point of view.
Capaldi's Doctor is just so...graceless. And, you know, plenty of previous Doctors have been rude, whether by accident or design, but they all had charm to offset it, they all had layers, multi-faceted personalities. They were more than just one thing. We should be peeling back the layers of Capaldi's Doctor by now, we should be getting to know him - and the thing is, if we were doing that, if he were being explored in any depth, it would strengthen Clara's storyline by adding tension. If we were shown the strengths of their relationship instead of just tearing it down to make Clara look good, it would make her dilemma stronger and more real, instead of leaving us wondering why she bothers with this bastard she dislikes so much.
In this episode, continuing the seasonal trend, the entire population of Earth got to be wrong so that perfect Clara could be right.
And once again Moffat's Who avoids consequences. Make a choice that for all you know could end all life on Earth (which is what would happen if the moon disappeared) and presto chango, as if by magic, there are no consequences, plot magic saves the day, even though the characters had no way of knowing that.
It all feels so contrived. Manipulative. Hollow.
Who am I supposed to be rooting for here? None of these characters are likeable. Well, I suppose Courtney might be fun if she existed as a person with a life and story of her own, rather than as a device to support Clara's story - from what we've seen of her, I'd far rather see Courtney develop a spiky, 'gruff mentor-rebellious pupil' relationship with the Doctor (something that would give both of them the opportunity to peel back layers) than watch Clara being always right and always miserable, feeling tied to the Doctor not because she likes him or enjoys travelling with him but because she feels responsible for keeping him on the straight and narrow. Their dynamic is horrible. The characters are not being given room to breathe and simply be.
I resent it when realistic characterisation and reactions are shafted in service of a plot contrivance. Like...as a teacher, with one of her students having been taken on a trip in the TARDIS by a Doctor she neither likes nor trusts, Clara's reaction should have been "What were you thinking?" not "How could you say something mean to her?" The focus and emphasis are in all the wrong places.
I can see what Steven Moffat is aiming for. I can see what he is trying to do. The 6th Doctor was presented as unlikeable in the wake of his regeneration, with the intention of mellowing him as time went along. It didn't work, the writing was too weak and the audience was alienated, and that incarnation didn't last long enough to become who he could have been (although he mellowed a good sight faster than Capaldi's Doctor!). Tegan Jovanka was presented as very much the reluctant companion who frequently clashed with the Doctor and was horrified by the disasters she witnessed. I quite like her story, but many fans hate her for it. Both were controversial characters in the 1980s. Moffat seems to think he can repeat those experiments and do it better this time, but he's just making the same mistakes all over again - and adding many more of his own, while not even managing to replicate the things those earlier attempts got right (such as Tegan's close bond with Nyssa or the 6th Doctor's passion and heart).
Moffat loves his callbacks to the classic show - this episode was crammed with them. But cherry-picking a few moments from classic stories that appear 'cool' or 'significant' or 'popular', removing them from context and jamming them together hoping to make a similar impact...it doesn't work, it just feels flimsy and forced. This Doctor needs to be allowed to find himself, not just copy what other Doctors did in a different context.
One of my major criticisms of the Moffat era has been that it tells its stories in broad brushstrokes, using characters as devices to service the plots rather than using the plots to explore the characters. That's still true, and the flipside is that he also tends to have a very narrow focus on his primary plot, to the exclusion of all else. No matter what issues are thrown up along the way, they aren't explored and they aren't resolved, because the overarching Plot is what matters. It makes for a disjointed viewing experience and is part of what has prevented me bonding with any of his characters.
I'd really hoped for better with a new Doctor and a new era, but no.
This season disappoints me enormously.
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no subject
Date: 2014-10-05 09:46 am (UTC)I see all the usual Moffatt flaws in the storytelling, but this season I have a more positive outlook, given that it is such a huge relief for me to be rid of Eleven/River Song/the fairytale tone of the previous seasons/etc. So I guess my standards are really low, and anything was going to be better than season 6/7 for me.
So now I just watch for the adventures and the entertainment value. I have no emotional investment and I avoid analyzing the show too much; also, the Clara worship will never stop being utterly annoying... but at least I'm not getting irritated all the time! ;)
no subject
Date: 2014-10-05 02:25 pm (UTC)I really feel that the show would be better off at this point in the hands of someone who hasn't been a lifelong fan - Moffat and Davies brought a lot of baggage into their showrunning. With Davies it mostly worked, but with Moffat it has been dire and is getting worse.
I started out feeling that season 8 was a definite improvement, but the grace period is over now and I'm just cross.