Tuesday, December 27, 2011

An Open Letter to Steven Moffat

Dear Steven Moffat,

Thanks to you, I'm watching Doctor Who. I watched Eleventh Hour and my mouth was ajar the whole time. Here was just a television show which was easily worthy of a cinematic release. Some 32 years since I first heard of Doctor Who, I was finally brought into the fold.  This means that Matt Smith is my Doctor. As with many of my contemporaries, I started collecting DVDs for Series 1-4 to bring myself up to date. It made your taking over as head writer seem all the more a blessing.

However I have to say that the executive producing thing has taken its toll on your storytelling.  We'll never see another The Doctor Dances or Blink (personally I felt The Girl in the Fireplace was what you'd call rubbish, so I don't count that among your gems).  There's something inspired about those great stories, a go-for-it spirit, an surge of energy behind what made them possible.  Even series 5 was one big inspired story arc, the likes I hadn't seen since Back to the Future trilogy or Buster Keaton's The Cameraman.  I don't know if it's having to divide cleverness and plot between Doctor Who and Sherlock, but as marvelous as individual stories have been throughout series 6, the big one with River Song which you orchestrated was forced and contrived.  An organized religious order after The Doctor?  Yeah right.  Sex between humans in the TARDIS imbue offspring with TimeLord DNA?  900+ years you'd think by now he'd have switched gears and lured people in for centuries just to rebuild his race.  It's a bit crazy that he didn't know, unless it was made clear that the TARDIS intentionally caused Melody's enhancement, which hasn't been implied in any way. And still there's the question of how The Silence knew in the first place that Amy was carrying a part Timelord fetus? How did they know conception in the TARDIS would cause this if The Doctor himself didn't?

Can't say divvying up mental resources hasn't told on Sherlock.  After a great start, Pretty in Pink had a copout ending.  Suddenly Sherlock stopped what he was doing like someone holding up a shiney before a crow.  No one who doesn't care what people think about them would stop to play ego footsie without bluffing, and he wasn't bluffing.  That's too gullible for a walking analytical machine.  It was a kink in the chain for the series IMHO.

Anyway, wrap it up.  Cut the crap.  No contrived endings. Bring back Wilf before Bernard Cribbins can no longer do the role.  Let his best friend back in 2009 know he's okay.  Forget a multi-Doctor reunion and stick The Doctor in that parallel universe to contend with a deadly and corrupt and overzealous Torchwood and half-human David Tennant, Pete, and Rose (there you have it: a sort of not quite tenth Doctor that won't slam The Doctor's own timeline). 

Of course you won't be doing these, even if they serve as closure to the fans and that we see this as one all-encompassing show and deserving of some crossable barriers.

Oh and please PLEASE ask BBCAmerica to stop the hell altering the opening sequence.  It's bad enough they take 25% off specials and two parter episodes that they have to further insult our intelligence with namby pamby content.

Thanks and here's to some real juicy storytelling for series 7 and 8! Make it worth the wait for a double series for the 50th. Hopefully - if the planet still exists in 2014 - we're back to starting on Easter.

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