Moff interview
Brilliant Steven Moffat interview, 30 minutes, over at youtube. (If you go to selenak's interesting post about it, you'll find a Paul Cornell interview as well, but I haven't heard that yet, because it's audio only and I dread things that are. *g* My brain doesn't register spoken English fast enough to figure it out half the time without visual cues like facial expressions.)
I'm trying to figure out a way I could love the Moff more, and I just can't. Well, possibly if he'd left out that bit about moms watching DW because the Doctor is hot. Not so much for the implication about moms as for the implication about the Doctor. Memo to the Moff: Here's one fan that wouldn't mind if 11 was more of a Hartnell type of guy. Not that I mind the hotness of DT and CE, but I'd hate it if it became some sort of unofficial rule that the Doctor has to be young and hot.
Apart from that, though, it was brilliant. I quoted parts to axa, but of course even with stopping and repeating things I couldn't always get the exact quote through, with timing and all.
I loved how he talked about how parents threaten their kids that if they're not nice, they're not allowed to see Doctor Who, and how it makes him feel like he's been a good boy when he's watching. And that now that he's a showrunner, "Everyone is TOAST compared to me, I'm so well behaved!"
I loved that he's so on board the family thing, and that he wants to make sure the people watching for the first time understand what's going on, and that he's so gleeful about inventing the world anew with every episode.
I loved that he pointed out that some things are best left to mythos, and mentions how the clone war (the wonderful description of his imagination I can't convey) turned out to be "a bunch of meetings." "The Medusa Cascade - what's ever going to live up to that? Have you SEEN our budget?"
I loved how he talked about DW having explosions and time travels and babes and monsters - "What's the rest of television DOING?"
I loved how, when the silly interviewers asks if DW will remain open-minded even under his family-oriented leadership (Jesus, if you want to ask if there'll be gay people, just ask if there'll be gay people): "I'd like to think that we wouldn't be CLOSED minded. Mostly we're about monsters." and "The Doctor is the ultimate liberal, by which I mean he tells everyone what to do and blows up their planet if they disobey!" *g*
I loved his view on continuity: "Come on, have you seen the staff of this show, we all know it backwards! We would mock David for failing to pronounce Zyton correctly." and "I spent my childhood and teenage years not having any girlfriends at all and just memorizing old Doctor Who. That's dedication for you. 'I'm still a virgin, but boy, do I know what happened...' "
I loved that he wouldn't tell anyone what would happen: "If you want to know what'll happen in Doctor Who, you'll have to watch Doctor Who. We well parcel up the answers in colourful, vibrant, exciting, funny episodes and give them to you. How much better an answer can I give you than that?"
I loved his view on which Doctor River knows: "the implication is very strong that she knows different doctors, but she knows him as well, that she's just popping in through time and space trying them all out. BAD girl! BAD River!"
I loved that he loved Donna.
Of course, I'm not unbiased. I was a Moff fan long before I was a DW fan. While roseveare showed me a couple of Davidson eps a long time ago, and I enjoyed them well enough, the reason I started watching new Who was because I know Moff would be writing eps (and he'd had those references in Coupling). Sure, it eventually turned into excitement over the adventures and characters, and I'm gleefully watching Old Who now (which takes time to get used to but is vastly improved once you stop caring about the pacing), but it all STARTED with the Moff.
Well. No. That's not quite the truth. It all started with Julia Sawalha and the end of Interface. Which wasn't the best Press Gang ep I could have started with, but it happens to be the first I saw. :-) Everything else - naming my cat Spike, watching Coupling, watching Buffy because my PG friends liked it (and then of course watching Angel and oh how many shows I got hooked on through those fandoms), Jekyll, new Who, old Who, Torchwood, Sarah Jane, and branching off in other directions we have AbFab, and Lock Stock, and... oh, I don't even know. Julia Sawalha was first. Dexter Fletcher second. The Moff admittedly much later - roughly ten years ago, when I first joined the Press Gang mailing list. Still. That's a lot longer than the two and a half years I've spent obsessing over Doctor Who. :-)
ETA: Hat trick! Unbelievable. Yay!
I'm trying to figure out a way I could love the Moff more, and I just can't. Well, possibly if he'd left out that bit about moms watching DW because the Doctor is hot. Not so much for the implication about moms as for the implication about the Doctor. Memo to the Moff: Here's one fan that wouldn't mind if 11 was more of a Hartnell type of guy. Not that I mind the hotness of DT and CE, but I'd hate it if it became some sort of unofficial rule that the Doctor has to be young and hot.
Apart from that, though, it was brilliant. I quoted parts to axa, but of course even with stopping and repeating things I couldn't always get the exact quote through, with timing and all.
I loved how he talked about how parents threaten their kids that if they're not nice, they're not allowed to see Doctor Who, and how it makes him feel like he's been a good boy when he's watching. And that now that he's a showrunner, "Everyone is TOAST compared to me, I'm so well behaved!"
I loved that he's so on board the family thing, and that he wants to make sure the people watching for the first time understand what's going on, and that he's so gleeful about inventing the world anew with every episode.
I loved that he pointed out that some things are best left to mythos, and mentions how the clone war (the wonderful description of his imagination I can't convey) turned out to be "a bunch of meetings." "The Medusa Cascade - what's ever going to live up to that? Have you SEEN our budget?"
I loved how he talked about DW having explosions and time travels and babes and monsters - "What's the rest of television DOING?"
I loved how, when the silly interviewers asks if DW will remain open-minded even under his family-oriented leadership (Jesus, if you want to ask if there'll be gay people, just ask if there'll be gay people): "I'd like to think that we wouldn't be CLOSED minded. Mostly we're about monsters." and "The Doctor is the ultimate liberal, by which I mean he tells everyone what to do and blows up their planet if they disobey!" *g*
I loved his view on continuity: "Come on, have you seen the staff of this show, we all know it backwards! We would mock David for failing to pronounce Zyton correctly." and "I spent my childhood and teenage years not having any girlfriends at all and just memorizing old Doctor Who. That's dedication for you. 'I'm still a virgin, but boy, do I know what happened...' "
I loved that he wouldn't tell anyone what would happen: "If you want to know what'll happen in Doctor Who, you'll have to watch Doctor Who. We well parcel up the answers in colourful, vibrant, exciting, funny episodes and give them to you. How much better an answer can I give you than that?"
I loved his view on which Doctor River knows: "the implication is very strong that she knows different doctors, but she knows him as well, that she's just popping in through time and space trying them all out. BAD girl! BAD River!"
I loved that he loved Donna.
Of course, I'm not unbiased. I was a Moff fan long before I was a DW fan. While roseveare showed me a couple of Davidson eps a long time ago, and I enjoyed them well enough, the reason I started watching new Who was because I know Moff would be writing eps (and he'd had those references in Coupling). Sure, it eventually turned into excitement over the adventures and characters, and I'm gleefully watching Old Who now (which takes time to get used to but is vastly improved once you stop caring about the pacing), but it all STARTED with the Moff.
Well. No. That's not quite the truth. It all started with Julia Sawalha and the end of Interface. Which wasn't the best Press Gang ep I could have started with, but it happens to be the first I saw. :-) Everything else - naming my cat Spike, watching Coupling, watching Buffy because my PG friends liked it (and then of course watching Angel and oh how many shows I got hooked on through those fandoms), Jekyll, new Who, old Who, Torchwood, Sarah Jane, and branching off in other directions we have AbFab, and Lock Stock, and... oh, I don't even know. Julia Sawalha was first. Dexter Fletcher second. The Moff admittedly much later - roughly ten years ago, when I first joined the Press Gang mailing list. Still. That's a lot longer than the two and a half years I've spent obsessing over Doctor Who. :-)
ETA: Hat trick! Unbelievable. Yay!