(no subject)

[rynne]

I don't imagine Doctor Who has suddenly got enough money to move to London, so now I guess Moffat is okay with leaving his kids for a long time or moving them to Cardiff. Damn, I was hoping that would continue to prevent Moffat from taking over. Oh well.

This is actually pretty ironic. Just yesterday I was looking at some of the Supernatural misogyny discussion and being slightly smug that my show is really pretty awesome with women. I really hope that doesn't change with Moffat, that he can keep his views from influencing the show. Well, too much, since I doubt he'd hold those views if he didn't think they were right, and if he thinks they're right, he'd have no problem pushing them onto the show. Gah.

Moffat has written some pretty awesome episodes (excepting Girl in the Fireplace), and I am cautiously looking forward to the upcoming episodes. I'm not convinced of his ability to follow on from established character development and emotional continuity, but I think things will actually be easier with him as showrunner rather than just a one-story-per-season writer. Moffat likes telling his story more than going along with other people's stories, which is where a lot of the disconnect comes from, and if the entire thing is his story, then it'd be harder for him to fall out of sync. Of course, there's always being out of sync with the Doctor's previous emotional development, which leaves me actually hoping that David Tennant is not doing S5. If Moffat gets to start over with a brand new Doctor, he won't have to deal with Ten's emotional arc, and he won't have a chance to mess it up.

This news also makes me glad that I'm already pretty convinced that this season is the last of Rose we'll see in the show. Now I'm really, really hoping that S4 will end with the Doctor and Rose off into the sunset like Seven and Ace at the end of Survival, that they live her life together, and when the specials start, the Doctor is more emotionally stable for having had her. The specials maybe emphasize how good she was for him while gradually phasing mention of her out, and Moffat gets to start without having to deal with that relationship. I think that'd make the most sense, since I doubt Moffat loves emo!Doctor the way RTD does, and I rather think he'd like to make the Doctor more like he was in the Classic series. Then we can have Rose's memory, and the Doctor can move on.

I'm also going to be glad that, the way my obsessions run, usually lasting only two or three years, by the time Moffat starts I likely won't be as invested in the show as I am now. :p

Basically, I'm going to be...cautious. Right now I'm really reminded of how The West Wing was never quite as good once Aaron Sorkin left (also after four seasons), so I'm just going to have to wait and see.

Comments

[rynne.livejournal.com]

The source I've been able to find is this article", where he says, "There’s this issue you’re not allowed to discuss: that women are needy. Men can go for longer, more happily, without women. That’s the truth. We don’t, as little boys, play at being married - we try to avoid it for as long as possible. Meanwhile women are out there hunting for husbands." Plus another gem about the lack of respect in today's society for anything male. Bleh.

Regarding GitF, I'm told he once said something like "If you can't understand loving two women at the same time, then you're not a man." I can't find a source on that, but given the above quote I'm more inclined to believe he really did say that. Especially since, on the GitF commentary (which I admit I haven't seen, and don't want to, but it'd be easy enough to check), he's supposed to have said something about how the Doctor wouldn't understand why Rose and Reinette might not want to share a TARDIS, and would have to have Mickey explain it to him. So basically he wouldn't understand them being jealous of each other--even though the Doctor's been jealous of Rose's men (Mickey, Adam, Jack)? Total double standard, created entirely by Moffat.

And for things actually in the Whoverse, rather than commentary about them or interviews, I very much dislike the "king's wife and king's girlfriend" parallels in GitF, applied to Rose and Reinette. I won't go into that here or this will end up an extremely long comment, but if you're interested in my views on GitF, you can check out my conversation with thunderemerald here.

[ariastar.livejournal.com]

Oh yikes, Moffat. While I don't see the level of creepy in that linked article actually bleeding over extremely into what he writes for shows (I confess I really liked Girl in the Fireplace, but also that the problems with it are real and valid and uncomfortable problems), that's still really not good at all. And while I've fanwanked his nonunderstanding of the problem of having both Rose & Reinette on board to be a product of the Doctor being an alien, not a man, it still ... needs that fanwanking. Hopefully he will not end up messing with Ten or visiting his intentions too much, and just write good fun clever things, which is what he is good at.

[rynne.livejournal.com]

I don't think it's bled over extremely (it's more in GitF than the others, which is still one out of four episodes)--so far. But that was when he was only writing an episode or two per season, not when he had long-term character arcs at his disposal. So, now that he will have those long-term arcs, and given his views, I'm sorta nervous about what he'll do with them.

And while I've fanwanked his nonunderstanding of the problem of having both Rose & Reinette on board to be a product of the Doctor being an alien, not a man, it still ... needs that fanwanking.

I can't even fanwank it away like that. If the Doctor doesn't understand the problem of having both Rose and Reinette on board, then he wouldn't have displayed jealousy over Mickey, Adam, and Jack. In The Doctor Dances, which is even a Moffat episode, he's insulted at the implication that being an alien makes him not a man. It's a double standard, makes the Doctor a hypocrite, and is just something I can't think of any explanation for that will make me like it.