It might be that a newcomer to “Doctor Who” might be jazzed by the current season. I couldn’t say; having been watching it (on and off) for some thirty years, I can’t rewire my brain into novice mode. Intellectually I know that each season of the long-running (to put it mildly) adventures of everyone’s favorite Time Lord should be judged separately. Yet it’s natural to compare. And if we’re going to compare, this latest season of the Whovian modern era is sorely lacking. Spoilers in these comments are more or less non-existent.
By this point in time in previous seasons, the events in previous episodes had laid sufficient track work that you felt as if you were holding onto a speeding locomotive. Everything was coming together, usually building to an Earth-threatening, if not outright universe threatening, kaboom. Sometimes it seemed as if the following week literally could not come soon enough.
This time around, the stakes were set in the very first episode. They were much smaller–the death of one person–but with that person being the Doctor, the stakes couldn’t have been higher. I mean, sure, we KNOW that the Doctor won’t really die for good; there’s no show otherwise. On the other hand we also pretty much know that the Earth won’t be completely conquered or that the universe won’t explode, so it’s not the nature of the outcome so much as it is the path of the journey. So what we should be seeing is the track work for that journey, and–with two episodes left–the locomotive should be at full steam.
Yet we don’t have a locomotive at this point. We don’t have a freight train. We don’t even have one of those hand cars with two guys pushing a lever up and down.
Instead, the last three episodes–“Night Terrors,” “The Girl Who Waited,” and “The God Complex”–have more or less had a lot of the same emotional and plot beats to them. It’s been an hour of the Doctor and his companions more or less running around inside a fairly confined area while having an adventure that’s fairly intellectual. There’s nothing wrong with such episodes, but…three in a row? I don’t follow a lot of behind-the-scenes gossip when it comes to “Doctor Who,” but from what I’m seeing on the screen, I’m wondering if the budget was severely cut. It’s as if the producers scouted one location (a house, a hotel), and shot an entire episode, with complex (or expensive) monsters/creatures/aliens cut to bare minimum, hiding in the shadows or existing mostly in the minds of their victims.
Plus all three have come together to form a single goal: to cause Amy Pond to become emotionally split from the Doctor. Rory’s feelings on the Doctor are almost irrelevant; he’s going with his wife. So she’s the target of all this splintering while Rory–once a galaxy-spanning, Roman centurion bad-ášš, so formidable that an array of space ships exploding behind him wasn’t even worth a glance–is reduced almost to irrelevance (although admittedly his Hobson’s choice between deciding which Amy to save in “Girl” was pretty emotional). In “Complex,” that’s exactly what happens, as the Doctor informs an emotionally beaten down Amy that it’s time to say good-bye.
Three episodes to push us to a conclusion that I don’t buy? Really?
Because at this point in the narrative, Amy shouldn’t be attached at the Doctor’s hip because of childish devotion. It should be because she saw him die and should be operating on all burners to find a way to avert that catastrophe. Rory, meantime, has been depicted as someone so dedicated that he’s willing to stand guard for millennium if that’s what the job takes. Yet he willingly abandons the Doctor as well? Yes, he’ll follow Amy, but with the life-and-death stakes, you’d think there would be some manner of serious confrontation. Granted, this abandonment doesn’t mean Amy won’t be back; if Rose could cross impassible dimensional barriers to join back up, Amy and Rory can get back on board.
Yet there’s just no immediacy. No sense of impending, unstoppable, imminent danger. No sense of ticking clock. Now it’s entirely possible that they’ll manage to pull it together for the last two episodes. I certainly hope so. But, paradoxically, the Doctor is running out of time.
PAD
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Peter, thanks so much for your comments. For a while, I was beginning to feel like the lone voice of dissent and that it was sacrilege to say anything slightly critical about the current storyline and production team. To me, the recent bunch of episodes have felt as though everyone is just marking time, although I did feel as a stand-alone story, ‘The Girl Who Waited’ was a good episode let down by poor production values. Personally, I’m just glad to have a bunch of episodes without Alex Kingston’s character River Song, who feels creepy and cougar-like when playing opposite Matt Smith’s Doctor. Yes, I know the Doctor’s outward appearance has nothing to do with his chronological age, but it still feels icky. I don’t know what if any production limitations are currently in place as far as budget or scheduling are concerned, but I think you can tell a story that takes place mainly within one or two interior sets and still have a great episode. Just look at ‘Blink,’ which is not only one of the best Who episodes of recent years but for my money, one of the best in the show’s five-decade history. More of those episodes please.
“But I think you can tell a story that takes place mainly within one or two interior sets and still have a great episode.”
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No argument there, Joe. Every so often because of budget constraints, shows as varied as “Star Trek” and “West Wing” would do bottle shows: shows entirely on existing sets with only the regular cast. Hëll, one of my favorite episodes of “Friends” was shot entirely in Rachel’s apartment and consisted of nothing except Ross trying to get everyone out the door within half an hour in order to get to an important dinner affair. Sometimes simpler can be better.
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On the other hand, I would point out that “Blink” was preceded by “The Family of Blood,” the second half of a magnificent and memorably sprawling epic of a story, and followed by “Utopia,” another vast episode that was the first part of a three parter that drove us to the climax of the season. Basically, “Blink” was a chance for the audience to catch its breath (somewhat) between two multi-episode stories that had a variety of locales, major action set pieces, and formidable on-screen enemies. If you had three shows just like “Blink” in a row, “Blink” might not have been such a standout.
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PAD
Good grief, just say you didn’t particularly care for the episode or that you didn’t find it as cool as other people if that is the case.
Please do not tell me that I cannot find Blink to be one of–if not the best–episode of David Tennant’s run. Please do not go on from there to state that the main reason that I could possibly like it so much was because of the episodes surrounding it.
If the two small-scale stand alone episodes surrounding Blink were as good as Blink, it is altogether possible that I would not think quite so highly of Blink because I would be far too busy ranting about how great the other small-scale stand alone episodes were too.
I stand by my statement about Blink being the best David Tennant episode–stand alone or no–because I happen to think it was an incredible episode. Other’s mileage can and probably does vary. I’ve got no problem with that. Please extend the same courtesy.
PS. Family of Blood? Overrated, but that’s just me. Utopia? Overrated, but–again–that’s just me. Nobody has to agree with me or be secretly wrong for disagreeing. Nobody.
Uh, Keith…I’m not entirely sure who you’re having this argument with, but it sure isn’t me.
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First of all, I was talking to Joe, not you. So this whole “Do not tell me that I cannot” thing doesn’t work for me.
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Second, I didn’t say I didn’t like “Blink.” I think it was a great episode. My issue with the past three weeks wasn’t that they were all one-offs; it was that the three episodes were all, to me, very similar in tone and style, and that they were doing nothing to ratchet up the suspense level of the season vis a vis the overall arc. And I contended that if you had three episodes in a row just like “Blink” in terms of tone and style then the show “might” (notice the qualifier) not have seemed as unique.
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None of that has ANYTHING to do with the stuff you’re saying. Instead you’ve taken a speculation about how “Blink” might have been received under certain conditions and turning it into some personal attack upon the rightness or wrongness of your feelings.
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So I suggest you take a few steps back, take a breath and get a grip, because I’m not quite sure why you just more or less went off the deep end simply because I voiced an opinion to someone else that you didn’t like.
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PAD
Oh, I agree. Deep end. Wild tangent. Hmmm. Reply button not appearing at end of thread so unsure where this is going to appear.
I can sympathize with you feeling overprotective about a favorite episode, Keith. I feel the same way about “Love and Monsters”.
I think one of the major problems they set up for the death of the doctor is the fact that the version that died is over 1000 while the one we’ve been journeying with for decades has been around 900, so where really is the impending doom? Now we don’t know how long the Doctor searched for Mels/River between the birth episode and the second half of the season, but we aren’t left to think it’s been that long. Same with now that Amy/Rory has departed… Are they going to established it’s been 100 years since the doctor departed to show up on the nerd’s door step? And we know the doctor doesn’t go long without companions, so is Moffit trying to tell us he didn’t pick up some new ones for 100 years?
I also think it can be argued that Amy & Rory know this and know the Doctor has a long way to go before the threat to his life is really eminent, after all they know the age of the doctor that died and the age of the doctor they were hanging around with.
Early in this season, I started to suspect that the “silence” isn’t going to be resolved this season. Yes we have been introduced to the academy of the question, or whatever it was called 3 episodes ago but nothing has me convinced that we will get any real answers to the whole thing this season. I’m really feeling that this season is suffering from the typical problems of trilogy-itis, where the middle book of a trilogy is more marking time rather than revealing major answers.
What I’m not really buying is especially last nights episode. The doctor has always risked the lives of his companion and I don’t really remember one being kicked off the Tardis especially for danger. Even though it could be argued that the additional emotional hooks that Amy/Rory and their daughter represent for the doctor haven’t existed with other companions, especially IF River is the Doctor’s wife. But it just seems that the doctor is making decisions and being haunted by things that shouldn’t be bothering this character. I especially didn’t buy into River’s lecture that the doctor was on a bad course, from a Good Man Goes TO War. It is the course he has always been on, he has always stood in judgment of others and doomed whole civilizations including his own to oblivion.
But I really think the plodding and lack of the sense of impending doom isn’t that we know the doctor will somehow survive his death but that Moffit established way to big of an age gap between the “present” doctor and the doctor that dies. He had no choice but to find a way to boot Amy/Rory from the Tardis and the only way to really do that was to go against what their characters have become.
We only know that the Doctor that died was over 1000 is because he “happened” to mention it. And, as we all know, rule number one is “The Doctor lies.”
Gareth Roberts revealed in an interview (link below) that “Closing Time” is indeed set 200 years after “God Complex” for the Doctor.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/dw/news/bulletin_110917_02/An_Interview_with_Gareth_Roberts
I’ve had to agree this season of Doctor Who has felt rather flat and tedious. I really enjoyed the previous season and always wanted to watch the new episode everyweek, but not this time around. I love the cast still, the story and character interactions feel stilted.
I’ve summed up the past couple of episodes as: good concepts, good acting, total lack of suspense.
And that’s what’s bugging me – where the hëll is the suspense? Where the hëll is the “what happens next?” which has been part of NuWho since Ecclestone?
Given the next episode, the penultimate of this series, is another Craig one, I don’t hold out a lot of hope for the final episode. That said, I like SM’s scripting, so who knows?
Two things that occur to me
(1) They HAD to separate Rory and Amy from the Doctor at some point in order for the Doctor from the Impossible Astronaut to chock up those extra 200 years or so, and to have the Billy The Fish tale with River.
(2) There’s a good possibility we’re not going to find out about the Impossible Astronaut in this year’s ep 13; they’ve played on 2012 too much, and the last series stayed with the actual dates of June 2011…
June 2010.
(All this timey wimey stuff… or was that the other fella?)
The Impossible Astronaut business will be resolved. We might not find out what the “question” is but you’ll bet we’ll find out who was in that suit, what they did with little Melody and how the Doctor doesn’t die.
The next episode looks good, they seem to have spent some money on it this time. The traditional series structure is reversed too – main arc two-parter at the front, cerebral two-parter in the first half, classic monster story towards the end. Bit of an unsettling series I suppose.
Peter, your critique is spot-on. I love stand-alone episodes but if the goal is to build to a season-ending climax, these last few stories have been momentum-killers, paying lip service (at best) to the overall storyline.
I do pay attention to the behind-the-scenes machinations and indeed the BBC has slashed budgets across the board. Also, Night Terrors was originally supposed to air in the first half of the season but was bumped by Steven Moffat because he felt it was one too many dimly-lit runarounds for the first half of the season In retrospect, Night Terrors was to similar to the two stories that followed it. 🙁
I can see feeling underwhelmed by “Night Terrors” and “The God Complex,” but I thought “The Girl Who Waited” was a phenomenal episode. No, it doesn’t build momentum toward the season finale, “The Weddding of River Song,” but neither did “The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances,” “Blink,” or “Vincent and the Doctor” toward their respective season finales.
What will most likely happen is there’ll be something at the end of this Saturday’s “Closing Time” that will set up the Series 6 finale and that’s okay. We don’t need episode after episode of “Oooo, there’s a big finale coming,” especially when it appears as though showrunner Steven Moffat is crafting the Matt Smith era as one big masterplan. Or have you forgotten the sinister voice that took over the TARDIS in “The Pandorica Opens” and proclaimed that “Silence will fall”…?
I really tend to agree with you here. It’s very strange that they’ve put these three standalone episodes altogether. At least on the surface, none of it seems to do anything for the overall narrative of the arc. As for Amy & Rory leaving (or even the Doctor convincing Amy not to believe in him) I think this would have been more believable if they had built on the stories emotionally. Let’s see the strain of having your newborn child being kidnapped and raised by maniacs. Instead everything seems “cool” with the trio. Let’s see the strain of being forced to choose between two versions of the woman you love. I honestly think if we had seen some continuity, it might have worked, but as it stands right now, I’m just not buying it.
Yes and no. I agree with you to a point, but…
Last night’s episode was all about Rory and Amy finally leaving the Doctor. Behind the Doctor’s door was Amy and Rory dead. They never explicitly state that but it couldn’t be anything else. It was even foreshadowed with Rory’s comment about wanting to get the name of the next of kin of anyone the Doctor becomes friendly with. Last week Rory noted the Doctor turns people into him, and a few episodes back in “Let’s Kill Hitler”, the Doctor himself noted that he ruins the people that travel with him for too long. The episodes so far this half of the season were all about preparing the audience for the couple leaving the TARDIS.
Oh, yeah, Rory’s a badass, but he’s only a badass where Amy’s concerned. She drives him to lengths he would not go to on his own.
Brian, the Doctor has kicked companions off of the TARDIS before because he was worried about danger. That’s why he dropped Sarah Jane off before returning to Gallifrey.
Has anyone else noticed a Zelazneyesque take on the characters lately? It seems that the lead cast are all immortals or suicides. River is a suicide, the Doctor and Rory are immortals, all we need is Captain Jack to make a return.
Night Terrors was originally supposed to be the third episode. However they thought it was all too dark so they switched it with Curse of the Black Spot.
I think there was some budget issues plus I think the America two parter plus Good Man Goes to War and I’m guessing the finale ate a lot of that Budget. (The Doctor’s wife was apparently not cheap either)
I think some of the problem with making Doctor Who more serialised is they don’t film it in order (possibly don’t write it in order) so they don’t see how they can sometimes bang up wrong.
I would have kept Night Terrors in the first half, put Girl who Waited, right after Let’s Kill Hitler, then Curse of the Black Spot and God Complex
I guess I am stuck forever in the past — hah, pun, considering context — but I’ve simply not been interested in ANY of the Doctors since Tom Baker played the roll. To me, the best Who is comprised of the Pertwee and Baker years. Everything else, especially this “hipsterized” version they’re currently doing, just doesn’t interest me. And yes, I must freely admit that I was watching Pertwee and Baker as The Doctor during my personal Golden Years: 10 to 15 years old. Maybe if I was still a lad… but then, as you say, it’s impossible to go back and see things through those eyes every again.
Haven’t seen a Who episode in a long time, but if these episodes don’t have Rose (the reason I haven’t seen a Who episode in a long time), they’re terrific – comparatively speaking.
I watched “The God Complex” yesterday and I have to agree with PAD for the most part. “Night Terrors” was an underdeveloped great concept that would have benefited from a nastier, more cynical ending. Of the three, it was the best by far. Why? because it had the less Amy Pond in it.
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I’ve come to loathe Amy Pond. Not just dislike but actively desire she would die or go away for good. I kind of liked her when she appeared, but around mid season last year I was bored of everything that had to do with her. She was the problem, more often than not, and when she wasn’t, she was a bossy, arrogant and self absorbed brat that, worst of all, ended up beign proved right.
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The feeling is shared by the whole bunch of people I watch Dr.Who with. So much that last night, as we were introduced to the cute muslim doctor, we quickly fell into the trap of believing how good it would be if she would replace Amy. The only downside about losing Amy is that Rory would go with her. Rory is a perfectly likable character with an interesting background and that english hobbit-esque mix of prudence and courage. It’s a tragedy that his role in the show is linked to Amy.
I’m sure there must be some immensely complicated scientific explination for why this episode didn’t appear on my DVR after being scheduled…
It must be the Silence. They don’t want me to know what’s going on.
I agree completely. Although I loved the three latest episodes because my favourite ones are “Midnight” or the classic “Horror at Fang Rock” – so I’m in for a bottle episode anytime! But you’re right. No big issue here. Thank you for voicing it for us.
but from what I’m seeing on the screen, I’m wondering if the budget was severely cut.
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There’s been a lot of rumors of that going around, as the BBC has been making a lot of cuts everywhere. Not to mention, nobody knows for sure how much Doctor Who we’re going to get over the next 2 years leading up to the 50th Anniversary.
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There was a 14-episode renewal for Series 7 + Christmas Special for 2012, but BBC One’s controller said some of these episodes may not air until 2013. Perhaps we could be looking at another split-season, but one that doesn’t start until next fall.
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As for this season, it has been a mess. I’ve generally enjoyed each episode individually, but in terms of the overall arc, it just isn’t there. Unless Kingston is in the episode, there’s no really moving the arc forward, which is imo a completely lost opportunity.
Moffat has said the next season would be the same length, they just won’t start airing until around August, rather than in the spring.
I blame the Bad Wolf.
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TAC
Peter, I think that you’ve hit on what seems to be the series goal this year: making a show for someone else to enjoy. The execution of the uber arc has left me cold with a feeling of active distaste from time to time, something I haven’t felt since the days of Colin Baker. It started with making the year begin with a 2 part episode that might have been OK, had it not seemed mostly about setting up beats that weren’t going to pay off until year’s end! I tried to rationalize my discomfort, since this arc is a continuation of the last series, but that brought Moffat’s judgment into sharper criticism. And the Amy Pond promo at the top of the hour is off putting because it reeks of a PR advisor’s recommendation and until this series, I liked her and Rory. Now I wonder what kind of parents can accept the loss of raising their child with such aplomb. And I can anticipate that story being resolved to my satisfaction, but Amy and Rory shouldn’t be able to at all, hence my complete incomprehension in Amy’s “faith” in the Doctor. I’m not a parent, so I maybe I’m the wrong person to say it, but there’s a wrong creepy feeling that parents should be off having hi-jinks in the TARDIS while their child grows up to be a living weapon. And the Doctor’s inability over the summer to fix the situation, frankly makes the show look bad. There’s been some good this season, but River Song’s story has become an albatross around the show’s neck.
I’m sticking with the series until the end, but it’s hard feeling like I’m being pushed away. Maybe I’l re-watch Moffat’s Jekyll, since it was wonderful and will help me believe the series can pull it out. But more and more, I don’t think the end can possibly justify the means.
Brian
I really liked “The Girl Who Waited.” As to “The God Complex”, which I also liked, but not as much, the Doctor’s efforts to save Amy by making her lose her faith in him reminded me of the Seventh Doctor’s efforts to save Ace in “The Curse of Fenric” by making her lose her belief in him.
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I think PAD’s right that airing those two and “Night Terrors” all in a row wasn’t the best decision. I also agree that Amy seems to have forgotten about preventing the Doctor’s death in Utah.
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She (and Rory) also seem too blase about the fate of their daughter. Even knowing that she turns out more-or-less all right in the end, you’d think they’d still want to find and raise her in a normal environment. And if that’s not possible, they should argue with the Doctor about that fact, only reluctantly accepting her fate in the end.
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As to the ending, maybe it’s not meant to involve an Earth-threatening kaboom. In fact, I seem to recall seeing a piece in Doctor Who Magazine to the effect that they’re trying to move away from “how do we top the last one?” season endings. Which makes sense. Sooner or later, you’re going to reach a plateau.
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Even so, we should get the feeling that the second half of the season is building to something. Maybe the final two episodes will be arc-heavy, but it probably would have been better if we hadn’t had three “bottle shows” in a row. I don’t recall what the logistics were of of splitting the season in two, but imagine if “A Good Man Goes to War” was the 12th episode and the 13th focused on the dual goals of rescuing Melody and saving the Doctor from his fate in Utah.
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At the very least, we should learn how the Doctor avoids his fate in Utah. To not resolve that thread would be a major cheat.
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Speaking of stories nearing their end, the 8th and likely penultimate installment of my serialized novella, Kestor, which is being published by Silver Blade Magazine, has been posted at http://www.silverblade.net/content/?p=728. Scroll to the bottom and click on my name to read all the installments, or go to http://www.silverblade.net/content/?p=75 to start with part 1.
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Rick
Peter, I have to join the voices of dissatisfaction with the overall state of Who these days, especially this last episode. I found myself nodding off in the middle. It was like those too-long Who serials of yore, padded out in the middle with endless chases through the same three corridor sets. Except whereas some of those can still be enjoyed on video now by fast-forwarding through the middle parts, this was ALL middle parts.
In addition, I’m having real problems with inconsistent and unbelievable characterization. I’m having real problems that Amy isn’t more traumatized by her pregnancy or the loss of her baby, and perhaps even more problems with Rory’s lack of reaction to it.
I’m having similar problems with last week’s loss of faith and parting with the doctor. Yes, the Doctor could certainly lose faith in himself, but Amy? Amy, who brought him back, not just from the dead, but from non-existence, with her belief in him?
The loss of a child might drive her to that point. But she barely seems to have noticed that happened. The loss of Rory maybe. But he dies every other episode and keeps coming back. That just felt like author-intrusion; pushing characters around like chess-pieces without any real motivation or emotional justification.
But what’s really bothering me is how one-note the show is becoming. Yes, Blink was a great episode, but it’s also a bit of a hat-trick, and I’m starting to feel like Moffit has only one hat. (Possibly a fez. Fezzes are cool!)
The show has lost its science fictional scope in exchange for a series of largely interchangeable spook-shows. Let’s see, we’ll need an enigmatic but intriguing name that people can whisper for six episodes ahead of their actual appearance. (“The Powder.” Check.) They’ll need a spooky catch-phrase, preferably with two words, that random characters can say whenever it seems scary. (“My Drawers!” Check.) Have them cue to basic fear you didn’t even know you had. (“Fear of showing up only to discover you didn’t study for the test — and you have no pants.”) Then make them all-powerful and unstoppable except for one very silly weakness. (“Whatever you don, DON’T TAKE YOUR FINGER OUT OF YOUR NOSE! If you keep your finger in your nose, they can’t stuck your studying out your nostrils and make your pants vanish!” Check.) Then everybody runs around some claustrophobic sets for 40 minutes with their fingers up their noses. Until, of course, the Doctor realizes that he was wrong, and you have to take your fingers out of your nose, spread the Powder out into little lines, and snort them all out of existence.
There. The perfect Moffit episode!
Okay, that’s over-simplifying things, but maybe not a lot.
These things, like so many others, are good only in moderation, and I’m afraid Who has gotten rather immoderate in their use of late. We need another strong style, an alternate flavor, to break things up. Unfortunately, that used to be Moffit’s job. Moffit needs his own Moffit, and I don’t get a sense that he has one.
Some really neat ideas this season – none of them executed well.
Almost forgot:
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Another episode this weekend where love saves the day. Sigh.
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I’m actually glad the season will be over next weekend, and I can look forward to Merlin Series 4 and the final episodes of Sarah Jane Adventures.
For me the last two episodes wrapped up the season quite nicely. “The fall of the Eleventh” will hopefully be years off because I have a feeling it’s the regeneration of the 11th doctor into the 12th…
And couching the question as “Doctor Who?” was masterful! Didn’t see that one coming as the question hidden in plain sight.
The beginning of next years’ series in August has less to do with Mr. Moffett’s storytelling plans and more to do with saturation coverage of the London Olympics by all BBC channels.