Let's talk doc
Dec. 26th, 2012 04:48 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
seriousficSo, Doctor Who Christmas Special. That time of year again. Since I think Britain is just waking up or however time zones work, this seems as good a time as any to discuss.
Pretend there's a spoiler cut here.
First off, like the new title sequence. It's like they dropped the TARDIS in a lava lamp. Delightful.
Second, it occurs to me that Moffatt is facing a similar problem to Davies' tenure: escalation. Whereas RTD kept making the stakes higher and higher (I believe it went from the danger of the universe being destroyed to the danger of the universe being destroyed to the extent that it had never existed at all, which strikes me as not much worse), Moffatt keeps making the show more and more meat, and more and more 'writerly'. (Exactly how many times is someone going to say "Doctor who?" and/or glance directly at the camera?) Like a never-happen-in-a-million-years sequence where Clara can only communicate in single words and her way of getting a reticent savior on her side isn't mentioning that children are in danger, but that a pond is involved. This works through a truckload of authorial fiat.
The apex of my disappointment is that this incarnation of Clara--a Victorian governess, not that you'd notice--is killed off to make way for a modern-day facsimile. Really, it's starting to get a bit creepy how many comely 21st-century twenty-somethings the Doctor ends up collecting. Moreso than if he just fucked them, even. I'm convinced now he's doing something untoward while they sleep. God only knows what it would take for a Time Lord to get an erection after a thousand years of rutting around the cosmos. His last relationship was, what, interracial quasi-incestuous ageplay mega-fetish?
Anyway, going back to my point, even more disappointingly, there's no real difference between the Clara of Victorian England and the Clara of the far-flung future. It seems Moffat really only cares to write women who are sassy, oversexed, and a little bicurious. Which is either an incredible mystery that goes to the very heart of the Doctor or just the fact that Moffat is a dude. Hell, it's good work if you can get it. If anyone reading this were writing Doctor Who, I'm sure the TARDIS would soon be overcrowded with angsty lesbians.
Which isn't to suggest Jenna-Louise Chapman does a bad job, or the character doesn't show promise beyond the J.J. Abrams mystery box silliness. I mean, when Vashta sees her for the first time and starts licking her lips? Right there with ya. Hey, she may be a married lizard, but she's not that married. I remember writing an article a little while back about how the ideal Mary Jane Watson is physically striking, vivacious, adventurous, and a little oversexed. Hey, writers for Amazing Spider-Man 2: Electro Boogaloo, try watching Doctor Who instead of Christopher Nolan's Batman movies another ten times.
Maybe when Doctor Who turns so meta that Ghostface is trying to kill David Tennant the actor that has become a character on the show Doctor Who, Moffat can quit that and write himself some Spider-Man. The franchise could use someone with a mad-on for marriage.
Also, I'll echo everyone saying that Strax alone would be more interesting than the 'classic dynamic' of the Doctor having a single female companion who wants to jump his sonic screwdriver. Obviously, Oswin, Vashta, Jenny, Strax, and the Doctor would get a bit crowded, but I'd settle for Strax and Oswin being BFFs. Imagine, he'd probably get a crush on her when he finds out she used to moonlight as a genocidal hate-pot. D'awww...
Pretend there's a spoiler cut here.
First off, like the new title sequence. It's like they dropped the TARDIS in a lava lamp. Delightful.
Second, it occurs to me that Moffatt is facing a similar problem to Davies' tenure: escalation. Whereas RTD kept making the stakes higher and higher (I believe it went from the danger of the universe being destroyed to the danger of the universe being destroyed to the extent that it had never existed at all, which strikes me as not much worse), Moffatt keeps making the show more and more meat, and more and more 'writerly'. (Exactly how many times is someone going to say "Doctor who?" and/or glance directly at the camera?) Like a never-happen-in-a-million-years sequence where Clara can only communicate in single words and her way of getting a reticent savior on her side isn't mentioning that children are in danger, but that a pond is involved. This works through a truckload of authorial fiat.
The apex of my disappointment is that this incarnation of Clara--a Victorian governess, not that you'd notice--is killed off to make way for a modern-day facsimile. Really, it's starting to get a bit creepy how many comely 21st-century twenty-somethings the Doctor ends up collecting. Moreso than if he just fucked them, even. I'm convinced now he's doing something untoward while they sleep. God only knows what it would take for a Time Lord to get an erection after a thousand years of rutting around the cosmos. His last relationship was, what, interracial quasi-incestuous ageplay mega-fetish?
Anyway, going back to my point, even more disappointingly, there's no real difference between the Clara of Victorian England and the Clara of the far-flung future. It seems Moffat really only cares to write women who are sassy, oversexed, and a little bicurious. Which is either an incredible mystery that goes to the very heart of the Doctor or just the fact that Moffat is a dude. Hell, it's good work if you can get it. If anyone reading this were writing Doctor Who, I'm sure the TARDIS would soon be overcrowded with angsty lesbians.
Which isn't to suggest Jenna-Louise Chapman does a bad job, or the character doesn't show promise beyond the J.J. Abrams mystery box silliness. I mean, when Vashta sees her for the first time and starts licking her lips? Right there with ya. Hey, she may be a married lizard, but she's not that married. I remember writing an article a little while back about how the ideal Mary Jane Watson is physically striking, vivacious, adventurous, and a little oversexed. Hey, writers for Amazing Spider-Man 2: Electro Boogaloo, try watching Doctor Who instead of Christopher Nolan's Batman movies another ten times.
Maybe when Doctor Who turns so meta that Ghostface is trying to kill David Tennant the actor that has become a character on the show Doctor Who, Moffat can quit that and write himself some Spider-Man. The franchise could use someone with a mad-on for marriage.
Also, I'll echo everyone saying that Strax alone would be more interesting than the 'classic dynamic' of the Doctor having a single female companion who wants to jump his sonic screwdriver. Obviously, Oswin, Vashta, Jenny, Strax, and the Doctor would get a bit crowded, but I'd settle for Strax and Oswin being BFFs. Imagine, he'd probably get a crush on her when he finds out she used to moonlight as a genocidal hate-pot. D'awww...
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no subject
Date: 2012-12-27 08:35 pm (UTC)And I think that there's some plot going on which will make sense of why there are so many Claras. Moffatt's going metafictional again (as if that's news).
no subject
Date: 2012-12-29 03:49 am (UTC)Not really a surprise coming from the creator of Coupling.