![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ed_rex at 12:51pm on 30/09/2014Little care from The Caretaker
 |
The short version?
I really enjoyed "The Caretaker" when I watched it late Saturday night and into Sunday morning.
I'd been awake almost 20 hours when I hit Play, had worked 11 of those hours at the day-job and spent nearly two more riding to and from there on my bicycle.
I was tired, and I admit cracked a beer or three as I live-tweeted my first reactions.
To my regret, those tweets were an enthusiastic tailings pond spill I wish I could take back. But they do represent as "real" a reaction as my subsequent re-evaluation. And since I don't believe in censoring reality, they will stay on my Twitter timeline and live on also as a sidebar — pre-commentary, if you like — to my review.
The short version is that I thought the episode pretty awful when I watched it by sunlight. To paraphrase the blogger Patches365, it was a mean-spirited "tragedy of blunders" built on — not one — nor two, or even three — but four idiot plots. And it was an episode that tossed aside its best performer in favour of the cheapest of cheap laffs.
The long version? The long version lives on my site, of course, along with spite, spoilers and some thoughts on patterns as we reach the half-way point of what we can only hope will be Steven Moffat's farewell turn as Captain of the foundering ship Doctor Who.
Click here for Little Care — Take Two. Don't say I didn't warn you.
(no subject)
Who do you think should take over from the Moff? I can't think of anyone good that seems likely to get it.
Hey! That was *my* idea!
Funny, I just gave that advice to a friend over on Facebook, when she commented on my post. She's an excellent critic and thinker in general, but she seems to treat Who as something to just enjoy if at all possible, and who am I to insist she spoil her fun?
But for me, well, I take my Who blogging too seriously to let my first reactions stand unexamined.
Who do you think should take over from the Moff?
I am way too far outside of the Britain's entertainment industry to have a clue as to who is likely to be given the job, but if by some miracle, I was put in charge of the Beeb's television productions right now, I would start with a hopeless call to Dan Harmon (of Community fame). He can definitely do comedy, he loves Doctor Who and science fiction more generally, and he knows how to write real characters.
When he says he's too busy with Community, I'd place a call to Sally Wainwright and invite her out to a really long lunch. I don't know if she's into SF or Who, but I do know that she can write a meaty short series and write multiple characters of depth. Of course, she's got both Last Tango in Halifax and (as I only just discovered while typing this out!) something called Happy Valley on the go, so who knows if she'd be interested.
Who would you like to see take the reigns?
Re: Hey! That was *my* idea!
Why?
Who would you like to see take the reigns?
I haven't even bothered fantasy-producering it because it seems certain to be Gatiss or possibly Chibnall, at which point I don't have much hope for it being any good. They could shock me, though, I suppose. That would be nice.
Re: Hey! That was *my* idea!
So I should not really comment here either really
Re: Hey! That was *my* idea!
Part of the problem is the same one RTD faced back in 2004 -- lots of talented writers in the UK, but hardly any are experienced in writing science fiction. And the ones that are, like Paul Cornell, have no track record as showrunners.
So we keep hearing the same mediocrities being suggested as replacements for Moffat -- Gatiss and Chibnall, both of whom are a bit shaky on the idea of women being people, and the dude who did Being Human. Oh, and the people behind Misfits, which was a great series right up until they killed off every single interesting character, including all but one of its women.
To be honest, I feel like it would really be okay for the series to take a break for a few years after Moffat -- it's bigger than it's ever been internationally, critically acclaimed (however much you might disagree) and getting decent ratings at a time when ratings are all but meaningless. But I'm not running the BBC, thank God.
(BTW, re: not watching DW twice -- you seem to be in the place I was at the end of RTD's run -- knowing that this is something you care about, but unable to summon a mite of enthusiasm because you just hate the showrunner so much. It got to the point where I just didn't want to think about the series at all, unless it was starring Tom Baker and Lalla Ward. I was fannishly miserable, and making a lot of other people miserable as well. May I recommend a break? A holiday, if you will.)
Re: Hey! That was *my* idea!
The folks behind Misfits is a very interesting idea — they clearly no SF&F.
But I definitely don't want the show to go on hiatus, I want them to fix it. I want to thrill to the theme music and to the sounds of the Tardis again. I want to give a shit about what happens next.
But if Moffat returns next year, maybe I'll take your advice and retreat into the past. I've seen very little of the first three Doctors' adventures, and could always dive back into the Baker (Tom) years for a time. It would certainly improve the tone of my reviews.