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<blockquote data-quote="JustinAlexander" data-source="post: 6099797" data-attributes="member: 6700092"><p>Misquote or not, sabrinathecat is right: The show was getting truly dire during RTD's last years, but after an initial uptick at the top of Moffat's run the writing quality on the show has dropped precipitously again. "Sloppy" and "unfocused" are perhaps the kindest words that could be applied to it; phrases like "incoherent in its schizophrenia" and "mind-numbingly repetitive" would be more accurate. The presence of two scripts by Mark ("The Idiot Lantern") Gatiss in the second half of this season doesn't lead me to expect any particular improvement in the near future, either.</p><p></p><p>One of the major problem is that the show has reached a point where the constant repetition of what appears to be a limited pool of ideas begins to degrade the quality of previous material.</p><p></p><p>For example, I enjoyed "The Pandorica Opens"/"The Big Bang" as a conclusion to Season 5: Misguided assassination attempt on the Doctor results in the creation of a broken pocket universe and the Doctor is forced to sacrifice himself in order to reboot the universe, but it turns out he's able to prep a loophole and come back. I thought the method and motive of assassination was clever and well established by the meta-arc of the season; I thought the rules of the pocket universe were clear and interesting; I thought the loophole was played fairly and was also joyfully clever in its execution.</p><p></p><p>But then we fast forward a season and we find "The Wedding of River Song": A misguided assassination attempt on the Doctor results in the creation of a broken pocket universe and the Doctor is forced to sacrifice himself in order to reboot the universe, but it turns out he's able to prep a loophole and come back.</p><p></p><p>Only this time there is no motive presented for the assassination attempt; the method makes no sense; the pocket universe is a lot of sound and fury without clear or coherent rules to its existence; and the loophole is puerile.</p><p></p><p>We saw this same "deja vu decay" in RTD's run: A dalek accusing the Doctor of being a good dalek in "Dalek" was astonishingly brilliant storytelling that evoked what had happened to the Doctor and how it had changed him. The third or fourth time we came back to the exact same moment with Davros accusing the Doctor of the same thing (only this time in a context for which it made no sense in the middle of a plan to destroy the universe which also made no sense) it had lost all its impact.</p><p></p><p>It's actually been impressive how much the sheer charisma and talent of the actors has been making up for some truly atrocious scripts, but there's a limit to how much rope I'm willing to feed the show. The 8 episodes remaining in this season is the last opportunity I'm giving Moffat to convince me that the show is still worth spending time on.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="JustinAlexander, post: 6099797, member: 6700092"] Misquote or not, sabrinathecat is right: The show was getting truly dire during RTD's last years, but after an initial uptick at the top of Moffat's run the writing quality on the show has dropped precipitously again. "Sloppy" and "unfocused" are perhaps the kindest words that could be applied to it; phrases like "incoherent in its schizophrenia" and "mind-numbingly repetitive" would be more accurate. The presence of two scripts by Mark ("The Idiot Lantern") Gatiss in the second half of this season doesn't lead me to expect any particular improvement in the near future, either. One of the major problem is that the show has reached a point where the constant repetition of what appears to be a limited pool of ideas begins to degrade the quality of previous material. For example, I enjoyed "The Pandorica Opens"/"The Big Bang" as a conclusion to Season 5: Misguided assassination attempt on the Doctor results in the creation of a broken pocket universe and the Doctor is forced to sacrifice himself in order to reboot the universe, but it turns out he's able to prep a loophole and come back. I thought the method and motive of assassination was clever and well established by the meta-arc of the season; I thought the rules of the pocket universe were clear and interesting; I thought the loophole was played fairly and was also joyfully clever in its execution. But then we fast forward a season and we find "The Wedding of River Song": A misguided assassination attempt on the Doctor results in the creation of a broken pocket universe and the Doctor is forced to sacrifice himself in order to reboot the universe, but it turns out he's able to prep a loophole and come back. Only this time there is no motive presented for the assassination attempt; the method makes no sense; the pocket universe is a lot of sound and fury without clear or coherent rules to its existence; and the loophole is puerile. We saw this same "deja vu decay" in RTD's run: A dalek accusing the Doctor of being a good dalek in "Dalek" was astonishingly brilliant storytelling that evoked what had happened to the Doctor and how it had changed him. The third or fourth time we came back to the exact same moment with Davros accusing the Doctor of the same thing (only this time in a context for which it made no sense in the middle of a plan to destroy the universe which also made no sense) it had lost all its impact. It's actually been impressive how much the sheer charisma and talent of the actors has been making up for some truly atrocious scripts, but there's a limit to how much rope I'm willing to feed the show. The 8 episodes remaining in this season is the last opportunity I'm giving Moffat to convince me that the show is still worth spending time on. [/QUOTE]
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