the difference between rtd who and moffat who
There's this very wet semi-snow thing going on outside and obviously that means I should write half-articulated Doctor Who meta that's been meandering around in my head for a while.
Thesis: I think there are three major differences between Moffat and RTD's eras of New Who headrunning, and one of them is actually their major similarity.
I've said this before, but I'll say it again:
The thing is, as far as I can see, Moffat and RTD share one major flaw as (Doctor Who) writers: they're both terrible at characterization.
They're terrible in different ways, but they're both terrible at it.
RTD (and again, I'm limiting this to his Whoniverse work 'cause I'm not familiar enough with any of his other writing to say whether it applies across the board) seems to believe that if he provides enough details and backstory and context, then viewers won't notice that his characters act in wildly contradictory way, adopt and lose character traits as the plot demands, and have no consistent motivation.
Moff on the other hand (see above parenthetical note) seems to believe that if he avoids as much detail and backstory as possible, then viewers will provide their own context that will somehow make sense of the way his characters act in wildly contradictory way, adopt and lose character traits as the plot demands, and have no consistent motivation.
See? They approach the problem in different ways but they both have the problem.
This is tied into the idea of backstory/context I was talking about above, but it's distinct enough to merit its own section.
RTD is very attached to the idea of home. All of his major companions (Rose, Martha, Donna; Mickey to a lesser extent) come from very carefully illustrated homes (and by 'homes' I am referring to 'families, neighborhoods, background of all sorts') and they return, repeatedly. They're never very far from their homes, or their mothers, or their pasts. In RTD's DW, the most important thing the Doctor can do for you is make sure that you get home regularly, that you can call your mum when you're a bit homesick, that you can always return whenever you want.
Moff, in contrast, is all about escape. Look, it's heard to draw patterns here because we only have one season and one Companion team to draw on, but from what we do have: in the first episode of S5, we are introduced to Amy, and Rory, and Leadworth. And it's fascinating for what we don't get: we get a mention of Amy's parents (she doesn't have any), we get a mention of Amy's aunt (she's not around), we get introduced (briefly) to a couple neighbors and one kind-of friend (Jeff? Is he an ex-boyfriend of Amy's or what?). And that's it. Amy leaves, and the only thing tying her to Leadworth, the only thing that makes her think of 'home', is her fiance. A few episodes later, they come back to Leadworth -- just barely long enough to pick up Rory (and as far as we're shown Amy doesn't even leave the TARDIS for that!) and leave again. We get the imaginary Leadworth in "Amy's Choice" where Amy is obviously barely connected to the community around her -- and then Amy and Rory are present in the rewritten timeline, long enough to get married, long enough to remember the original timeline, and then leave again. In Moff's Who, the most important thing the Doctor can do for you is take you away.
I hope my point is obvious, but here it is restated for the tl;dr crowd: When RTD's Companions went home, their storylines were about going home and reconnecting; when Amy goes home, her storylines are about leaving again.
This is actually I think the most likely to have been a deliberate choice by Moff, but whatever, it gets included anyway.
In five RTD season finales (I'm counting "The End Of Time" as a season finale), we have four cases of memory playing a major role.
One: Rose takes the TARDIS inside of her and becomes the Bad Wolf, but the power is too much and the Doctor has to take it from her, resulting in his own death and regeneration. Rose doesn't remember anything that happened while she was the Bad Wolf.
Two: Skipping Doomsday, as it doesn't have any memory issues. Or if it does I don't recall them (heh, irony).
Three: Martha walks the Earth for a year telling the Doctor's story, leading up to the grand payoff where humanity's belief in the Doctor saves them from the Master. Martha and a select few others are allowed to remember this set of events, but the rest of humanity has time reset and therefore doesn't remember TYTNW (because it never happened).
Four: Donna and the metacrisis Doctor exchange genetic material, granting Donna temporary Time Lord-like abilities. But it's killing her, and in order to save her life, the Doctor wipes her memories of everything from their first meeting on.
Five: Donna almost remembers her time on the TARDIS, but then doesn't, due to a failsafe the Doctor pulled out of his ass. (Yeah, Doctor, think that might've been a nice thing to tell her family back when you were scaring them with talk about how if anything at all ever reminded her of her time on the TARDIS she'd DIE? I'm not bitter or anything.)
The overarching message here: Yes, you can totally be awesome, but only if it is then erased from your memory and/or time itself.
Now, contrast:
"There’s someone missing. Someone important, someone so, so important. Sorry, everyone, but when I was a kid, I had an imaginary friend, the Raggedy Doctor, my Raggedy Doctor. But he wasn’t imaginary, he was real. I remember you! I remember! I brought the others back; I can bring you home too! Raggedy Man, I remember you! And you are late for my wedding! I found you; I found you in words just like you knew I would; that's why you told me the story, the brand new, ancient blue box. Oh, clever, oh, very clever."
"Amy, what is it?"
"Something old. Something new. Something borrowed. Something blue."
RTD's Companions have to have their season-ending CMoAs forgotten in order to protect themselves/save time/preserve the status quo/whatever; Moffat's Companion's season-ending CMoA is to remember.
Thoughts?
Thesis: I think there are three major differences between Moffat and RTD's eras of New Who headrunning, and one of them is actually their major similarity.
I've said this before, but I'll say it again:
The thing is, as far as I can see, Moffat and RTD share one major flaw as (Doctor Who) writers: they're both terrible at characterization.
They're terrible in different ways, but they're both terrible at it.
RTD (and again, I'm limiting this to his Whoniverse work 'cause I'm not familiar enough with any of his other writing to say whether it applies across the board) seems to believe that if he provides enough details and backstory and context, then viewers won't notice that his characters act in wildly contradictory way, adopt and lose character traits as the plot demands, and have no consistent motivation.
Moff on the other hand (see above parenthetical note) seems to believe that if he avoids as much detail and backstory as possible, then viewers will provide their own context that will somehow make sense of the way his characters act in wildly contradictory way, adopt and lose character traits as the plot demands, and have no consistent motivation.
See? They approach the problem in different ways but they both have the problem.
This is tied into the idea of backstory/context I was talking about above, but it's distinct enough to merit its own section.
RTD is very attached to the idea of home. All of his major companions (Rose, Martha, Donna; Mickey to a lesser extent) come from very carefully illustrated homes (and by 'homes' I am referring to 'families, neighborhoods, background of all sorts') and they return, repeatedly. They're never very far from their homes, or their mothers, or their pasts. In RTD's DW, the most important thing the Doctor can do for you is make sure that you get home regularly, that you can call your mum when you're a bit homesick, that you can always return whenever you want.
Moff, in contrast, is all about escape. Look, it's heard to draw patterns here because we only have one season and one Companion team to draw on, but from what we do have: in the first episode of S5, we are introduced to Amy, and Rory, and Leadworth. And it's fascinating for what we don't get: we get a mention of Amy's parents (she doesn't have any), we get a mention of Amy's aunt (she's not around), we get introduced (briefly) to a couple neighbors and one kind-of friend (Jeff? Is he an ex-boyfriend of Amy's or what?). And that's it. Amy leaves, and the only thing tying her to Leadworth, the only thing that makes her think of 'home', is her fiance. A few episodes later, they come back to Leadworth -- just barely long enough to pick up Rory (and as far as we're shown Amy doesn't even leave the TARDIS for that!) and leave again. We get the imaginary Leadworth in "Amy's Choice" where Amy is obviously barely connected to the community around her -- and then Amy and Rory are present in the rewritten timeline, long enough to get married, long enough to remember the original timeline, and then leave again. In Moff's Who, the most important thing the Doctor can do for you is take you away.
I hope my point is obvious, but here it is restated for the tl;dr crowd: When RTD's Companions went home, their storylines were about going home and reconnecting; when Amy goes home, her storylines are about leaving again.
This is actually I think the most likely to have been a deliberate choice by Moff, but whatever, it gets included anyway.
In five RTD season finales (I'm counting "The End Of Time" as a season finale), we have four cases of memory playing a major role.
One: Rose takes the TARDIS inside of her and becomes the Bad Wolf, but the power is too much and the Doctor has to take it from her, resulting in his own death and regeneration. Rose doesn't remember anything that happened while she was the Bad Wolf.
Two: Skipping Doomsday, as it doesn't have any memory issues. Or if it does I don't recall them (heh, irony).
Three: Martha walks the Earth for a year telling the Doctor's story, leading up to the grand payoff where humanity's belief in the Doctor saves them from the Master. Martha and a select few others are allowed to remember this set of events, but the rest of humanity has time reset and therefore doesn't remember TYTNW (because it never happened).
Four: Donna and the metacrisis Doctor exchange genetic material, granting Donna temporary Time Lord-like abilities. But it's killing her, and in order to save her life, the Doctor wipes her memories of everything from their first meeting on.
Five: Donna almost remembers her time on the TARDIS, but then doesn't, due to a failsafe the Doctor pulled out of his ass. (Yeah, Doctor, think that might've been a nice thing to tell her family back when you were scaring them with talk about how if anything at all ever reminded her of her time on the TARDIS she'd DIE? I'm not bitter or anything.)
The overarching message here: Yes, you can totally be awesome, but only if it is then erased from your memory and/or time itself.
Now, contrast:
"There’s someone missing. Someone important, someone so, so important. Sorry, everyone, but when I was a kid, I had an imaginary friend, the Raggedy Doctor, my Raggedy Doctor. But he wasn’t imaginary, he was real. I remember you! I remember! I brought the others back; I can bring you home too! Raggedy Man, I remember you! And you are late for my wedding! I found you; I found you in words just like you knew I would; that's why you told me the story, the brand new, ancient blue box. Oh, clever, oh, very clever."
"Amy, what is it?"
"Something old. Something new. Something borrowed. Something blue."
RTD's Companions have to have their season-ending CMoAs forgotten in order to protect themselves/save time/preserve the status quo/whatever; Moffat's Companion's season-ending CMoA is to remember.
Thoughts?