(no subject)
I believe I have seen everything (that is, all the filmed things) that Steven Moffat has written since 1999. That is, Coupling, Jekyll, Doctor Who and Sherlock. Fair game: I have watched nothing written prior to these, and it's been a while since I saw Coupling. As a visual person, I also have a difficult time separating the final product from the written word, after seeing it all put together. That said, my favorite Moffat scripts:
9. Jekyll -- We all know how much the Moff likes to reinterpret the classics; it's become his trademark. His adaptation of Jekyll is a fun, modern, pseudo-sciencey, slightly trippy journey, that is a super fun ride despite some general weirdness and odd problems... until it falls flat on its face in the last two minutes. James Nesbitt is like the walking, talking definition of a BAMF in this role and makes it totally worth watching.
8. "Sex, Death and Nudity" (Coupling) -- If you've never seen Coupling, it's often described as a British Friends-meets-Seinfeld feel. The six main characters end up at a funeral for a deceased Aunt and discuss the unavoidably of laughing after thinking about not laughing. The Giggle Loop is a dangerous thing.
7. "The Eleventh Hour" (Doctor Who) -- Our introduction to Moffat's first season as show runner for DW, it manages to encapsulate all the necessary and basic points of the show, introduce an entirely new cast and set up the season arc without bogging itself down too much. Add in some endearing scenes with small children, witty banter and an excuse for the production team to redesign everything for the more-awesome.
6. "The Man with Two Legs" (Coupling) -- The worst pick-up line ever is lying about being an amputee to get out of trouble for staring at a girl's legs. "I've got too many legs!" is perhaps one of the best exclamations of all time and oddly appropriate to shout in many situations.
5. "The Girl with Two Breasts" (Coupling) -- in which we witness an incredibly ridiculous bar interaction, made both confusing and hilarious due to a language barrier. This is absolutely one of those things where you have to have the experience of watching it in order for it to make sense.
2. "The Empty Child / The Doctor Dances" (Doctor Who) -- The first of the New Who scripts by Moffat and a great introduction to his manner of writing. It's got a Blitz setting, unsettling events, his standard use of making everyday objects/actions terrifying, and some of my favorite lines from the series, including the discussion about the use of the Sonic Screwdriver and, "Everybody lives, Rose! Just this once, everybody lives!" which sums up something I love about this show: optimism and hope in the face of a seemingly endless string of un-rightable wrongs and horrible events.
4. "The Girl in the Fireplace" (Doctor Who) -- A little bit of everything: historical romance, spaceships, clockwork robots, alternative experiences of time... pretty much everything you could ask for. Except a little more, perhaps, on the freakishly sinister fact that the ship is built out of pieces of the human crew that once manned it. Um, creepy like whoa, Moff. This episode is only beat out by Blink because Blink can work as a stand-alone episode, which is a difficult undertaking for such a long-running and entrenched show.
3. "Blink" (Doctor Who) -- If you're already a DW fan you probably either love this episode to pieces or can't stand the fact that everybody else does. I'm in the first camp. It's a simple, brilliant execution of a time/space paradox, made better by the fact that [a] this was the first time in New Who where time is treated as cyclically mutable and [b] it works, but ultimately falls into place with the "turn" at the end, which when carried off properly is one of my absolute favorite experiences to watch. Girl in the Fireplace is a more subtle example and therefore a bit more striking in that regard.
1. A Study in Pink" (Sherlock) -- I will be the first to admit that I am a huge, unrepentant Holmes fangirl. I love the books. I love the old movies. I love the new movie. I love audio versions. I love(d) House. I love that awesome Russian version. And, after one episode, I LOVE this new version. Starring the most English-named actor ever (who is surprisingly easy on the eyes), Benedict Cumberbatch, and the always-endearing Martin Freeman, it's so filled with beautiful little call-backs to Doyle's writings, the best on-screen representation of technology use I've yet to see (the manner in which text messages are displayed), and hilariously awkward romantic confrontations (John trying to get a number from "Anthea"), at eleven minutes in I was on board a thousand percent. It also looks as if it will have an excellent and proper treatment of Watson, which is always the benchmark of a good Holmes. Hopefully certain elements will be toned down now that they're established. We shall see.
And now, to bed. Not just because of tiredness, though. I'm staying on my former-roommate's couch until the 9th, when I move for grad school. Being that I am in closer physical proximity to her room right now than usual, and she is exhausted from tonight's rehearsal, I can hear her talking in her sleep. And she may have just begun sleep-looking for her shoes...? Although not usually somnambulatory, she does sometimes do some weird things. The sleeping mind is an odd place.... (P.S. saw Inception, may post about it later).