Hello Everyone,
(Before you read this post, please
bear in mind that this is my opinion, and if you disagree, please try not to
take offense. If you feel the need to comment, please bear in mind that I will
not take kindly to bad language or anything worse. This post is not
representative of the general public, merely me and my group of friends’
opinions.)
Famed for his
re-imagining of Conan-Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes, and his complicated story-lines
in the British television programme Doctor Who, Steven Moffat has been cited as
a genius, or a madman. But which is he?
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| via:http://infinitelyfullofhope.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/steven-mofatt.jpg |
He first came
to fame as a writer with his show Press
Gang, for young adults. One paper
wrote of the first episode: “Press Gang has proved to be a series that can
transport you back to how you felt as a teenager, sharper than the world but
with as much angst as acute wit ... Never again can a show get away with
talking down to children or writing sloppily for them. Press
Gang: possibly the best show in the world.”
This fame continued throughout his career. He became pretty
well known to the younger generation again when he started writing for the TV
series Doctor Who, writing some of the creepiest episodes that the show has
ever had: The Empty Child, Silence in the Library and Blink. The Empty Child, set in 1941 during the London Blitz featured a
small child in a gas mask who was following the homeless children around,
spreading a sort of sickness that created every person it had touched in its
likeness. The child’s cry of “Are you my
mummy?” still haunts children today. Silence
in the Library featured the Vashta Nerada, a creature that swarmed in the
dark and ate human beings by infecting their shadows. Blink introduced the Weeping Angels, a statue-like creature that
couldn’t move while you were looking at it, but could move as fast as light if
you so much as blinked. Every person after watching it developed an irrational
fear of statues. At the start of the fifth series of Doctor Who, with the
introduction of Matt Smith as the new Doctor, Moffat became head writer for
Doctor Who, replacing Russell T Davies. He has written to date 26 episodes for
the show, including a Comic Relief mini-episode.
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| via:http://fc08.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2010/303/b/a/sherlock_and_the_doctor_who_by_nero749-d31ti35.jpg |
Moffat has also co-written the new Sherlock Holmes BBC series
Sherlock. A re-imagining of Conan-Doyle’s most famous work, this Sherlock
Holmes, set in modern day London, is a rude, obnoxious, high functioning
socio-path. The show is composed of 3 feature length episodes per series
starring Martin Freeman as Watson and Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock Holmes.
Each series has ended on a cliff hanger for the audience, resulting in internet
tidal wave of theories and fan-fiction.
However, there are critics of Moffat’s writing. His plots
lines have frequently become much too complicated, with not many people
following exactly what has happened. As a result, it normally seems rushed, and
not enough time for what happens to sink in. Moments that should be poignant
and tear-jerking are just not. I am of course talking about the most recent
episode of Doctor Who, where the Doctor, played by Matt Smith, regenerated into
hi next incarnation, played by Peter Capaldi. For me personally, throughout his
whole goodbye scene (which I have to say was played superbly by Matt Smith) the
one thing that struck me was the goodbye of Amy Pond (played by Karen Gillan)
where it was quite obvious that she was wearing a wig (she had previously
shaved her head for a part in the movie Guardians of the Galaxy). Now, I am not
saying that this scene wasn't sad, or well played, but there was not a proper
build-up to it, after the whole rest of the episode, there was not enough time
to comprehend what was happening.
This is not the first time that this has happened in a Doctor
Who episode written by Moffat. In the episode where River Song is revealed to
have killed ‘the Doctor’ (to understand the quotes around the Doctor, you will
need to watch the episode) too much happened in this episode that nobody was
entirely sure what was going on.
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| via: http://img1.ak.crunchyroll.com/i/spire3/aaf5516fbaa688172811174d9c938f731319597046_full.jpg |
Another problem with this episode is that after clearing up
the question of the Silence in the aforementioned episode, Moffat chose to
bring them back. Now, if you are a fan of comeback villains, then Doctor Who is
for you. As well as his long standing enmity with the Daleks, there are also
the recurrent villains like the Cybermen, the Slitheen, fellow Time Lord the
Master, and even the High Council of the Time Lords and Ladies themselves.
However, there are sometimes problems with bringing back the villains.
Generally, because they've been beaten by the Doctor before, there is a clear
expectation that they will be beaten again, so writers have to come up with new
ingenious ideas to keep them scary, and make the audience believe that they
could potentially triumph. So, there is a lot of pressure on the writer. Moffat
originally created the episode ‘Blink’ with the Weeping Angels (I mentioned
this earlier), but when he brought them back (The Time of the Angels/Flesh and
Stone), it was a well-received episode, but especially in the second episode, I
felt that he failed at keeping them scary by including some rather strange
scenes. However, I feel Moffat complicated things even more by bringing back
the Silence. ‘The Silence will fall when the question is asked: Doctor Who?’
was the quote that followed throughout this series. I felt that this had
already been dealt with thoroughly by the end of the series and did not need
rehashing. This is the same with the cracks in time that were featured. This whole
thing was way too complicated, and should have been confined to just one
series.
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| via:http://www.roundtree7.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/weeping-angel.jpg |
Gracexxx
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