Sea Devils And Die: GeroniMoffat's Doctor Who In The 2010s

Yeah, I’m not sure how many inches that pendulum can swing before it’s in “that was ridiculous, two old men running and jumping all over the place” territory

I liked it for a while but by the end I felt like Moffatt thinks we are sadder to see him go than we really are

nah this isn't abt Moffat or his ego, it's the opposite: End Of Time was the most popular story in all of nu-Who, so despite it suuuuucking, Moffat follows what was RTD's crowd-pleasing set-up both times.

remember that Moffat was exhausted and wrote his intended final episodes almost three (3!!!) years ago: Heaven Sent / Hell Bent / Husbands were produced as his finale, down to the golden The End being written onscreen. then he got begged back for another year until Chinballs was ready, had to take a year to recover, but gave us the amazing Capaldi / Bill pairing... and then had to come back AGAIN to bump the regeneration and add on a Christmas special he hadn't planned on. The ending was nine damp squibs fizzling in a row, but it's not because he thought that either the audience or himself wanted more of him.

obv I've said that before, new script editor needed in my production office

did you have moff round for tea or something

hahahaha

opinions in the short para, public facts in the other

grand moff larkin’

Thanks for the behind-the-scenes sic, I feel a lot more forgiving to Moffat now. I found this whole episode really disjointed; the armistice moment wasn't earned at all, if Ypres was the main setting of the episode it could have been excellent. Capaldi's farewell rounds/farewell speech was agonizing

Back to Gold for a second, did anyone else notice the truly weird soundtrack change two-thirds of the way through when Bill asks 'why are you not regenerating' of Capaldi, the soundtrack builds with an 'action is happening' theme, then when Capaldi replies 'there has to be an end Bill', the soundtrack yanks the handbrake and begins a wistful, ain't-we-full-of-regret theme. It's really jarring and I think somebody in the editing suite was trying to make a deadline and spaced out

Glad to hear the rumours that Gold is sodding off

God I hope they aren’t just rumors

I don't think there's a been soundtrack so bad or intrusive in any recent TV show has there? I mean a lot of dull soundtracks sure but Gold is just obnoxious, always trying to make you have a rosy golden warm feeling

*there's been a

I think he brought some welcome cinematic drama to more than a few of my favorite 10th and 11th Dr stories but his style has calcified and started to really grate.

Not unlike Giacchino’s scores for Lost which were minimal, fresh and bravely weird at first but eventually turned into self-parody over time (along with the rest of that show) - talented composer, stuck in self-inflicted rut, doomed by excessively long run.

And sound editors who keep sticking him too high in the mix

Gatiss's departure at the end of this undercut by his resemblance to Tim McInnerny as Captain Darling.

saw an interview with Moffat where he bemoaned that having to come back again meant the regeneration happened at Christmas, when he was pleased at breaking the pattern previously

gold star for u tiger

for u!

I enjoyed this. I wasn’t expecting multiple callbacks to Into the Dales, though.

This was great but I'm not sure Bill being a duplicate was a very satisfying way to end her arc (though I guess that was the point). i enjoyed the big speech and even Gatiss was good, an achievement in itself.

Bingo on many Moff tropes:
Timey-wimey / location-hopping
"It's a big not a feature" / No villain
Screwball dialog - great, then overstaying its welcome
Everything gets summed up with a big meta speech
Being 20% terrible and 80% very, very good indeed
Making my partner cry more than once an episode

I think Capaldi would've got the best regeneration episode BY FAR if they'd just kept it to the end of last season as planned. But I still think Matt Smith's was the best (and underrated, except possibly by sic).

Overall I still get excited to see Moffat's name in the writing credits - he might not have bettered Blink but he definitely equalled his other RTD episodes. And he's forgiven for the last episode of Sherlock (one of the worst things I've ever seen).

All the nu-Who, available now:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/group/p06870tz

Awesome. Time to blub at Human Nature again I guess.

Brain Of Morbius is a story that showed onscreen faces of the Doctor pre-Hartnell, that have never been referred to before or since

Yeah, this is a pretty contentious claim. Also, some of them are probably Morbius's faces.

It's only contentious because nerds; it's plainly what the production team intended at the time. (As well as in-joking by including themselves.)

Turns out that it was only the production staff / freelancers (plus one guy who worked down the hall) because an open call for volunteers from BBC staff got zero responses

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D-UFtbiXkAAZbt3.jpg

Haha that’s some confusing self-and-others quoting, I thought you were disproving your own point for a minute.