Subject: Waters of Mars? Really?
Author:
Posted on: 2014-02-21 12:24:00 UTC

I didn't particularly like that one.

My main problems with RTD are and were:

-The cringeworthy episodes. Love and Monsters, anything with the Slitheen in it... oh, and The Long Game, which I have an irrational hatred for. (Did I mention The Daleks Take Manhatten yet?)

-The deii ex machina. I realise these are traditional in Doctor Who, but... Last of the Time Lords. I get the whole 'lots of psychic energy through people talking about the Doctor' thing, but... why does that mean he can fly? Is that a thing Time Lords can do? Fly if they have enough power? Is this related to flying Daleks? Are the Time Lords Daleks?

Actually, in that selfsame episode - we got the strong impression the TARDIS was pretty much unfixable after being turned into a Paradox Machine. Y'know, up until Jack shot it. Then it was fine.

-The constant escalation. Look at the five finales (counting The End of Time): 'The Daleks will destroy Future Earth! No, they'll destroy Present Earth! No, the Master has destroyed Present Earth! No, the Daleks will destroy Present Earth and all other life! No, the Master will destroy Present Earth and then Rassilon will wipe out the universe!!!!!' I can't help but read that in a constantly increasing Dalek voice.

In all fairness, I really liked Doomsday, Journey's End, and End of Time 2. And in all other fairness, the procession did continue with Moffat's 'No, the TARDIS has destroyed LITERALLY EVERYTHING! No, River has destroyed the concept of Time itself!!!!!'. But the mid-season finales were both fairly low key in terms of destruction, and so was The Name of the Doctor. So at least Moffat has shown the ability to calm down.

Putting it another way: there are a lot of episodes from both that I really like. But I can't come up with any Moffat episodes I actively dislike. And his episodes under RTD were just brilliant.

hS

Reply Return to messages