steven moffat appreciation week || day #2. favourite theme: 'That's a fairy tale.' 'Doctor, aren't we all?'
When I hear people saying that Moffat’s writing is empty and it’s just a convoluted storyline that makes no sense, I am always absolutely flabbergasted. Do we watch the same things? Maybe I watch a version of the show that comes from a parallel universe. Who knows. But then again, to each their own. For me Moffat era is full of fairytales - or at least fairytale-like stories.
There’s a small girl in a big empty house, with no parents and an absent aunt. A mad man crashes into her shed, eats fish fingers and custard and promises to come back. And he does, but years later, when the girl is all grown-up and way past fairytales. But then she believes her raggedy man - just for 20 minutes - and together they save the world and then he gives her years of miraculous experiences. There’s a nurse, one who was always a bit in the back, not one of the cool guys - but then again this same nurse is ready to protect the woman he loves and guard her for over 2000 years. There’s a girl stolen from her parents, who fights against everything she’s been taught, who chooses to love instead of hate, who molds her own fate and who saves her prince with a kiss. There’s a girl who isn’t a college student, but who gets noticed and tutored by the smartest man in the world - and he shows her the wonders of the universe. Later, when the girl is turned into an unfeeling machine, she’s rescued and turned immortal by a girl she fancied and together they travel throughout the universe.
There’s a man who when he was turned into a Cyberman, wanted just one thing: to protect the woman he loved, and even after his death, he made amends to people he hurt in his past. There’s a girl who defeats a mighty god with just her words and a leaf. There’s a fearsome star whale that comes to the rescue, because he just heard the children cry. And then, there’s a powerful, almost almighty Time Lord - who is afraid of the dark. And even though he could do terrible things and destroy galaxies and watch the world burn, he chooses - over and over again - to be kind. He chooses to be The Doctor.
Moffat writes stories about friendships and found families; stories about love powerful enough to last millenia and freeze time, of love that says together or not at all; stories about trusting and believing, about being true to yourself; stories about holding hands and how you should never be cruel or cowardly, and how hatred is always foolish while love is always wise. These are the stories about hope and how it can be found in the darkest of times and that there’s always a way out. If that’s not a fairytale, I don’t know what is.