Review: Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS

[ed_rex]

The contempt of the show-runner

An insult. A slap in the face. Or should I say, another insult, another slap in the face?

What more is there to say? The whole of Steven Moffat's Doctor Who has been a long series of insults dressed up as Big Ideas, punctuated by apologies from the likes of Richard Curtis and Neil Gaiman.

But how long can we point to "Vincent and the Doctor" or "The Doctor's Wife" and tell ourselves that Steven Moffat actually cares about the cultural institution in his charge?

The truth is, we have become so used to terrible television that when the merely mediocre happens along, people like me nearly start preaching the second coming.

It's time we face the truth: Steven Moffat holds us, his audience, in utter contempt. Take as Exhibit 37, the latest mess of a program broadcast under the name of Doctor Who.

"Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS" begins with an implausible and arbitrary set-up and is propelled by a plot that works only through the unlikely stupidity of its guest characters, the even more unlikely (and dumb) decisions of its regulars and a resolution that re-uses — yet again! — one of Moffat's now tired and tiresome time-travel tropes — and which then cheats on its own rules. The BBC brain-trust ought to be ashamed to have allowed it to air.

My full review is behind this link, but be warned: I am not happy and sometimes I say so in language unfit for ears of the young and tender, or for eyes of work-mates reading over one's shoulder. Also, there are spoilers, as per normal.

Finally, if you want to suggest that I hate this show so much I shouldn't be reviewing it, you may be right. But I committed myself to seeing Series 7 through to the end, and so I will. But after that? If Steven Moffat is still in charge, I rather suspect I'll be done with the show for the duration. Those of you as sick of my opinions as I am sick of Steven Moffat's stories probably have more reason for hope than I do.

Comments

Mod Pops In

[mrs_tribble]

We are all entitled to our opinion - and thank you for being so respectful as to not flame.

I personally enjoyed that episode because it took me back to Classic Who, but this community always invites friendly discussion to compare opinions.

Have at it :)

Re: Mod Pops In

[ed_rex]

So long as people leave me old mum, my girlfriend, my teddy bear and my bicycles out of the argument, I figure it's all fair game.

That said, I am an argumentative type. When someone says "Classic Who" my first reaction is to ask, "Which year or two years?"

There were some god-awful stories to go along with the good ones in the old days too (though I suspect you and I would disagree as to which were which).

Re: Mod Pops In

[mrs_tribble]

Well, I might steal your teddy bears (because I can't ever resist the plushy cuteness) but I'm otherwise perfectly harmless :D

I'm a Pertwee baby. Don't remember a lot about him (apart from bumping into him in a pub once) but loved BakerT - just don't get me started on BakerC!

One thing I've always loved about Who is that you can never be sure what you're getting, but if you get cheese it's usually your favourite type.

Although... can we pretend that the pirate episode never happened? Because that was the worst cheese ever with mould on! :)

Re: Mod Pops In

[ed_rex]

I'm afraid my bear is as old as I am, or near enough, and "plushy" no longer applies to his cuteness. Too fragile to snuggle with is more like it.

I came to the show later than you did, then. I'm pretty sure my first series was the (T) Baker-era serial, "Robots of Death", though thanks to Ontario's public broadcaster's habit of showing things out of order, I think I got to see some late-period Sarah Jane episodes as well.

In any event, though I continued to love Star Trek and could see how cheaply-made Who was in comparison, I could also see that it was the latter whose stories were often quite a bit more compelling.

Anyway, I would love to complain about the pirate episode (which I reviewed here, if you're interested), so I'm a little surprised you were happy with the one under discussion. Much to my surprise (and a retrospective fore-head slap, "Of course! Now it all makes sense!"), they were written by the same writer.

Re: Mod Pops In

[mrs_tribble]

This is the thing; I knew that the same writer was responsible for the whole pirate debacle and so I was really pleasantly surprised! Of all possible writers that could give me anything close to Classic Who, this is not the writer I was looking for!

Please do feel free to complain about the whole Space Pirate thing! I'm off to read your review and laugh at every single point that I agree with - which I suspect will be pretty much everything you have to say :)