Tag Archives: Steve Moffat

Doctor Who Anniversary

23 Saturday Nov 2013

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If you are not by now already aware that today, the 23rd of November, is the 50th Anniversary of Doctor Who then I suspect you have not really been paying attention. It’s not even as if it is only talked about in geek circles or ‘on this internet thing that kids use these days’. It has in fact been all over the media – on the television and even in mainstream newspapers. Even Google got in on the act with one of their interactive games.50th_iconic_wallpaper_16x9

So yes, the 23rd of November, is the anniversary of the day that the first ever episode of Doctor Who, An Unearthly Child, was broadcast to a television audience that likely had no idea what to expect and which would, years later, officially become the world’s longest running science fiction TV show with 798 episodes as of the end of the last series in May 2013 (presumably the feature length anniversary special will make it 799 and the Christmas special with Matt Smith’s regeneration into Peter Capaldi number 800 which is rather neat numerically speaking). This is not only a major milestone anniversary (a Gold anniversary if it had been a marriage) but one which occurs while the show is still on the air, thereby allowing a special episode to be shown as part of the normal timeline of the series. Many previous milestones were not marked in this way because the show was off the air at the time. This includes the 40th (or Ruby anniversary) which occurred in 2003, two years before the 2005 reboot with Christopher Ecclestone as the Doctor, and the 30th (Pearl) which was in 1993, four years after the show was cancelled in 1989. There were no special episodes for those years.

In fact, to get to the nearest anniversary special before this one you really have to go right back to 1983 and ‘The Five Doctors’ which was aired to celebrate the 20th anniversary and that is a hell of a long time to wait between specials, especially ones that include more than one actor playing the role. Before that we have the tenth anniversary episode, The Three Doctors, which was broadcast as the first story of the The%20Five%20Doctors%20(1)tenth series between December 1973 and January 1974.

Obviously the expected pattern is an adventure featuring more than one Doctor. Though only one of them (The Three Doctors) actually managed to achieve all the Doctors present and all played by the original actors. By the time The Five Doctors was being filmed, William Hartnell had unfortunately died (and was replaced by Richard Hurdnall) and Tom Baker had refused to be involved in the project (he was replaced by unaired film footage and other trickery). The 50th anniversary special (The Day of the Doctor) is also not showing the complete set. But then it was never the intention for it to be ‘The 11 Doctors’ (or should it be 12 now that John Hurt is officially confirmed as ‘The War Doctor’, thanks to the recent webisode ‘Night of the Doctor’?*). I suspect that Steve Moffat decided to not even attempt to achieve what would be an almost impossible task to complete satisfactorily – replacing the three deceased actors with convincing copies alone would be difficult enough, not to mention producing convincing enough make up jobs on some of the surviving actors to put them plausibly back in approximately the right age range they were when they first played the role. The closest we are ever going to get to the ’12 Doctors’ on TV is, I am afraid, that which was quite ably achieved in ‘The Name of the Doctor’ with the quite clever use of old footage and glimpses of familiar costumes to give the impression of the old favourites coming back to haunt the current incumbent.

Still, despite this, The Day of the Doctor promises to be interesting, with a fascinating combo of Matt Smith and David Tennant and an appearance by Billy Piper as Rose Tyler.** And while TV is now never going to see much more than that in the way of multi-Doctor stories there is still scope for these to occur in other media. For example, soon after the 1996 TV movie starring Paul McGann, Terrence Dicks wrote the novel ‘The Eight Doctors’ which included appearances by all then existing versions of the Doctor. There was also the IDW comic series, The Forgotten, written by Tony Lee, which included short stories featuring all the incarnations up until David Tennant and a quite epic finale in which all ten appear in the same scene. Finally there is also scope for it in audio dramas with Big Finish using many of the previous actors to do voice work on a range of new stories.The iconic scene from Tony Lee's The Forgotten

 
The iconic scene from Tony Lee’s The Forgotten

So, while I guess my long held dream of there being something equivalent to ‘The Five Doctors’ (one episode I have fond memories of) being produced on television is never going to happen, there is still a lot of good stuff out there. I for one am looking forward to this, the first anniversary special in thirty years…

* An excellent mini episode which allowed Paul McGann’s eighth Doctor the swansong he truly deserved and made me wish we had seen more of the adventures which had led to him being in that situation on TV instead of on audio and in books.

** And I am not going to talk about the speculation about who would be involved or why certain actors were not invited to take part, that is a whole mess of pain and suffering and troll bait right there…

Who will it be?

03 Monday Jun 2013

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So, over the weekend Matt Smith announced that he was going to leave Doctor Who after the Christmas Special. Of course, speculation about this has been ripe for most of the past series with rumours going about that he was leaving long before it started (which were largely denied) and a rather strange speculation (that was hotly denied) about this being the last ever series of Doctor Who. Now that the cat of out of the bag regarding WHEN Matt Smith will be leaving, thoughts inevitably turn to WHO will take over as the eponymous Time Lord.

Now, I have lived through a number of time lord regenerations (I have vague memories of Tom Baker regenerating into Peter Davison at the end of Logopolis when I was very young) and have been through the media and fan speculations about the next actor to take on the role. It used to be a big event on Blue Peter when I was at school where they would bring on the new actor, complete with costume, and talk with him about how he intended to portray the character. Generally there would also be lavish tabloid reports of various famous people taking on the role – people who had claimed to have been approached or even just people who may have just happened to have been talking to the current showrunner for a completely seperate reason. Usually, these are just cases of wishful thinking. Sean Connery and John Cleese have been among those tagged in these articles, despite neither of them being likely to have the time or interest with the fairly big Hollywood careers they both had at the time of being suggested.

Often, it tends to be someone relatively unknown at the time of casting. They may have done some previous acting for which they got recognition (Tom Baker was Rasputin in Nicholas and Alexander in 1971 and Koura in The Golden Vioyage of Sinbad in 1973, before he became the Doctor,and David Tennant was in Casanova) but by and large the first time you hear their name as a child who watches Doctor Who is when the casting is announced. There have been exceptions to this, of course. Christopher Ecclestone had been in a couple of things (I think he’d done some films somewhere in Hollywood you might have heard of 🙂 ) and William Hartnell had a  remarkably robust film career (including several Carry On films) but by and large unknowns have taken the part over well known actors. So, perhaps the speculation needs to be looking not at well known actors but at those on the fringes – the up and coming talent rather than the established names? A couple of names that have popped up in this mould include Andrew Scott (who played Moriarty in Moffat’s Sherlock – not a bad choice as he fits the model of the relative unknown who has also happened to have worked with the current showrunner before) and Ben Whishaw whose main claim to fame is the role of ‘New Q’ in Bond.

One thing I will say about this time, however, is that something is different. As Colin Baker said in his first appearance as the Doctor at the end of The Caves of Androzani: ‘Change, my dear, and not a moment too soon.’ Amongst the fairly predictable speculations for the role – the typical white middle class male archetype that the Doctor is often portrayed as – there are calls for some variety. There has long been interest in the Doctor being a woman, of course. I even commented on an article which speculated on who would play the role in all 11 incarnations if the Doctor had begun as female. This time, however, it seems to have become more urgent, with calls for Helen Mirren, Miranda Hart or Joanna Lumley to be appointed to the part. There is also another interesting request – that for the Doctor to change his ethnicity. One barrier in the way of this has been the simple fact that, so far, it has not happened – Time Lords by and large kept the same baisc gender and ethnicity. Though this has not stopped some considering the series to be racist because it has never changed the ethnicity of the lead character. However, that changed dramatically in ‘let’s Kill Hitler’ when River Song showed that it is perfectly possible for a young, black Time Lord to regenerate into a middle aged, white woman and has led me to wonder if Moffat was not setting things up for just such a change. Suggestions in this vein  have included Patterson Joseph (famous for Neverwhere and Hyperdrive), Chiwetel Ejiofor (famous for being the Operative in Serenity), Richard Ayoade (Moss from IT Crowd) and Slumdog Millionaire’s Dev Patel. It seems that Geekdom may actually be ready for a gender or ethnically diverse character to step into the TARDIS. After all, Christopher Ecclestone has already transcended the North/South and class divides in the character and was seen to dabble in sexuality a little with his flirtations with Captain Jack. Can we break even more barriers with number 12*?

Of course, there could also be potential for a double whammy. Change the ethnicity AND the gender in one fell swoop… A name that has been cropping up in a few places is Lenora Crichlow, Annie from Being Human. Not only has she the geek credentials, she has also been in Doctor Who before (a fact which never stopped Colin Baker taking the part). There are even facebook pages dedicated to this.

I think it will certainly be interesting to see how this pans out. Internet and tabloid speculations have a habit of being wrong, especially when you consider the aforementioned tendency for a relative unknown to be given the job – that generally precludes anyone the media considers unless they are keeping a very careful eye on up and coming talent. Personally, I am unfortunately predicting a situation of no change – a white male. It may be a white male with some interesting other feature – an accent. an eccentricity, some new approach to the character – but it will be, by and large, the same basic character. I do not think that those involved in the series yet have the impetus to make such a radical change as to colour the Doctor’s skin or give him ladyparts save in jest (as happened in Curse of the Fatal Death which was interestingly written by Moffat indicating that he has at least considered a woman in the part). However, I do consider it a welcome sight that a large number of fans are seriously considering ethnic or gender diversity in a positive light. It is, I feel, a sign of the times, evidence that we do indeed live in an enlightened age where considerations such as race, gender and sexuality are less of an issue. Well, at least for those of us who are not hard core conservatives…

As for my own preference… if Patterson Joseph, Richard Ayoade or Lenora Chrichlow are not options then I would like to see Moffat’s old pal from Coupling, Richard Coyle, take up the role. I don’t think I have a lot of popular support in this one, I’ve not even seen anyone else mention him and I have been pushing for him ever since David Tennant left the role. However, for all that it is probably a lost cause, I think it would be nice to see him on TV again.

*Or is that number 13 if John Hurt as the forgotten Doctor is actually Doctor number 9, pushing all the subsequent ones up a number?

The Name of the Doctor

19 Friday Apr 2013

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A recent announcement has stated that the final episode of season* seven of Doctor Who will be called ‘The Name of the Doctor’. Of course, the hints have been building for a while that this is one secret which may be revealed. The prophesy of the Silence – ‘Silence will fall when the question is answered’ – is a pretty big telegraphing clue as to what is going on and as more and more is revealed about that plotline it becomes even more obvious that, at some point, the Doctor will be put in a position where he will have to reveal his truethe name of the doctor name.

At least that is what Steve Moffat wants us to think…

You see, I am not convinced it is going to be as easy as that. Moffat is a master of the double bluff and especially the double meaning and the prophesy as stated is full of potential double meanings and misunderstandings. What exact definition of ‘fall’ is meant here? Does ‘Silence’ actually refer to ‘the Silence’ or something else entirely? Their self centered interpretation has led to the belief that the Doctor is their enemy and so, as a result of this, they have acted to try to prevent this and, in the course of events, made the Doctor their enemy… It is an excellent example of a Cassandra paradox – by paying attention to the prediction you cause the events in the prediction to come to pass. The Doctor is only their enemy because they paid attention to the prophesy, got scared and tried to kill him. The lesson here being, of course, never trust prophesy. Especially not when dealing with immortal or long lived beings. More so if they can Time Travel. Because the chances are they were probably there when the prophesy was written. They may even have written it themselves, AFTER the events that ensued from you following it. After all, even Bill and Ted managed to work out that particular munchkin flange of access to a Time Machine and they were dumb stoners. Just think what an ancient alien intelligence with centuries of surviving in the universe against every hostile alien that has ever existed could do given the motivation. The Doctor has in the past been shown to be a manipulative person who plays chess with people across the centuries, I personally do not see him having any issues with him setting up a nice little fake prophesy to send his enemies off in the wrong direction… even if all he manages to do is edit the original rather than simply delete it from history to make sure none of this can ever happen.

So, I am not sure what to expect on the final episide of Doctor Who this year. I am hoping for something epic. I am also hoping for something clever and emotional. If it comes to the final confrontation and the question is asked and it turns out his name is Bob I think there will be disappointment. It’s a fairly major anticlimax. A secret that has been kept so long is not a secret to give up lightly and maybe it would be better if that particular one is kept secret. Secrets are more fun when they are kept, the frission of knowing there is something you do not know and the endless speculations can be an addictive mix. I am hoping that the way the prophesy is worded will work to add a surprise to this plotline and cannot wait to see what that surprise might be.

 

*Season? Season! Dammit, we’re English, it should be series. Americans call them Seasons, we call them series… *grumble, mumble, moan*

What might have been…

25 Monday Feb 2013

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Not too long ago, this article was flashing about the internet.sue perkins

http://www.scifind.com/features/the-other-11-doctors/

It is an article with a single premise – what if the Doctor was female? It essentially takes each of the 11 incarnations of the Doctor and considers the most likely actor who might have played them based on who was around at the time and had approximately the same CV as the male version in our universe.

It is an interesting read and throws up a number of interesting choices. I would never, for example, have considered Hattie Jacques in the role. Her fame being largely based on her involvement with the Carry On franchise it never seemed to fit in my mind that she would be good for the role. However, the article gives a good argument for why she would have made a superlative second Doctor. Ditto Penelope Keith – I had never considered the star of To The Manor Born and The Good Life stepping into Tom Baker’s emormously large scarf but here again the article is convincing as to why she would be perfect.

It is unfair in other ways, I have to say. To tar Miriam Margoyles with the position as the sixth Doctor is unfortunate. Based on her other performances, I would have thought she would have done far better in the role regardless of script and production issues than is intimated here. Then again, I suppose that she can do loud and brash rather well so this may have been a way she would have taken the character.

I am, however, especially impressed with some of the casting. Honour Blackman as the third Doctor is a rather obvious one and Joanna Lumley was always one who was under consideration for the role should the Doctor ever have regenerated into a woman (and indeed was in Curse of the Fatal Death which also had Johnathon Pryce as one of the best Masters I have seen – watch the interviews on the DVD for true ‘method acting’) though putting her in the position of the sensitive and caring fifth Doctor rather than a more action oriented one is a stroke of genius. Sue Perkins wearing David Tennant’s ‘brainy specs’ is also absolutely spot on casting and part of me loves the idea of the love story between the Doctor and Rose still being there in that circumstance – an excellent piece of pro LGBT casting. Though I would also have liked to have seen the reversal in genders go further than that to the extent of more of the companions being male instead of remaining female.

In fact, this article has affected me so much that I have actually begun to re-imagine some of the stories with these actors in play. I rewatched the more recent Christmas special not long ago* and I could totally see Miranda Hart prancing around the big snow globe thing pretending to be Sherlock Holmes and Sue Perkins as a School Mistress** in 1913 or being grim and fatalistic with Bernard Cribbens.*** Obviously, the idea has legs and those legs are kicking.

So, the question has to be, can something be done with this concept? Yes, this is another ‘somebody make this happen’ post. Obviously, until the advent of safe and effective time travel we cannot go back in time and film new episiodes of Doctor Who only with the female counterpart, but there could be other ways. For example, I would love to see an anthology of short stories in the style of the old Doctor Who Short Trips series with a story per Doctor. I would also love some audio adventures and, maybe, in a universe where all my dreams came true, Steve Moffat might make a couple of shorts in the style of the Comic Relief/Children in Need sketches and the recent ‘Pond life’ web broadcast teasers. Were I a less lazy author, I’d get proactive and troll fan fic sites or lobby writers I know who are involved in Who in some manner to do something about it. I’d campaign Miranda Hart and Sue Perkins to agree to star in something linked to this, stand outside Steve Moffat’s house with placards, demand my MP did something about it and so on. However, I am lazy so none of this is going to happen. If any of you out there wish to do something about it, though, I’ve totally got your back. I might even submit a short story to an anthology or something. I can probably summon up enough proactivity to achieve that.

So, some questions…

What do you think about the selection of actors chosen here for a female Doctor?

Would you change any of them?

What already filmed Who story would you like to see redone with a female Doctor and do you think the story would be significantly changed by it?

Feel free to answer these in the comments….

* How many times has Richard E Grant been in Who now? Quite a few, I think. He played the Doctor in Curse of the Fatal Death, was also the Doctor in at least one online animation and now is here as a villain…

** And no, not in THAT way…

*** Another actor who seems to have been in Who multiple times.

The Avengers UK: Crossover universes

15 Friday Jun 2012

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This particular photo-meme caught my eye the other day. It caused in me two almost simultaneous responses:

1) OMG someone should so make that film!!! Or at least make a fake trailer for it on You Tube by splicing together lots of bits of different shows in a way that makes it look as if they are all in the same plot!!!

2) There were no women in the group they had put together…

Before I discuss 2, let me just say that I really, really, REALLY want someone to make that trailer. Because I am sad like that. Such things really do amuse me. I went squee when I found this video done in celebration of Doctor Who’s 50th Anniversary. So if someone with the right skills could put together a video like that for the Avengers; United Kingdom I would be really pleased.*

Number 2… I was surprised at how much it concerned me. The fact that the purported fictional TV show was very Y chromosome heavy did make me wonder about the role of women in UK geek culture.

Now, don’t get me wrong. There are strong women in UK Geekdom. What concerned me was the fact that all the examples I could think of off the top of my head were supporting characters and many of them were already involved in the franchises represented by characters in that line up. Hermione Granger, various Doctor Who companions (Sarah Jane Smith and River Song being the two that spring most readily to mind), Judi Dench’s portrayal of M in James Bond… the UK just did not seem to have a straight up Geek lead character who was female (unlike the US where there are a few, though many of them are Whedon creations like Buffy). I was so concerned I expressed my opinion on Facebook and did get a couple of suggestions for strong female characters who were not involved in the franchises already mentioned (Emma Peel being one who I had somehow forgotten…) or who were sole leads (Lara Croft) but it does seem as if UK geekdom is a little thin on the ground. Plus, my concerns were not so much with the state of the feminist credentials of UK geekdom but rather with my own inability to think of some. I mean, I can be excused not thinking of Lara Croft because I have never played the game** nor watched the films but I used to watch the Avengers (the UK TV drama) all the time as a child*** so Emma Peel should have leapt out at me…

Maybe I am overthinking this, of course. It was, after all, just a fun bit of photo-manipulation that someone did. However, I think the discussion on facebook did come up with the following concept…

 – Ditch Harry Potter and replace him with Hermione. Her competence far exceeds his and it means we can have a couple of love scenes with Ron, who can also get jealous when Bond makes a move on her somewhere in the middle of the film (she’ll rebuff him, cos she’s not an idiot, though there may be some flirting, but Ron doesn’t know that…)

 – Chuck in Emma Peel in the Black Widow role. She fits the stereotype of that part perfectly, albeit with more English poise…

“I recognise the council has made a decision, but given that it’s a stupid-ass decision, I’ve elected to ignore it.”
Come on, you can so see her delivering that line as well as Samuel L Jackson did 🙂

– The team needs a Nick Fury. Someone to be all tough and shouty and manly and sarcastic at all the team members when they mess up. Which UK character suits this role best? Why, only Judi Dench’s M has the sheer brass balls to step into Samuel L Jackson’s shoes.

 – There has to be a role in this for Rupert Giles. Ok, technically Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a US show but Giles is so very British and there are few things that cannot be improved by the addition of Anthony Head. He could be the team’s librarian and be having an understated and typically British affair with M.

 – An enemy. In Avengers Assemble (or The Avengers as we still call it in the UK despite the rename…) that enemy was Loki who is devious and entertaining and malicious. There is really only one enemy that fits this mould in UK geekdom to my mind – The Master.

Of course there were other more outre suggestions for this film. Someone suggested that, since The Doctor is involved, in theory no time period is restricted. This means that we could have some other rather cool UK TV characters turning up. He suggested Richard Sharpe but we could also have Cadfael, the medieval mystery solving monk, Miss Marple and several others. Plus it might explain why Gene Hunt is there in 2012 (almost 30 years after the events of Ashes to Ashes and possibly in an alternate universe created by the minds of Sam Tyler and Alex Drake) and why Emma Peel is there (being, as she is, a character intrinsicly tied to the 1960s). In fact, in my head, this plot involves a centuries spanning plot spotted in several different time periods by different characters…

Hmmm, maybe I am overthinking this. Time to stop for now, I think. Before I start writing fan fic (and I have enough trouble finding time to write the characters I have created never mind taking on someone else’s intellectual property…)

What this does reveal is the appeal of crossover universes. Even though such things are ludicrous in concept and are likely to be done badly in fan fic and similar, they can be the cause of squee. They can also be done rather well in the right circumstances, as evidenced by the Wold Newton family created by Philip José Farmer  which ties many ficitonal characters (including Sherlock Holmes and James Bond) together into one family tree (making them all descendents of a group of people exposed to a radioactive meteorite near the North Yorkshire village of Wold Newton). There is also Alan Moore’s League of Extraordinary Gentlemen**** which has a similar concept. In fact, in the 1969 version of this series there is a very cool cameo by a certain Mr Tom Marvolo Riddle.

So, for discussion purposes, feel free to comment to add ideas for UK genre characters you would add to our Avengers team or for plot ideas for things that the team can face. Also comment if you have any other ideas for crossovers or actual crossovers that you have seen (whether they are well done or not).

*And if you could persuade Steve Moffat to actually make it, even better… having first made sure you have sacrificed to the gods of litigation to prevent various companies suiing him for Copyright… And if Moffat does want the gig and can sort out the copyright for the franchises he doesn’t own in that selection I have some plot ideas for him… 🙂

** No, really. I have never played Tomb Raider. I don’t tend to play computer games much. It’s ok, though. I checked. I don’t need to hand in my Geek card unless I also stop roleplaying and reading, watching and writing science fiction and fantasy.

*** And this had nothing to do with Emma Peel, leather catsuits and particular hormonal imbalances that occur around the age of 11. Absolutely nothing at all. I only ever watched it for the articles.

**** The graphic novel version not the film which was sort of OK (for, as Obi Wan Kenobi would say, a given value of OK which some may translate as ‘awful’) but had nothing on the graphic novel in terms of Victorian sleaze, drugs and nastiness and made Alan Quartermain not a drug addict and Mina Harker a vampire instead of the traumatised victim of a Vampire.

A good writer goes to war

26 Saturday Nov 2011

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This week there were three important things going on. Two of them were important mainly to Americans while the other is an occasion which is often under-celebrated but is still dear to the hearts of all British Sci Fi geeks (and geeks worldwide, of course).

I speak, of course, of Thanksgiving, the anniversary of the Assassination of JFK and the anniversary of the first ever broadcast of Doctor Who. The last two are inextricably linked because, as legend has it, the BBC had to delay the broadcast of An Unearthly Child (episode one of the first series of Doctor Who) when the news of the Presidential assassination broke. Also, there was a photograph of the Doctor in Dallas at the time of the assassination shown in an episode of the new series, which ties the two together even closer*. As far as I am aware, Thanksgiving has nothing whatsoever to do with Doctor Who, though I can imagine at some point in the future there could potentially be a Pilgrim/Turkey/Superbowl themed episode in which the Doctor faces an alien horde of American Football players. Well, it could happen.**

So, to celebrate the anniversary, I decided to re-watch ‘A Good Man Goes to War’, the mid series climax of series six which set things up for the second half of series six. It was while watching this that I began to have some ponderings.

Now, I am aware that Stephen Moffat’s take on Who has not been as popular with some as it might have been. There has been a lot of noise on the internets about how Matt Smith is not as good as David Tennant (almost as much as there was about David Tennant not being as good as Christopher Ecclestone… and frankly, every Doctor and companion since William Hartnell has had their supporters and decriers) and I can imagine that some of the weirder elements of Moffat’s stories to date might confuse and annoy some viewers. However, I am personally of the opinion that he is the best man for the job of showrunner on this franchise. I shall explain why.

Moffat has an almost unique skill with storytelling. It is obvious in almost everything he does. I would almost hazard a guess that he sees the structure of story in a different way to the majority of writers and uses this to his advantage. Even as far back as Coupling, the quirky sitcom he wrote way back in 2000 and which ran for 4 years, he was showing a strange way of plotting and presenting his stories for television. Coupling showcased stories running in parallel on split screens, real time progression similar to that seen on 24 and other little touches such as replaying scenes from the PoV of different characters. There were in this mix some elements of non-linear storytelling too – touches which might not have seemed relevant on initial glance by the viewer but which later, when other elements are brought to light, take on a whole new meaning. Moffat would sometimes spend an entire episode building up to a joke, taking a throwaway comment from the start of the story and imbuing it with comedic meaning later. Not all of these touches were unique – some of them were seen in other comedy shows such as Father Ted and the IT Crowd – however, Moffat made good use of them. He also demonstrated in Coupling an ability to really understand human relationships and write a damned good romance plot without mawkish sentimentalism or over the top drama. Whether it was the occasionally rocky long term relationship between Susan and Steve (a couple with names frighteningly similar to him and his wife…), the doomed and often unrequited affairs of ubergeek, Jeff, or the ‘we’re just friends, honest’ romance between Patrick and Sally he managed to make the viewers feel connected to the people involved. It hurts when Jeff got rebuffed because he said something inappropriate and you felt sorry for Steve when he gets dumped (again) for something he said or did.

These are the skills that Moffat brought to the episodes he wrote during Russel T Davies’s reign as showrunner of Doctor Who. The benefit of those skills is quite clear in episodes like The Girl in the Fireplace and Blink, both considered to be among the best episodes of any Doctor Who series ever. He pulls out all the stops in those skills in series 5 and series 6 when he pulls together an elaborate pair of series long stories in which elements seemingly appear randomly but are, in fact, important parts of an overall scheme which does not make sense until the final episodes. Some think that it was ambitious of Russel T Davies to run storylines that ran entire series instead of sticking to standalones, Moffat has gone one better and threaded a single story (the mystery of River Song – warning, SPOILERS) through not only two series he has managed himself but also at least two episodes (Silence in the Library and Forest of the Dead) in a series he was not in charge of. Some of that story is running in reverse and there are bits of it scattered all over the place in little clues and tid bits. That level of plotting takes, I think, an exceptional mind capable of managing to organise many different threads under what is almost certainly a very high pressure circumstance.

Now, not to say there are no faults to be seen here. Sometimes he goes too far with the silliness (though even the most ludicrous of his plots, such as ‘A good man goes to war‘ and ‘The Big Bang‘ where incredibly silly things are done to time and space, he seems to pull it off with panache and have us believing it is all possible). Some of his elements are overused, such as the Weeping Angels (a great idea but better in small doses) and I do worry that someday he may try to be too clever and lose all his audience. However, overall, everything he has written so far for the series has not suffered for these flaws and I hope that this continues to be the case.

So, say what you like about Matt Smith as the Doctor. I personally like him and think he does a great job but I know some don’t. He, however, is not entirely to blame for the success of the current run of Doctor Who. I lay that fault entirely at the feet of a man who clearly sees the patterns of time and space in much the same way as The Doctor does, especially where they relate to storylines and plot and bizarre surprises.

* Series 1, episode One – Rose. The conspiracy theorist has a photo which places Christopher Ecclestone in the crowd at Dallas.

** If anyone in the BBC wants me to write this episode, you may contact me through this blog. I am always willing to oblige in these matters 🙂