We have a LONG wait until DW returns to TV! So tell me, what are YOUR unpopular DW opinions!?
For me, I LOVED the first series of both 12 and 13. They were trying new things and I really appreciated the freshness. It felt more creatively honest to me than the follow-up series.
The downward slide for New Who started under Matt Smith.
Imma jump on how I didn’t like the writing for Matt Smiths era. The lady killer vibes and implied netorare sprinkled throughout the series made me cringe. I honestly tried to speed run his seasons to get to Capaldi’s take on the doctor.
I watched his era years after everyone else did. Matt Smith had an amazing first episode with really defined quirky characterization. Then his next few episodes, he’s mostly just angry and shouting at everyone, and all of that fun eccentric energy just goes away. During that part of series 5, I was calling him the “Gordon Ramsay” Doctor.
After that, his characterization just felt really inconsistent and all over the place, to the point where he felt like three different characters inelegantly melded into one. It’s way harder to get a read on his overall personality than every other Doctor, and I need to rewatch to make sense of his very disparate psyches and emotional responses to things.
By series 6, the show fell victim to a “mystery box” writing style where Moffat seemed to be making it up as he went along. Much like Sherlock, he was also constantly teasing Tumblr theorists to the detriment of the writing…
He also unlearns a lot of the Tenth Doctor’s lessons with little to no commentary or repercussions.
I spent his entire era craving the consistent characteristics I saw in The Eleventh Hour and rarely getting that. Exceptions: Amy’s Choice, The Lodger, Night Terrors, Closing Time, and his finale were all fantastic Eleventh Doctor episodes, and if he had depicted like that in every episode, he’d be my favorite.
Yes, 11 was a little too “I’m the Doctor and all I have to do is announce that and the Daleks shit themselves a little”. In fact, I miss the Time Lords. I miss the Doctor having people and rules to answer to. They’re making the universe revolve around the Doctor a little too much. The Doctor should feel more like a fugitive staying just ahead of their pursuers.
great thought, and honestly would be extremely refreshing in a nuWho context. i was hoping the return of gallifrey to be impactful but it never really was. hopefully the Rani gives it another go.
Yes, in retrospective this is probably true. Season 5 was fantastic, 6 still pretty solid, but season 7? Phew. It somewhat showed that Steven could not handle the main show, the 50th anniversary festivities and his other show Sherlock all at once.
I agree. It was a slog for me to finish his run. Capaldi was exciting in the beginning, had some great episodes, but still a bit rough. I think I just personally don’t like Moffat as a show runner.
i don’t know about that. just seems like such a negative perspective. the show has ups and downs, like anything.