Over the years of his reign as showrunner, Steven Moffat has taken matters of “canon” (inasmuch as such a thing exists in Doctor Who) into his own hands multiple times. Obviously, that’s only to be expected—after all, RTD started out by killing off the Time Lords, and it is the prerogative of the Powers That Be to dictate the general direction of the show.
As excited as I was when it was first announced Moffat would take over for RTD, though, I’ve come to dislike a great deal about the way Moffat approaches the show. It makes me sad. I want to enjoy every episode, but I simply can’t.
The trend started out relatively small. Building on what had come before, Moffat upped the ante on the Doctor’s romantic entanglements, introducing River Song even before the reins came into his hands. In and of herself, River is a decent character. I’m troubled, though, at the way her story (as so many of Moffat’s) turned into one about her whole existence revolving around the Doctor—from conception to brainwashed childhood to career to marriage to death. And the veracity of that “marriage” in particular has always bothered me, but that’s a different issue. My point, though (I’m sure I had a point…), is that River’s relationship with the Doctor is unconventional, to say the least. This was one of Moffat’s first salvos, hinting to us about how he would handle the show as a whole.
[An aside: We know River knows the Doctor’s name, yet we have not yet seen the moment he told her—when she “made him” tell her. Given how the concept was introduced way back in Forest of the Dead (“There’s only one time I could!”), I’d wager we’ll find out in The Time of the Doctor…]
More recently, though, Moffat’s storytelling choices have been ever more self-serving. I have readily admitted that I never (since I educated myself about the pre-Hiatus era) liked RTD’s choice to relaunch the series with the Time Lords having been cut out of the picture. In fact, I said in my review of The Day of the Doctor that I liked how Moffat had found a viable way around that plot point.
I’m officially reversing my position.
The more I’ve thought about it (and read others’ comments), the more the sleight of hand allowing the salvation of Gallifrey and the emotional trauma to three whole Doctors (Eccleston, Tennant, and Smith—at least in all but his last adventure) to co-exist pisses me off. It’s the ultimate example of having your cake and eating it, too. Except that now you can’t actually eat it, because it’s just a hologram. Or something.
What I mean is, all the character development, the personal growth and coping mechanisms the Doctor has built over the last four hundred years are now moot. Once again, there are no real consequences in Moffat’s Whoniverse. That glorious moment in The Doctor Dances, when the emotionally scarred man gleefully exclaimed that “just this once, everybody lives!” meant so much to us when we learned exactly what had brought him to that point. Now it’s just a dull echo of an erased timeline, like Rory continually dying without dying. How can we—can the children, who are the nominal target audience—take anything Moffat does seriously when there are never any consequences? It’s the 2011 Christmas Special all over again: you may have to deal with death and loss in your own lives, but don’t worry; the Doctor can still go on, even when he’s lost everything—oh, never mind! Things turned out okay after all!
Moffat has a reputation for killing off characters, but he actually has no stomach for it. The problem with Nine’s joyful outburst, thus, is not that “everybody lives!”—it’s the “just this once” part. Especially now that the event that spawned the pain at the root of Nine’s entire existence never happened.
Even if I ignore the Doctor having an actual wife or the unraveling of years’ and Doctors’ worth of storytelling, there’s one more forthcoming detail that really smacks of egoism on Moffat’s part. If you’ve been avoiding any and all news about the upcoming Christmas special, you may not have heard the following (and if so, (a) congratulations on your spoiler-avoidance skillz and (b) look away now), but rumor has it that Moffat is now claiming that Matt Smith’s Doctor (still “the Eleventh Doctor,” mind you) is actually the Doctor’s final incarnation. That is, he’s used up his twelve regenerations/thirteen incarnations.
Now in order to reach this conclusion, one would first have to count Doctor 10.2 / Handy / whatever-you-want-to-dub-him as a full regeneration. Contrary to RTD’s “it’s like a sneeze; it doesn’t count if you don’t finish it” attitude, the stunt-regeneration that served as the mid-finale cliffhanger for Series Four’s The Stolen Earth / Journey’s End fully counts in Moffat’s version of things. That would make Smith the eleventh regeneration/twelfth incarnation.
And here’s where I really detect Moffat ex machina. If speculations prove true, and Moffat decides to call it quits after another series, he already knows he’s on his way out. I surmise that having the end of the traditional cycle of regenerations so close was too much for him to bear; he couldn’t stand leaving the solution to that problem to someone else. So he manufactured a way to need to produce said solution. Adding Handy to the list got him close, but unless he stayed to the end of Capaldi’s tenure (highly unlikely), he’d still be one incarnation shy. Enter the War Doctor.
Now I’ll admit I thought John Hurt made for a wonderful Doctor. However, once you factor in the above objections to the newly-revealed fate of Gallifrey and the clear timeline contortions to make Smith’s departure the occasion for resetting the regeneration clock, one can hardly see Hurt’s Doctor as anything more than a plot point akin to “Amy, the mysterious girl who lived with a crack in the universe in her wall” or “Clara, the mysterious girl who existed across all time and space.”
While I’ve almost always found Moffat’s episodes an enjoyable romp, full of laughs and delightful little moments on first viewing, upon reflection they are often flawed; sometimes deeply so. Maybe things will be different after a changing of the guard in the lead role, but I’m not holding my breath. I just hope Moffat uses that Writer’s Hand in greater moderation in the days to come.
I agree with everything you’ve said here,
but I’m a bit confused. This is possibly because I only watched Day of the Doctor once and haven’t read any talk about it. I thought that none of the Doctors involved remember exactly what happened? So War Doctor still thinks he destroyed everything, leaving all of 9’s (and 10’s and 11’s) angst intact. Is that incorrect?
Even if that take is correct, it makes another good example of Moffat ex Machina. Conveniently giving us a happy history while erasing it to explain its fit. So still no consequences, like you say, just no happy consequences this time instead of no bad/sad ones.
You’ve got it
No, you’re right; none of them remember it. It’s just that everything Nine, Ten, and Eleven have gone through are now the result of false assumptions. He has to live through 400 years of guilt, but then he gets a free pass because the awfulness never actually happened.
Tranquility Base
The ego has landed
Agree with you 100%
Why do this?
I completely agree as well. It’s like a reset button for everyone who has ever died. You just bring them back. River, dead? No, she still exists in a computer mainframe! I thought 10 explained at the time that he didn’t use a “full regeneration” when he used the energy of his hand as he was almost killed by that Dalek. It was a partial one – so how can it fit into one of the regenerations?
SO very much about Moffat’s plots do not make sense! This is my opinion and I’m sticking with it. They are convoluted and messy. How can he not visit Amy and Rory in NY, but change the history of the time-locked Time Wars, save the Time Lords, place them in a Pocket Universe, eradicate his recent raison d”etre, and … oh, so many more things! Rory didn’t die, Amy didn’t die, she was a Ganger, the list goes on and on. Too much to even list or discuss here… you summed it up in your insightful commentary. When we get to discussing “The Time of the Doctor,” I think we’ll find that plot holes still exist!
Why was Clara born for one reason? To protect the Doctor? What does that mean? How could an ordinary human survive the time stream like she did and save the Doctor? A lot of unanswered questions there as well…getting very frustrated with these plots. And when is Series 8 going to start? It will soon be a year since Series 7 ended!
On the Same Page
You and I seem to be pretty much on the same page. And yes—still tons of plot holes after the regeneration!
The rumor I heard was that S8 won’t begin until August, but will run all together as a full run instead of as a split season. I also heard that Capaldi had finished his first readthrough as the lead, so that implies to me there will be an Easter special. We’ll see, though…
Completely agree
I completely agree…
For example I don’t see why did River come across the Doctor every time in a previous point of the Doctor’s timeline and one day she could stop doing it?? What was the reason?
Anyway my problem with Moffat is in the characters and in their lack of grief, for example when Rory goes inside the crak he disappeares from the existence and amy doesn’t rememer of him. I HATE this. Amy goes in time and space without astonishment everything is so boring… she doesn’t feel any psychological consequence she’s made of iron. But Ironman is alcoholic, because he is human. Amy isn’t human.
I know she’s strong because of the crak in her wall, but this explanation doesn’t help me in sympathize with her. And we can find the same characteristic in Clara. So we can deduce this is moffat portrait of a woman: not-human. And these companions being strong and suggesting a better solution in a way eclipse the Doctor, the character I love . This is frustrating for me.
You wrote “One would have to count Doctor 10.2 as a full regeneration. contrary to RTD ” It’s like a sneeze: it doesn’t count if you don’t finish it ” attitude
And in the post #16 “I hate the non-regeneration” you wrote:
“the official line is that that particular regeneration didn’t count toward the doctors total of twelve for some reason”
Can you tell me where can I read the official RTD’s version?
I never read it before because I started watching the Doctor in the 2012 and there was a lot of things to learn about this series.
Even though I hated the stupid non regeration, too, I hate much more the slip forward in the numeration.
I see no need to increase the number of the regenerations….what for?? why couldn’t be Capaldi the Twelfth? And the after Capaldi Doctor the final incarnation? After that, the Doctor could start the new regenerations cycle.
I see no reason for all this mess. Moffat needed the war doctor as a plot point, infact the character’s emotional potentialities are not really exploited in my opinion. If the warrior had doubts, if he acts like the doctor, what is it worth drinking the elixir? I have the impression that Moffat told us of the Warrior but he didn’t show us the Warrior, he showed us another Doctor. One could answer that the war doctor, Nine, Ten and Eleven are the same person, but then what is it worth drinking the elixir? I thought that the elixir would changed the personality of the doctor . Therefore the elixir was a rip-off.
And I think that a one-episode Doctor will be loved by the future fans less than the other Doctors.
My confusion is due to the fact that my friend who read “the writer’s tale” told me that the book says that the original idea of increasing the number of the regenerations came from RTD and that is the reason why he wrote in the journey’s end that regeneration/non regeneration, I don’t know how to call it ….
I didn’t read the “the writer’s tale” but I guess this:
1) RTD had the idea to slip forward the numeration as we can read in the writer’s tale
2) RTD changed his initial idea and said officially that this regeneration didnt count.
3) after some season Moffat changed version again and said we have to count that regeneration
Interesting perspective
I hadn't thought of the characterization of Amy as making her "inhuman." That's an interesting way of thinking about it. And yes, especially in the last few series, it seems to me as well that the overall story has become more about the Companions than about the Doctor. I share your frustration.
I'm afraid I wasn't clever enough to cite my sources on those RTD comments, so I'm having a hard time finding reference materials to support my claim now. 🙁 I had recalled reading interviews (or reports of interviews) around the time Journey's End first aired back in 2008, and those were from what I drew those conclusions. I haven't read The Writer's Tale, either, so I don't know what is revealed there. Maybe that's where Moffat got the idea in the first place.
It is my belief, though, that Moffat added the War Doctor entirely so he could be the one to "solve" the problem of the regeneration limit. I think he knew he'd be leaving before another Doctor (Capaldi) does, but he wanted to put his mark on the show's history, so he resurrected(?) the idea of counting Doctor 10.2 as a full regeneration and added in another so he could do what he wanted. Extreme hubris, in my opinion.
p.s. Welcome to the blog! 🙂
About Amy, Moffat found a
About Amy, Moffat found a solution (the crack that erases the existence of people fallen inside) to erase the grief and the loss from Amy character, because she can’t remember. This happened with his parents and whit Rory.
Moreover, there is a big difference between Rose astonishment and trust when she came across the Doctor for the first time and the way Amy didn’t let the Doctor help her, made him powerless (and this is one thing I hate) handcuffing him and doing by herself. For both he was a stranger.
I have the sensation that Amy didn’t need the Doctor. My sensation is she needs nothing because she is too strong and she is not sensitive. i know she said she needed Rory but this is not enough. this is only my opinion.
Don’t worry I trust that you had read that version in interviews in 2008. I’ll try to look for those interviews or anything that speaks of this. Yes, my friend says Moffat resurrected the idea of counting Doctor 10.2 so he could amount to 13 only adding one new doctor .
As a matter of fact the only possible reason is his megalomania.
thank you 😉