That Dr. Who Episode Was Poop
December 29th, 2009
It was gratifying to see that others felt the Christmas episode of Dr. Who was . . . lacking. I know that this is a show aimed at children, but it has a large adult following, and I think that everyone, children and adults, appreciates plot pacing and structure on some subconscious level. When you set aside the bad dialog, the thin plot, the “master race” pun(!), and the grating Obama references (I wanted to punch Russel T. Davies at several of these points, not the least of which was when, in the documentary that BBC America showed afterward, he seemed to think that using Obama was particularly savvy of him) the editing left me wondering if scenes were cut severely in the editing room. Scenes just sort of ended, switching in mid stream. If they came back, I could have considered it an editing choice, to increase tension, but they would just drop what was going on and switch to something else. Did Davies develop narrative ADD?
I could forgive all of this if he hadn’t come off as so unbelievably smug in every interview I’ve seen, cackling gleefully about how good he is and how amazing we’ll all say he was. Everyone has a bad episode from time to time and it would have just been an unfortunate way to end a run on a show. Instead, I am now questioning Davies writing as a whole. Perhaps he needs to fall on his face again so that he remembers that people don’t love things just because he wrote them but rather because he wrote something good? He certainly isn’t deserving of being declared Master of geek science fiction. Of course neither, to my mind, does the infantile wish fulfillment of Mark Millar who appears on io9’s list as well. In fact, that list shows that things are looking a bit weak in the realm of science fiction.
January 2nd, 2010 at 10:59 pm
C’mon, not poop. Just a little farty.
Davies is never really the plot one anyway. He’s got the occasional good joke and then he strings together a bunch of moments. Some of them are good, some, not so much. There were a few good moments in that one, although I can’t really remember them, which is maybe telling.
I liked part two better. Really, the most gratifying part of any Doctor Who episode is when David Tennant fixes a spaceship, grins, and says something self-aggrandizing. That part was good. Also I really like Wilford or whatever his name is.
And I have to say, Matt Smith made me laugh, so that’s a good sign, right?
Also, critical rule: Never watch Doctor Who Confidential. It will make you hate every one and every thing about the show. At least that is what it nearly did to me, and I only saw twenty minutes of it. For a curative, I recommend a strong dose of Tom Baker. The Pirate Planet is a good one. Or the one with the Loch Ness Monster.
January 6th, 2010 at 3:51 am
Colin, I had no idea you’d gotten into Who enough to watch the old stuff. Is this something you had liked before that I didn’t know about? I watched the old Baker stuff on PBS, but never got into it at the time.
And yes, when I am feeling more charitable, Davies is not about the plot, he’s about the Gee Wiz, and the Deus Ex, and the sly wink, but he’s not always on his game, no one ever is. I just don’t think enough people were willing to tell him when he wasn’t on his game.