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redneckgaijin... I don't think it's Matt Smith's fault.
I think it's the scripts- and specifically the script editor, Steve Moffat.
But, since my memory is foggy and it's just possible I might be doing Mr. Moffat an injustice, I decided to look at a list of episodes Moffat wrote, and compare my impressions of them.
"The Empty Child / The Doctor Dances" - It intrigued me, but it felt more like a horror story than what I'd expected from a Doctor Who story. I found the scene where the soldier guarding Rose gradually loses himself to the mutation terrifying... and I do not like being frightened in the least.
"The Girl in the Fireplace" - Haven't watched, read synopsis and didn't like the premise.
"Blink" - Hate, hate, hate, HATE. Multiple, massive internal inconsistencies. If the Angels can move so fast, why isn't the woman toast in the first MINUTE OF THE DAMN SHOW? And it only gets worse (and more "booga booga") from there.
"Time Crash" - haven't seen
"Silence in the Library / Forest of the Dead" - UTTERLY DESPISE this one for two reasons: the monster is both a cheap "booga booga" and absolutely ludicrous on any consideration, and the "saved soul to computer" is a massive cop-out to salvage a happy ending. Microscopic, hive-mind intelligent creatures that lurk in darkness and consume flesh almost instantly? That can depopulate a whole PLANET? And didn't go EXTINCT within a year of first coming into existence on whatever world spawned them? BULLSHIT. These were monsters created solely to give people nightmares, not to be in any way credible. How in the Hell was this script nominated for a Hugo??
"The Eleventh Hour" - I liked the back half or so of the story, the part in which the Doctor is being brilliant and improvising without his most handy tools. The front half, though... well, it established the Matt Smith Doctor as he's been ever since: a total, careless, insufferable DICK. Young Amy Pond was a unique individual, all right; anyone else would have kicked the Doctor out of the house, magic blue box or not, whispering crack in the wall or not.
"The Beast Below" - The premise is wobblier than old-series set walls, and the portrayal of the Doctor even worse. Amy finds the solution that ANY OTHER INCARNATION of the Doctor- even the Colin Baker or Sylvester McCoy incarnations- would have found in the FIRST HALF HOUR. As horrifying as certain parts of it are, to be blunt the whole episode struck me as "twee"- too cute for its own good, too desperate to make Amy Pond the hero and the Doctor just another character... and a not at all nice character, either.
"The Time of Angels / Flesh and Stone" - Oh, yes, thanks VERY much- take a monster I already HATE HATE HATE, and make them even LESS believable. (They can invade your mind and turn you into one of them? Photos and written records of them fade and vanish? BULL FUCKING SHIT.) Plus, River Song shows up and makes herself even MORE of an insufferable jackass than the Doctor. Ergh.
"The Pandorica Opens / The Big Bang" - I admit this one has some truly glorious moments... but the ending really, REALLY ruins it for me. Clap your hands forTinkerbell The Doctor? PLEASE. (And the TARDIS's destruction leading to the destruction of the universe? Um, what?)
"A Christmas Carol" - Mixed feelings about this one. It's good, in a way, to see the Doctor tragically, completely fuck things up to make them even worse than ever. It's even better to see an episode with no monsters (the shark doesn't really count). On the other hand, the "one day to live" gimmick is a damn blatant cop-out. We know humanity in the Whoverse survives damn near to the heat-death of the universe- and there's NEVER a cure or treatment for what the girl's got? And what fatal disease COULD she have that lets her be not merely functional but energetic, vibrant and apparently symptom-free up to the very last day? Rrrrgh.
"The Impossible Astronaut / Day of the Moon" - Okay... a monster race effectively unstoppable... gets to destroy ITSELF through GLOATING. Come ON. If you need a cop-out that big to stop the baddie, you've done a crap job of writing. (And bonus points DEDUCTED for rehabilitating Nixon...)
"A Good Man Goes to War / Let's Kill Hitler" - Haven't seen the second part of this yet. The first part... URGH. Quite possibly the WORST portrayal of the Doctor, well, EVER. We never get to see HOW he's clever, only the results... and the gloating... and, finally, the wheels coming off the wagon. And even then, when the Doctor is finally told just how far he's come AWAY from who he was- from the core of what being the Doctor fucking MEANS- it's soft-pedaled by River Song. And swiftly forgotten.
So, all in all... comparing this with the three episodes of Sherlock, I'd have to say my opinion is: Steve Moffat is a decent writer who has no earthly business writing science fiction, and especially not Doctor Who. His vision of the Doctor is unwise, unlikable, self-centered to degrees even Tom Baker's Doctor could never achieve- apparently on the theory that to be alien you must be a raging prick. He routinely resorts to cop-out resolutions to conflict (or, as often as not, cop-out ENTRIES into conflict).
Most of all, Moffat seems to default to the premise that all people, or the vast majority at least, are inherently unlikeable and disgusting. This can work in a soap opera like Coupling or a noir drama like Sherlock... but what happened to what Craig Ferguson calls "the triumph of romance and optimism over fear and cynicism," or however that went? It's not here. Moffat writes Who as tragedy, and then uses deus ex machinae to bail out a happy ending when required.
And likely, that's it. Moffat writes the Doctor as tragic and un-heroic- and that's why I absolutely hate the Matt Smith Doctor, primarily designed by Moffat. The Doctor is supposed to OVERCOME and PREVENT tragedy. The Doctor is supposed to be a hero, a champion, a WINNER. Steven Moffat won't let him be one- which is very good for Amy and Rory Williams as characters...
... but the name of the series is NOT The Adventures of Amy and Rory in the Blue Box.
It's Doctor Who.
And dammit, I want a Doctor I can trust and believe in again.
(P. S. By the way, I do NOT like, "Rule #1: the Doctor lies." NO. The Doctor did NOT habitually lie to his companions before Moffat/Smith. The Doctor was the one being you could always, ALWAYS trust, no matter the circumstances. Thanks SO much for pissing on that, Moffat.)
I think it's the scripts- and specifically the script editor, Steve Moffat.
But, since my memory is foggy and it's just possible I might be doing Mr. Moffat an injustice, I decided to look at a list of episodes Moffat wrote, and compare my impressions of them.
"The Empty Child / The Doctor Dances" - It intrigued me, but it felt more like a horror story than what I'd expected from a Doctor Who story. I found the scene where the soldier guarding Rose gradually loses himself to the mutation terrifying... and I do not like being frightened in the least.
"The Girl in the Fireplace" - Haven't watched, read synopsis and didn't like the premise.
"Blink" - Hate, hate, hate, HATE. Multiple, massive internal inconsistencies. If the Angels can move so fast, why isn't the woman toast in the first MINUTE OF THE DAMN SHOW? And it only gets worse (and more "booga booga") from there.
"Time Crash" - haven't seen
"Silence in the Library / Forest of the Dead" - UTTERLY DESPISE this one for two reasons: the monster is both a cheap "booga booga" and absolutely ludicrous on any consideration, and the "saved soul to computer" is a massive cop-out to salvage a happy ending. Microscopic, hive-mind intelligent creatures that lurk in darkness and consume flesh almost instantly? That can depopulate a whole PLANET? And didn't go EXTINCT within a year of first coming into existence on whatever world spawned them? BULLSHIT. These were monsters created solely to give people nightmares, not to be in any way credible. How in the Hell was this script nominated for a Hugo??
"The Eleventh Hour" - I liked the back half or so of the story, the part in which the Doctor is being brilliant and improvising without his most handy tools. The front half, though... well, it established the Matt Smith Doctor as he's been ever since: a total, careless, insufferable DICK. Young Amy Pond was a unique individual, all right; anyone else would have kicked the Doctor out of the house, magic blue box or not, whispering crack in the wall or not.
"The Beast Below" - The premise is wobblier than old-series set walls, and the portrayal of the Doctor even worse. Amy finds the solution that ANY OTHER INCARNATION of the Doctor- even the Colin Baker or Sylvester McCoy incarnations- would have found in the FIRST HALF HOUR. As horrifying as certain parts of it are, to be blunt the whole episode struck me as "twee"- too cute for its own good, too desperate to make Amy Pond the hero and the Doctor just another character... and a not at all nice character, either.
"The Time of Angels / Flesh and Stone" - Oh, yes, thanks VERY much- take a monster I already HATE HATE HATE, and make them even LESS believable. (They can invade your mind and turn you into one of them? Photos and written records of them fade and vanish? BULL FUCKING SHIT.) Plus, River Song shows up and makes herself even MORE of an insufferable jackass than the Doctor. Ergh.
"The Pandorica Opens / The Big Bang" - I admit this one has some truly glorious moments... but the ending really, REALLY ruins it for me. Clap your hands for
"A Christmas Carol" - Mixed feelings about this one. It's good, in a way, to see the Doctor tragically, completely fuck things up to make them even worse than ever. It's even better to see an episode with no monsters (the shark doesn't really count). On the other hand, the "one day to live" gimmick is a damn blatant cop-out. We know humanity in the Whoverse survives damn near to the heat-death of the universe- and there's NEVER a cure or treatment for what the girl's got? And what fatal disease COULD she have that lets her be not merely functional but energetic, vibrant and apparently symptom-free up to the very last day? Rrrrgh.
"The Impossible Astronaut / Day of the Moon" - Okay... a monster race effectively unstoppable... gets to destroy ITSELF through GLOATING. Come ON. If you need a cop-out that big to stop the baddie, you've done a crap job of writing. (And bonus points DEDUCTED for rehabilitating Nixon...)
"A Good Man Goes to War / Let's Kill Hitler" - Haven't seen the second part of this yet. The first part... URGH. Quite possibly the WORST portrayal of the Doctor, well, EVER. We never get to see HOW he's clever, only the results... and the gloating... and, finally, the wheels coming off the wagon. And even then, when the Doctor is finally told just how far he's come AWAY from who he was- from the core of what being the Doctor fucking MEANS- it's soft-pedaled by River Song. And swiftly forgotten.
So, all in all... comparing this with the three episodes of Sherlock, I'd have to say my opinion is: Steve Moffat is a decent writer who has no earthly business writing science fiction, and especially not Doctor Who. His vision of the Doctor is unwise, unlikable, self-centered to degrees even Tom Baker's Doctor could never achieve- apparently on the theory that to be alien you must be a raging prick. He routinely resorts to cop-out resolutions to conflict (or, as often as not, cop-out ENTRIES into conflict).
Most of all, Moffat seems to default to the premise that all people, or the vast majority at least, are inherently unlikeable and disgusting. This can work in a soap opera like Coupling or a noir drama like Sherlock... but what happened to what Craig Ferguson calls "the triumph of romance and optimism over fear and cynicism," or however that went? It's not here. Moffat writes Who as tragedy, and then uses deus ex machinae to bail out a happy ending when required.
And likely, that's it. Moffat writes the Doctor as tragic and un-heroic- and that's why I absolutely hate the Matt Smith Doctor, primarily designed by Moffat. The Doctor is supposed to OVERCOME and PREVENT tragedy. The Doctor is supposed to be a hero, a champion, a WINNER. Steven Moffat won't let him be one- which is very good for Amy and Rory Williams as characters...
... but the name of the series is NOT The Adventures of Amy and Rory in the Blue Box.
It's Doctor Who.
And dammit, I want a Doctor I can trust and believe in again.
(P. S. By the way, I do NOT like, "Rule #1: the Doctor lies." NO. The Doctor did NOT habitually lie to his companions before Moffat/Smith. The Doctor was the one being you could always, ALWAYS trust, no matter the circumstances. Thanks SO much for pissing on that, Moffat.)
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no subject
Date: 2011-10-04 10:28 pm (UTC)I'm also extremely unfond of Moffat's predilection towards embarrassment humor. Just too many times, the Doctor or Amy or Rory has spent a minute or two looking like an ass and knowing it (maybe not in the case of the Doctor, but we know he looks like an ass and we have to suffer for him). And the Doctor just says random shit that somebody working on the script thought was clever. It almost never is.
no subject
Date: 2011-10-04 10:41 pm (UTC)(Troughton, though, made up for it with honest, heartfelt feeling- or at least over-the-top acting, take your pick.)
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Date: 2011-10-05 12:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-10-05 06:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-10-06 03:34 am (UTC)I loved "Empty Child/Doctor Dances", but that was mostly for Jack, for "Everybody lives!" (which was the moment I realized that Nine really was the same being as the one in the icon and went "oh, gods, what happened?"), and for the Doctor finally (if obliquely) explaining a bit of his own sexuality - the first and the last, I suspect, arc bits of RTD's that he handed over to Moffat. So far with Eleven, I'm missing the season arcs and the character development that RTD gave us, if not always cleverly. Not that I think RTD was the Time Lords' gift to the BBC, exactly, but I preferred the show with him at the helm. That I think Moffat's an insufferable laddish pig doesn't help, although I must admit he can write a female character without completely fucking it up.
Although, speaking of female characters, I'm comparing Amy unfavorably to Rose, and that's - unfortunate, to put it mildly. Up until now, Rose was my least favorite NuWho companion, although I don't hate her.