Saturday 10 July 2010

The Regenerated Doctor: Twelve Episodes On. Part I

The out first series with Matt Smith and Karen Gillan is now but over, and it is fair to that I have been both amazed and disappointed. I am very surprised with how good Matt Smith has been as the Doctor and I certainly think he will be remembered as one of the big iconic Doctor's in the future. Karen Gillan's Amy Pond also works brilliantly next to Matt Smith's Doctor, with their social interaction being top notch. However, I have been very disappointed with the writing, in particular with one writer, Steven Moffat.

If you cast your minds back to my blog at the beginning of the series, you will remember that I wasted an entire paragraph saying how good Steven Moffat's writing should be and how it will be brilliant and humorous. Don't get me wrong, the episodes have been brilliant and humorous, it is just as shame those episodes were the ones not written by Moffat. I have failed to put my finger on what it is I have not liked about his writing in this series. Maybe it is because he fails to take the storylines far enough. Maybe it is because he has spent too long developing on the characters persona. Maybe my expectations were just too high.

Before I completely write him off (Budom Tshh) as the lead writer of Doctor Who, I must compliment him on the series storyline. The continuous storyline of Amy Pond and the cracks in the Universe must be one of the biggest storylines seen in Doctor Who. Throughout the series there have been continuous hints and links in each episode to the finale. It has been a pretty mind-boggling storyline for people to piece together, with everyone having a guess to what is happening and only occasionally getting odd bits right. I think that is brilliant. Keeping the audience guessing, gripped and thinking by not giving answers away easily is an idea which I have loved.

Despite that, I do still stick my point of being disappointed by his episodes. He wrote some of the classics of the previous series, such as 'The Empty Children' (from the first series, set in World War II with the classic line 'Are you my mummy?'), 'Blink' (the original episode with the Weeping Angels) and 'Silence In The Library' (the original episodes with River Song). Moffat wrote 6 episodes for this series: the opening two episodes, the two episodes with the Weeping Angels and River Song (he was obviously proud of them two ideas) and then the concluding two episodes, but that was with help. The reason why his original episodes worked may be because they were very small ideas, but now he is using similar ideas on a bigger scale.

Let's not dwell on the negatives though.

Matt Smith has been a brilliant Doctor in my opinion, and I am glad I did not write him off like all the David Tennant fans did. Even the people who were positive that he wouldn't be good and it would no longer work without Tennant seem to like him. Obviously, there are the people who are totally against him and don't think him impressive, but those people are stubborn and don't realise the concept of Doctor Who. The idea of regeneration is a brilliant plot idea, which allows the program to continue successfully, long after an actor has left to pursue pastures new.

This reincarnation of The Doctor, I feel will go down in Doctor Who history as one of the greatest, just like Tom Baker, who does seem to be iconic Doctor from the old series. With Matt Smith not having the classic sex appeal that Tennant seemed to have, which is good because people watch him for the personality of the character, and not just get lost in his deep, blue eyes... Anyway, the persona of this Doctor seems somewhat mad, which is just fantastic. Eccleston had a touch of the madness, but let's not talk about him. Smith seems very 'retro' and 'vintage', to use some of my favourite buzzwords, and these mixed with the madness,  a splash of quirkiness and a sprinkling of one-liners, create the perfect mixture for what I think would make a great Doctor.
One-liners such as:
"Oh yeah, it's an inter-dimensional, multi-form from outer space. They're all terrified of wood."
"Oh. Ok? I escaped then? Brilliant. Love it when I do that!"
"You can do loads in 12 minutes. Suck a mint, buy a sledge, have a fast bath..."
"I like the bit when someone says "It's bigger on the inside!" I always look forward to that."
"Oh that's good, fantastic that is. Twenty minutes to save the world and I have a post office... And it's shut!"
"Why does no one ever listen to me, do I just have a face that nobody listens to? Again?"
"I'm The Doctor. Well, they call me The Doctor. I don't know why. I call me The Doctor too. Still don't know why..."
If I have to compliment Steven Moffat and Matt Smith on one thing; it is the creation of this brilliant persona. He is a genuine benevolent, brainy Timelord, just like Tom Baker and Patrick Troughton.

Karen Gillan playing Amy Pond; the attractive and feisty companion for the Doctor, has been met with pretty positive criticisms. Young enough for the child viewers to be able to relate with her and find her a fun character, independent enough for the feminists among the viewing public to like her and old enough for men to drool over her short (infact, very very short) skirts. Again, there are the few people who don't quite grasp the concept of Doctor Who and think she should be setting an example by wearing layers of clothing. However, for her to appeal to the audience of the time and fit a certain 'stereotype', she matches the fashion of today.

Amy Pond has a partner called Rory, who is played by a man called Arthur Darvill, and he is another great comic character, who compliments the Doctor and Amy perfectly. Now, Rory was at risk of becoming another Mickey, Rose's Boyfriend, in that he could have been a useless and whining character. He may slightly tick them boxes, but he much more. He has infact become a main and panicle character, who is rather humorous. I like him. His character wasn't developed in the first episode and I wasn't that keen on him, but as the series went on, his character begins to unravel and became rather liked by all. In the next series, I hope we see a lot more of him and that he continues to be great.

Fashion is an odd thing. With whatever Karen Gillan wears (on or off television) being criticised by the media, and making the redhead popular, she doesn't seem to have done much wrong in their eyes. Even Matt Smith has not done bad. He has made the tweed jacket somewhat of a fashion 'must-have' this year and I'm waiting to see whether the Fez hat is going to follow suit (a very slight bad pun - geddit?). Not sure the Bowtie has made it popular, despite his persistence that "Bowties are cool!"

Right, so part 1 is done: A general synopsis of the writing, actors and their characters from this series. Like a proper blogger, I have waffled on about things I don't particularly know about, but instead what I have observed and forced my opinions onto you; the innocent reader.
In part 2 of my Doctor Who blog, I plan to delve into the plotlines and episodes of series 5 of the new, revamped Doctor Who episodes.

Oh, and anything else I think of.

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