tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4202625234167413814.post5578009800390824382..comments2024-02-28T17:50:10.303+00:00Comments on LUCID FRENZY JUNIOR: CRACKS, LEVELS AND MARMITE - SOME LAST THOUGHTS ON STEVEN MOFFAT’S DOCTOR WHO (2)Gavin Burrowshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16347163260510316959noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4202625234167413814.post-10727233561684786532010-07-22T16:34:49.192+01:002010-07-22T16:34:49.192+01:00I was thinking something similar to Andrew. A New ...I was thinking something similar to Andrew. A New Who trying to be just like Old Who would be <i>’Sontaran Stratagem’</i> or <i>’Hollow Earth’</i> ever week. Which, correct me if I’m wrong, I didn’t think had generally got that high a fan reaction.<br /><br />Genre fiction is always going to be about twists on a theme. And any successful remake must be a reinvention, it’s got to go back to the old show but focus on a different aspect of it and/or bring something new to it. (Or go the <i>’Battlestar Galactica’</i> route and make the point how<i>unlike</i> the old show it is – but let’s not complicate things!) <br /><br />The sheer longevity of the old show makes that both easy and hard. Which era of the old show do you focus on? Plenty to choose from, but plenty of people ready to tell you that you got the wrong one.<br /><br />Of course originality will annoy <i>some</i> fans, per se. They don’t want the twists, just the theme. But annoying those people is fun. (If a little easy!)<br /><br /><i> Perhaps Moffat thinks that he has now adequately linked his show with the past. Perhaps the next series will take off in an entirely new direction. If it does (and does it well) then Moffat will please half of us and disappoint the rest.</i><br /><br />The number of plot threads left dangling suggest to me he was more thinking of one long series split into two seasons. But you may be right.<br /><br /><i> (Love & Monsters is in my top three NuWho episodes despite being awful, as it's at least *interestingly* awful).</i><br /><br />There was the germ of a good idea in that episode, yes. But in execution it was 99% awful to 1% interesting.<br /><br /><i>Anyone for Marmite?</i><br /><br />I like Marmite but have found Vegemite to be a bit cheaper these days. It’s probably got terrible food miles on it, though!Gavin Burrowshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16347163260510316959noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4202625234167413814.post-42453318648525713142010-07-22T16:15:19.716+01:002010-07-22T16:15:19.716+01:00Martin, I don't think people were necessarily ...Martin, I don't think people were necessarily saying "please make it more like the old show" as much as "please make it *better*". Often this would overlap - the old series, for example, didn't have the Doctor mooning around moping about his One True Lost Love for two years straight, so getting rid of that would be both 'better' *and* 'more like the old series'. <br /><br />On the other hand, no-one was clamouring for scripts by Pip & Jane Baker, music by Keff McCullouch and direction by Pennant Roberts. Had we had those things, we'd have been saying "let's have it *less* like the old series, please!"<br /><br />In my own case, the biggest fault I can find with both the RTD and Moffat eras is their ultra-conservatism - I'd be far more enthusiastic about both if they did something genuinely *different* (Love & Monsters is in my top three NuWho episodes despite being awful, as it's at least *interestingly* awful).Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4202625234167413814.post-30049009105184730552010-07-22T16:03:52.309+01:002010-07-22T16:03:52.309+01:00Interesting thoughts Gav. They got me thinking abo...Interesting thoughts Gav. They got me thinking about this season’s originality (or lack of it)...<br /><br /><i>What’s odd is that, after everyone agreeing on how Moffat brought a new vision to the show, how familiar the episode line-up actually was.</i><br /><br />I wonder if everyone and his dog is confusing Moffat’s fresh approach with his ability not to be Russell T. Davies. After all, it was this ability that got everyone excited in the first place. Perhaps Moffat’s approach is indeed new in this way, but at the same time very old in terms of reprising Old Who.<br /><br />This would make some sense. If the people who make the show pay any attention to the fans (and I suspect that they do) then the commercial and ratings success of New Who may be tempered by the rumblings of those who’ll be needed when the show is no longer flavour of the month. And by and large what we’ve said is that RTD did well in successfully resurrecting the show, but please could it be a bit more like Old Who. So that’s pretty much what Moffat has given us. And that’s probably why Andrew Rilstone is enjoying it so much.<br /><br /><i>If only those differing reactions had led to a clutch of unique experiments...’</i>Vincent and the Doctor<i>’ ...was at least </i>trying<i> to do something else.</i><br /><br />Of course, it’s a corollary of trying to make New Who resemble Old Who that it’s not going to be very original. I’m not familiar with fan reaction since the sixties the way that Andrew is, but I get the impression from his blog that innovation was greeted in those days with the cry “But this isn’t Doctor Who!”. This sort of tension is inevitable in any show that’s long-lived (or any show that’s trying to fit into a genre). Originality annoys the fans.<br /><br />Perhaps Moffat thinks that he has now adequately linked his show with the past. Perhaps the next series will take off in an entirely new direction. If it does (and does it well) then Moffat will please half of us and disappoint the rest. Anyone for Marmite?Martinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00659496241392053499noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4202625234167413814.post-24595694893138957722010-07-21T17:39:58.180+01:002010-07-21T17:39:58.180+01:00Each to their own, of course. But how would you re...Each to their own, of course. But how would you relate my schema of the episode descriptions with "heterogenerality"?<br /><br />And also, if a series is going to have a through-line, isn't that asking you to see it <i>as</i> a series, not a collection of short stories? Doesn't it need at least some consistency?<br /><br />I feel the crack was stuck up in place of that consistency. So instead of a through-line we got a crack.Gavin Burrowshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16347163260510316959noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4202625234167413814.post-64149180854981018702010-07-21T14:58:02.025+01:002010-07-21T14:58:02.025+01:00Interesting thoughts. Once more -- and this reall...Interesting thoughts. Once more -- and this really is getting to be a habit -- I agree with your analysis but disagree with your conclusion. Specifically, I think you're right that Moffat imposed less of a uniform style that RTD used to, but I think that gave rise to a pleasingly broad and sometimes wild selection of episodes, and I enjoyed the heterogenaeity.Mike Taylorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06039663158335543317noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4202625234167413814.post-4834924638756782452010-07-21T14:55:38.163+01:002010-07-21T14:55:38.163+01:00This is possibly the most insightful thing I'v...This is possibly the most insightful thing I've read yet on NuNuWho...Andrew Hickeyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07412263807838661843noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4202625234167413814.post-68035030683488517222010-07-21T14:52:01.639+01:002010-07-21T14:52:01.639+01:00Fixed through the magic of the interweb!
(Thanks ...Fixed through the magic of the interweb!<br /><br />(Thanks for pointing out!)Gavin Burrowshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16347163260510316959noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4202625234167413814.post-12902809936614302832010-07-21T14:47:36.944+01:002010-07-21T14:47:36.944+01:00(Though even here Moffat’s rewritten rulebook was ...<i><br />(Though even here Moffat’s rewritten rulebook was unevenly applied – think of the sonic screwdriver reverting to a magic wand in’The Stolen Earth’.)<br /></i><br /><br />I guess you mean The <i>Hungry</i> Earth here?Mike Taylorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06039663158335543317noreply@blogger.com