randomblademan submitted:
I feel like I have to get this off my chest and I figure this would be the best place to do it. I am not a fan of Steven Moffat. I think he has written some good episodes under RTD’s watch and he does have some good concepts for stories, but really I think he’s a pretty bad writer for Doctor Who. But I just realized what bugs me most about him. It’s not just his sexism, his plot hole riddled scripts, or his utter disregard for the continuity and stories of the era that came before he took over the show. I realized that he’s probably actually doing his best when writing. He’s probably really pouring his hearts and soul into his work and trying to make it the best he can make it. It’s really easy to picture him as some douchebag thinking of worse and worse twists he can pull out of his ass, but honestly I get the sense that he is really passionate about the show and is genuinely putting his best effort forward. I really hate his writing on the show and wish I could change so many things about it but I feel bad for doing so because I feel like I’m trashing someone’s work that they tried their hardest on. When I realize that I’m not sure how to feel.
I think the whole concept of "doing your best" is overrated. What does that even mean? He is (I assume) writing the Doctor Who that he would enjoy watching and is probably spending huge amounts of time and effort on it. His creation of Sherlock shows a tremendous love of the original stories, as well as a huge desire to bring it into a modern context.
So he might be doing his best in some areas, but he isn't in others. His sexism and heterosexism have been pointed out to him but he ignores it. That isn't doing your best. That isn't being a bad writer who can't be any better. That is refusing to make yourself a better writer, and that is what I criticise him for, above all his other faults. It's one thing to be sexist and to change when it's pointed out to you (because we live in a sexist society and everyone absorbs society's messages), but to refuse to acknowledge your sexism and to keep writing more and more sexist things then it's not a problem that's out of your control, it's something you are choosing to be bad at. He has chosen not to put effort into writing better female characters, and he deserves to be criticised for that, no matter how much effort he puts in elsewhere.
Also, women are EVERYWHERE. We are half the population! To have reached his age while still reducing them to interchangeable cut-outs is a sign of deliberate ignorance, as well as being a bad writer (if you're only capable of writing about half of humanity, you are not a good writer!).
So even if he has put in a lot of effort, it isn't necessarily in the right places and he's still fair game for criticism, basically.
- C
