credit where it’s dr. due
The newest incarnation of Dr. Who lives up to a certain longstanding tradition in science fiction: that those fonts of genius that give up the absolute best stories imaginable (think, say, Walter Miller’s “A Canticle for Leibowitz”, and certain episodes of The Outer Limits) also provide its worst (Miller’s “Saint Leibowitz and the Wild Horse Woman”, and certain episodes of The Outer Limits).
I just wanted to point out, for the purposes of posterity on this blog (WordPress’s best kept secret!) that Steve Moffat’s writing for Dr. Who have been brilliant and beautiful with few exceptions. They stand out like little islands of awesome amidst a sea of awful — to give you some idea, the most recent Moffat episode, a multilayered Borgesian-themed thriller called “The Silence in the Library”, comes right on the heels of a very special (non-Moffat) episode featuring Agatha Christie. (I don’t want to dwell on the negative, but there it is.) Sometimes you have to give things a chance, and you’ll get a delightful surprise.
Sometimes things explode, too. And there’s nothing necessarily wrong with running away from an explosion, is there? Fireballs are so hot and destructive.
The Christie episode was fine. Sure, it wasn’t The Girl in the Fireplace or Blink, I’ll give you that, but it was okay.
Personally, for me it was (in the US) last night’s The Doctor’s Daughter that left me wanting.
The first of Steve’s two-parter this year is very good. And, I have a sense it sets up some things for the next full season.
Great Alex Kingston performance, and Catherine Tate is wonderful.
Yeah, I was only able to watch the first five minutes of “The Doctor’s Daughter” before I had to turn it off.
Still, maybe I was a bit unfair… but only a bit. So, i.e., Russell Davies’s episodes have a lot of punch to them, even though they have their ups and downs… i.e., the Master’s three-parter at the end of season 3 had a pretty amazing premise, and moments of pitch-perfect execution, but also had its fair share of plotholes and deus ex machina.
Moffat’s stuff tends to be a bit tighter, and never fails to have that kind of punch. But maybe it’s just plain hard to be a head writer. Hopefully next season he won’t lose his touch.