#I hate that I had to Stop Watching during Moffat's no good very bad seasons

[lesenbyan]

oh I'm gonna get emotional this rewatch, huh?

#jay watches dw; #personal; #roommate ended up watching Donna's first two episodes with me (gonna start them at ssn 1 officially but I need my Donna) #And I started tearing up and just 'that's my girl I love her I love her so much oh my god my girl' when she was loading 10 up with her bags #And I was giving them the basic run down of the time war and was talking about how lonely he is and how it's one of his driving traits #and just felt my voice almost crack #y'all I love them so both so much #I love this show so much #I hate that I had to Stop Watching during Moffat's no good very bad seasons #(I love Amy and Rory and River and all but like.....Moffat should not be allowed to write women yanno?) #(And I really don't like what they were trying to pull with the 50th anniversary? that's when I stopped watching) #I was right tho I absolutely need Donna and 10 for my mental health #Donna's always hit me in a way none of the others have I relate to her so much

[timelxrd-victorious]

Funny how the DW fandom is “collectively” crying that Chibnall’s era is bad and wants Moffat back, because that was “when Doctor Who was good”, apparently, when, uh. Hmmm.

So we're just going to completely ignore the whole entire very vocal section of the fandom that hated Moffat's era and his writing in general from the word "go", eh? All the way back to when Moffat was writing episodes in the RTD era (“The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances”, “The Girl in the Fireplace”, “Blink”, “Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead”) and the problems seen in his own era were evident even back then?

We’re just going to ignore Moffat

having all his companions “wait for” the Doctor (Reinette, Amy, Clara, River)

having the white female companions or one-off characters meet the Doctor as a young girl, become obsessed with him, and have that obsession become sexual and have the female companion sexually assault him the moment she meets the Doctor as an adult again, when for the Doctor it’s only been something like ten minutes (Reinette, Amy, Clara, River)

romanticizing stalking (The Girl in the Fireplace; Blink; The Doctor, the Widow, and the Wardrobe; Series 7B’s arc with Clara, The Pilot)

retconning the massive piece of worldbuilding and one condition for the revived series to be brought back in the first place by the BBC, which was Gallifrey’s destruction in the Last Great Time War (The Day of the Doctor)

having his two Black companions die and come back as Cybermen (Danny Pink, Bill) whereas Clara 1) splinters echoes of herself throughout history, 2) ends up dying for real but then comes back, and 3) becomes immortal and gets her own TARDIS.

making the Twelfth Doctor blind for two episodes as a means of cheap drama, when 1) Gallifreyans are primarily telepathic, 2) Gallifreyans as a whole are faceblind anyway; and 3) it wasn’t even handled that well

playing off Vastra and Jenny’s relationship (they’re married lesbians, with one of them being a Silurian) in Victorian London solely for laughs, along with any other hints of queer characters and relationships being played for humor

constantly setting up convoluted story arcs and plotlines that are spread out for multiple seasons and then never get any pay-off, or are tied up in the most nonsensical shoddy way possible (series 5, series 6, series 7, everything involving the Silence and the “mystery” surrounding the Doctor’s name)

had the Twelfth Doctor constantly interrupt and talk over a Deaf character played by a Deaf actor, which again, was played for laughs

taking shots at RTD’s era and characters whenever possible to make his own characters and plotlines look better and cleverer, including erasing the majority of RTD’s era from continuity via the cracks in time and then rebooting the universe (not to mention the blatant classism directed at Rose and the palpable disdain for the Doctor/Rose Tyler as a ship) (The Day of the Doctor, The Bells of Saint John, The Girl in the Fireplace, etc.)

playing off the mere idea of the Doctor regenerating into a female body as a joke (The Curse of Fatal Death, 1999) when the Doctor had already been established in the expanded universe and Classic series as nonbinary by Gallifreyan and human standards

used a whole episode to argue that all refugees are actually evil, an invasion force, and “don’t trust refugees or immigrants who don’t want to assimilate into the culture of the country they’ve sought refuge in”

had River Song’s character revolve entirely around the Doctor

Moffat was an absolute shite showrunner, and plenty of people stopped watching at various points during his era (I personally know quite a few who stopped watching during series 6).

Whereas Chibnall... *checks notes*

had an episode set during Jim Crow-era, segregated 1950s Alabama, pointed out how the racism of the setting affected three of the Doctor’s companions more than xemself, and flat out said that while dealing with the racist time-traveller, the best they could do was get history back on track without helping Rosa Parks

had another episode focusing on religious tension, discrimination, and the dividing up families and neighbors across borders that didn’t exist previously

drew on Classic series and expanded universe canon to add on to the Doctor’s backstory: specifically, canonizing the Cartmel Masterplan 

has the Doctor dealing with others around xem perceiving xem as a cis woman, even though xe was always nonbinary and never had really identified as a man 

Thasmin

has the Doctor and the Master destroy Gallifrey again, because bringing it back in the first place was dumb and the Doctor doesn’t really want anything to do with Gallifrey in the first place

I don’t know about you, but one of these showrunners and the way he writes episodes is a lot worse in how he handles material. And it’s not Chibnall.

I said what I said.

And no, I do not accept criticism.

#Moffat crit #( Bramble watches Doctor Who. )

[oodlyenough]

hi! so, given what you've seen so far, would you recommend getting back into doctor who? am asking as someone who peaced out emotionally after let's kill hitler, and stopped watching for good after capaldi's first season. there was once a time when i really loved - LOVED - the show, but it also morphed into something that i started to hate - HATE - after a while. should i even bother anymore, what would you say?

I’m actually an episode behind still (haven’t seen the one that aired last weekend), so I am maybe not the best judge. Or maybe I am? I watched for a long time -- finally dropped out somewhere during Capaldi’s last season -- but emotionally I checked out after the 50th was everything I never wanted. So far, I’ve liked Thirteen, and the new series feels *different* from the Moffat era... but it had yet to really click with me? Like, not bad, but not really grabbing me either. I really liked the episode “Rosa”, about Rosa Parks, and I’ve heard good things about the most recent ep in terms of being more of a domestic, family drama style episode like RTD used to do. Haven’t watched it so I can’t confirm.

I guess it depends what it was you loved and then what it was that you hated? I was just kind of overall sick of Steven Moffat’s schtick, and Chris Chibnall is a different style of showrunner and the show does feel different, so that’s nice. IMO there are too many main characters and they’re not balancing them well enough, feels like they bit off more than they could chew, but they’re all likable enough. Jodie Whittaker is fun as hell to watch and very good.

#anon #you've got questions we've got answers