Fans who watch Doctor Who on SciFi do not read- huge spoilers ahead
So, yeah. The last Doctor Who episode. Damn. I’m not sure which way they’ll go yet- but hell, I’m surprised this was kept a secret and nobody leaked it. I hope they don’t hit a lame o reset switch. RTD uses this a little too much (esp with some sort of baloney psychic explanation involved) and I will be kind of pissed if they do. At the same time, I think this Doctor has been the best Doctor Who since Tom Baker, and I want him to stick around.
What I think will happen? They’ll wuss out, hit a reset switch involving Donna and the parellel world she created. She’ll probably have to sacrifice herself to the greater good in true RTD-era Who fashion. What I would want to happen? We get a new Doctor and there is no wussing out. Because if they go through with this- really go through with this- DAMN.
Resets are a big part of the reason I don’t like RTD. Also, the science part of this “science fiction” is among the worst I’ve ever seen. I’m all for reversing the polarity of the neutron flow (Pertwee ties Baker for my favorite Doctor, and I’m unwilling to choose between them), but the complete lack of logic and the complete lack of dramatically satisfying explanations that RTD churns out every week is mindnumbing. This wouldn’t be a problem if he didn’t make them the focus of the entire episode.
And I’m afraid of what kind of character and continuity destroying dance he’s going to do to get out of the regeneration.
Oh come on! Doctor Who has never ever had continuity. You’ll have one season proclaim one thing (like, oh the first season for example) and then the rest of the show completely ignore it. That’s the way Doctor Who is and always has been. It’s way fans have to go through ex post facto and create an official cannon of episodes- because if you included EVERYTHING in Doctor Who, none of it would ever add up or make sense. Esp if you add in the radio dramas and the novelizations.
Don’t blame RTD for how the series has always been. I agree on the RTD reset switch as being annoying. Personally, I only find the psuedoscience annoying when it’s pulled out of his ass and is more like wish fulfillment fantasy (if we all believe! It shall be true!), otherwise I consider the show fantasy and not sf, and therefore don’t mind the weak ass science.
And I really don’t think it’s mind numbing. If you hate it so much, why do you watch it? Any time I thought a show was mind numbing or drek, I quit watching it. Like, for example, Heroes. I don’t see the appeal of that show, and found it trite. So, I quit watching it.
I really don’t think Moffat is going to be any better.
Because I like the original series so much that there’s apparently nothing that will stop me from watching the new one. That and many of the episodes not written by RTD are pretty good. And almost all of the best episodes of the new series were written by Moffat.
Continuity is very loose, yes, but there are handful of rules and events that are important in making the Doctor who he is, and most of these are tied to Gallifrey and the nature of Time Lords. And RTD throws in enough references to old continuity that he should feel responsible for it now.
And this isn’t even me being the ubernerd and insisting that we allow for the continuity established in the 8th Doctor books that the BBC put out.
If RTD’s rule breaking and bad science were ever dramatically satisfying, it’d be a different story. He’s just a lazy, lazy writer. And it’s doubly frustrating that he always insists on handling the season finales himself.
That, and I’ll never forgive him for what he did to the Master.
“Because I like the original series so much that there’s apparently nothing that will stop me from watching the new one. That and many of the episodes not written by RTD are pretty good. And almost all of the best episodes of the new series were written by Moffat.”
I don’t know- there are more eps NOT written by RTD that are far worse than anything he’s ever written. Like, the Doctor’s Daughter (which was a cool character, but executed terribly) or that Sonotaran ep.
“Continuity is very loose, yes, but there are handful of rules and events that are important in making the Doctor who he is, and most of these are tied to Gallifrey and the nature of Time Lords.”
You mean, like the Doctor’s supposed 13 lives? That completely contradicted another episode (That Morpheus one)? I watched the show a lot as a kid, too, and as well as an adult. And the continuity just really isn’t there. It’s loose and torn and has big holes in it.
“He’s just a lazy, lazy writer. And it’s doubly frustrating that he always insists on handling the season finales himself.”
I’ve enjoyed his finales- I think they are fun spectacles, but that’s about it. Yes on the laziness, though. He constantly writes himself into a corner and then pulls something out of his ass. The more epic the story line, the more lazy the result. But you have to admit- Moffat has some of this laziness himself. Sure, blink was tightly written- but what about the empty child? Or The Library two parter? The endings of those were terrible! And a lot of hand waving to boot.
Nothing anyone has written, possibly anywhere ever, is as bad as Love and Monsters. That episode is RTD in a nutshell. lol I get blowjobs from a concrete block roflcopter. Partners in Crime tried to be that bad, though. And the utterly worthless pop culture references that he feels are so clever … at least he seems to have grown out of that.
Also note season 2 of Torchwood. The quality increased to the point where it’s almost a good show now, and RTD didn’t write an episode all season long.
I should probably stop poisoning your blog with my negativity, though. I’d go into the continuity bit, but I’ve already exceeded the amount of nerdery I feel like displaying today.
I will cry if it’s a reset switch. On the other hand, I would cry if Tennant left.
(Which he’s at least not doing for the specials, and OH how it would be lovely to have him around longer! The current record is seven seasons… and I would not mind seeing it matched or broken, heh.)
I have hopes for this finale, though, and “Midnight” is what has given me those hopes. That episode was almost better than “Blink.” Maybe it even WAS better. Agreed that “Love and Monsters” was rubbish— which was sad, as there was definite promise in the characters and concept. (Side note: the monster was designed by a child viewer; I want to say the contest was on Blue Peter, but I might be wrong.) And I got so sick of the Rose Curse in series 1, which has been echoed through so many Davies episodes. (The Rose Curse = a character whom Rose befriends ends up dying, either pointlessly or for the Greater Good.) But then he gave us “Midnight,” which just leaves me baffled. That was a tight, brilliant, creative episode (boosted in large part by the supreme acting involved, but with a supreme script to act upon), and I honestly did not feel that any of the deaths were unnecessary. So I don’t even know what to think, lol.
Admittedly, I’ve been arguing loudly in hopes that the severed hand in a jar has nothing to do with the regeneration, but I know I’ll be wrong. It would just be nice if, once in awhile, we could have something cool for the sake of being something cool, and remain incidental rather than becoming a Plot Key.
R.
(P.S. I think I’ve been reading too many Winnie-the-Pooh stories to the kids lately… I can’t stop capitalising things, lol!)