A letter to Doctor Who Moffat fanboy apologists

[silverwolfcc]

Once again, don't read this expecting uplifting, heartening, and positive encouragement of an analysis. I'm not that nice. And this has been held back for two years out of an attempt to be nicer, and I'll be honest, I'm really losing my patience.

It's not your fault. You're trying to defend something you like, but at least acknowledging reality that fans with extremely vocal distastes, and ratings are being highly critical in opposition. So I applaud you for at least understanding that much. You tried. You tried to explain the points of views of the critics, but it's hard for you, because you don't get it. You don't have the same antipathy and venom that courses through our veins. Sit back, relax. I've got this for you.

First off: it's not that Moffat's plotlines are too convoluted!

I like convoluted! I write very convoluted myself. I do not have trouble keeping up with convoluted plots, and it's far less difficult to do when you're not at the mercy of tv channels mixing up the order of episodes, and you can marathon entire seasons or arcs.

While it's true, this can make it more difficult for new fans to join in, please understand that Moffat angers a lot of OLD fans. The more casual of whom; just stop watching and lose interest. And there's a reason for that. The reason isn't that they're too stupid, and the material is too dense or complex. Please note: the more simplistic Moffat's episodes got, the more loathed they got as well. (Sleep No More anyone?)

Please also understand secondly, the more you apologize for Moffat as a savior of the show, while not outright dismissing the anger and complaints against him, this doesn't allow room for adjustment easily. It might lessen the blow, something I'll acknowledge to being terrible at, but it also adds a false sense of confidence. Being a critic is an art. It's extremely difficult to present a view you don't feel yourself, so I really suggest asking someone else to do it. Find one of the complainers and ask them to be polite and succinct. But currently, most "critiques" addressing the issue seem to imply the problem is with the fans.

This is idiocy.

An entertainment product desperately DESPERATELY needs a WIDE fanbase. Moreover, it needs viewers who love something so much they want to kiss it to death, because they are the ones who spend the most money on merchandise, dvds, books, supplemental canon (comics, audios) go to the conventions, give it nonstop free advertisement better than money can buy, and keep it alive no matter what. They're also going to be the harshest, most demanding of critics. Listen closely to them, don't imply they're just fickle, too-young-to-understand, immature, or worthy of being talked down to.

Granted, these are all things Moffat does to said fans, so I get why his defenders would as well. Don't.

Don't get me wrong, I don't agree with a lot of fans of a lot of different shows. I think most anime-critical women are overblowing sexism and depictions, and that a lot of them are just kind of vapid. THAT SAID: No one expects everyone to like everything. It's okay not to like series for reasons of (insert here.) But when a fan starts to detract it, it's important to know why. It's also important to understand what they like, and want, and whether this is a WIDE opinion or isolated. One person complaining about too much boobs can be written off. 800,000 suggesting that the characterization on females isn't diverse and tends to be vapid, especially in comparison to male characters; can not be. ASK WHY. Ask why, and then let them write their own. I appreciate you using their own words at least, but it's honestly not enough.

Which ties into Point 3: Don't pretend to want to do one thing, when you actually want to do another.

And yes, Moffat does this too. I've never doubted he wanted to write for Doctor Who, to be sure. But I have had serious doubts about how he wanted character interactions, and morals. Aside from seeming like he doesn't want those things, he really throws in mixed messages from trying too hard to force it. Let's go back to Sleep No More. He had an alien who barely sleeps ever, and whose current iteration nearly has bags under his eyes, written by a workaholic, played by an overworked actor, lecture normal people on the importance of sleep. This isn't funny in an ironic sense. It's a "GO FUCK YOURSELF" move. For the love of everything.... Don't.

Weird advice? Go watch Kiki's Delivery Service. It's my quintessential writer's block fix. And while that might just be for me, the important part is that when you start to make something you love work, something you depend on, not only can it become odious and stressful, but you can start to fall out of love with it. This happens with people too. Take a break. Collect yourself. Learn to help yourself remember why you fell in love in the first place. Nothing's lost forever.

Fourthly: Ask for help. Moffat's biggest problem has always been his workload, and I get it. I'm a workaholic, I have the worst difficulty admitting or worse; actually asking for help because I want to do everything myself. Don't. Your quality really will suffer, and people would rather you asked for help than let that happen. You can't present points you disagree with. Understand this, and let someone take over for a little bit. You can even help them as needed! But don't try to do it all yourself! It'll produce really shoddy product.

Furthermore, this is a big problem I have with all of Moffat's run of Who. In Blink and Silence in the Library, the Doctor asked a stranger for help, and while he didn't really let River Song help him, she decided to do it to protect him, this is a thing that was definitely more present before Moffat. As much as Amy "Helps" the Doctor, their entire relationship is far far FAR FAR MORE about him helping her. It's fine! She grew up with a scary crack in her wall that devoured people right out of memories! And even though that stayed throughout; with Rory constantly being saved by the Doctor in his relationship with Amy (to the point that even when they separated, the Doctor rescues them! Which is unhealthy as fuck. If they couldn't resolve it on their own, how would they learn to solve other future problems???) and a lot of the times, because the Doctor himself was the "cause" of a lot of their problems (River :|) just by existing and tainting their lives into changing it like the Hawthorne Effect (behaviors change from people just from being observed. -- Like female praying mantises, google it if you don't get that reference.) this is inherently distasteful to most fans. Especially women who tend to have a greater propensity for relationship interactions.

Granted, the Doctor doesn't ask for help ever. And the one time he does, calling in all his favors...

It was pretty underwhelming.

He's done far more favors than that, he should have had the capacity for all of UNIT to help him, England, a good portion of Earth, how many other planets? And that's part of the problem.

Moffat doesn't ask or even let others point this out to him until it's far too late. And by that time those of us who can point it out are just exasperated, because KNOWING THIS is too late to solve it. It's dissatisfying.

The Doctor doesn't ask for help, Jamie (2nd Doctor), Jo (3rd), Sarah Jane & Henry (3rd & 4th), Rose (9th & 10th), and Amy and River Song just have to help him from doing stupid things to off himself. And sometimes that doesn't always work (Wilf!) and the Doctor ends up rescuing them back. But the difference in Moffat's reign is severe. Amy and River don't help the Doctor as much as sidekicks. River and Amy get him into more trouble than not, Rory is a mixed bag entirely (I could write 5 pages on Rory alone so I'm skipping it for now) and even though the Doctor doesn't die for Clara -- and indeed, she is the factor that gets him extra life! -- he becomes even more of a hermit who just interferes in shit (at least Moffat kept that personality trait!)

Alone, this is understandable. It's character development, it's understandable given the past, but it's also a tendency towards extremities, unhealthy as hell and never truly addressed. At best, Nardole being around so the Doctor wasn't alone after mind-wiping himself of Clara, and losing River (don't, *don't* get me started on that) was the closest thing to gaining back some of the early style companionship. And credit where it's due, the Doctor does give Nardole some power and restraint over himself. As much as the Doctor is even capable of that.

But we go back into the Doctor being the single strongest force in the universe.

While somewhat understandable given all the events leading up to it, and even the Time War itself (sole survivor? IT'S GONNA MAKE A NAME FOR HIMSELF, like it or not!) the constant "Basically run," or "Look me up," or using his infamy as a plot point has long-term consequences I don't think Moffat thought through very well. Which is "What next?"

Once upon a time, the Doctor desperately didn't want to reach that point, and that was the real reason he ran. He didn't want to become the single strongest decider in the universe, because he's not comfortable being that much a tyrant. That's half of his issues with the Master!

When River said "You make them so afraid!" and laid at his feet the kidnapping of her birth, it was a STARK difference from Rose asking "What the hell are you turning into, Doctor?" Yes, it was an attempt to address that the Doctor was using his fearsome reputation to terrorize his enemies, even though he meant it to protect, but the message is completely drowned out!! Rose showed the Doctor the impossible, that daleks could be freed and change however small; and this was hope! The Doctor.... keeps right on using his reputation and being a general asshole, going so far as to embrace it, and shooting the TimeLord General because it's the same as "man-flu" on Gallifrey.

This is such a far cry from letting others help him I can only try not to tear my hair out in exasperation in trying to explain it!

No one is the Doctor's equal anymore.

River was meant to be his equal in intelligence, in knowing the future, in being her own person who called her own shots, had her own moral compass, and someone who would handcuff him rather than let him kill himself and screw up their time together.

AND YET:

Through Moffat's own lack of external input; River wound up frankly disappointing. She wasn't a psychopath whom the Doctor was able to help by extending a moral compass to, proving a 180 degree turn from when Stephen and the first Doctor fought over the St. Bartholomew's Massacre, to taking back some of the idea of "everything has its time and it's not your place to decide that," or even Donna's message of just save someone, because it'll save you. Instead, she was a psychopath raised by kidnapper monsters to be a weapon to kill him, and whom he "fixes" by marrying.

Fuck that.

It might be interesting, and it might be suitable for a show that isn't god damned Doctor Who. Doctor Who has a longer history than Moffat, and he's just a tiny piece of it. You have to understand that the other people's involvement and additions, advice, subtractions, and everything else is a big fucking deal.

Becoming the sole decider is the worst possible thing. And it has huge negative consequences on yourself. Even when all you do is walk away.

With the second Doctor, the Doctor was punished heavily by the TimeLords for interfering in mortals' lives. There are consequences for everything we do. Yet, Moffat's Doctor seems to have a whipping boy effect with this wherein it's not the Doctor, but the companions who suffer the negative consequences. And the one time this is subverted, where the Doctor goes blind rescuing Bill, this is still fucked up. For all that the Doctor "suffers the consequences" rather than lose another companion just due to bringing them somewhere dangerous for his idea of fun and traveling the universe, Bill's attempt to GUILTILY rescue him ("Love" my fucking ass) is just as sloppy and the Doctor dealing with the consequences of others to martyr himself.

The difference is simpler than I make it seem.

His previous companions helped him simply by being human and who they were. They reminded him of what that even meant. Something that he is supposed to be mostly incapable of getting, at minimum, in the same way as them, because he's not human. Rose is "oh so human," and therefore polar opposite TimeLords in being emotionally charged, passionate, very much concerned with relationships and how interactions with others goes down, and even helps him learn that. Stephen (1st Doctor) was a moral compass even more than muscle. Ian and Barbara taught the Doctor interacting with humans at all, and it wasn't always perfect, of course. Jamie acted like a bodyguard, and served as a foil, someone who could say "We can't be on the moon, it's in the sky!" And get emotional on the Doctor's behalf. Something I don't think the Doctor knew humans could or would do on his behalf before then. Jo was everything when he was most wanting to Venusian karate chop everything in the neck. She was kind, compassionate, smart, human, normal, and Sarah Jane nearly threw a coffee pot at his head when he asked her to get some for him.

But Moffat's Doctor thinks he knows everything. Except when he admits he doesn't (because Moffat MUDDIES HIS OWN MESSAGES and tends to "tell" such things rather than show/prove it through actual characterization.) He wants to be Earth's defender. He tries extra super duper hard to protect the Earth from all things, and also becomes President of Earth -- a logical choice to be sure.

The problem again, is that this leaves his companions unable to do much for him. And it is Moffat who won't let them.

Even all of the problems that face Earth are mostly of the Doctor's own making, but then to rub salt into the wounds, you have Ashildr who literally "Cleans up the Doctor's messes." Which is the most condescending thing I've ever heard of. Not that he didn't deserve it, but it's a clear instance of a character written to serve plot rather than the character creating plot out of their personality and conflicts. It's not clever. It's obnoxious, unrealistic, and unrelatable.

She was very clearly designed as a human becoming more TimeLord to act as a foil to his TimeLord becoming more human. Complete with her being accidental instrumental in bringing Gallifrey back, and killing his best friend.

Seriously, it's not cute.

And it adds an EXTREME level to the "disturbing" factor that all the women in the Doctor's lives are so extremely focused and influenced by him and that he's the "most important man in [their] life" -- contrast to Rose who not only had a boyfriend early in meeting him, but even said when she made a paradox, that that must be the reason he was so furious with her, because he was no longer the most important man in her life.

This was not subverted with Clara who never saw fit to tell her boyfriend she was still traveling with the Doctor until he died, and Bill who has no other men in her life. Nor with River whose parents consummated their marriage on the Doctor's ship conceiving her, and who based her entire life and career on the Doctor. And spent her childhood growing up alongside her parents, further fueling the fucked up obsession with him.

The reason other people are important to have input from? They have lived different things, seen different things, think differently, offer different solutions, identify different problems, and doing everything yourself isn't just lonely. It's boring. I know. I've been there and done that.

Introducing the Doctor as the most important man in all of space and time, automatically means you've cornered yourself. Nothing anyone else does is going to seem additional.

More to the point: it creates the effect that Nardole and the Doctor have. The Doctor tried to give someone permission over him, but still is going to run away and do what he wants in the end, like he always does.

Still worse; it's forgetting the most basic tenant of Doctor Who.

EVERYONE IS IMPORTANT.

That's why saving someone, anyone, saves the Doctor's soul too. Because everyone is important.

There is a casual dismissal of random people in Moffat's run. It sends chills down my spine. It reminds me of daleks. "Choose the least important." And thus also; nazis. Somewhere, at some point in his life, Moffat didn't get this message. And without letting others help him remember it, he's more lost than his Doctor. Under Moffat's run, the Doctor is most important, belying his prior dozen(ish) lives of trying to help random people, or as with the first Doctor, getting lost in random parts of history and trying not to impact it too much (and failing miserably at that.)

I called it the "Red suit" effect as a reference to Star Trek's "red shirt rule" and Moffat's obsession with spacesuits as enemies. (A point I'll get into later.)

It isn't just that there are fixed point disasters (especially since Moffat fucked up what fixed point means in Doctor Who lore /sob) that the Doctor can't save everyone from (St. Bartholomew's Massacre, Pompeii, Mars, Titanic, Krakatoa), but can save some, or even the morality of where he doesn't know whether it's right for him to abuse his power a TimeLord renegade (8th Doctor & Charley, again St. Bartholomew's Massacre, Pompeii, Mars, etc.) but either the Doctor saves everyone and ALL OF TIME-SPACE! (The moon hatching, the moon whale, rebooting the universe, etc. etc.) or the people he fails to rescue don't have NEARLY the same impact on him as Jabe, Astrid, the weighty couple of farmers on the Titanic, because for all he doesn't want to be a soldier as 12, he deals a lot more comfortably with collateral damage than most actual soldiers the show shows (Danny, that one girl I can't remember the name of because Moffat's background people fade so much mentally...)

I get that Moffat didn't technically start it with Donna being the Most Important Woman In the Universe tm, but it fails to understand why that was, much less utilize it. Instead it comes across as a shoddy copy and a failure to live up to reputation. One of the most important parts about Donna, aside from saving the Universe, the Doctor, and both in instances where the Doctor could NOT HIMSELF: is that she was at least able to impress into his skull that you don't have to save everyone to be a good person. Just save someone. Anyone. Random people who gave you kindness.

And this is again, a MASSIVELY botched job with Ashildr. The Doctor missed the lesson of "anyone, not everyone, just someone," and got mad that it wasn't everyone, all the time, because he wanted to, and consequences be damned. This would have been a lot more interesting to me.... if it wasn't so extremely apparent that Moffat didn't get this lesson either.

Everyone is important.

All those people Ashildr killed? Important. NO LESS IMPORTANT OR SIGNIFICANT THAN HER JUST BECAUSE SHE LIVES LONGER AND WAS AFFECTED BY THE DOCTOR.

He doesn't keep trying to save Missy because they're besties from childhood. He does it with everyone. Nestene Consciousness, Ood-enslavers, random fucking people on the street. Because he can. Because that's what it means to be a good person, to try to do your best when you can and make amends when you fail.

Instead, the Doctor under Moffat is treated like a superhero, humanity's champion -- even when it's not a human asking him to. And when he tries to cede way to make humans make choices about their future (Kill the Moon) he's berated then too!

River gives him hope and optimism and faith, and that frankly makes less fucking sense than anything else at all, because she spent so long trying to kill him, and even after 24 years of "marital bliss" (which I have a tough time imagining with the two of them, but let's hand wave that for now) she can't teach him about being human BECAUSE HE HAD TO HELP TEACH HER!!!

Moffat's Doctor very nearly, and quite literally, endeavors to make himself beyond help.

And you know what?

That's sad.

It's not just alienating, but it's disappointing. It's NOT entertaining, it's unrelatable, and distasteful, and good luck finding someone who prefers it that way, but I assure you it won't be a majority. It pushes off old fans, and blocks new fans. It leaves a small niche, NOT of the "most clever" but of the most emotionally stunted, and that's sad. Doctor Who should leave you with lasting messages that make you want to be a better person too. And this is one message that if you don't get it, you won't even notice it's missing from Doctor Who, but when you do get it? It's absence screams louder than any silence.

Under Moffat, it's like the Doctor puts himself up on a pedestal, and because he offers a hand up to someone else, he assumes it's still all okay. He tries to protect the planet to make amends for the past, but that's not how life even works. He has more death attached to him than anyone else on account of impossibilities, time, events, and pushing the limits to the extreme, and despite the message of the Beast Below that such a thing can make you kind; it also made the Doctor lonely, bitter, angry, and with an increased inability to learn from his human companions. Instead, he always tried to teach Rory. He had to teach River, and while he may have indeed learned patience from Amy (and Rory), he's still the Doctor and therefore one of the most impatient beings in the universe. Clara never taught him anything, and the "control freak" thing just came off weird and hybrid-y (HYYYYBRID), and Bill is literally his student.
Yet, even though Ace and Rose learned mountains from the Doctor, and Ace even called him "Professor," she still taught him how to have a balancing act of distance and care for companions -- only to have it completely undone by Moffat's run.

Pedestals aren't good things. Even when they're safe from floods and scorpions on the ground; they're isolated, frozen, lonely, and self-destructive. As even MOFFAT'S Doctor said (paraphrasing), "I prefer it down there, where everything is big and alive." From the pedestal, you can't feel, enjoy, and be one of the others. It's like Hunchback of Notre Dame and Tangled. You might be safe in your tower, but you aren't really living.

Or as the 9th Doctor put it, "The thing is, Adam, time travel is like visiting Paris. You can't just read the guidebook, you've got to throw yourself in! Eat the food, use the wrong verbs, get charged double and end up kissing complete strangers! [beat] Or is that just me?"

- A full list of stupid petty salty shit to come later