COPY PASTA FROM SOMETHING I WROTE FOR FANDOM MARCH MADNESS BECAUSE I'M LAZY:
"Why shouldn't you vote for the Eleventh Doctor? Here are some reasons to consider:
1. Wearing silly hats and bow ties is not a personality. It just isn't.
2. The entire reason that the Doctor went to 1960s America was because of the distress call of a little girl. At the end of the two parter, this is a thing that Doctor actually says, "So, this little girl, it's all about her. Who was she? Or we could just go off and have some adventures. Anyone in the mood for adventures? I am. You only live once.". RIGHT. AND THIS IS THE SAME CHARACTER THAT COULDN'T STAND TO SEE CHILDREN CRY IN "THE BEAST BELOW"? SURE. He's just abandoning this scared little girl who had NO ONE and had even called him for help because adventures >>>>>>>> children. What a dickbag.
3. He brainwashed humanity to kill for him. Now committing genocide is nothing new to the Doctor. He's done it before and he'll do it again. However, the show (at least under RTD) had always framed it as a troubling thing. But when the Doctor brainwashes humanity to kill the Silence, it is portrayed as a huge triumph. No one in the show is like "Hm, maybe we should at least think about the ramifications of this or consider how this might be bad." And not only that, the Doctor doesn't kill the Silence himself. HE BRAINWASHES HUMANITY TO DO IT FOR HIM. The Silence had been controlling and brainwashing humanity for who knows how long, but in these two episodes, the worst they did (other than killing a few random people and experimenting on the little girl- which doesn't really matter because as previously established, no one gives two fucks about her anyway) was... brainwash humanity to go improve technologically so we could go to the moon. THE HORROR! THEY MUST BE STOPPED! The Doctor, however, is brainwashing humanity to kill. ... Who are the bad guys again?
4. And who can forget the time he went coat shopping instead of finding his best friends' baby who had been kidnapped because of him. HE HAS A TIME MACHINE. That coupon you found for Burlington Coat Factory really could have waited, Doctor. Seriously though, the Doctor didn't bother to find Melody. Instead he... idk? Dicked around in his Tardis and bought a new coat while Amy and Rory were stuck on Earth, worrying about their baby. They had to make crop circles to get his attention. GAH. YOU ARE THE WORST, ELEVEN.
5. The Doctor is a shitty friend. Aside from the not caring about his best friends' baby, that extra on the DVD where Amy is upset and the Doctor calls for Rory because it's "his turn" to deal with Amy? FUCK OFF, DOCTOR. I don't care if you're an alien and not great with human emotions. Would it kill you to at least TRY to comfort the person you call your best friend?
6. Add on to all of this, the various ~hilarious~ sexist things he says because the man writing him (Steven Moffat) thinks it's funny. For example, in "Let's Kill Hitler", after Mels (who said she wanted to marry him) has regenerated into River (who has tried to kill him), his explanation for this change of heart is, "Ah, well, she's been brainwashed, it makes sense to her. Plus, she is a woman.". OH HO HO HO. THOSE WOMEN. SO FICKLE. AMIRITE? And of course the way the Doctor asks Rory for permission to hug Amy. So funny! Ugh. I get that those stupid jokes are not Eleven's fault. But they certainly don't endear him to me."
To contrast this with a previous Doctor, Ten faced consequences for his asshattery or the show called him out on it. For example, taking down Harriet Jones? That led to the power vacuum that allowed Saxon to rise to power. His poor treatment of Martha? Ten acknowledges his fault in "Partners in Crime". Ten and Rose were being flippant in "Tooth and Claw"? This lead to the creation of Torchwood and the eventual separation of Ten and Rose. Ten starts playing god? He becomes Time Lord Victorious and the show demonstrates how this is a BAD thing.
I actually like.. watching Eleven (in series 5). I like writing for him because I can elaborate and fuck with and fix what Moffat did with him in the canon. But judging strictly on canon alone I can't say I necessarily like him - especially in series 6, but then, series 6 was a fucking disaster and a disgrace to all that is Doctor Who, so...
But yeah. Moffat in general HATES showing consequences for actions. I mean, ffs, look at what happened with Amy and Rory -- Amy treats Rory like crap throughout series 5, no consequences (obviously this is the mildest possible example lol); Amy gets kidnapped and forced to remain pregnant without being conscious of it and give birth as soon as she "wakes up", no real consequences; Amy and Rory's baby gets kidnapped to be turned into a killer, NO CONSEQUENCES (as in, no emotional reaction, they just ~move on like, instantly). And all that you detailed re: the Doctor.
Basically if you're watching a Moffat show, don't expect anything to really come of anything. He won't do "consequences" or extensive emotional storylines because he can't bear to part with his "look it's shiny IT'S SO SHINY DON'T PAY ATTENTION TO MY GAPING PLOT HOLES look timey-wimey!" method of storytelling for long enough to actually portray any kind of realistic consequences or reactions to the massive, horrifically underplotted story arcs he shoehorns the characters into whether they fit them or not. After all, he couldn't have the Doctor and his two companions whom, if Moffat had his way about it, would never leave zipping through time and space for SHINY TIMEY-WIMEY ADVENTURES if they actually had to deal with the fact that stuff that happens has consequences and after-effects.
Honestly, the ONLY way season six can be saved is by having them wake up in season seven and realized is it was all A FUCKING DREAM. Yeah, we'd lose "The Doctor's Wife", but it's be more than worth it to also lose incubator Amy and humans committing brainwashed-induced genocide. Hell, I think we'd get rid the Silents altogether, which is fine by me; I fucking hated that plot line.
Seriously. That'd be nice, but it won't happen because Moffat loves his own plots. He is enamored of his own writing and thinks he's the best thing since sliced bread. He'd never "take it back." Sadly. Ugh.
Moffat is the worst TV writer and showrunner I've ever had the displeasure to have come into one of the shows I like. He's ruined Doctor Who for me. I have a feeling Sherlock won't be far behind - it survives because Gatiss is around to counterbalance Moffat's asshattery, but who knows how long that'll last. UGH.
(And seriously, am I the only person in all of Who fandom who just hated "The Doctor's Wife"? I thought it was completely horrific. Okay, maybe that's just me.)
Seriously. That'd be nice, but it won't happen because Moffat loves his own plots.
Yeah, I know it's not gong to HAPPEN, but...
I have a feeling Sherlock won't be far behind.
Honestly, I'm kinda more upset about Sherlock at this point... maybe because there's 30+ years of DW I can enjoy (including one actually GOOD season with Eleven), while Sherlock is only 2 seasons on, and only three eps per, so if it starts sucking, there's almost nothing of it to watch.
ASiB is the only episode I've deleted from my hard-drive. I just... can't... ~_~
Really, I wish Steven Moffat would stop writing. It's not just the gender-fail, either, he's just... not that good at it. As someone said, he cares more about OH, SHINY! (like catchphrases he then runs into the ground, and "clever" [cough] plot-twists) than stuff like plots that make sense or keeping characters consistent.
The only episode I kept was Reichenbach. Really, it's saying something when the best episode of a series is written by Stephen Thompson, and even then I'm only just occasionally excited about it. At least it was the only episode that felt like it could possibly take place in our universe, instead of a hilarious Scifi flick or the rageyness that is Scandal.
I like Hounds. And.. what's scifi about it? Mind altering drugs? No, those exists.. Glowing animals? No, those exist (I'm not kidding... way before I saw "Hounds", I saw articles about glowing cats). So I'm not sure what you're referring to. Maybe just the over all tone? I can kinda see that., but... [shrug] I liked it.
I didn't mind the mind-altering drugs (although they kind of did that to Sherlock in the previous episode).
I don't mind the glowing animals (although those glowing genes have to be done to the actual DNA of the creature before it is born, so Bluebell couldn't have suddenly GLOWED LIKE A FAIRY one night after some living gene manipulation. Or have I got that wrong?).
It's not so much that it's scifi, it's that it's like an independent Syfy movie. One of the fair-to-middling ones. With the terrible special effects, the convoluted plot (honestly, who wastes that much money and time on gaslighting an emotionally disturbed person with pressure pad-releasing chemicals and a planted therapist and triggering him with the bright lights? You'd think the guy would have considered pushing him off one of those handy cliffs and made it look like a suicide- everyone in the town thought he was a basketcase whose story made a good tourism trade), and the constant zooms on the one monkey in the lab, making it really really obvious they only had one rabbit and one monkey to spare. I never felt like Hound took place in the here and now, as opposed to in the fantastical mind of Mark Gatiss.
Yeah, true, there were way easier ways to deal with Henry Knight, all things considered. I'm not sure about the glowing thing. Though I thought the bunny already glowed and Kirstie just noticed it that once becasue it as night...? I dunno... You're right about the "zooming in to hide the budget" thing, though. Hee.
In Hound's defence, I will say that terrified!John locking himself inside one of the animal cages is one of my very favorite moments in Sherlock ever. He was so scared his voice was going, but he held out until he thought the dog was right on top of him, before making a cage into a fortress.
I've rewatched it.. okay, I've rewatched the scene in Buckingham Palace about sixty-four times and never touched the rest of it.
Completely agreed, omg. Moffat's plots SUCK -- they have massive, huge plot-holes just barely covered over in ~timey-wimey~ and shiny and whatever he thinks is "scary", he takes characters waaay out of character to suit whatever badly-done story he wants to tell, he's a sexist asshole and it shows in everything he writes, his characters are shallow as a puddle after a spring rain at best, he reuses the same plot devices over and over and over, and even the "clever" dialogue everyone says they love isn't very clever. He is a TERRIBLE writer. He's just very good at distracting his audience from noticing how terrible he is by rushing everything too fast, showing all kinds of ~shiny shit to confuse and astound, and making up loads of fairy tale monsters to keep people from looking too hard at the plot.
I can't wait until he's no longer showrunner on Doctor Who. Unfortunately, considering his attitude about it... I don't think it'll be anytime soon. I think he'll hold on to that for as long as he can, and run it so far into the ground in the meantime that it's unrecognizable. I honestly can't see him willingly giving up DW unless he's allowed to completely end it, forever, when he goes.
I've rewatched it.. okay, I've rewatched the scene in Buckingham Palace about sixty-four times and never touched the rest of it.
Yeah, that scene's really fun. There IS some stuff in it I like, but I have to ff/skip/whatever too much stuff for it to be worth keeping.
he takes characters waaay out of character to suit whatever badly-done story he wants to tell
He also does it to make his own characters look good, Like Eleven being all excited about River shooting the Silents in "Day of the Moon". The Doctor even mentions how much he hates guns and would usually not be happy with how... enthusiastic she is about it. But since it's River fucking Song, it's fine! Moffat, you do realize acknowledging your terribly OOC writing doesn't excuse it, right? Ya goddamn hack...
I honestly can't see him willingly giving up DW unless he's allowed to completely end it, forever, when he goes.
"Why shouldn't you vote for the Eleventh Doctor? Here are some reasons to consider:
1. Wearing silly hats and bow ties is not a personality. It just isn't.
2. The entire reason that the Doctor went to 1960s America was because of the distress call of a little girl. At the end of the two parter, this is a thing that Doctor actually says, "So, this little girl, it's all about her. Who was she? Or we could just go off and have some adventures. Anyone in the mood for adventures? I am. You only live once.". RIGHT. AND THIS IS THE SAME CHARACTER THAT COULDN'T STAND TO SEE CHILDREN CRY IN "THE BEAST BELOW"? SURE. He's just abandoning this scared little girl who had NO ONE and had even called him for help because adventures >>>>>>>> children. What a dickbag.
3. He brainwashed humanity to kill for him. Now committing genocide is nothing new to the Doctor. He's done it before and he'll do it again. However, the show (at least under RTD) had always framed it as a troubling thing. But when the Doctor brainwashes humanity to kill the Silence, it is portrayed as a huge triumph. No one in the show is like "Hm, maybe we should at least think about the ramifications of this or consider how this might be bad." And not only that, the Doctor doesn't kill the Silence himself. HE BRAINWASHES HUMANITY TO DO IT FOR HIM. The Silence had been controlling and brainwashing humanity for who knows how long, but in these two episodes, the worst they did (other than killing a few random people and experimenting on the little girl- which doesn't really matter because as previously established, no one gives two fucks about her anyway) was... brainwash humanity to go improve technologically so we could go to the moon. THE HORROR! THEY MUST BE STOPPED! The Doctor, however, is brainwashing humanity to kill. ... Who are the bad guys again?
4. And who can forget the time he went coat shopping instead of finding his best friends' baby who had been kidnapped because of him. HE HAS A TIME MACHINE. That coupon you found for Burlington Coat Factory really could have waited, Doctor. Seriously though, the Doctor didn't bother to find Melody. Instead he... idk? Dicked around in his Tardis and bought a new coat while Amy and Rory were stuck on Earth, worrying about their baby. They had to make crop circles to get his attention. GAH. YOU ARE THE WORST, ELEVEN.
5. The Doctor is a shitty friend. Aside from the not caring about his best friends' baby, that extra on the DVD where Amy is upset and the Doctor calls for Rory because it's "his turn" to deal with Amy? FUCK OFF, DOCTOR. I don't care if you're an alien and not great with human emotions. Would it kill you to at least TRY to comfort the person you call your best friend?
6. Add on to all of this, the various ~hilarious~ sexist things he says because the man writing him (Steven Moffat) thinks it's funny. For example, in "Let's Kill Hitler", after Mels (who said she wanted to marry him) has regenerated into River (who has tried to kill him), his explanation for this change of heart is, "Ah, well, she's been brainwashed, it makes sense to her. Plus, she is a woman.". OH HO HO HO. THOSE WOMEN. SO FICKLE. AMIRITE? And of course the way the Doctor asks Rory for permission to hug Amy. So funny! Ugh. I get that those stupid jokes are not Eleven's fault. But they certainly don't endear him to me."
To contrast this with a previous Doctor, Ten faced consequences for his asshattery or the show called him out on it. For example, taking down Harriet Jones? That led to the power vacuum that allowed Saxon to rise to power. His poor treatment of Martha? Ten acknowledges his fault in "Partners in Crime". Ten and Rose were being flippant in "Tooth and Claw"? This lead to the creation of Torchwood and the eventual separation of Ten and Rose. Ten starts playing god? He becomes Time Lord Victorious and the show demonstrates how this is a BAD thing.
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I actually like.. watching Eleven (in series 5). I like writing for him because I can elaborate and fuck with and fix what Moffat did with him in the canon. But judging strictly on canon alone I can't say I necessarily like him - especially in series 6, but then, series 6 was a fucking disaster and a disgrace to all that is Doctor Who, so...
But yeah. Moffat in general HATES showing consequences for actions. I mean, ffs, look at what happened with Amy and Rory -- Amy treats Rory like crap throughout series 5, no consequences (obviously this is the mildest possible example lol); Amy gets kidnapped and forced to remain pregnant without being conscious of it and give birth as soon as she "wakes up", no real consequences; Amy and Rory's baby gets kidnapped to be turned into a killer, NO CONSEQUENCES (as in, no emotional reaction, they just ~move on like, instantly). And all that you detailed re: the Doctor.
Basically if you're watching a Moffat show, don't expect anything to really come of anything. He won't do "consequences" or extensive emotional storylines because he can't bear to part with his "look it's shiny IT'S SO SHINY DON'T PAY ATTENTION TO MY GAPING PLOT HOLES look timey-wimey!" method of storytelling for long enough to actually portray any kind of realistic consequences or reactions to the massive, horrifically underplotted story arcs he shoehorns the characters into whether they fit them or not. After all, he couldn't have the Doctor and his two companions whom, if Moffat had his way about it, would never leave zipping through time and space for SHINY TIMEY-WIMEY ADVENTURES if they actually had to deal with the fact that stuff that happens has consequences and after-effects.
/bitter. just a bit. what.
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JUST.
SO ACCURATE.
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Oh, and Steven Moffat can go fuck himself.
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Moffat is the worst TV writer and showrunner I've ever had the displeasure to have come into one of the shows I like. He's ruined Doctor Who for me. I have a feeling Sherlock won't be far behind - it survives because Gatiss is around to counterbalance Moffat's asshattery, but who knows how long that'll last. UGH.
(And seriously, am I the only person in all of Who fandom who just hated "The Doctor's Wife"? I thought it was completely horrific. Okay, maybe that's just me.)
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Yeah, I know it's not gong to HAPPEN, but...
I have a feeling Sherlock won't be far behind.
Honestly, I'm kinda more upset about Sherlock at this point... maybe because there's 30+ years of DW I can enjoy (including one actually GOOD season with Eleven), while Sherlock is only 2 seasons on, and only three eps per, so if it starts sucking, there's almost nothing of it to watch.
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Really, I wish Steven Moffat would stop writing. It's not just the gender-fail, either, he's just... not that good at it. As someone said, he cares more about OH, SHINY! (like catchphrases he then runs into the ground, and "clever" [cough] plot-twists) than stuff like plots that make sense or keeping characters consistent.
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B|
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I don't mind the glowing animals (although those glowing genes have to be done to the actual DNA of the creature before it is born, so Bluebell couldn't have suddenly GLOWED LIKE A FAIRY one night after some living gene manipulation. Or have I got that wrong?).
It's not so much that it's scifi, it's that it's like an independent Syfy movie. One of the fair-to-middling ones. With the terrible special effects, the convoluted plot (honestly, who wastes that much money and time on gaslighting an emotionally disturbed person with pressure pad-releasing chemicals and a planted therapist and triggering him with the bright lights? You'd think the guy would have considered pushing him off one of those handy cliffs and made it look like a suicide- everyone in the town thought he was a basketcase whose story made a good tourism trade), and the constant zooms on the one monkey in the lab, making it really really obvious they only had one rabbit and one monkey to spare. I never felt like Hound took place in the here and now, as opposed to in the fantastical mind of Mark Gatiss.
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Completely agreed, omg. Moffat's plots SUCK -- they have massive, huge plot-holes just barely covered over in ~timey-wimey~ and shiny and whatever he thinks is "scary", he takes characters waaay out of character to suit whatever badly-done story he wants to tell, he's a sexist asshole and it shows in everything he writes, his characters are shallow as a puddle after a spring rain at best, he reuses the same plot devices over and over and over, and even the "clever" dialogue everyone says they love isn't very clever. He is a TERRIBLE writer. He's just very good at distracting his audience from noticing how terrible he is by rushing everything too fast, showing all kinds of ~shiny shit to confuse and astound, and making up loads of fairy tale monsters to keep people from looking too hard at the plot.
I can't wait until he's no longer showrunner on Doctor Who. Unfortunately, considering his attitude about it... I don't think it'll be anytime soon. I think he'll hold on to that for as long as he can, and run it so far into the ground in the meantime that it's unrecognizable. I honestly can't see him willingly giving up DW unless he's allowed to completely end it, forever, when he goes.
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Yeah, that scene's really fun. There IS some stuff in it I like, but I have to ff/skip/whatever too much stuff for it to be worth keeping.
he takes characters waaay out of character to suit whatever badly-done story he wants to tell
He also does it to make his own characters look good, Like Eleven being all excited about River shooting the Silents in "Day of the Moon". The Doctor even mentions how much he hates guns and would usually not be happy with how... enthusiastic she is about it. But since it's River fucking Song, it's fine! Moffat, you do realize acknowledging your terribly OOC writing doesn't excuse it, right? Ya goddamn hack...
I honestly can't see him willingly giving up DW unless he's allowed to completely end it, forever, when he goes.
I certainly hope not... ~_~
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