Doctor Who I'm sure this will recieve a lot of negative feedback, but... the nghề viết văn must get better.

personoflolol posted on Dec 18, 2013 at 10:43PM
It's no secret that the writing quality for Doctor Who has declined in recent years. It wasn't exactly on masterful level to begin with, but now the average episode quality is barely above average if you ask me.
While series 5, Steven Moffat's first season, was consistently strong with many great TV episodes, series 6 was a mixed bag and series 7 was, lets be honest, rather mediocre.
It seems that the inevitable effect of the fanbase lowering their expectations out of desperation for satisfaction has occurred as well. It occurs to me that Who fans are accepting mediocrity as if its great. Recent episodes Cold War and Hide for Doctor Who series 7 are perfect examples of this. While they are both decent, solid episodes, the praise for them when they first came out were overwhelmingly generous. People were acting as if they were some of the best Dr Who stories ever.
Guys, really? They are good stories but that's all. They were not some of the best stories in the show's history. Overall, I wouldn't consider any stories from series 7 to be of a truly brilliant quality. Hardly any of them were above average/fairly good to be honest. Some episodes, such as Asylum of the Daleks (seriously overrated) and the Angels take Manhattan were mildly entertaining but lacked any sort of narrative sense. Stories such as Hide (to some extent) and Journey to the Centre of the Tardis were just uninteresting for the most part with a few moments of genuine excitement here and there. Meanwhile, stories such as Nightmare in Silver, while not bad, were nevertheless disappointing and could have been so much better.
Now I can understand that Steven Moffat and his fellow writers have a lot on their plates and I really can sympathise, or at least I could if it wasn't for the fact that it is clear Moffat and his buddies are not even trying that hard to create good television.
That seems harsh, but let me justify my point. Steven Moffat is the lead writer of 2 popular British TV shows, and for one of them, even though it doesn't have that many episodes to it, Moffat and his friends Stephen Thompson and Mark Gatiss pour their hearts and souls into the script writing for it. They supply one of the shows with intricate, interesting and dramatic narratives and complex, interesting, multi dimensional main characters, as well as well constructed plot twists and great dialogue. I bet you can guess which one of Moffat's shows I am referring to at this time...
Yes, Sherlock. The brilliantly written TV series written by Moffat, Mark and Stephen Thompson. Yet, despite all 3 of them providing great writing and thus great television in the form of Sherlock, every year they keep lowering their game when it comes to Dr Who. So these 3 guys, who year after year have written intricate, intelligent, masterful stories for Sherlock, have constantly dropped the ball when it came to the awesome Sci-Fi series with a 50 year legacy and a HUGE fanbase which loves the franchise to bits. WTF?!
Why is it that these guys can only make the effort to provide qualitative output for one of their two shows? Why is it that Whovians have to suffer because Moffat and his friends cannot bother to put half the effort into writing Dr Who that they do when writing for Sherlock?
And the problem hasn't even started with Moffat. In 2009, Russell T Davies, the previous showrunner, was guilty of doing exactly the same thing. In 2009, he gave us Torchwood, Children of Earth, one of the finest Sci-fi drama series ever put on TV. That same year he gave us 3 Dr Who specials. Two of them were average at best, and only one of them was great. (which was the Waters of Mars, which wasn't even entirely Davies' work as it was co written as opposed to the other specials)
So both show runners of the revived series, as well as many other writers for the show, are all guilty of treating the immensely popular Dr Who as a second rate product with a low priority of success. Seriously, why is it that the writers do so much better with every other project they work on that isn't Dr Who? Now I know the series is hard to write for multiple reasons, but even still, it can be done. Steven Moffat for instance has proven that many times with stories such as The Empty Child, Blink and The Big Bang under his belt. Its not like these guys are incapable of giving us masterfully developed Dr Who stories... so why are they constantly dropping the ball these days?
What about recently, such as when Mark Gatiss wrote An Adventure in Space and Time? That documentary was a brilliant piece of work the man delivered, I can't deny that. Yet at the same time, it annoys me to no end that this is the best piece of Dr Who related media Mark has ever written. That's right, one little documentary which served as a subsidiary product to the 50th anniversary special was given more effort, focus and dedication from one of Dr Who's most prominent writers than any of his actual Dr Who stories have been given in the last 8 years. Why is it that Mark did better with a nostalgic documentary than he did with any of his actual Dr Who episodes?
Dr Who documentaries should not be of a higher priority than Dr Who itself, no matter how great they might be. While I think all these other works of Moffat, Gatiss and the other writers are generally really great pieces of TV, I cannot fully appreciate them due to the fact that I know these things are compromising Moffat's dedication to Dr Who, one of my all time favourite TV shows. While I loved Children of Earth and Sherlock, I don't see why their existence should prevent Dr Who from being equally as awesome.
So what is the best solution? The writers should at least try if not succeed to deliver a quality of Dr Who episodes that are just as good as Children of Earth, or an episode of Sherlock, or any Dr Who based documentary. If that really is too much work for them, which I can understand, then I strongly suggest Moffat and pals make a decision over what they want to do. Solely focus on Dr Who or focus on other projects and allow someone else a little more dedicated to take over?
I don't want to go on a long rant against Steven Moffat as I really like some of his previous works, and even some of his current ones. But regardless, it needs to be said that something needs to be done regarding the currently declining quality of Dr Who. The show cannot continue to keep getting worse like this. The show and its fans (as whiney as some of them can be) deserve better, especially with the long waits the showrunner is making them go through for new episodes. (Seriously series 8 doesn't begin until late 2014. Well Steven, you can at least make this long wait worth while by using the extra time you have given yourself into upgrading the quality of Dr Who, because that is an essential task right now)
What do you think? Do you think the writing is getting worse and does it need to be improved? Do you have any solutions for the current dilemma? Let me know your thoughts...
last edited on Dec 18, 2013 at 11:02PM

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hơn một năm qua ktichenor said…
worried
I don't think your wrong. He's a good writer but sometimes I wonder if he was meant to be the head writer. Maybe he could be better if he had a co-head writer. I mean he has a co-writing partner for Sherlock and I adore that series. I think it has brilliant writing. I don't think the show's getting worse I think it's gotten a bit confusing and I think Moffat likes to write by his own rules as well as break them which probably irks some fans. I still love the show and with every season and particularly since a new Doctor is coming I try to remain optimistic for the story plots to improve cause it's a chance to start fresh. I just hope whatever he has planned for the show's future works. Fingers crossed!
hơn một năm qua personoflolol said…
Optimism is an admirable trait to have under the circumstances. I can relate as I too have tried to remain positive in regards to the recent seasons. Its only now that I'm starting to get a little too frustrated.
Despite all my criticisms of season 7 above, I didn't hate it or anything, I was just disappointed because the stories could have been so much better.
The odd thing is that Moffat is a great writer and has proven that on numerous occasions, but the scripts he has written in the last 2 years (except the 50th anniversary and season 7 finale) have been lacking in the masterful storytelling quality he is known so well for providing. My theory is that he has taken up too much work at once and his output as a result has suffered.
I too hope the show's future works well as the show is in serious need for an upgrade.
hơn một năm qua nowand4ever said…
I actually agree. Moffat is an awesome writer but some episodes are lacking in quality like more interesting stories. I liked the stories that Moffat has written in past seasons such as Silence in The Library was one of his great ones. I enjoyed Davies writing better.
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hơn một năm qua KathrynJaneway said…
I wish Davies and Moffat would merge into one...
hơn một năm qua personoflolol said…
It appears that my argument has only been further emphasised by the recent releases by that of Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss.

X mas day: We get the Time of the Doctor. A 'meh' story with entertaining moments but many plot holes, continuity errors and over the top scenes.

New Years day: We get the Empty Hearse. A few minor hiccups here and there but overall a great Sherlock story with intricate, well thought out writing and clearly successful storytelling.

While the writers seemingly don't care whether or not Doctor Who dies, at least they have put in the effort to ensure that #SherlockLives

At least it is refreshing to know that Steven Moffat and friends actually care about one of their TV shows.
hơn một năm qua DW_girl said…
hmmm
I agree to some extent with you, personoflolol. The episode quality since series 6 have obviously declined, and I believe that is because Moffat wanted to impress us with heavy story arcs. These, however, are always cleared up in an unsatisfactory way. Sometimes I feel like all sorts of randomness is being thrown at us in his episodes, and my mind often cannot comprehend it all, and then when i found out that loads of fans have identified plot holes, I'm even more angrier! It cannot be denied though that Moffat has more ambitious ideas and a better imagination than RTD, but I think we are in serious need of a brand new writer. Because at the moment, I am afraid to say that Sherlock is simply much more enjoyable to watch than what is supposed to be my favourite show of all time...
hơn một năm qua personoflolol said…
DW_girl, I too can agree with you on everything you just said! That was more or less exactly what I was thinking.
Moffat's once brilliantly ambitious imagination allowed him to create masterpieces of Television such as The Empty Child, Blink, Silence in the library, and several others.
I think Steven went through a period (From Lets kill Hitler to The Snowmen) when he just realised his writing and stories were becoming a little too complex and ambitious even for him to handle effectively, and instead of at least trying to do the very best with what he had, he just dropped the ball because he thought there was no other way of handling the situation. this was a seriously bad move on his part.
I do think he is at least trying with his more recent scripts though, such as the 50th and the recent X mas special, except he has got himself and the show in such a mess that he couldn't possibly hope to tie up all the loose plot holes in an efficient way while also telling a great story. (Which is why The Time of the Doctor failed in many aspects, Steve took on a task that no writer could achieve)
I think Moffat does have, and always did have the potential to be a great showrunner and create great story arcs, and the narrative of series 5 was proof of this. It's just that he seems to have got himself into serious trouble as far as his writing is concerned, and doesn't have the sense to react to the problem accordingly.
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hơn một năm qua DW_girl said…
I agree with you completely there. Whilst his episodes are enjoyable to watch, they are way too complex. The Time of the Doctor, however, was kind of ruined because Moffat tried to do too much in one hour episode, meaning there was little to no story whatsoever.
hơn một năm qua ktichenor said…
I agree with everything that's been said but also in The Time of the Doctor I don't recall a full conclusion except that the Doctor lived. I feel like I was still left hanging after the episode cause' there were so many things left unresolved. But I've notice this pattern where it's like he overlooks conclusions in some of his episodes and I feel that's affecting the writing as well. A lot of his stories are good but sometimes so many things are going on that while he does have an ending but it's like everything else that's happened was left unexplained or it's continued till later and when it is concluded there's still more questions than answers and it's gets confusing. I think his episodes are better when there easy to follow and focused. I agree that Moffat does have potential but sometimes I wonder if he's ready to be head writer yet or maybe he needs a co-writer alongside him.
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hơn một năm qua purplesnitch said…
That is an OPINION not a 'not secret'.