Lj is still better, dammit. Or, I Have Who Feels)

[karenor]

So there has been some tumblr discussion on Ten's exit and character arc and season satisfaction pre- and post- Season 5.

(Go read this post and the preceding comments, if you want to follow along

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tl;dr

[nonelvis]

While prepping dinner, I took some time to think about why RTD's plot holes bother me more that Moffat's, and specifically why the Rory explanation (or lack thereof) doesn't bother me at all. In general, I find Moff's handwaving more compelling, and in Rory's case, the resurrection didn't bother me because it felt in keeping with the fairy-tale theme woven into S5. If Amy's life doesn't make sense because parts of it were essentially "stories" created based on her memories, then an unexplained resurrection of her true love is no different than any other fairy-tale element.

With RTD, there were three specific types of plot issues that bothered me:

1) Crappy and easily disproved scientific handwaving. NO, YOU CANNOT DRAIN THE THAMES IN MINUTES THROUGH A MILE-LONG HOLE IN THE EARTH, ASSUMING THAT HOLE EVEN EXISTS IN THE FIRST PLACE, DAMMIT. And just jumble a bunch of random medicines together to automatically cure every disease! Gah.

2) Saving the day through the power of love. This is something Moff does, too, but with him it doesn't bug me because it doesn't come with the extra side of crypto-religious imagery, cf. Sparkly Tinkerbell Jeebus.

3) Character assassination, but enough about Rose in "Journey's End."

With Moff, when the plot holes bug me, it's that his handwaving has utterly failed to be convincing, like the lack of foreshadowing about how there could be so many Claras, or the GI only showing up in two episodes yet being the Big Bad, or even just needing more time to set up the plot.