Quarter Mooning: Last Christmas

[patches365]

After watching this year's Christmas Special, I've pretty much given up on the series until someone replaces Moffat. As such, I don't really feel like this episode is worth committing my usual 4-5 hours to review it, so I'm just going to do a more abridged review from memory so I don't have to sit through the episode again.

Comments

[nutmeg_44]

I completely agree. I went into this episode with zero expectations and still somehow manage to be completely disappointed.

I was bored, didn't care for any of the main characters, side characters or even the gimmicky elves. Although, one of the elves made me remember to check if Misfits would be coming back for another season.

I was watching The Runaway Bride Christmas special and the Smith and Jones season 3 premiere episode and I just could not get over how awesome they were as stories. Cohesive, comprehensive and flawless. Why can't more episodes be like that? Who did we wrong, as a fanbase, to deserve the mess we're getting now?

Honestly, I think I'm done with Who until Moffat is replaced. Either that, or I'll just continue watching out of habit.

[patches365]

The difference is that the pre-Moffat companions were written much more consistently. If you re-watch their introductory episodes, the Doctor typically doesn't even start doing anything until at least halfway through the episode. The rest of the episode is about them. Who they are, what they want, and what qualities they have that the Doctor would find suitable in a companion

[betawho]

Moffat's method of solving problems is like Kirk's solution to the Kobayashi Maru test: hack the test itself. Sure, you might end up "winning" in a creative way, but the method in which you won bears zero resemblance to any real-life option, leaving the solution ultimately unfulfilling.

This. Exactly exactly this.

That's why I find these stories so ultimately unfulfilling and often not worth rewatching (and why Moff's stories that don't do this are the only ones that seem worth it, and are often brilliant, like Empty Child or Time of Angels.)

I've become resigned to the fact that Moffat will write 80% of a good story, then at the end the ending will have nothing to do with anything that came before. Which just sort of renders the whole story moot.

It's not the characters who are cleverly or bravely finding solutions to problems anymore. It's the fact that at the end of the story, the writer simply rewrites everything so that there never was a problem to start with. (Or that it wasn't the problem we were told for 80% of the

[patches365]

Heh, it reminds me of the awesome rant in MrTARDIS's "The Snowmen" review once it finally dawns on him exactly what Moffat is doing as a writer. He used to be pretty pro-Moffat and would let a lot of things slide, but watching this just made me throw my hands in the air and declare, "YES! SOMEONE ELSE GETS IT!"

[davidwake]

I agree with the Kirk and Kobayashi Maru comparison too. That worked in Trek because he was finally facing up to his cheating, which is dramatically effective, and we never saw the cheat (originally) which would have been a cheat.

I saw the Capaldi opener in a cinema along with an interview with the actors and Moffat. The writer declared that with science fiction "you can do anything" - you can't. He can write, but he simply doesn't get SF.

[stevegreen]

I'm not sure he "gets" drama, period.

[davidwake]

He does, he's written some great stuff. It's just that he doesn't prepare his ingredients well enough and then, because "you can do anything in Science Fiction" puts daft things into the pot. Thus the resulting stew is a dog's dinner.

[patches365]

Yeah. There's a difference between "The rules are whatever you want them to be" and "No rules". In science fiction, you get to decide what the rules of the universe are, even if they don't conform to reality. The thing is, once you define those rules, you stick to them.

[davidwake]

That's a good way of putting it.

When I wrote 'I, Phone', I wrote down those 'rules that I wanted them to be' (actually I found them on Wikipedia) and then stuck to them. There is a sound argument that the rules, the constraints, force you to be creative.

I've been rewatching one of the Matt Smith seasons, and they are good stories but he will add things like spiral staircases going up to the clouds that have nothing to do with anything. They weaken the good bits.

[raptorgirl]

This so much. Much as I disliked RTD turning the show into an angst-fest, his companions at least felt like real, believable people to me.

[diysheep]

It always used to annoy me that Rory kept forgetting he was a nurse.