Tuesday, July 1, 2014

Doctor Who Showrunner Grudge Match: Russell T. Davies vs. Steven Moffat

 
Okay, not really.  This isn’t about picking favorites (though I do have my preferences;) it’s about looking at the two eras of new Who.  Both showrunners have strengths and weaknesses that often seem to be the opposites of the other.  The following are my ramblings re:  RTD and Moffat.
 
Plotty stuff first.  For big episodes, RTD is fond of Giant! Alien! Invasions! with multiple newscasts and Cybermen on the Eiffel Tower.  Each of his seasons has at least one highly visible, modern-day global disaster that gets harder and harder to top – before you know it, there are forty bazillions Daleks trying to destroy the universe, and the Doctor’s victories feel less credible.  Also, it’s absurdly paired with humanity’s continued insistence that aliens aren’t real.  I mean, seriously?  Moffat doesn’t go much for the Breaking News stories.  His present-day episodes are fewer and tend to be smaller-scale – even if the threats are massive, they’re usually thwarted before more than a handful of humans know of them.  Most further-reaching dangers are in timelines that end up getting rewritten.  Therein, though, lies Moffat’s catnip.  He loves a good timey-wimey plot, and while they can be cool (I was so impressed the first time I saw “Blink,”) the returns quickly diminish.  It’s hard to get invested in the stakes when big stuff just gets rewritten, and so much timeline-crossing can feel like cheating.  Most of all, it just gets old.  I like causal time loops as much as the next person, but after the sixth or seventh “I know what to do because I already saw my future self do it!” resolution, you start craving a different trick.
 
Another big component is the emotional punch.  RTD’s era is very emotional; there’s a lot of investment in the Doctor-companion relationships, and both Nine and Ten have a lot of Time War trauma to work through.  People die, important things are lost, and actions have lingering effects.  By contrast, Moffat’s era can feel more flippant.  Major life-changing events happen, but life doesn’t really change.  Take Amy and Rory’s series 6 arc – severe crap goes down, but after maybe one episode, the emotional resonance is ignored.  That’s not to say that Moffat doesn’t do emotion.  A lot gets glossed over, but when he does go for emotional impact, it’s often successful.  I think of Eleven’s goodbye to young Amelia at the end of series 5, or the fantastic “The Girl Who Waited.”  What’s more, his emotional moments rarely tip into overwrought.  Not always (“The Angels Take Manhattan,” anyone?,) but not nearly as often as RTD’s – Ten especially can be soooooo emo.  Honestly, so much weeping and gnashing of teeth.
 
Finally, there’s the companions.  Not gonna lie – this one’s easy for me.  I adore Rose, Martha, and Donna.  Each has certain companion traits in common, like curiosity, bravery, and kindness, but there’s also a subtle specificity to each one.  All three grow during their time with the Doctor, and their narratives are at least as important as his.  These are women who step feet-first into the universe and realize just how much they’re capable of.  To a lesser extent, this also applies to short-term companions like Jack and Mickey.  With Moffat, it seems that character often comes secondary to plot.  Amy and Clara are introduced as mysteries for the Doctor to solve, and at the end of Amy’s first season and Clara’s half-season, I didn’t have a good handle on who they were as people.  Amy improves as she goes on, and I’m hoping Clara will do the same, but Amy still ranks behind all of RTD’s major companions for me.  Despite great acting, Amy feels less developed than her predecessors and gets fewer opportunities to shine.  (The mere fact that Amy and Clara are regularly referred to as girls rather than women is problematic.)  Rory fares a little better, but he’s such a different sort of companion that he sometimes doesn’t feel like one at all.

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