Doctor Who Christmas Special
Ok...I'm a bit behind. Like a whole month or so. Ooops?
Ok, I guess I could start off with, like the entire last season, if I watched this episode without thinking about it then I was entertained. However when I started thinking about it I just got pissed off at it.
Why? As fun as Moffat is at writing darker stories, he still falls in the same boat Russell T. Davies did. And that boat is that they think their writing is more awesome than awesome and shame on any fans for questioning it because they should be happy they are even GETTING new Doctor Who episodes.
Which that mind set always pisses me off. If you can't take criticism and LEARN from it, then why be head writer? Why bother having a fan base if you aren't going to listen to them. Personally I like a good mesh of both Davies and Moffat, but I think BOTH individuals have too much power and no one to sit them down and say "don't do that, it sucks and doesn't work in the long run".
Yes. I know. We are back to the "I'm a Sci-Fi snob" again. I get Doctor Who is a children's show, but that doesn't mean it has to automatically be stupified and written below the average intelligence level. It doesn't mean every story has to be cliche and predictable. And it definitely doesn't mean that when plots don't work you can just say "timey-wimey" and expect no one to question.
THIS is the problem I'm having with Moffat. Saying "It's how Doctor Who is now, all timey-wimey and non-sensical" is NOT an answer for when a plot is written with bigger holes than the ones in the ozone.
Anyways. It's clear to me to never put much thought into the Christmas Specials. But I had trouble with this one. On the surface it was a mindless rehash of Charles Dickens' Christmas Carol. Underneath, it was aggravating drivel.
Why? The antagonist was antagonistic for NO purpose other than to BE antagonistic. I'm sure there was more motivations going on underneath the surface but we never even got to know him that well. Hell the only reason I was rooting for the bastard was because Michael Gambon was playing him. I get that the underlying story is that you can't change what you are made to be, but we got SO little time with WHY Gambon's character was an ass it was hard to even feel bad for him. Yeah his dad was an overbearing ass who smacked him for being soft, yet he was perfectly willing to let a whole ship crash to kill thousands of people simply because he could. It's hard to jump from point a to point b and see the cause and effect going on in that story. It's too harsh.
So what is the Doctor's plan? To go all three ghosts of christmas' on his ass by changing his timeline. It's almost cruel in a way to change someone's timeline and them have to relive a time they didn't actually live. Not to mention paradoxical. It's those stunts that I don't like on Doctor Who.
What else is aggravating? The love story of the episode. Yet again we have the Doctor barreling through doing something without asking a single fucking question. This is what got me so aggravated with Lost, when you have seemingly intelligent people who REFUSE to take two minutes to ask a relatively simple question. And these relatively simple questions could lead to relatively simple answers. This isn't done because the plot is so damn flimsy that it literally would have collapsed in on itself like a supernova star if one question was answered.
Doctor Who has never been the MOST thought provoking series in the world, but when smart people (I can't see either 9 or 10 not bugging the hell out of anyone that would listen about why the numbers on the outside of the case were counting down) do dumb things for the sake of a flimsy plot, it angers me. It's lazy and trite writing, and even though it's a kids show it still appeals to a broader audience so I expect crisper writing.
Don't get me wrong though, I love that Doctor Who is kooky. I just don't like when plot is put to the side for convenience, like no one with more than two brain cells isn't going to notice.
I'm NOT looking forward to the new season. I am liking Matt Smith more and more as the Doctor, I'm still not loving Amy as a companion (and seriously, for being written down to as much as the Christmas Special was...obviously for kids sake...they really felt that they "adulted" up the episode by having Amy and Rory "dress up" for bedroom fun? Really? Is that all Moffat things adults need to feel like they are being written too as well?), but I really need more from the writing. Someone in the UK needs to learn how to reign writers in and point them in better directions.
Ok, I guess I could start off with, like the entire last season, if I watched this episode without thinking about it then I was entertained. However when I started thinking about it I just got pissed off at it.
Why? As fun as Moffat is at writing darker stories, he still falls in the same boat Russell T. Davies did. And that boat is that they think their writing is more awesome than awesome and shame on any fans for questioning it because they should be happy they are even GETTING new Doctor Who episodes.
Which that mind set always pisses me off. If you can't take criticism and LEARN from it, then why be head writer? Why bother having a fan base if you aren't going to listen to them. Personally I like a good mesh of both Davies and Moffat, but I think BOTH individuals have too much power and no one to sit them down and say "don't do that, it sucks and doesn't work in the long run".
Yes. I know. We are back to the "I'm a Sci-Fi snob" again. I get Doctor Who is a children's show, but that doesn't mean it has to automatically be stupified and written below the average intelligence level. It doesn't mean every story has to be cliche and predictable. And it definitely doesn't mean that when plots don't work you can just say "timey-wimey" and expect no one to question.
THIS is the problem I'm having with Moffat. Saying "It's how Doctor Who is now, all timey-wimey and non-sensical" is NOT an answer for when a plot is written with bigger holes than the ones in the ozone.
Anyways. It's clear to me to never put much thought into the Christmas Specials. But I had trouble with this one. On the surface it was a mindless rehash of Charles Dickens' Christmas Carol. Underneath, it was aggravating drivel.
Why? The antagonist was antagonistic for NO purpose other than to BE antagonistic. I'm sure there was more motivations going on underneath the surface but we never even got to know him that well. Hell the only reason I was rooting for the bastard was because Michael Gambon was playing him. I get that the underlying story is that you can't change what you are made to be, but we got SO little time with WHY Gambon's character was an ass it was hard to even feel bad for him. Yeah his dad was an overbearing ass who smacked him for being soft, yet he was perfectly willing to let a whole ship crash to kill thousands of people simply because he could. It's hard to jump from point a to point b and see the cause and effect going on in that story. It's too harsh.
So what is the Doctor's plan? To go all three ghosts of christmas' on his ass by changing his timeline. It's almost cruel in a way to change someone's timeline and them have to relive a time they didn't actually live. Not to mention paradoxical. It's those stunts that I don't like on Doctor Who.
What else is aggravating? The love story of the episode. Yet again we have the Doctor barreling through doing something without asking a single fucking question. This is what got me so aggravated with Lost, when you have seemingly intelligent people who REFUSE to take two minutes to ask a relatively simple question. And these relatively simple questions could lead to relatively simple answers. This isn't done because the plot is so damn flimsy that it literally would have collapsed in on itself like a supernova star if one question was answered.
Doctor Who has never been the MOST thought provoking series in the world, but when smart people (I can't see either 9 or 10 not bugging the hell out of anyone that would listen about why the numbers on the outside of the case were counting down) do dumb things for the sake of a flimsy plot, it angers me. It's lazy and trite writing, and even though it's a kids show it still appeals to a broader audience so I expect crisper writing.
Don't get me wrong though, I love that Doctor Who is kooky. I just don't like when plot is put to the side for convenience, like no one with more than two brain cells isn't going to notice.
I'm NOT looking forward to the new season. I am liking Matt Smith more and more as the Doctor, I'm still not loving Amy as a companion (and seriously, for being written down to as much as the Christmas Special was...obviously for kids sake...they really felt that they "adulted" up the episode by having Amy and Rory "dress up" for bedroom fun? Really? Is that all Moffat things adults need to feel like they are being written too as well?), but I really need more from the writing. Someone in the UK needs to learn how to reign writers in and point them in better directions.