First. I love Doctor Who and an average season (or even a bad season)of Doctor Who is better than most of what else is on television.
Second, I’ve never really liked any of the season finales for New Who except last season’s “Big Bang”. In the Russell T. Davies era the stories were so over the top that my eyes got tired of rolling. I particularly disliked the season finale where they had to tow the Earth back to the solar system.
Third, I constantly remind myself that this is a show that is essentially meant to be a silly show for the family to watch. I think of Doctor Who the way I think of those old fashioned Disney movies starring Fred MacMurray. I don’t usually expect deep character development; I understand that there are going to be many stereotypes and some of the characters will verge on cartoonish.
So, keeping all of that in mind, I thought the finale was fine but not great. It was a visual treat and it tied up lots of loose ends. It’s one of those episodes that, on the one hand, you can’t think about too much or it just doesn’t make sense. On the other hand it is the kind of episode that you will think about a lot and eventually figure out twists that you missed the first time. Just like the rest of the season it had a lot of potential and just like the rest of the season it did not, for me, hit the high mark that the fifth season hit.
But I give them credit for trying.
I think Steven Moffat is one of the most creative writers in television today. I applaud what he experimented with this season. Doctor Who has done story arcs in other seasons of New Who but not to the extent that was tried this season. There is a big difference between putting the words “Bad Wolf” in every episode or putting a glimpse of the crack in the universe in every episode and what was tried this season – a character driven story arc.
In my opinion it didn’t quite work, but that’s ok as long as they learn from it. Maybe a thirteen episode season in which the audience expects (and likes) many stand alone episodes was just too short for the kind of story that Moffat was trying to tell. It felt rushed. The emotions felt undeveloped. It didn’t hang together at times. If this was an American series with 23 episodes it might have worked. Maybe.
But although the execution was a bit flawed I do think he achieved what he set out to achieve. He has deconstructed the Doctor and moved the Doctor back into a position where he can act more like a traditional Doctor who isn’t seen as a superhero and isn’t known in every corner of the Galaxy. As far as character development of the Doctor went, I think this season was very successful. I look forward to what Moffat tries to do with the Doctor next season.
I also think Moffat was fairly successful with the character of Rory. Not perfect, but very good. At one point I said I had a theory that this season was “all about Rory” as opposed to last season that was all about Amy. Well, that didn’t end up being completely true, it was really all about the Doctor. But Rory definitely shone in the spotlight.
The Companion is always a lens through which we, the viewer, see the Doctor and this year we saw the Doctor very much through Rory’s eyes. Rory was not enamored of the Doctor and saw the Doctor as dangerous. That worked very well for Moffat’s plan. And I sort of liked that we did, for once, see the Doctor more often through the male companion’s eyes rather than the female companion’s eyes. To think that only the female companion can be the eyes of the viewer is really somewhat sexist.
But the weakest part of this season was, undoubtedly, the female characters – both River and Amy. At this point I feel like a broken record in my complaints about Amy so I’m not even going to go into it again other than to say that, while Amy’s speech to Madame Kovarian was a nice moment, it didn’t make up for the lack of emotion she showed over the entire season about what happened to Melody/River or, for that matter, what happened to her in being kidnapped and her body used to carry a child that was immediately taken from her.
On the other hand, I will complain about what was done with the character of River Song in the second part of this season. River Song went from being a strong female character who we assumed had a career as an archaeologist separate and apart from her interest in the Doctor to being a woman who is completely and totally obsessed with a man. We find that she became an archaeologist solely for the purpose of tracking the Doctor. She is willing to destroy the whole Universe because she cannot bear the thought that she is the one to kill the Doctor. She goes to prison for killing the Doctor when he and she know darn well that he is not dead. In the Library River gave up her life for the Doctor and it seemed noble. But in this episode she gives up her freedom for the Doctor and it just seems like she’s being the dumb woman who will do anything for her man. I almost expected Tammy Wynette to start playing after the scene in Utah.
But while all of that was disappointing, it was the way the Doctor treated her in this last episode that really struck me. The moment when the Doctor tells her that he’s going to marry her (after telling her that he doesn’t want to marry her and that she embarrasses him) and she needs to just do as she’s told has got to be the low point in the character development of River Song. That was the moment that I realized that Moffat had destroyed River as the unique female character that she was when the Doctor met her in the Library. She has now become just like all the other Doctor Who women – there to serve the Doctor.
What a disappointment.
As I said, I think Steven Moffat is one of the best writers in television. But even the best writers sometimes get it wrong. And when it came to the women of Doctor Who this season, he really got it wrong.
As you might have guessed, I was not satisfied with Amy's (and interestingly not Rory) finally showing some upset over what happened to her, Rory, and their child. An act of revenge doesn't come close to explaining away all that indifference.
ReplyDeleteAs for River, I'm a bit torn because the fact is the River we're seeing in the "stopped" time is the younger River, not the River we have learned to love. It was okay for her to be young and stupid and maybe it was okay for the Doctor to be cruel in order to get her to grow into what she could be. OTOH, I think that concept could have been handled better and I think that Moffat liked treating her like shit and showing her up. And here's a quote from Moffat (from a 2004 interview in the Scotsman newspaper) that makes me even surer about that:
There’s this issue you’re not allowed to discuss: that women are needy. Men can go for longer, more happily, without women. That’s the truth. We don’t, as little boys, play at being married - we try to avoid it for as long as possible. Meanwhile women are out there hunting for husbands.
It makes his whole meme of "girls who wait" (Madame de Pompadour, Amy, River Song) even less appealing thab it was already becoming for me with each iteration.
I thought the use of Tesselactor was a good cheat of the doctor's death and that way they portrayed the stopped time scenario while leading to some cute visuals made no sense.
Seeing as they left the whole Silence threat unresolved, I wonder if they are going back to it next season or are just going to ignore it; the way the season ended, it seems like they could choose to do either. I'm guessing it will move to the background and the underlying story arc will be the Doctor moving ever closer to answering the question.
I think that Moffat liked treating her like shit and showing her up.
ReplyDeleteI don't.
I think Moffat likes writing the Doctor as a bit of a shit. And this time he went too far.
There has never been any indication that he wants to abuse the character of River Song - he has, in fact, most often used her as the catalyst for scenes he likes to write about the Doctor - where the Doctor gets angry at the situation and uncharacteristically lets loose. He often has the Doctor lose his temper with River and I don't think it's because he likes to see River abused, I think it's an odd compliment to the character of River. He knows she can take it and can always stand up to the Doctor.
That's why the change in her the last few episodes is so annoying. But I don't think he consciously decided to change her - I think he consciously decided to change the Doctor this year. And, like Amy, she stopped being a fully realized character and became a "type" - whatever he needed at the moment.
I don't agree with that quote but I don't see it as evidence that he would viciously want to take a wonderful character that he created and suddenly change her just for the joy of tearing her down. It's probably evidence that when he needed her to change for the plot points he assumed that it was a natural and understandable change. In the same way that I'm sure Russell T. Davies assumed that it was entirely natural for Rose to lose her heart to a man who was completely inappropriate for her and entirely natural for Martha to waste a lot of time and space mooning after a man who didn't notice her. And let's face it, as good as Donna was, she began and ended with a wedding.
Moffat isn't the first Who Writer to stereotype women. But it is a real shame and very disappointing that in his focus on showing the iconic character of the Doctor in a different light this year, he lost sight of the true character of the character that he himself created.
But on to next season. I hope they don't have much of an arc next year.
Maybe he'll bring Jack back next season. I'd like to find out about the two missing years of Jack's life as a Time Agent. Wouldn't it be fun for the Doctor to be time travelling and run into Jack during those years when Jack may have been a 'bad guy' and didn't know the Doctor. :)