Hey I saw this post: thefartsinourstars(.)tumblr(.)com/post/69091982972/someday-in-the-likely-near-future-whovians-are and just seriously thought that someone needs to correct this poor person and my first thought was you. Coz I'm so disappointed that I think if I tried I would give myself a heart attack. <3 xxx
Link: http://thefartsinourstars.tumblr.com/post/69091982972/someday-in-the-likely-near-future-whovians-are
I don’t really like responding to posts that were not put out there for full public consumption - i.e. that person tagging it with “moffat hate” but not other common tags. (I consider everything in the “Steven Moffat” tag fair game.) That’s not to say that sometimes I don’t respond - at times I simply don’t notice what the original tags were, on other occasions I simply feel that after the first 1,000 notes (or a couple of hundred) or so the ideas expressed are up for discussion. So… in that case I don’t necessarily feel the need of annoying that person, even if the ideas expressed are questionable.
Fact is, it does happen with Doctor Who that individuals decide that some aspects of it aren’t canon. It’s fairly easy if there’s a decisive break, e.g. people questioning whether the Eighth Doctor movie is canon or Classic Whovians refusing to acknowlede New Who.
It’s unlikely to happen with Moffat’s Who with the grand majority of fans because:
Moffat is not nearly as problematic or awful as people like to pretend he is and that’s going to be even more obvious in hindsight, without the emotionally charged discussion that we are having in the moment. It will most likely be seen in the context of the time, i.e. today (which ironically a lot of people don’t seem to do at the moment), and they will probably come to the conclusion that any level of offensive material is not above average for today in any way, shape, or form.
Moffat has introduced some changes that will likely be echoed in the future. Clara is the first companion who travels with the Doctor part-time, keeps her job, and only makes him pick her up a day of the week - a model which is probably going to be repeated if you consider how many people are calling for “independent” companions.
Re-writing the time war and making the re-introduction of Gallifrey possible will most likely have effects beyond the Moffat era, whatever people’s opinion on it is. [If he truly adds an explanation of how the Doctor will survive beyond twelve regenerations that will be another point.] In many ways, the changes criticised by the OP are things ultimately designed to open up options for future writers, Moffat of course still included. When future versions of Doctor Who retain aspects of that - and they probably will, exactly for that reason - it is difficult to disregard it as canon even if people dislike what happened.
A lot of new fans were introduced to Doctor Who with his era, particularly internationally. Although I hope we won’t be repeating the mistake of others and start screaming about how he defined what Doctor Who is about, it has nevertheless shaped our idea of what Doctor Who is. We aren’t just going to magically disappear.
Some of the discussions - between Moffat Doctor Who and “other” Doctor Who - are going to take place when a fair number of us is still around. If the fans-working-on-Doctor-Who trend continues with the show, people who liked the show when Moffat was writing it might just get a shot. It’s difficult to erase the middle part of a show when it connects to the past and will likely be refered to in the future.
For this, it’s not even necessary that Moffat is a “good writer” in practice. I mean, he’s a fantastic writer; I’m still reeling from the 50th anniversary episode and the level of perfection that was reached there. The connecting plot threads, parallels, the explanation of the solution embedded in the plot, all in the span of less than 90 minutes - that was some impressive writing. But in the end it doesn’t come down to whether this assessment is “objectively” correct as long as enough people agree with me. If the cinema I went to was anything to go by enough people do and we will be there to tell that tale.
I’m not saying that there’s not going to be a single individual who echoes the OP's sentiment when the 100th anniversary comes around. Heck, the OP might still be there to repeat the same notion. But the vision the OP is painting is wishful thinking, nothing more. Whatever the future’s opinion of Moffat’s writing and showrunning with regards to Doctor Who will be, there’s simply no basis for a grand majority of people to deny it canon status (unless you were to disregard the entirety of New Who writing).
