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The Greatest Mystery of All
May. 6th, 2013 03:26 pmSo, on another site, I'm discussing Doctor Who and story structure. And I started thinking about something that is plaguing Doctor Who these days: Expectation!
If I was to tell a group of you that I have found the best present you could ever imagine, and will be giving it to you for your birthday, you would all imagine something great. Something that you really want. Some of you might imagine approximately the same thing...maybe, a new car, or a pony. But you wouldn't imagine the same car or pony. And, worse, even though a car or a pony might be a great gift, some of you will be disappointed to get that gift. Why? Because you had imagined the most amazing gift YOU could think of...which was...different. Maybe it was, I don't know...a trip to Ireland. Or a box of chocolate. Or a backstage visit to David Tennant when he does his next play. Or a month of free babysitting.
The writers for New Who have mastered the art of exponentially increasing expectation. They don't just write good stories, they write EPICS. From Bad Wolf to "The final question: Doctor Who?" they have seeded their stories with hints and promises of greater things to come. Who is the Doctor? Do we really want to know? Or would we rather keep our expectations of his greatness? Can any reveal measure up once our expectations are raised to these heights?
The upcoming 50th Anniversary, they tell us, will be the most epic thing ever, just as Parting of the Ways, Doomsday, Journey's End and the End of Time were all the most epic thing EVER at the time they aired. It isn't that they don't deliver on their promises. It is that the promise itself is getting old. And each time it is made, a few more people are left disgruntled...carless...ponyless..without chocolates. Whatever they have to tell us about Clara or the Doctor at this point, has already been overshadowed by the expectations they've created in our minds. They might please a few of us, but most of us will be disappointed.
If I was to tell a group of you that I have found the best present you could ever imagine, and will be giving it to you for your birthday, you would all imagine something great. Something that you really want. Some of you might imagine approximately the same thing...maybe, a new car, or a pony. But you wouldn't imagine the same car or pony. And, worse, even though a car or a pony might be a great gift, some of you will be disappointed to get that gift. Why? Because you had imagined the most amazing gift YOU could think of...which was...different. Maybe it was, I don't know...a trip to Ireland. Or a box of chocolate. Or a backstage visit to David Tennant when he does his next play. Or a month of free babysitting.
The writers for New Who have mastered the art of exponentially increasing expectation. They don't just write good stories, they write EPICS. From Bad Wolf to "The final question: Doctor Who?" they have seeded their stories with hints and promises of greater things to come. Who is the Doctor? Do we really want to know? Or would we rather keep our expectations of his greatness? Can any reveal measure up once our expectations are raised to these heights?
The upcoming 50th Anniversary, they tell us, will be the most epic thing ever, just as Parting of the Ways, Doomsday, Journey's End and the End of Time were all the most epic thing EVER at the time they aired. It isn't that they don't deliver on their promises. It is that the promise itself is getting old. And each time it is made, a few more people are left disgruntled...carless...ponyless..without chocolates. Whatever they have to tell us about Clara or the Doctor at this point, has already been overshadowed by the expectations they've created in our minds. They might please a few of us, but most of us will be disappointed.