Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post

Frosstbyte · 06-14-2011, 12:39 PM

Post full of spoilers up to and including "A Good Man Goes to War." I'm not going to put an entire post behind spoiler tags, but if you haven't watched everything, don't read this.

I finally got to see "A Good Man Goes to War" and I have to say I'm a little disappointed. The "war" wasn't really very spectacular, and the twists weren't particularly twisty. And the justification for the amazing name switcheroo "THEY DON'T HAVE A WORD FOR IT LOLOLOL" was a pretty classic "Because the script said so." Lesbian katana reptile girls are awesome, though, so that's something, but I feel like Moffat is building something of a self-contained Dr. Who universe that doesn't particularly work outside of its own parameters. I guess you can argue the merits of the Davies and Moffat Dr. Whos until the end of time, but the highly episodic nature of pre-Moffat Dr. Who is that the storylines felt self-contained.

The entire Moffat universe is kind of bookended on the one side by the fact that we know River Song is already dead, even if her consciousness is preserved in the library (something which the 11th doctor never seems to even muse upon), and the fact that the doctor (or at least some future iteration of him) is permanently dead. It was pretty easy for me to imagine Tennant being the same entity as Eccleston (Rose's persistence is probably helpful in that regard), but those people felt like they operated in the same universe and grappled with the same issues. Smith's Dr. (which I happen to very much enjoy watching) just doesn't seem like he's operating in the same world. Given that we now KNOW that River Song and the Dr. have a long and personal relationship, it seems increasingly difficult to see how you take Rory and Amy out of the dynamic, though by all accounts they will be after this season since both actors have talked about being done with the series.

This post has trended a bit towards the rambling side of things, but I think I've at least made my point. I'm left to wonder if Moffat just doesn't care about the big picture Continuity of the series as compared to the little picture continuity of his time as a showrunner. I suppose if it makes for good TV in the meantime (which it by and large has), then there's no real reason to harp on it, but it does detract from the coolness of having a persistent universe with a persistent character and premise.

06-14-2011, 12:39 PM	#327 (permalink)
Frosstbyte Winter is Coming Location: The North	Post full of spoilers up to and including "A Good Man Goes to War." I'm not going to put an entire post behind spoiler tags, but if you haven't watched everything, don't read this. I finally got to see "A Good Man Goes to War" and I have to say I'm a little disappointed. The "war" wasn't really very spectacular, and the twists weren't particularly twisty. And the justification for the amazing name switcheroo "THEY DON'T HAVE A WORD FOR IT LOLOLOL" was a pretty classic "Because the script said so." Lesbian katana reptile girls are awesome, though, so that's something, but I feel like Moffat is building something of a self-contained Dr. Who universe that doesn't particularly work outside of its own parameters. I guess you can argue the merits of the Davies and Moffat Dr. Whos until the end of time, but the highly episodic nature of pre-Moffat Dr. Who is that the storylines felt self-contained. The entire Moffat universe is kind of bookended on the one side by the fact that we know River Song is already dead, even if her consciousness is preserved in the library (something which the 11th doctor never seems to even muse upon), and the fact that the doctor (or at least some future iteration of him) is permanently dead. It was pretty easy for me to imagine Tennant being the same entity as Eccleston (Rose's persistence is probably helpful in that regard), but those people felt like they operated in the same universe and grappled with the same issues. Smith's Dr. (which I happen to very much enjoy watching) just doesn't seem like he's operating in the same world. Given that we now KNOW that River Song and the Dr. have a long and personal relationship, it seems increasingly difficult to see how you take Rory and Amy out of the dynamic, though by all accounts they will be after this season since both actors have talked about being done with the series. This post has trended a bit towards the rambling side of things, but I think I've at least made my point. I'm left to wonder if Moffat just doesn't care about the big picture Continuity of the series as compared to the little picture continuity of his time as a showrunner. I suppose if it makes for good TV in the meantime (which it by and large has), then there's no real reason to harp on it, but it does detract from the coolness of having a persistent universe with a persistent character and premise. Last edited by Frosstbyte; 06-14-2011 at 12:41 PM..