Moffat Issues (Contains Discussion for Series 8 and prior)

[Recca Hino]

Hopefully I've given significant spoiler warning.

Okay so this topic is about the issues I have with Moffat. People are free to add there own, or argue my points.

- River Song; I'll fully admit her first appearance wasn't among my favorite episodes. However I saw potential for her character as a sort of Brigadier companion although unlike the Brig not in order. Her second appearance sort of fueled this hope, but after that.... I liked the idea of her running into the Doc out of order, but her time traveling herself...that was less ejoyable to me. The they made her a pseudo time lord and that just pissed me off. For crying out loud did we really need a knock off Time Lord?

-The Church of Silence: An organization trying to get rid of the Doctor, okay fine and cool. However.. how and when did the sabotage the T.A.R.D.I.S.? What was the point of sending the Confessional priest to take over the earth. Doctor's favorite planet sure, but really it's his favorite planet, he has home field advantage, using it as a trap was just....

-Clara: Her first two appearance interesting by themselves, but when we found out how they happen that just .... seriously? When Timelords die they leave a Scar for people to jump into? Really now, we haven't seen Time Lords die before? The Deadly Assasin or Twin Dilemma anyone? Now I fully understand in a show about time travel continuity will change, but why should a Timelords biology suddenly change?

In the topic about a Female Doctor, Ratttking said the following

Quote:

I liked most of them, and wonder why people who hate Moffat (and Davies before him) and the recent companions so much bother to continue watching. I've been in the fandom almost 30 years now and I never saw such hate for the old series - save of course for Adric. If they ever have a companion as awful as that again I'll stop watching until they get a new one.

My answer, the Diamond in the rough. While I'm not a fan of the shows current Show Runner here and there a few episodes are enjoyable. I loved "The Day of the Doctor", it was the only one of the trilogy I did love. The Time of the Doctor was okay, but at the same time... felt a little over reaching.

[Karastorm]

TBH I prefer Mofats style of righting in compassion to Russell's. Why? easy it fits more in line with the classic Dr.Who shows. There both equally silly and hide behind the sofa scary. It's part of the Doctors Charm. Unfortunately Russell almost killed the show when it was still in the returning phase the only thing that kept it going was Mofats righting style. He gave us episodes like " don't blink" and other new classics.

[Recca Hino]

One thing I despise with both Davies and Moffat is that every season has an overarching plot. One of the things I loved about the older episodes is that the stories are mostly stand along with only the occasional overarching plot like the keys to time or E Space. For the most part you can watch an episode of the old without needing to keep track of every stupid little detail.

What does TBH mean, also the name of the episode was "Blink." I enjoyed "Blink", and a few of his other episodes, but most of his stuff during his own time as show runner I didn't really care for. Only in Series 7 did he do some stuff I enjoyed but only when the episodes stand alone I didn't care for how they fit into the overarching plot.

[Gossy]

I agree with Recca.
Not only is this annoying, but they can't even get their overarching plot straight. It seems like a jumbled mess by the time we get through it.

Also...



What the hell is this thing Moffat has for this boring trope??? Goddamn it. He has a few good ideas but many medicore and bad ones that he keeps using again and again. no no no no no.

[Ms Spork]

My issue with Moffat is that a lot of his "strong female characters" are very similar. Its like he takes the same traits and plasters them onto a new character, instead of giving them interesting depth. He very obviously has a type.

I like his plot-lines alright, though. Standalone episodes are definitely his strong suit, though .

[Recca Hino]

Not all his stand alone episodes are good, I was not a fan of Girl in the Fire place. I mean the direction of the series was the Doctor and Rose but he gave the Doctor a new love interest for that one episode?

[The Telekinetic Toad]

I can answer when the Silence sabotage the TARDIS.

I don't remember which episode(s) it was. But some time before we knew what the Silence were, I think. There was some episode where Amy was in the TARDIS and was talking to the Doctor who was outside. She kept intermittently looking off-camera at something, and at one point even shouting "Hey!" at something off-camera. But then she carried on as if nothing had happened.

It's apparent now that was she was seeing was a Silence, but she kept forgetting about it as soon as he turned away. I'll look for the episode or the scenes, hope I can find it.

I agree that some of Moffat's stuff is too convoluted. But I still like his stuff and I liked RTD's stuff as well.

EDIT: Found it;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2E7KiFsKz8

[The Telekinetic Toad]

Karastorm

TBH I prefer Mofats style of righting in compassion to Russell's. Why? easy it fits more in line with the classic Dr.Who shows. There both equally silly and hide behind the sofa scary. It's part of the Doctors Charm. Unfortunately Russell almost killed the show when it was still in the returning phase the only thing that kept it going was Mofats righting style. He gave us episodes like " don't blink" and other new classics.

Oh, for the love of god.. stop saying "righting" instead of "writing". Please.

[The Telekinetic Toad]

And here's a good summary of what the Silence were doing:

Everything they did was actually to prevent The Doctor from speaking his name on Trenzalore. They were doing this because of a prophecy that the Doctor would speak his name there, thus starting a new Time War.

In "Time of the Doctor", on Trenzalore, the main Papal Mainframe decided to help the Doctor after they realized that he has no intention of speaking his name. A part of the Church, however, broke off and decided to try and kill the Doctor before he ever reached Trenzalore, via time-travel. This group was known as the "Kovarian Chapter". They were the ones who destroyed the TARDIS in "The Big Bang", which ironically LEAD to the Doctor coming to Trenzalore in the first place. Then they also kidnapped the infant River Song to train her to kill the Doctor, which happened in Series 6.
The Doctor sent a fake to the lake in his stead, and River stayed in jail in Stormcage to convince the Silence that the Doctor was dead. She was pardoned when the Doctor wrote himself out of history, making it appear like he had never existed in the first place.
Then his adventures brought him to Trenzalore.
Apparently, he was supposed to die there (as seen on Name of the Doctor), presumably as a victim of the new Time War he would start by speaking his name. This would probably mean the newly released Time Lords would "bury" him by releasing his time stream in a tomb like they did. It must be a Time Lord traditional type of burial, which is why we haven't seen it with any other Time Lord deaths.
But this ends up not happening, because Clara convinces the Time Lords (through the crack) to help the Doctor. They give him a new set of Regenerations (his 12 were already used up, due to the second-10th Doctor and the War Doctor), which meant he survived and didn't speak his name.

Okay... yeah, that ended up being more than I intended to type. Like I said, it is VERY convoluted. But there it is.

[Recca Hino]

My only issue with that is there's no evidence he did release the Time Lord in the Time of the Doctor. More likely he died before speaking his name. Not to mention that in order for the Timelords to wind up where they did the 12th was needed to help send them there meaning his existence was predestine making "The Name of the Doctor" completely and utterly pointless. His grave shouldn't exist because he never died, 12 showing up in The Day of the Doctor shows this.

[The Telekinetic Toad]

Recca Hino

My only issue with that is there's no evidence he did release the Time Lord in the Time of the Doctor. More likely he died before speaking his name. Not to mention that in order for the Timelords to wind up where they did the 12th was needed to help send them there meaning his existence was predestine making "The Name of the Doctor" completely and utterly pointless. His grave shouldn't exist because he never died, 12 showing up in The Day of the Doctor shows this.

I would say the fault in that is that the 12th Doctor should not have been at Day of the Doctor.
I think it was a thoughtless cameo that the writers didn't realize put an inconsistency in the plot. Unless these new seasons return to it and explain it.

[Recca Hino]

Moffat wrote that episode so he should have known what he's doing and I really can't see anything this season can do to fix that issue.

[The Telekinetic Toad]

I guess so. Ya never know, maybe Moffat wrote it in fully intending there to be an explanation in the future. If not, it's a minor inconsistency, which is a shame when everything else fits together (despite being extremely convoluted).

I actually really like all of this now that it fits together for me.