#steven moffa

[lilislisa]

So yes this kind of pushed me over the edge again. I was literally in tears when I read what Moffat said about Molly’s character. This is not okay. This is like telling women: Whatever he says or does, you will forgive him. WHAT KIND OF MESSAGE IS THAT?! Nope.

[thethoughterfall]

The Inevitable Steven Moffat Rant

Before I start, I suppose I should make some concessions so I don't seem like some sort of unjustified jerk.

First of all, I realise that being the head writer for a show like doctor who must be a highly pressurized work environment and the need to keep a fifty year old show new and interesting must be fairly difficult.

I'm not speaking as an expert in this, just an avid fan. My opinion is just that. Opinion. Conjecture. Maybe even pointless. But still, here we go.

Dear Steve,

I would like it to be known that this rant wasn't a recent idea of mine. It's been in the background for a while, churning and boiling like molten jam made out of venom and contrived plots. Every time you've done something to make me feel the need to write this, I've suppressed it and kept my opinions to myself. Why? Because every so often, you are an amazing writer. You have written some of my favourite episodes and done the show proud on so many occasions. Here's the thing, though. Because of this, I was prepared to never write this rant.

Then you not only wrote, not only produced, but actually AIRED the episode that you called 'Listen'.

I realise of course that in every series it is necessary to have an episode that can be produced in a very low budget in order to ensure the other episodes can all take up as much money as they want. Clearly, that was this episode, and I have no problem with small scale episodes. They can be refreshing and fun. You chose to make this one scary, which was perfectly acceptable. You spent the first half of the episode building up a brilliant atmosphere and creating one of the scariest moments of Doctor Who that I have ever seen. Where your logic starts to fail, at least in my eyes, is in your decision to abandon every plot line that you started half way through and drastically change the plot of the episode. You had a scary location (the orphanage), you had a scary setting (night time) and you had a terrifying monster (whatever was hiding underneath the blanket). You had all the makings of a brilliant episode, but you didn't need those, did you? Why not just change it all, although throw in enough tenuous connections so that it seems as if it's still the same episode. Better yet, why not make one of the show's best moments, not just of this particular series but possibly ever, and make it into the biggest gaping plot hole ever? How could a script have gotten past the first draft without such a glaring fault being noticed and taken out? If there was never anything to be afraid of, what was hiding underneath the blanket. (I'm well aware that this makes no sense unless you've seen the episode but bare with me.) I'm well aware of the fact that you're probably going to turn around at the season finale and have a perfectly good reason to fill in the plot hole and patch up all the cracks, but if the singular episodes have to suffer for the sake of the over-arcing plot line then that's a sign that your over-arcing plot line isn't that good. It's great to have a mystery in each series, but it's better to be able to watch every episode and get a complete story from each one.

This is just one of many examples how I feel that Moffat falls down as head writer. He sets up these incredible and ingenious mysteries that are so intriguing that the fans can't help but be drawn in, before never revealing the answer to these mysteries. Case and point, the Doctor's name. Such a big deal was made about what the name of the doctor really was, when it was never particularly important to the show. It was only important, because it was made to seem important, blown well out of proportion to the point where nothing would be a good enough answer. By the end of that plot, no name that was given to the Doctor would have been good enough to satisfy the audience or justify all the noise that was being made. The mystery of the name was built up to be some sort of massive impassable wall that the plot kept running into, but at the end they just tunnelled under it and the mystery was 'solved' purely because the plot had progressed. Another example of this is Moffat's other highly popular TV show, Sherlock. The second season ended with Sherlock's apparent suicide (symbolic for him falling over the Reichenbach falls) but as it turned out he was so clever that he had managed to trick everyone and survive. The fan base nearly drove themselves insane trying to think up the method he used to fake his death. The third series started with him resuming his life from where it left off, giving multiple possible tricks he could have pulled in order to survive, all of which were discredited while the true manoeuvre is still unknown. At times within the show, the fan base were openly mocked and depicted as conspiracy theorists. As you might expect, how Sherlock survived his seemingly perilous but temporary suicide is still unknown. The mystery was merely 'solved' because Sherlock was back and there was a new mystery to solve.

I realise that I'm coming across as the world's biggest nerd, it's just that I feel very strongly about Doctor Who (not so much Sherlock after season 3). It's one of my favourite things and you systematically ruin it.

Still, I feel my blood no longer boiling, so I'll stop this. I never really wanted to write anything like this, writing is a tough job and I don't even do it professionally.

Still, let's just all count ourselves lucky that I didn't get started on 'Deep Breath.'

Until next time, see ya!