Doctor Who series 7
In a few hours, it will be time for the final episode of Doctor Who series 7. I had great hopes for it, at least for this second half, solely because of the new companion. I loathed Amy so much. Didn't mind Rory as he got much better towards the end but grrr Amy. I actually preferred Donna to Amy which is saying something if you know how much I disliked Donna.
I have to say I have been seriously disappointed by this second half of the series. It seems to be lacking something, there's no oomph to it or anything so it's rather meh and all falling a bit flat.
After Ten with his One and Only Love, his best friend who was the Most Important Woman in the Universe, the Fixed Point Who Couldn't Die and... Martha, I really wanted Clara to be just a normal person with no title. I also hoped that as her first proper episode was set in Victorian times, we'd get a companion from a different era again which would be a nice change. But no. Clara is The Impossible Girl. Or at least she was for the first episode or so, after that, it was forgotten about, along with her Mysterious Book. There was a mention or two that she was Impossible but that was it, there was no further investigation into it. And she's not even a full-time companion. It looks like the Doctor takes her off on an adventure and then brings her home in time for tea with a sort of 'same time next week' farewell. As annoying as it was for RTD to involve so much of the companion's family, now Moffat has gone that one step further and turned the Doctor from an amazing adventure to a weekly hobby that you fit in around your job and normal life.
Moffat really seems to be struggling now. The Bells of St John that was supposed to be the explosive start to this second half was not only badly named but a complete rewrite of The Idiot's Lantern. The Rings of Akhaten was better if a bit too saccharine but after that, each episode didn't seem able to live up to its promise. I found Neil Gaiman's episode really disappointing; it seemed to be a little too silly and the Cybermen who upgraded more than Windows was just bizarre. I wonder if it's down to the decreased number of writers. RTD usually had 7 different writers over an episode and quite a large pool of them: 15 in total not including himself. He also seemed to use 3 or 4 new writers each series. Moffat has used 11 different writers and series 6 and 7 had the same ones with just one newcomer in series 7: Neil Cross who wrote the Rings of Akhaten.
So now we're up to the last episode in which All Will Be Revealed. It seems to have come rather out of the blue, there's been no build-up to it really. And talk about pulling out all the stops. As well as The Secret of The Impossible Girl being revealed, there's also the Doctor's Greatest Secret as well. And given that the episode is called The Name of the Doctor, I wonder what that might be. I find it hard to believe that Moffat will actually announce the Doctor's name but at the same time I can imagine he'd not be bothered about doing it because he doesn't seem to have the same love for the show that RTD had. I don't know whether to think that we are finally going to know the Doctor's name or if it will just be a huge red herring. I hope we don't though. I'm happy for the Doctor to retain his air of mystery as far as that's concerned. I know there's loads of other things we don't know about the Doctor but that kind of is the vital one. It kind of feels like it'd ruin the show to know that. Part of me doesn't even want to watch this last episode just in case...
I have to say I have been seriously disappointed by this second half of the series. It seems to be lacking something, there's no oomph to it or anything so it's rather meh and all falling a bit flat.
After Ten with his One and Only Love, his best friend who was the Most Important Woman in the Universe, the Fixed Point Who Couldn't Die and... Martha, I really wanted Clara to be just a normal person with no title. I also hoped that as her first proper episode was set in Victorian times, we'd get a companion from a different era again which would be a nice change. But no. Clara is The Impossible Girl. Or at least she was for the first episode or so, after that, it was forgotten about, along with her Mysterious Book. There was a mention or two that she was Impossible but that was it, there was no further investigation into it. And she's not even a full-time companion. It looks like the Doctor takes her off on an adventure and then brings her home in time for tea with a sort of 'same time next week' farewell. As annoying as it was for RTD to involve so much of the companion's family, now Moffat has gone that one step further and turned the Doctor from an amazing adventure to a weekly hobby that you fit in around your job and normal life.
Moffat really seems to be struggling now. The Bells of St John that was supposed to be the explosive start to this second half was not only badly named but a complete rewrite of The Idiot's Lantern. The Rings of Akhaten was better if a bit too saccharine but after that, each episode didn't seem able to live up to its promise. I found Neil Gaiman's episode really disappointing; it seemed to be a little too silly and the Cybermen who upgraded more than Windows was just bizarre. I wonder if it's down to the decreased number of writers. RTD usually had 7 different writers over an episode and quite a large pool of them: 15 in total not including himself. He also seemed to use 3 or 4 new writers each series. Moffat has used 11 different writers and series 6 and 7 had the same ones with just one newcomer in series 7: Neil Cross who wrote the Rings of Akhaten.
So now we're up to the last episode in which All Will Be Revealed. It seems to have come rather out of the blue, there's been no build-up to it really. And talk about pulling out all the stops. As well as The Secret of The Impossible Girl being revealed, there's also the Doctor's Greatest Secret as well. And given that the episode is called The Name of the Doctor, I wonder what that might be. I find it hard to believe that Moffat will actually announce the Doctor's name but at the same time I can imagine he'd not be bothered about doing it because he doesn't seem to have the same love for the show that RTD had. I don't know whether to think that we are finally going to know the Doctor's name or if it will just be a huge red herring. I hope we don't though. I'm happy for the Doctor to retain his air of mystery as far as that's concerned. I know there's loads of other things we don't know about the Doctor but that kind of is the vital one. It kind of feels like it'd ruin the show to know that. Part of me doesn't even want to watch this last episode just in case...