Steven Moffat is a Genius! - Doctor Who 7x13 "The Name of the Doctor"

You gotta give that to Steven Moffat - that man's a genius! Changing the entire canon of 50 years of television within one 45 minutes episode. Not many writers would have been capable to do that! And I think it deserves a round of applause and a review:


Doctor Who 7x13 The Name of the Doctor

I have to say, I absolutely ADORED the opening sequence. I loved how ALL THE DOCTORS were in there, the CLASSIC DOCTORS, in COLOUR (when two of them did never even exist in colour!). The editing team did a really great job on that, and I loved seeing situations from Classic Who episodes. *sigh* My Doctors. And Clara's outfits in each of the times were really cute, too. (Yeah, I'm still a girl, I like to look at pretty clothes!)
And Clara is floating on a leaf? All I could think of was: "I'm a leaf on the wind. Watch how I soar."  - Sorry, but how could it not remind me of Firefly/Serenity? Oh Wash *cries* And it got me thinking...
[Caution: major crack ensuing] First of all: No wonder Clara is dying all the time - we know that being a leaf on the wind basically kills you. Look at Wash. And then I thought: What if Wash - who couldn't explain what it means but was muttering this sentence like a mantra - what if Wash was a future incarnation of the Doctor, his last incarnation, and deep in his subconscious he still remembered Clara and connected her to leafs, and he knew he was gonna die this time, and remembered Clara always saving him, and that's why he talked about leafs on the wind shortly before he died. I know it's completely ridiculous, but I also kind of like the idea.
Uhm... on with the schedule:
One the one hand, Clara being present in all the Doctor's timelines made me happy, because we got to see all the Classic Doctors and some extremely good editing. But I also hated the way it was done. Because now, it seems as if Clara was the most important companion of all of them, because she was there ALL THE TIME, saving the Doctor over and over again. It just implies that without Clara, the Doctor would never have survived his first incarnation. Hell, he would never even have picked his TARDIS - which is basically THE PREMISE for everything that ever happened on Doctor Who! And not only that, in Neil Gaiman's beautiful "The Doctor's Wife" we learned that, in fact, it wasn't the Doctor who stole the TARDIS, but the TARDIS who chose to appeal to this Doctor, so she could steal him! Which was a wonderful idea that is now spoiled by Clara telling the Doctor to take this particular TARDIS.
And thus, Steven Moffat managed to change 50 years of DW history in just one episode. And I did mean it when I said that this made him a genius. Because now, the entire show is changed by him. He literally managed to influence the past 50 years. To infiltrate. With HIS idea. HIS plot. HIS companion. I don't think any other writer of television would have ever been able to conduct such an idea. I also don't think that many other writers would have had the sheer arrogance to do so. 'Cause that what it is. Arrogance. Major arrogance on Steven Moffat's part. And it might have been a genius move, but that doesn't mean I like it. In fact, I hate it. I hate the fact that Moffat always has to make everything about himself. And his stint as a show runner. And that he tries to imply that the companions he created were in any way more important than the companions before them. Because they're not. They're just NOT! Each and every companion on this show was important. They all saved the Doctor. They all shaped the Doctor. They made him who he is now! And that's why everyone has their own favourite companion. Because no companion was better or more important than any other. And Steven Moffat already tried to undermine this when he made series 6 all about the Ponds and River Song and made River Song the Doctor's wife. But that was only one timeline. And now he messed with ALL OF THE DOCTORS' TIMELINES! I mean, I like Clara. I think she's cute and funny and awesome and I enjoy watching her interact with the Doctor. She's his impossible girl. But I really don't want her to be the Doctor's most important girl. Because it's not right.

Speaking of companions:

I always enjoy seeing the Paternoster Gang back. I like Vastra, Jenny and Strax.  They should get their own mini-spinoff series in the manner of "Pond Life". That would be fun. I really loved their role in "The Snowmen" and "The Crimson Horror", but to be honest, I'm not quite sure as to their particular purpose in "The Name of the Doctor". Alright, Vastra had to call in that conference during which River latched on to Clara's mind, Jenny had to die and Strax had to bring her back to life and I suppose they were supposed to illustrate the consequences of the Doctor's death (with Jenny being dead and Strax seeing Vastra as an enemy), but when the Doctor was dying (over and over again) and even before, when he told them to keep the Great Intelligence from jumping into his scar tissue and messing with his past, they were perfectly useless. They DID ABSOLUTELY NOTHING! Just stood and watched. But we've seen them fight before. We know how capable they are! Why would they just stand there now?! It makes absolutely no sense. And I suppose one could have solved the River-Clara connection in some other way.
Jenny's death, even if not really needed for the overall plot, made me realise another thing I really dislike about Moffat's writing: Death doesn't mean anything anymore. Moffat kills of characters all the time: Rory, Clara, Jenny - even River to some extent - but in the end they're always still alive. There's no consequences to dying anymore. So, if a character dies, you don't even feel sad or emotional about it anymore, because by now, you just expect them to be back and perfectly alright at some point.

But at least we seem to be done with River Song now...? At least it looks that way. And I really really hope so. Yeah, I'm still not too fond of her. In fact, to me, River Song is one of the most annoying to ever appear on Doctor Who. A huge part of that has to do with Steven Moffat's writing and her characterization (another, smaller part has to do with Ms. Alex Kingston's acting). She was alright when she first appeared in series 4, but when Moffat kept on bringing her back again and again - having the Doctor marry her, no less - it just got too much. Partly because, as mentioned above, I hate this "this companion is more important than the others" stuff. I also really disliked the whole story surrounding her existence - being the daughter of Amy and Rory, conceived in the TARDIS, manipulated into killing the Doctor... I'm pretty sure I've already ranted about this plenty of times before.
Also, River's character really makes me dislike the Doctor at times. And we're not supposed to dislike the Doctor. At least, I DON'T WANT TO HAVE TO dislike the Doctor. First of all: The Doctor used to be all about not using violence. He carries a SONIC SCREWDRIVER, not a SONIC BLASTER/ weapon. In "The Doctor Dances" (written by none other than Steven Moffat, but he must have forgotten that) the Doctor talks about a weapons factory that he destroyed and now there's a banana grove there. Because he doesn't like weapons. He likes bananas. Bananas are good. But somehow, as soon as River is concerned, he has no qualms about her using weapons and violence all the time. He even flirted with her while she was using her weapon. He doesn't even seem to care anymore. That's just wrong. And there's something else. He married her. He refers to her as his wife. And then... he acts really inconsistently towards her. Sometimes they kiss and he cares about her and is all choked up because he knows she's gonna die and he gets all emotional and acts as if he might really be in love with her. Other times, he behaves like a complete jerk. In "The Angels Take Manhattan" he just lets her break her wrist. He yells at her on so many occasions and gets mad at her even though she's not even at fault. And he doesn't even care when she's not around. As mentioned several times in this episode alone, he just leaves her behind without even bothering. She's his wife and he didn't even tell Clara she's a woman (btw. I loved Strax's dislike of River and Clara's sass towards her in the conference scene). One could argue that - as the Doctor pointed out to River - it just hurts too much for him to remember her or acknowledge her presence (how does that even work and don't make it into some philosophical "the people you love will never leave you" shit). Well, he doesn't really talk about any of his lost companions, at least not a lot - with Rose seemingly being the exception because he couldn't stop mentioning her to Martha (which was kind of douche-y and inconsiderate too, to think of it). So, does that mean they're all there with him all the time and he just ignores it? Or is River "special" in this regard too?
In case you were wondering: I disliked the kissing-goodbye scene a lot. Maybe I just don't want to be reminded of the Doctor's marriage. Maybe I just don't want him to love River Song. And to show it like that. Kissing her! The Doctor doesn't kiss. I'm talking about real kisses. Not forehead kisses out of affection or anything like that. Eight kissed Grace in the movie - first time a Doctor kissed a companion (but the movie doesn't really count, does it?). It has never happened before but I guess it was needed to please the American audience and Non-Whovians watching it not as part of Doctor Who, but as movie of its own. Nine kissed Rose in "The Parting of Ways" but only to save her life. Ten kissed Martha in "Smith and Jones" so he could use her to distract the Judoon. Eleven kissed Rory and, in "The Crimson Horror" Jenny - but in both cases, that wasn't anything romantic. And Eleven kisses River. Apparently in a romantic way. And it just feels wrong. I just really prefer the Doctor to have platonic relationships with his companion. Or non-requited feelings. Or, you know, they can both have feelings for each other but please don't act on it. Stuff like that. And I really dislike River Song. Anyway, I really hope she's gone for good now.

I'm kind of curious about how this whole John Hurt as the Doctor thing will play out in the end. For now, I can't really comment on that, because with Moffat, you never know. I know I don't want him to be a proper incarnations of the Doctor. Not some Doctor we "skipped". There's speculation he might be the Valeyard. It's a plausible theory, because that way he would somehow be the Doctor, but not really the Doctor. But we'll see. Since Moffat is such a genius he might be able to once again change the history of Doctor Who.