Devil's Advocate: Is Steven Moffat to blame for mass exodus of Doctor Who cast & crew?

[pluckyyounggirl]

I don't like Steven Moffat. Not his work, and not his public persona, either. I certainly don't think that handing Doctor Who over to him was a particularly clever idea. Most people I know here agree with me on this. With the recent news of another established DW crew member (composer Murray Gold) probably leaving and RTD & Julie being quoted as

Comments

[tenfeethigh]

Funny thing is, I actually have a friend who's a Moffat-fan and she commented with the following sentences to my post about Murray leaving:

HER: Cough, sinking ship, sinking ship, sinking ship, I dunno what RTD and his pals are about but they're ruining the franchise. And I rather stop here.

So I said, WTF, Rusty's fault??

ME: What's RTD has to do with that? I know you're not a fan of him but I don't think it's his fault that everyone quits. Well, maybe just a bit cause these people were loyal to HIM. But I don't think he told them to leave the show...

HER answer: i don't know how much of this whole quitting hysteria is his fault, and what the hell is going on at the bbc at all, but he certainly made it a great much harder for Moffat to save the franchise by forcing him to do a total reboot by cleverly writing out all the characters.

YEAH. Right.

As you can see, I pretty much agree with you anyway, just wanted to share this brief conversation.

[skippity_doo]

Is your friend, by any chance, completely mental? "Forcing him to do a reboot"?? No way, dude, he can just bring back River Song, I'm sure. ;op (Sorry Christine! I spaketh the name of evil!)

[tenfeethigh]

Is your friend, by any chance, completely mental?
Yes, she is. Wasn't that obvious? :D

[pluckyyounggirl]

Kate Winslet as the young River Song FTW! \m/

[rusty_halo]

I agree with you. It's an industry; people are making career decisions that have little or nothing to do with whether they like Moffat's writing style or personality. It's just that RTD's era is over and people are moving to other jobs.

It seems that a lot of anti-Moffat fans are projecting their antipathy toward Moffat on others who've never indicated that they have anything against him, and with very little understanding of how the television industry works. (No one quits their job over a ship war!) There are plenty of good arguments against Steven Moffat (like, he's a sexist asshat, for one) but it's a ridiculous to stretch our complaints into "the production team hates him and expects him to destroy the show."

I dislike Moffat and don't plan to watch his version of Doctor Who, but I'm sure he'll assemble a competent team and that the show will remain successful for quite some time.

[pluckyyounggirl]

It seems that a lot of anti-Moffat fans are projecting their antipathy toward Moffat on others who've never indicated that they have anything against him [...]

Yes. I don't think it's fair to ascribe such an amount of Moffat dislike (or any feelings towards him or others) to those leaving now, or to make it out as their prime reason, when they've never voiced an opinion about him. If people are unhappy with him or his stories, they are going to behave cleverer than he has in the past and not voice that opinion in public. Anything else comes down to speculation.

I'm still undecided whether I'll watch or not. I don't plan to, but I anticipate curiosity to get the better of me. I have this unhealthy tendency of continuing to watch my shows until the end (though I've gotten better at letting go & giving up on crap recently). For now, I'm awaiting the specials in suspense.

[butterfly]

I'm not expecting the ratings to drop like a stone either. I do expect that they'll be a bit lower, if only because Moffat has always gotten a bit lower ratings than some of the other writers (Moffat's never broken 8 million, but almost 8 million is still really good), but even that will depend on things like casting and timing -- finales, premieres, and specials and pretty much destined to get higher ratings, out of curiosity if nothing else.

If Moffat goes with a 'sexier' DW and it's too obvious, then some parents might stop watching it with their kids. It's hard to say, though, because we don't know what kind of control the BBC is going to exert and we don't know what his cast/crew is going to be.

And, of course, no matter what happens with Moffat, Doctor Who would still exist. It's pretty much an institution at this point.

[pluckyyounggirl]

Oh, don't think I highly enjoy the fact that Moffat gets lower ratings - weren't his episodes this series the lowest-rating by far? But, as you said, who knows why exactly that is. Nevertheless, I don't feel any less gratified. ;-)

See, I think that DW has already been pretty sexy and naughty; it's just done in a manner that flies over kids' heads. I think it's very obvious to us, yeah. And it's fun. And that's how it should stay, I think.

I don't even have the energy to get wound up over the stuff he says; either he really thinks that way, or he just likes to wind people up, or he's trying to hide whatever shortcomings and insecurities he might think he has. Pretty much all of that still makes him a prick, though.