Doctor Who...Midnight

[rabid1st]

Good gravy, good gravy, good gravy. You know I go on a lot about the failings of Matt and Moff, but lord what a difference it was to just sit and watch Midnight again. I was transfixed by David. To relive the depth of character that he and RTD brought to the show really reminded me of how very far it has fallen into commercial mediocrity. The Doctor talking to the drivers, jollying them along to take a peak outside. The terror everyone, including the Doctor, feels when the knocking starts. The Doctor losing his hold on the panicky humans. It was like I'd suddenly had a bite of rich real chocolate after living on carob chips for two years.

The final figures for the Lodger came in at 6.64 million. And apparently when The Pandorica Opens was screened for the press a lot of the points I've been making here were raised in a Moff question time. He was asked to defend the show as it is being called "A Children's Show" again. He was also asked why he thinks more and more people are recording the show to watch later. He turned that question over to the BBC representative...and she said she didn't care when people watched as long as they did. Of course, with a 5.9 million viewer finale, I do have to wonder if more budget cuts are on the way.

Comments

[wickedgillie.livejournal.com]

I've said this before, but it bears repeating: I am very glad Midnight followed SitL/FotD. Midnight is the kind of companion-light thriller that Moffat is supposed to excel at. RTD out-moffed Moff. It was everything that SitL/FotD was not. And even though we knew that David wasn't going anywhere just yet, I would be hard-pressed to find a viewer that didn't feel true jeopardy and fear for Ten in Midnight. It was Bafta-worthy. That range of acting is why David is going to have a career well-beyond Doctor Who (of course he had one before, but you know what I mean.) It's still my absolute favourite single episode of Doctor Who ever.

[rabid1st.livejournal.com]

You know...it was really the little things that astound me with David in this recent viewing. I usually am concerning myself with some story component when I go check a scene...but this time I was just trying to have him in my head again. And it was so rich and powerful when compared to the light fare we have now.

The way that he was just leaning on the seats of the pilots. I've mentioned that Matt doesn't have the gravitas...and that was where you could see it. Or earlier, as he's being charming to the hostess and she is ignoring him...there is still a sense that he is this very old being. He seems to be actually thinking all the time. I think it is because David is very clever and very invested in the character. Though Matt has mentioned having no help with the character as he developed it...asking his dad. So, it is partly the crew that he's working with that handicaps him.

I do know that lots of people would rather not be so connected to the Doctor, but I loved how David draws me in and makes me feel the texture of the emotions in that episode. As for outMoffing the Moff, it was very scary at the time. But you know, I think, Moff would have explained the creature...because he wouldn't want us to use our imagination, nor would he want it to be a show about emotions. I think it takes a more mature writer to do that Twilight Zone thing and leave us always wondering.

Rae

[princessblue791.livejournal.com]

I have to admit, I am a bit bored with Moff. He colors in the lines and stays true to the way Who used to be. RTD didn't care what the rules were and colored things however the hell he liked. He may have given us a crudey ending, but at least I wasn't bored. He spun the entire Who universe off it's axis. The Doctor fell in love which is something that was never allowed in the Whoverse. I guess it helped that RTD was gay, because he wasn't going to have anyone tell him someone wasn't allowed to love.
RTD gave us characters that we loved so much, that we became angry when he took them away.
He also gave us scandel. He showed us the R-rated part of the Whoverse through Torchwood.
I love Moff, don't get me wrong, but joyful romps just don't work for me as well. I'll still watch when I get the chance, because I do like some nonsense to some degree and I would like to see if I'm right about River. I just think I don't like them as much as I used to. Perhaps I have become more jaded in my old age.

[dharkapparition.livejournal.com]

Just finished watching The Pandorica and I'm disappointingly underwhelmed.

I'm just not 'getting it' this series and I was all for giving the new Doctor a chance. Matt is interesting, but the writing is leaving me with a great case of the 'mehs'.

[sensiblecat.livejournal.com]

What have the US viewing figures been like?

[rabid1st.livejournal.com]

Good question. I know that it has been downloaded well on Ipod! It has several of the top ten spots.

But I don't find any mention of it since it broke the record with The Eleventh Hour at 1.2 million. Again, I think that was a set up coming out of the push with Ten's final episodes. They aired those quickly for us...and I think we managed to get The Eleventh Hour within the same week...which makes a HUGE difference. But 1.2 million won't impress anyone in American television. We expect the 10 million for it to count as a success. Though cable channels do have a different benchmark...and 3 million would be making waves.

Rae

[rabid1st.livejournal.com]

It is mechanical. And the poor actors are like muppets for the most part. I think Matt impresses me most either because he is given more attention than Amy in the scripts...or just because he's doing more with the little he has. I don't particularly recall any stellar moments for him...the few that David would have milked for all they were worth, fell very flat with him. Things like Amy learning Rory was alive. Ten would have felt it for her if she couldn't remember. But Eleven is busy tinkering and talking too fast and simply fails to connect with her or me. Yes, he does give a scant few seconds of lip service to it, but it is as if he's distracted. And I can't help just feeling that's a failure of Eleven. Because in the canon of Doctor Who we have to have some explanation for Ten, at least. I often feel it is Nine and Ten that are the aberrations though as Eleven is very much Seven's successor.

[rabid1st.livejournal.com]

Okay, I even went to Gallifreybase and BBC America Forums to find out...and I can't find it. Gallifreybase either hasn't updated since the premiere or has changed their tags for it. I think that it could be that people tuned in for David's last four...thought they would take a chance and "love the new Doctor" but found they didn't like him as much as we old-time fans did.

I did find a very interesting post from someone stating that she and her husband simply didn't find the show as compelling or well done as it had been with RTD and she was wondering if they could have a civil discussion of it, because she wondered if it was just her feeling that way or if that was why the show was doing poorly in the ratings. She said she'd asked at other sites but she'd been attacked for saying she liked RTD better. She came in with RTD at episode one and had never watched the show before...and her exact complaint was "poor writing" because "I guess I'm used to feeling more for the Doctor and his companion."

Rae
:raises her eyebrows:

[dharkapparition.livejournal.com]

Here's where my ignorance of Whoverse is brought into the light.

I remember Tom Baker (#5?) and vaguely remember The blonde after him (mostly because of the actor's appearance in All Creatures Great and Small). I only got to watch Dr Who growing up when my dad decided he'd like to watch a little British Sci-Fi.

My limited experience would tend to agree with you on the aberration opinion though. And I LOVED Nine and Ten, but they were definitely OOC from the basic Doctor character I think

[rabid1st.livejournal.com]

Actually, not so much OOC as expanded. We simply didn't address his emotions in the past...and then we did and they were raw and new to him and us. This is one of the many reasons why I called for a completion to the Rose arc with a happy for her lifetime.

Because in a lifetime as vast and varied as the Doctor's...surely there is a place for one true love...sadly, all RTD managed to do was create the hunger for completion. This means that the Doctor is forever incomplete as a character. Rose cannot be put in the past and will not be put there by her fans, simply because nobody is ever going to talk about the Doctor's emotions again. Had it been something akin to the Time War...well...then...not talking about it would be fine...that's where RTD and/or the BBC made their fatal error...for whatever reason. They forgot that they could simply go away for a time and then come back and start over with NEW memories, which need not be discussed in any particular detail. It is very odd for me...that RTD forgot that.

Rae

[asahifirsa.livejournal.com]

I haven't been so uninterested in a new Who finale ever. I think it's true, Moff turned DW in a kid's show. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it just seems to silly now. The Cyberman tentacles? They were genuinely scary at one point. Same with the Daleks. Everyone moving back scared of the Doctor??? When did that ever scare them? I just don't get it anymore.

[asahifirsa.livejournal.com]

There are actually quite a few discussions about this on GB, maybe that's also the one that I was reading? The one I saw had quite a few very sensible replies to it mixed under all the "Get over it, RTD is gone" messages. Also some very good ones from people who really love the new series. Still reading about other people feeling the same didn't really help me in enjoying it more.

The best episode so far was the one with Vincent. That one genuinely made me cry.

[rabid1st.livejournal.com]

Well, it is all hyperbole now, that's the thing. The show is living on its set pieces, not bothering to create anything new or refreshing. One thing, in all the whining about Russell that old Who people don't take into account (and, in fact, Russell himself failed to take this into account in the end) is that New Who was so great because it broke new ground and changed the formula for the better.

The Doctor was cut off from any Time Lord help. He was emotional. He was lonely. He was unhappy. He fell in love with Rose. He grew angry and despaired when she left him. He was shown to be uninterested in people, unable to really understand them with Martha. And then he was able to apply what he'd learned to Donna and find a real friend. All of that was character growth. And then...instead of admitting that he truly needed Rose...and giving in to his need. He was reset for Moff. And Moff simply took the reset and went back to children's show as usual.

Original thinking went out the window with the four specials. We were down to ranting and waiting for the end. And then, we had one more burst of original thinking from RTD...evil Time Lords. It was, like all of his thinking, perfectly plausible. But he had the guts to do it. Moff does not have the inspiration to do this. Moff is a technician. Which is why I do believe that today's episode will explain all of the cracks and River and what's wrong with Amy. But I don't think it will be talked about until next season...unless it ends in a cliffhanger...which is traditional, so very likely.

Rae

[rabid1st.livejournal.com]

Yes, and that was because of Tony Curran as Vincent*. That's what bugged me. Even though I could see that the writer was trying to make Amy more like Rose or even Donna by having her care a little for him. Amy is such a shallow, self-centered character that it was more like she didn't want to see him cry and that's why she got all those flowers. It was more like a cute child doing something than a woman feeling for a fellow being.

And the Doctor seemed to simply recoil from the whole idea. Much as he later recoils from Amy and Rory and their issues. There was no attempt on his part to really understand the feelings, only an awareness that something awkward might happen. And then when it did...it was so very shallow and meaningless that there was no way I could cry over any of it.

Rae
*Vote Tony as the next Doctor.