Doctor Who 60th Anniversary Specials [[SPOILERS!!]]

[Dausuul]

Yeah, Moffat's a great example of someone being promoted above their proper competence level. Fantastic for the occasional episode, but maybe a bit too clever for his own good when it comes to overarching plots.

I don't know that I'd go so far as to say he was promoted above his proper level. He may not have been as good at crafting an emotionally satisfying arc as Russell T. Davies, and it took him a while to figure out how to adjust his plotting to work at season scale, but he still delivered some very solid Who.

By all accounts, Doctor Who is an incredibly hard show to run and write for. The Chibnall years taught me not to sneer at Moffat's showrunning just because he got tangled up in his own cleverness now and then.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I don't know that I'd go so far as to say he was promoted above his proper level. He may not have been as good at crafting an emotionally satisfying arc as Russell T. Davies, and it took him a while to figure out how to adjust his plotting to work at season scale, but he still delivered some very solid Who.

By all accounts, Doctor Who is an incredibly hard show to run and write for. The Chibnall years taught me not to sneer at Moffat's showrunning just because he got tangled up in his own cleverness now and then.

Chibnall was 13's show runner right?

 

[Dausuul]

Chibnall was 13's show runner right?

Yes. Before taking the helm, he wrote "42," "The Hungry Earth/Cold Blood," "Dinosaurs on a Spaceship," and "The Power of Three." He was also head writer on "Torchwood." Outside the Whoniverse, he created and wrote "Broadchurch" and worked on a number of other shows.

It's certainly not as impressive as Moffat's resume when he took over, but it's not a bad resume, nor a thin one. All indications are that he's a perfectly competent writer and showrunner. He's done good work. But for the "Doctor Who" showrunner, "perfectly competent" isn't good enough. You need a person of extraordinary talent.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Yes. Before taking the helm, he wrote "42," "The Hungry Earth/Cold Blood," "Dinosaurs on a Spaceship," and "The Power of Three." He was also head writer on "Torchwood." Outside the Whoniverse, he created and wrote "Broadchurch" and worked on a number of other shows.

It's certainly not as impressive as Moffat's resume when he took over, but it's not a bad resume, nor a thin one. All indications are that he's a perfectly competent writer and showrunner. He's done good work. But for the "Doctor Who" showrunner, "perfectly competent" isn't good enough. You need a person of extraordinary talent.

Yeah, I've never seen any of 13's run (currently on Series 3 for 12), but I've heard bad things about most of it. I'll find out for myself soon enough.

Most of the new specials were good though, from what I've seen. Haven't seen 15's story yet.

 

[Voadam]

Yes. Before taking the helm, he wrote "42," "The Hungry Earth/Cold Blood," "Dinosaurs on a Spaceship," and "The Power of Three." He was also head writer on "Torchwood." Outside the Whoniverse, he created and wrote "Broadchurch" and worked on a number of other shows.

It's certainly not as impressive as Moffat's resume when he took over, but it's not a bad resume, nor a thin one. All indications are that he's a perfectly competent writer and showrunner. He's done good work. But for the "Doctor Who" showrunner, "perfectly competent" isn't good enough. You need a person of extraordinary talent.

Huh, I didn't know that much about Chibnall and did not know he did Broadchurch, the detective one starring David Tenant and Jodi Whittaker. Interesting.

 

[Riley]

Before taking the helm, he wrote "42," "The Hungry Earth/Cold Blood," "Dinosaurs on a Spaceship," and "The Power of Three." He was also head writer on "Torchwood.".

That track record (in my reckoning, all pretty forgettable, mediocre episodes), matches what little I’ve seen of the Chibnall-produced era.

I desperately hope Ncuti’s new season will be both surprising and great. (RTD’s 60th mini-season was too much “something old, something borrowed” for my tastes, but I’m cutting RTD slack for that, given it was an anniversary special miniseries.)

 

[jolt]

I thought Moffat did great, when he wasn't in charge. Once he was in charge, even some of the stuff he created (like the Weeping Angels) became increasingly silly IMHO.

One thing I think a lot of Who writers have struggled with is when they go into the past, they suddenly get very timid with the periods they go to and the writing. In the very first Doctor Who ever, they had cool historical trips (the Aztecs, "cavemen", etc.) but the modern writers seem more timid about the past. They do really well with the "SCi-Fi/Space" stuff and the "modern England" stuff, but not so much the past. I was surprised whn Matt Smith went to the American Old West. Chibnall was one of the few who went bold with his historical trips (like the Witch Trials) but the writing was so uneven it kind of loses out. I didn't hate the Whitaker years, but the writing held it back IMO. Also, when the episodes are only an hour long, having more than one or two companions is just too many.

 

[delericho]

Yeah, Moffat's a great example of someone being promoted above their proper competence level. Fantastic for the occasional episode, but maybe a bit too clever for his own good when it comes to overarching plots.

I thought Moffat's first season was probably the peak of new-Who's quality. Sadly, he never really lived up to it after that.

Indeed, by the end I was thinking Douglas Adams might have had the right idea - get in, do one season, and get out.

 

[delericho]

Then, they toss that away with, "We can do something no male-presenting Timelord could ever do! Give power away!" Because, after all the defiance of stereotype, we lean into a stereotype for the cheap solution to the problem.

I am... somewhere between "not impressed" and "disappointed".

Yeah, I was deeply disappointed with "The Star Beast" for exactly this reason. Fortunately the other two specials were much better, or "The Giggle" would have been my final episode. (Which would have been especially unfortunate, given how good the Christmas Special was. )

 

[Dausuul]

I thought Moffat's first season was probably the peak of new-Who's quality. Sadly, he never really lived up to it after that.

Indeed, by the end I was thinking Douglas Adams might have had the right idea - get in, do one season, and get out.

I thought Moffat's first season and his last two seasons were his best. The first season was basically an extended Moffat episode, and it worked the same way as his stand-alone episodes, with intricate callbacks and timey-wimey tricks coming together for the finale.

But he was already stretching the limits of that form. It still worked because he was starting fresh -- new Doctor, new companions, minimal baggage from the previous season -- and so he could tell a fairly self-contained story. When he tried to pick up the threads and do it again in the second season, it was too much and the intricacies started to become an incomprehensible tangle.

It wasn't until the second year of Capaldi's run that I felt like Moffat really got the hang of writing Doctor Who in a way that was sustainable over the long haul, and by then of course he was getting ready to leave.