With Matt Smith leaving Doctor Who, Oliver Davis argues that the show needs another change…
‘The Time of the Doctor’ had a rather tough act to follow. The 50th anniversary episode was the closest we’ll ever get to a Doctor Who movie (sorry, Paul McGann), with the fate of Gallifrey, multiple faces from the past and the forehead of the future. The Christmas special was always going to feel like its epilogue. But there was another issue with that episode, one that has been kept in plain sight for the last few series. Steven Moffat.
Steven Moffat has been with Doctor Who since Russell T. Davis regenerated the show back in 2005. He wrote two episodes in that first season, the World War II virus double bill of ‘The Empty Child’ and ‘The Doctor Dances,’ which were arguably the series’ scariest tale. It even won the 2006 Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form.
He went on to write exemplary episodes in the seasons that followed. ‘The Girl in the Fireplace’ in series 2, ‘Blink’ in series 3 (which was recently voted the second-best Doctor Who episode ever), and the ‘Silence in the Library’/’Forest of the Dead’ two-parter in series 4.
In 2010, Moffat became Doctor Who’s head writer and executive producer after Russell T. Davies stepped down. It’s odd to think that Moffat only wrote five full episodes prior to this, as though there should be more. He was always the writer of whom fans spoke most highly. He introduced both River Song, the Doctor’s wife, and the weeping angels into the show’s mythology. In small doses, he was magnificent. But what would he do with the keys to the TARDIS?
After the long reins of both Davies and the then-Doctor David Tennant, Moffat and the Eleventh Doctor, Matt Smith, provided a new energy to the series. Smith’s take on the character was wonderfully quirky and Moffat introduced a darkness to the show, scaring the older viewer’s inner-child (or just plain ‘scaring’ if you’re below 12) with cracks in walls or wardrobes left ajar at night. Personally, this series is my favourite of the new ‘Whos.‘ ‘The Christmas Carol’ special later that year was also superb. But then, like Amelia Pond’s bedroom wall, the gaps began to emerge. Literally.
Apart from the strange period between 2008 and 2010, where Russell T. Davies clung to Doctor Who for four one-hour shows and a New Year’s special, the television broadcast of each year was clearly defined. There would be an uninterrupted weekly series of 13 episodes from late-March to early-July, then a Christmas one-off. This was the same for Moffat’s first series in charge, until he requested series 6 to air as two parts.
“By splitting the series Moffat plans to give viewers one of the most exciting Doctor Who cliffhangers and plot twists ever, leaving them waiting, on the edge of their seats, until the Autumn to find out what happens.”
And so this came to pass for the next two years. Season 6 had almost a two month gap between episodes seven and eight, while season 7 was off screens for half a year between episodes five and six. Moffat’s writing style is highly complex, constantly back-referencing previous stories in either throwaway gags or important plot points. It’s a welcome trait for fans of the show, but the broadcast breaks either magnified the slightest plot holes, or, even worse, diffused weeks of slowly escalating tension.
In the age of the box set, it could be argued that this matters not, as whole series can now be devoured in hungover weekends, negating a show’s original transmission schedule. Yet in having mid-series breaks, the narrative arc stretching across the 13-or-so episodes becomes contorted, peaking and sagging in the the wrong places.
There is also the issue of Moffat’s writing style. Initially, the burst of energy was outstanding, with each episode containing six or seven high concept plot devices, like an old Jack Kirby comic. There would be more brilliantly original ideas in a Steven Moffat Doctor Who episode than a whole season of Lost. ‘Blink,’ for instance, is always (rightly) remembered for the introduction of the weeping angels, but who recalls the DVD Easter Egg sub-plot? It was ingeniously tightly scripted.
Since season 5, however, the magnitude of concepts has become tiresome. Most are given barely any time to develop, and some are unfairly dismissed shortly after being set up. They feel rushed, and, to take us full circle, none more so than in ‘The Time of the Doctor’.
There is the idea of an entire town where you can only tell the truth, or the Church of the Mainframe, who are revealed as the original creators of the Silence. There’s the Doctor as a Father Christmas-style figure, or the clothes hologram projections. None are strong enough to carry an episode entire, but they are certainly inspiring enough to warrant more than a few lines and a bit of plot development.
They are expositioned (new word) at a pace that goes beyond exciting. It’s too fast. It’s one thing rewatching episodes out of fear for missing a few back-references and Easter Eggs, but to go back because of a lack of understanding…that’s poor storytelling.
This approach of ‘cramming’ episodes is also affecting the show’s characters. The opening third of ‘The Time of the Doctor’ was a roll call of Moffat’s favourite foes, cheapening each in a supplementary role. The once terrifying Moffat-created weeping angels are relegated to a brief cameo. His presence is overbearing on the show.
Out of the 43 episodes that have aired since Moffat became Doctor Who’s showrunner, he has written 20 of them. The man closest to this during his run is his fellow Sherlock scribe Mark Gatiss (4). As well as overseeing each script, Moffat is responsible for nearly half of Doctor Who’s episodes since 2010. The current incarnation has been very much his vision, and it is in danger of becoming tiresome.
Maybe the fatigue can be blamed on Matt Smith’s particular take on the Doctor, as the character had nowhere else to go. That’s certainly what happened to Tennant. Perhaps Peter Capaldi will inject new life into Moffat’s run. Or maybe Doctor Who’s head writers are as exhaustible as the actors that play its titular character.
The eighth series will be broadcast uninterrupted for 13 weeks this Autumn, the first time in three years. The new blood will not just be in Capaldi, but in Kill List director Ben Wheatley also, who will helm the first two episodes. They will both be written by Steven Moffat.
Hopefully, and quite fittingly for the show in question, he’ll give the brilliant ideas he invents for each episode just a tad more time.
Oliver Davis
Originally published December 31, 2013. Updated April 11, 2018.
