subtext & subversion : a critique of steven moffat

for cathartic reasons, i have started this blog. the purpose? to release poisonous feelings and logical arguments that pick apart the plot holes, cardboard characters, and not-so-subtle sexism in steven moffat's televised work. more importantly, however, i started this blog so that other people who are looking for answers or need to see this can open their minds to the problems in moffat's writing, and be aware of the general dangers of subtext in film and television. focusing mainly on doctor who, some sherlock bbc on the side. personally I love both of these shows, but i am more than willing to tear into their problematic undertones. please feel free to share your own opinions.

[alter-koker]

this makes me want to cry and throwup and scream never say this again

[bluestockingbaby]

[wholove]

Hi hello could we please make sure that no one watches this and that it flops. Moffat can’t get back on his bullshit in 2020 let’s all leave him back in the 10s thank you very much.

Just a few reminders

[liminal-zone]

FUCK THIS GUY

[natural--blues]

This is the same man who:

joked about the Ninth Doctor sexually assaulting Nancy from the Empty Child (watch the behind the scenes, he openly jokes about it, and basically calls Nancy a tramp for having been a teen mother, despite the hinting that the situation wasn’t one of choice), 

wrote Madame du Pompadour as a sex fiend when she suffered from vaginismus and suspected endometriosis to the point that she would barely even kiss Louis – the King kept her because he was in love with her mind, but none of that came across – this would be a fact the Doctor knew well, because he fucking reads,

said if RTD hadn’t put Rose in another Universe he would have killed her off because she was not classy enough or good enough to be the Doctor’s wife, 

said Rose was the sort of character you were shocked wasn’t teen pregnant but had clearly been around, 

said he chose Karen Gillan for Amy when he saw her in the hallway, and she was more attractive and skinny than the actress that had hit the mark in her audition

calls women he finds unattractive ‘dumpy’

is fatphobic

is racist

is homophobic

is misogynist

joked about Rose’s abusive ex boyfriend ‘’just being sick of her’’

joked that her being lost to Pete’s World was “convenient” for the Doctor, so his cloying needy girlfriend could be gone from him, 

said that the most romantic part of the Time Traveller’s Wife, the problematic book that he based River Song off of, was when she purposefully met the Time Traveller before he ever met her so that she could lie about him marrying her and make it so that he purposefully continued meeting her thinking she was his wife out of love – and. look. what. he. wrote, he literally said “if you watch it, you’ll see that he never actually married her, River isn’t the Doctor’s wife but he just lets her think she is” 

said the part in the Time Traveller’s Wife where she had sex with him before his vasectomy so she could get pregnant by him despite his insistence to her that he didn’t want children ever is ‘so women, right?’

is rumoured to have been handsy on set with his female actresses,

made multiple comments about how women try to trap men

wrote a scene where the Doctor forces a kiss from a lesbian woman

joked about Amy Pond not being as sexy if she was poc

joked about how the Doctor was supposed to save the universe if she was menstruating

made abrasive comments about Jodie being cast as the Doctor

called David Tennant ‘overrated’

made all of his actors sign an agreement that they could never reprise their roles on DW without his express permission

joked about asexuality not existing re: sherlock, saying it was an excuse

said he only casts female actresses that he finds attractive

called his wife a whale and said she deals with everything to do with the kids because that’s her job

joked about bisexual people being selfish

joked about lesbians still liking men

He was the worst thing to come to Doctor Who, and the amount of people who defended him as “well he was just kidding!” split the fandom. This man is a crusty old bigot who is way too high on himself. Do not support him, don’t watch his stupid shows, he doesn’t deserve the money. 

[micaxiii]

[apollowned]

With Destiel becoming cannon, I have been thinking about 2012 tumblr and the fandoms I was in. If you have been following me since then, you probably know that I was a superwholock person. It’s hard for me to look back, because these shows that were so important to me and I gave so much love to, never loved me back.

A friend introduced me to Supernatural, and I would go on to introduce it to my family. I couldn’t pin down why I stopped watching it. I know I kept reading the fanfiction long after I had moved on from the show. I once expected I would be rewatching the seasons I enjoyed for years after; then I heard that Charlie got killed off and I haven’t watched an episode since.

My dad died when I was twelve, and he was the one to introduce me to Doctor Who. I loved it from the first episode of the reboot, and Rose Tyler is still one of my favourite characters of all time. My family would watch episodes together in the living room with a projector, we would have watch parties. In the end I think it would be the first fandom I was ever a part of. I decided I wanted to be not just a writer but a screenwriter, My mom gave me a RTD biography and I found my first hero. Reading the book, I got to see a queer man who loved the same show I did, and I got to see all that went into the show that meant so much to me. Watching the show I got to see a queer character who was the longest living character in the show, I got to see nonbinary identities mentioned in passing, I got to see women be the stars. I saw women yell back at men, and the narrative rewarded them for it. Then Moffat took over. My dad had died only a short time before and my mom wanted things to feel normal. So my family piled into the living room and we watched the first episodes of the new series together. I didn’t like the first episodes but my mom pointed out that I never liked it when the doctor regenerated at first, I just needed to give this new one time. So I did.

I rewatched a couple of episodes of the Moffat run recently, and what my child-self was seeing was a steep decline in writing quality. But they were also seeing less. Less complexity, less queerness, less kindness from the doctor, less love for the audience. In high school the Doctor was my imaginary friend. I would walk through the hallways pretending he was holding my hand, whispering in my ear that if I just got through this there would be a bright beautiful universe waiting for me. Then I got to see Moffat turn the Doctor into the exact person who made school hell for me. The snide sexism, the dismissal, the violence.

Since it was a show I watched with my family, I informed them when I decided to stop. They mocked me for it. Saying I was overreacting and what I really had problems was Clara, not Moffat’s terrible writing. I stopped watching, and they followed shortly after, though they refused to admit that I had been right.

I have rewatched Doctor Who, with my wife, who loved the RTD run as much as I did, but I was only able to get through the first two episodes of the Moffat run.

Sherlock was the first fandom I entered that felt like mine, like I wasn’t being led into it by others. I was never a Johnlock shipper, I didn’t expect or even want the two to end up together, and I loved the first season. It made me feel clever, and like if I was clever enough all my social awkwardness and ineptitude around peoples feelings wouldn’t be such a big deal. Then the first episode of the third season came out, and I realized Moffat hated me. He hated that I cared about the show, that I couldn’t wait to see what kind of masterful trick was waiting for me. It was the first time I realized a writer was able to despise his audience.

So I learned to hate these shows back. I would laugh at the younger version of me, so cringey in how they cared. How they wanted to love media that never wanted them as a part of the audience.

Supernatural was written for straight cisgender white men, Doctor Who was written for me until it wasn’t, and Sherlock was written for men who thought they were clever. They never wanted me there, and I am still proud of the fact that I left.

Even when people told me I was overreacting, or reading too deep into things, I knew what I was willing to put up with, and it wasn’t these men’s bullshit.

I won’t ever forgive these shows for how they hurt a younger version of me, because I lost access to that version because of them. The kid who believed that shows were made of love and I could be a part of that if I tried. The kid who needed these characters, who got through impossible things because of them. The kid who cared so deeply and openly as to put it up on a website for everyone to see. They are gone, I am cynical now, I never watched an episode of Riverdale, I stopped watching Game of Thrones at the fourth season, Harry Potter was lost to me the second J.K. Rowling liked her first transphobic tweet and I just don’t get deep into fandoms anymore. I can’t love them like I used to.

I don’t want to be a screenwriter anymore. I am great at writing dialogue but I just can’t imagine being in the room where they make the decision to kill off their queer character, to have their female character be “put in her place”, to mock the people who love the show so openly, without my heart breaking for a younger version of myself.

I won’t forgive anyone who was behind the decisions that made me stop believing in my imaginary friends, in magic, and in a world which loved me back.

I hope they know this is their legacy.

[anti-moffat]

I'm still mad. The 1st doctor was done dirty in that Twice upon a time episode. Like it was awful. He was turned into a raging sexist when he wasn't. You can't write down that gallifrey was one the single most advanced civilisations ever and then time Lords don't really have gender concepts in one episode then turn around and make the doctor into such a prick. Actually it's not just the first doctor it's just that he didn't feel the need to try hide it anymore cuz 1 is from the 60s.

Yeah. Consistency matters. Cohesive character work matters. When you go outside those bounds writing a character you didn’t create, you might as well slap a new name and face on them and call it a day.

Also, you don’t have to tear down a legacy to build a better one for yourself. Which is sort of the vibe I got there.

[anti-moffat]

Can I ask why you are so fixated on Moffat and not on RTD as well? I mean, I understand some of your critisism, but it's not as if RTD was a ray of sunshine when it comes to writing female characters or hiring women behind the scenes (1 female writer). Honestly, I am so sick of seeing Rose be completely dependant on the doctor, Martha being thrown away because it's more important to see a 900 year old alien mope about a 19 year old teenage girl, and Donna's ending is just utterly disgusting.

Probably because Moffat is just so egregious. At least with RTD, I have other things I can focus on in the plot or character work... with Moffat episodes, the problems are obnoxiously in my face the whole time to the point that I can’t enjoy it.

It’s true though - almost any male writer in film and tv has this problem with sexism. All you have to do is look hard enough, and you’ll find it.

[jointphotographicexportsgroup-d]

this is so satisfying 

[do-you-have-a-flag]

watching all of this was An Experience

[anti-moffat]

So how do we feel about his use of the word "sexy"? Used by 6+ characters across sherlock and doctor who

Supremely irked when River and Missy use it 😭 it feels like words forced into their mouths tbh.             

Well, to be honest, whenever a female character says it, I make a vaguely grossed out face and then try to forget it ever happened. For me, the worst one is Irene Adler in Scandal in Belgravia, but that’s just my personal gut reaction talking. (Especially since she’s... a lesbian... talking about a man... anyway.)

Whenever a male writer has a female character declare that something is “sexy,” well...

It reminds me of the days in high school where dudebros told girls what ‘real women’ are attracted to. Does anyone remember that? Like, some jerk would tell a girl something like, “You might like him now. But once you’re a real woman, you’ll want a real man, not that little boy.” Or, “You girls are always into the jerks, not the nice guys like me.” Or, “Girls like guys with huge muscles, it’s just a biological evolutionary fact.”

The dudebros think they know what women want. And in reality, they couldn’t be more wrong. Women are all different, and are all attracted to things that may wildly differ from individual to individual. Some may not even be attracted to men at all. (Like Irene Adler cough cough.)

With River, or Irene, or Missy, they all say Main Character is sexy with no real differentiation between them. There’s no individual taste that factors into what they consider sexy; it’s just the overwhelming ~sexiness of Main Character that they just can’t resist. Moffat wants Main Character to be sexy, so he has a ton of women say Main Character is sexy. He doesn’t write women to have their own individual, personal ideas of what sexy is, he just thinks of women being irresistibly drawn like moths to the sexy lamp of Main Character that he’s written and thinks that’ll just about do it.

So, yeah. I completely agree with you. The word is not so much forced into their mouths as it is stuffed down their throats.

[mynameisananagram]

I had some thoughts on why Age Of Ultron was so bad. Can’t believe it’s taken me this long to work it out.

[anti-moffat]

Doctor Who showrunner Steven Moffat quits to be replaced by Broadchurch creator Chris Chibnall

Only a Doctor Who Christmas special will air in 2016. Moffat's final series to be broadcast next year in order to create a “huge event” for fans. Chibnall will begin his tenure in 2018

I’M SCREAMING

[anti-moffat]

i say 'tragic' because mark gatiss has had some unapologetic incidents of biphobia which is a little :/

Oh, yeah, I forgot - the ‘people who say they’re bisexual probably aren’t’ interview that he did. Oops.

Man, can’t these TV show writers just chill on the phobias? We’ve got all sorts of phobias all over the place, just sitting there, ruining things - biphobia, transphobia, homophobia, what have you. Truly a tragedy that there are next to none that steer clear of that kind of bigotry. My condolences.

[anti-moffat]

i'm sure you've gotten this question before, but, as a tragic gatiss fan, i feel obliged to ask: how do you feel about mark gatiss' writing?

Actually, no, I have not! First time I’ve been asked this.

I feel like Gatiss has a better grip on character driven episodes than Moffat; for example, his Hounds of Baskerville adaptation in Sherlock BBC and The Crimson Horror from Doctor Who both have gripping interactions and well spun tension. Sometimes there are jokes that fall flat, and sometimes I think his plots could use a bit more tweaking, but overall I feel as though he is a very solid writer with good instincts on how to write characters with real emotions and development. If he were to act less, he could have the time to write a bit more, and you’d hear very little complaining from me.

That’s how I feel, not necessarily how I’d think. I’d have to go over hours and hours of episodes he’s written to give you a truly comprehensive opinion. Honestly, I haven’t devoted much time to studying his work. I am curious, though - why a tragic fan? Is there something about his writing that discomforts you? I would be happy to take a look at a few particular scenes that bothered you and give you my thoughts on them.

[winterinthetardis]

[gael-garcia]

#THEY DON’T WRITE EM LIKE THIS ANYMORE

[val-ritz]

[echoes of eleven blowing up cybermen to get information in the distance]

[agent-coop-aboard-the-bebop-dea]

People who don’t love Nine are the dumbest.

[iprayforangels-deactivated20220]

People think that Nine is dark sullen and a killer. They’re wrong. Nine not dark. He’s light and happy and in love. He wear a leather jacket and is the closest Doctor the the Time War but he is not dark. He is a light person who is fighting his dark past. He knows what he’s done and is fighting to write his wrongs. He just wants everyone to live.

Eleven on the other hand is the exact opposite. People think he’s a puppy in a fez. They’re wrong. He is not happy and joyful. He’s careless. He is having adventures while ruining lives and killing people. He is the man who forgets. He has forgotten the pain he felt after what he did and now is so comfortable killing.

He doesn’t remember Nine. Nine, the Doctor with depression. Nine, the Doctor who fell in love with an nineteen year old shop girl who didn’t need a magic back story to be special. Nine, the Doctor who went and saved his friends without killing. Nine, the Doctor who chose to lose instead of causing loss.

Nine chooses to give up being a god. Eleven pretends he is a god. Nine would make a merciful god. Eleven acts like a vengeful god. Nine is a puppy in a leather jacket. Eleven is a a killer in a fez.

[trixiebobixie]

Wow, that just summed up my feelings on where Doctor Who has gone better than anything else I’ve read. 

[thisismycoolurl]

Nine is so underappreciated.     

[no-thanks-moffat]

Standing ovation

[toreyourpageoutofmybiography]

but-not-likethis the-adventures-of-rose-tyler starsrose A great meta.

[bramblepatch]

Basically if you are not deeply critical of your own creative endeavors at least some of the time, you are probably either Gilderoy Lockhart or Steven Moffat.

[the-deep-magic]

I laughed way too hard at this because I could totally see Moffat titling his autobiography Magical Me.

[enoughinthenarrative-remaking-d]

what the fuck is happening on doctor who

[cctinsleybaxter]

Every time I see news on DW I’m just like ‘Glad I got out of that one.’

[thediggles]

#are you shitting me with this aRE YOU SHITTING ME,WHY WOULD YOU BRING THIS TO MY ATTENTION, GOD THE NONSENSE AND FUCKERY THAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU LOOK AWAY, WOW THANKS FOR REMINDING ME WHY I HAVE FORCED SO MUCH EMOTIONAL DISTANCE BETWEEN ME AND THIS SHOW, WHY WOULD THE DOCTOR BE WEDDED TO HIS ICONIC TOOL WHICH IS A DIRECT AND POWERFUL PIECE OF HIS CHARACTERIZATION, OH MY GOD MOFFAT SUNGLASSES???, SUNGLASSES?!?!?!?!?, DID HE SAY ‘SUNGLASSES ARE COOL’ BECAUSE YOU SO DESPERATELY WANT THEM TO BE?, GENUINELY WHAT THE FUCK THIS WOULD BE MORE LAUGHABLE IF IT WEREN’T SO GALLINGLY IDIOTIC,JESUS CHRIST HE USES A SONIC SCREWDRIVER BECAUSE IT ISN’T A WEAPON IT IS A DIRECT AND CLEAR METAPHOR FOR THE DOCTOR, AND HIS NEED TO FIX TO HELP TO ASSIST TO SUBTLY TWEAK FOR THE BETTER, AND YOU TRADED THAT FOR *SUNGLASSES* MOFFAT, FUCKING SUNGLASSES, SONIC YOUR SUNGLASSES RIGHT UP YOUR ASS JESUS, WHEN THEY’RE LODGED IN YOUR ANUS YOU’LL BE WISHING IT WAS A SONIC SCREWDRIVER INSTEAD. (via absentlyabbie)

[schmergo]

I used to love Doctor Who, and now I care so little that I literally didn’t even know there was a new season starting this month

[anti-moffat]

First off I'd just like to say that I absolutely love your blog!! Secondly, and I'm not sure if you have answered this question before because I'm new to your blog, how do you feel about River song? I personally believe she had a great amount of potential, but her entire character and her involvement in the series fell flat due to Moffats sexist writing, and her forced relationship with 11, but I would love to know how you feel about her! Again, your blog is great!

I’ve been meaning to go through and tag all my posts by character, buuuut I haven’t gotten around to it until now! Haha! My new and improved Useful Tags page now has the River Song tag for you to peruse. I’m sure just from those posts you can get the general idea of my thoughts on the matter.

To sum it up, though, I think River Song was a mix of cliches thrown together into one big problematic mess that did more for sexism than it did feminism. Any character has potential, and she did initially interest me because of the way her introduction was shrouded in mystery, but alas. When the shroud of mystery was taken away, there was no substance underneath. Especially with all the ingredients in her make-up coming from other characters like Amy Pond and Reinette, she feels especially manufactured and redundant - I don’t think there’s a single thing about her that I could pin down that would be unique only to her in the DW universe like I can about other characters. Oh, and the “psychopathy” and violence and guns - don’t even get me started, lol.

[anti-moffat]

What are you fav doctor who eps per each doctor 1-10 ?

Well I’m still trying to catch up on Old Who, so I can’t say for sure about Doctors 1-8 until I’ve finished watching them all. 9-10, though... I have many favorites, so I’ll have to pare them down!! Really, though, I don’t even know where to begin, I have so many I could watch into eternity. But hell, I’ll give it a try.

Ninth Doctor: Bad Wolf/The Parting of the Ways

Such a triumph, so much foreshadowing building up to this finale and none of it wasted. Just... I have to slow-clap it out. Awesome. And all the characters interacting, all the plot strings being tied up, it’s just awesome. It’s not just a great episode set, it’s the season finale to beat all other season finales. Writing can’t possibly get tighter than this, and the acting was superb. Also, dayum, Rose and the Bad Wolf plot. Fantastic. [Runners up: Dalek, Father’s Day]

Tenth Doctor: MmmMMidnight?? End of Time? Doomsday?

This is the hardest question for me to answer, because the bulk of my favorites are in Tennant’s seasons. Midnight is absolutely the strongest character-driven episode of New Who written so far, and the tension/horror developments are better than textbook. I get scared out of my mind every single time I watch it. On the other hand, we have episodes with real, heavy gravitas like Doomsday and End of Time, where emotions get riled up, the most epic plot-twists mess with reality as we know it, and I pretty much cry every single time. [Runners up: Partners in Crime, The Shakespeare Code]