We Must Go Back in Time to Prevent the Awful Season Finale of 'Doctor Who'
TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN,
We, the undersigned, write to express our outrage with the outcome of the "Doctor Who" season composed of episodes 214 to 223.
There were those who held out hope that show-runner Steven Moffat had a nifty and satisfying plan to resolve the season's primary opening gambit, which was the killing of the Doctor himself. There was wide-spread appreciation at first for opening a season so audaciously. And along the way, Moffat did himself a service with a strong secondary through-line (though it was somewhat abbreviated and telegraphed, as one can fairly expect in a 13-episode season), by setting to rest the mystery of River Song. Too many mysteries makes a show go blind.
Hopes, as they often will be as a season rounds its two-thirds mark, were high! All the crueler then. In the end, this overall winning premise was settled solely by means of someone writing "INSERT SPACE-TIME GIBBERISH HERE" in the final pages of the book.
The resolution, the jam-packed season finale, was beyond nonsensical. To worm out of its responsibilities, the show made use of the most hackneyed—and then also mismanaged!—techniques imaginable.
The struggle of narrative fiction to entertain and engage viewers isn't that terribly complicated. Television, mostly, is about heroes. The most-common device of this particular sort of narrative is to engage a hero who must discover the answer to a mystery; the audience is on his or her side as we all seek to solve a problem. (This is a standard practice in "Doctor Who.") When this cannot be straightforwardly achieved, the trick is often then that the narrative, the program itself, by means of the hero, withholds from the viewer—the poor misguided viewer, who then must operate from a false set of principles to be kept in a state of suspense or concern. This is something Moffat performed successfully in his recent "Sherlock Holmes" for the BBC—because, in that case, the viewer identifies with John Watson, not Holmes, and when sneaky, kooky Holmes lies or obscures or manipulates, as he is already expected to, the viewer is betrayed along with Holmes, who registers that betrayal. In this manner of revelation, the viewer's sense of being cheated must be outweighed by a thrill, or a relief, or a giddiness—or they must at least have their mind blown.
Otherwise, the narrative unfolding is nothing but a cheap trick, upon which, looking backwards, the entire relation of the action is not only manipulative but revealed as meaningless. Lengthy misdirection is literally a waste of time. The season itself begins to collapse in retrospect—for the events of episode one as we know it transpire "after" the events of the final episodes, and, as is the case with time, what is done is already done. At the risk of sounding very much like Comic Book Guy of "The Simpsons," we believe that the end of "Doctor Who," with its "death of time" (by what specific mechanism? It is implied that time is held hostage by conflicting timelines, which any reasonable viewer of the show should realize that the plot of nearly every episode would cause such an event—not least of which, say, the end of last season where the entire universe died and was "rebooted"?) and its substituted switcheroo victim (if TIME actually STOPS to punish The Doctor for not dying (which, ahem), is it really not the case that an automaton wouldn't be recognized as an impostor?) and its hoo-ha about people touching and time-lines joining and reverting and such (which seems a silly elaboration of the conventional and convenient trope of the troubles of meeting oneself in time travel). And, of course, everyone moping about and pulling a long face so as to deceive these watching powers-that-be, right along with the audience. (And then! The added insult to injury: the old "camera behind a window" trick, while the main characters have a revelation before the viewer.) But there's more! The worst of it all is that then the menace that created this crisis, The Silence—which is repeatedly referred to as a "religious order" and not a race, although they're all identical is quite specific and lurid physical affect—is then held over for another season.
No wait, there's more "worst." For the whole season is resolved in a way to instill an advanced narcissism disorder in The Doctor. Now he is cast as literally the most important creature in the universe, and the "oldest question in time" is apparently about the nature or identity of The Doctor, and some aspect of his history (perhaps his blameless or not blameless role in the sort-of extinction of his own "race" and the apparently perpetually occurring murder of millions). Just what we needed: more self-regard, more tortured moping from the saddest soul in the universe. God, get off the cross already!
The cruelness to the watcher is one thing, to be expected from a writer's room that needs to weasel its way through a high-stakes season finale. And the stepping-up of the God complex of the hero is an unfortunate by-product that can and will safely be ignored, likely, in the long view.
But then there's the ultimate insult: the actual "science fiction" of the enterprise. Of the rules that make a world go round, there are clearly absolutely none. Every season finale ends with a fresh universe, that no one remembers. When anything can happen, and be undone and then done again, nothing matters. This show is now, in a phrase, entirely bound by the non-rules of TIMEY-WIMEY BULLSHIT.
This is a dark moment for the BBC in Cardiff. We hereby demand that Steven Moffat be locked in a lightless, soundless box until the end of the universe. Which could come at any time apparently so maybe he won't suffer long!
Very truly yours,
Your Viewers
Choire. Choire. I could have told you years ago that Dr. Who is adle-pated soft-bellied bullshit. Why didn't you ask me?
if TIME actually STOPS to punish The Doctor for not dying (which, ahem), is it really not the case that an automaton wouldn't be recognized as an impostor?
Hoo boy, was I ranting about this like a meth-addled Comic Book Guy.
People, people, people… how could you have gotten it so wrong?
The "fixed point in time" was not the Doctor's actual death. It was, all along, the Doctor's APPARENT death, but actually the shooting of the robo-Doc.
And if you somehow didn't pick up on the theme: we've been told repeatedly that the Doctor is TRYING to burst the bubble of his own outsized myth. He wants to tone it all down and stop being a cosmic celebrity — which is really a rather annoying aspect of the character created by Russell T. Davies, the previous producer — and be more of an anonymous wanderer, like he was on the old series.
In order to do this, he wants everyone — including his companions! — to think he really was killed. Of course he ends up having to reveal the scheme to River, or else she won't go thru with it. And then she ends up telling Amy and Rory. But as far as the universe in general is concerned, the Doctor ist kaput.
I enjoyed the finale. Not the single finest hour of DW ever, maybe, but cracking good fun nonetheless.
And when I say "as far as the universe in general is concerned", I don't mean The Universe Itself, I mean people across the universe.
The cosmic forces of Time, the Universe, and Everything were not "fooled" by the shooting of the robo-Doc. Rather, the shooting of the robo-Doc WAS the very event which was always fated to happen on that beach, and which had to happen to preserve the continuity of the whole shebang… and it was the robo-Doc being shot that everyone witnessed in the season opener. There never was a switcheroo.
@Max Clarke Thank you, Max! Also, people weren't paying attention at the very end: The Doctor specifically said he'd gotten to "noisy", too cosmically big, and he had to go "quiet" again. Of course, next season could start with him Saving The Universe, Again, Some More, but I think there will be more low-key (whatever that means on DW) stories next season, and just a little bit of the big story. And if people don't realize by now that Steven Moffat's arcs are seasons-spanning and will probably only all be resolved whenever he and/or Matt Smith call it quits, then they haven't been paying attention. Though it might actually be next season, if he goes for a three act structure.
@Max Clarke Thanks Max! Like this author, I initially hadn't thought about that. The viewer gets caught up in what you THINK you saw,…But what you saw in the season opener is simply the Teselecty-thingy-robot getting shot. Nothing has changed REALLY. Of course, someone pointed this out to me and all was clear again.
The thing about Doctor Who is that there's always timey wimeyness to get your head around, and Timey Wimey is Moffat's favorite theme. I'm all for it. But I do think that his "arc" episodes are far too compressed and need one or two more hours of episode to delve a bit deeper into the stories to be fully enjoyable. When those arc eps come along I always feel as if I'm being given a summary of a story and not a full blown story. Slightly frustrating, especially because the stories ARE fantastic. Just too brief.
Wasn't going to say anything after my hyperenthusiasm on the pre-season thread but I dipped into the middle of this season and saw Alex Kingston saving Teenage Doctor from apparent zombie-aliens by means of a *gun* and thought, well, maybe I'll let the dust settle on this one before I start digging?
Gah, I'm only one season and one episode into the relaunched Dr. Who on Netflix! SHOULD I STOP WATCHING NOW JUST TO SAVE MYSELF DISAPPOINTMENT????
@jfruh NO! It is mostly good, even when dorkily infuriating!
@jfruh No, you most definitely should not stop. The show has always been uneven, but its high points more than make up for its low points. You're in for a fun ride, I hope you enjoy it!
@jfruh No, we'll all agree, you MUST watch the first three seasons at least. OH HELL watch all of it. JUST BE PREPARED.
@jfruh I wonder if this season might be better if watched on Netflix over a shorter time-frame. I didn't go back and re-watch the first half and I found it difficult to remember things from episodes that aired nearly six months ago.
@jfruh Don't listen to the haters. The season finale was awesome and I envy you for being at the threshold of discovering some wonderful giddy moments ahead (sure there's some low points but, whatever. Can't have orgasms 24/7). You are about to meet Captain Jack Harkness before Torchwood ruined him. You'll get to see the Shakespeare code for the first time! And blink! and, and meet Martha Jones and see Sarah Jane again. Oh you lucky, lucky bastard.
@Keith Kisser : You know, I wanted to like Torchwood but then I couldn't get past the, like, third episode. But then I heard that the "Children of Earth" 5-parter was worthwhile, so I checked it out and, OK, it WAS pretty much everything I could have wanted from "Doctor Who, but super dark". So, I'm still conflicted. But not currently watching it.
@jfruh Just get mega stoned when you watch it. [INSERT TIME-SPACE BS HERE] works great that way.
@jfruh i watched the entire first season of torchwood without knowing it was supposed to be terrible. it was so disappointing i almost felt a teensy bit violated by its shittiness. since then i've spent a lot of time reading stuff online to try to process my experience and come to terms with it. from all i've read, children of earth is generally considered the only redeeming torchwood series (and actually received quite a few rave revies), with only maybe one or two other episodes among the non-children series being better than shitty. ugh, so terrible, and such a terrible waste of time.
The first 800 iterations of Doctor Who (of which I am a fan, all) were pretty meh but I have high hopes for the next 800.
@Matt haha nice one
@NinetyNine Agreed.
fair enough.
@Art Yucko "FAIR ENOUGH" ABOVE "AGREED"? JESUS CHRIST YOU HAVE TO BE KIDDING ME!
They like farms, generally.
@Matt So it's okay to make rude noise comments again?
@NinetyNine That's just a reply
Way to go, Internet commenter.
@Matt That was like a comment … for heshers
@osmium You get a noise comment! You get a noise comment! You get a noise comment!
Noise commenters are still commenting? Good for them!
@Matt But what about the part above the noise? They never talk about that part.
You mean his superpower is commenting on blog posts?
Noise commenting is so bad in bed.
It's *a* reply.
pretty yeah good motherfucker times much
The whole Amy/Rory/Baby thing also pissed me off. I mean, yes, they figured out that she was "fine." But then would anyone's response be "oh, ok, no biggie. Let's go a time travel adventure!"
@amuselouche I am sort of excited for more back-story in the next season though. I've always secretly hoped they would bring back the Doctor's Time Lord family to haunt him, particular whichever poor Time Lady married him. I mean, seriously, girl has got to pissed.
@amuselouche Yeah, the no-big-deal attitude of Amy and Rory about 5 minutes after their baby went missing was the weakest point in the whole season arc, for sure.
@Max Clarke I didn't originate this idea, but I really like it: instead of coming right out and doing an episode, or several, of Amy and Rory freaking out and screaming at the Doctor to help them get their baby back, they took an oblique, thematic approach. The first episode right after "Let's Kill Hitler!"? About loving a child not your own, accepting an alien. What is River Song if not a (non-)child who really isn't theirs, no matter her DNA? What is she if not an alien? The next episode? About Rory accepting an aged version of his wife, and realizing that he loved her regardless, and also that to take away her life for the younger Amy's is intolerable (even if it ultimately happens). They were talking about Melody without talking about Melody.
@Vulpes Ooh, I do like that explanation, even if I still plan to display this plot point prominently in my Big Book of Nerd Grudges.
@amuselouche it seems obvious to me that there was never a "poor Time Lady" married to the Doctor. The granddaughter Susan that was in the very first episodes back in 1963 was a *human* granddaughter, something that could only happen (barring adoption) if there was someone in the Doctor's life who was human but with just enough Time Lord DNA in her to make them compatible. Someone like River Song, for instance.
Me, I think its brilliant the way they tie up loose ends, even loose ends from 1963. I don't understand any of the criticism. People are thinking that the episode was somehow about "fooling time", as if time can be fooled. No, it was about fooling The Silence, so they would stop pursuing the Doctor, thinking he was already dead. The whole time disintegrating thing wasn't "to punish The Doctor for not dying". Time isn't a person, and doesn't have grievances or pursue vendettas. On the contrary, it was a consequence of the Silence almost succeeding in their attempt to kill the Doctor. It's what would have happened, with no reprieve, if the Doctor HAD died. Why? Presumably we'll have to wait for the fields of Trensalor to find out.
@amuselouche What the hell are you talking about, Susan was a Timelord. She said so herself in the first episode. Did you even watch it??
The Marriage of River Song has to be the worst episode ever. Did you read the criticisms? Time became undone because the Doctor did not die. That was the plot. Did you even watch the show. That's why the Doctor needed a stunt Doctor to die. But the problem with that is it's still not the Doctor. So that became incredibly lame. Other reviewers pointed out, why would the Silence be satisfied with the Doctor's death? Wouldn't they bother to check it out and make sure? Plot hole after plot hole. It made no sense.
@amuselouche Hahaha "did you read the criticisms" please sign me up for your newsletter!
@ImNotRTD Susan did not say she was a Timelord in the very first episode. She did say that she was born in the 49th century, but that doesn't necessarily make her a Time Lord. If she was a Time Lord then why would the Doctor later abandon her on Earth, where there was nobody else of her own kind? Why not return her to Gallifrey, and the company of fellow Time Lords?
"Time became undone because the Doctor did not die"? No, that's why in the end time DIDN'T become undone. If River had continued her refusal to shoot the Doctor then the Silence would have found some other way to kill him, and then time WOULD have become permanently undone. "wouldn't they check it out to make sure?" – Yes, that's why as few people as possible had to be in on the plot. That's why not only did the Doctor have to be seen to be shot, the "body" had to be incinerated afterwards, to eliminate any residual chance of regeneration. The "killing" had to become a fixed point in time, so certain to occur that no amount of meddling e.g. by earlier incarnations of the Doctor could prevent it from happening, in fact nothing could. It had to be demonstrated that it was a fixed point, by showing the adverse consequences that arose when River nevertheless tried to change it. And if all of this shouldn't have been sufficient to convince the Silence that they had succeeded, then what would have been sufficient? Only something too gory for a family show, I suspect.
I think I love you.
*sigh* Really? It's Doctor Who, what did you expect? Personally I think it was the act of River Song shooting the Doctor that was the fixed point in time which she did but overall I think you're expecting a little too much from show that's for 13 year olds. And now I sound like someone defending the ending of Lost, stupid Moffat.
@latenac The only thing worse than people whining about the timey-wimey aspects of the ending is people saying "it's just a kid's show!" as if that is an acceptable justification for shoddy writing or plot or a legitimate reason at all to have lower expectations for it.
@cherrispryte It quit being a kids' show when it was rebooted. And the lame stories are no worse then some of the clunkers ST:TNG or B5 would inflict on us. Science fiction fans are painfully forgiving.
@cherrispryte Sorry I just decided to say that rather than launch into a lengthy essay about the season finale and how it actually all plays by the rules within the Universe of Doctor Who and was very enjoyable at least to me. I guess the kid comment is actually more a criticism of if you're expecting Doctor Who to play by the rules of the universe you currently live in then you need to either adjust your expectations and be happy it plays within its own rules or find another TV show. 13 year olds are generally good at the first choice.
@latenac Yes. DW actually has relatively few rules… it's not like the continuity-obsessed Star Trek universe. But — to nerd out for a bit — because what is this entire comment thread, anyway? — the finale pretty much played by the rules that the show has laid down.
We've been told certain points in time can be rewritten, while others are fixed and shouldn't be messed with. This time we got to see what happened when you mess with a fixed point.
@Pop Socket Having recently re-watched Star Trek TNG, there are a LOT of clunkers in there. Seriously. I'm surprised the show lasted 7 seasons. There's maybe a dozen good episodes. The show did not age well and current Doctor Who blows it away without even trying. Even TOS is better.
Can you also write me an apology for convincing me to watch this show?
I mean, he also suggested men wear saddle shoes to work, so buyer beware.
I like (re: hate) the way that people really enjoy Doctor Who when it's well-written (as it sometimes is!) (see: the first half of season six, which was pretty much nonstop balls-to-the-wall awesome) (except the pirate episode) (and even then I liked the alien nurse!), but then when it slips up and drops a clunker like this finale, people fall back on "Oh, come on, it's Doctor Who! It's for kids!" As if that delegitimizes the disappointment one feels when someone like Moffat drops the ball so spectacularly.
At any rate: the greatest transgression of that episode, I thought, was the mishandling of River Song. Which, come to think of it, would be a much better episode title. It's a shame, too, because half of the episode is the best Indiana Jones movie of the last twenty years.
@Adam Goldman I know, I'm really down about River Song! Ugh, watching someone badass become un-badass is very :(.
I kinda liked the "all time happening at once" which made up for some of the hokey ending. I felt cheated, but at least I was cheated in a way that somebody had spent some time setting up.
Now now, Choire. It wasn't AWFUL. (Torchwood: Miracle Day, now THAT was awful.) This was not the ending we may have wanted – definitely not of the caliber of The Big Bang, or even equal to the quality of the first two episodes of this season. If you're anything like me (and for your sake, I hope you aren't) then you spent most of this season anxiously searching for clues as to how Moffat was going to write his way out of this one – and there really weren't any, or the ones that were there were too obvious.
But I think the "the entire universe showed up to help you" was River's way of saying "get off the damn cross already" and I think there won't be anywhere near as much of the "Doctor as a poor tortured creature" next season as there was this season.
Every single season finale since the reboot contains a good deal of "space-time gibberish" – I don't think that's the problem. I think we all expected a higher level of cleverness from Moffat, because he's pretty much trained us to at this point. It wasn't awful, it was just not clever enough.
Oh, and the Amy and Rory not giving a shit about Baby Melody is some bullshit. I'm with you on that one.
Think you meant to say, "the viewer is betrayed along with
HolmesWatson, who registers that betrayal."Otherwise, all too true — that last episode was mind-numbingly, space-time bendingly idiotic.
I'm really more of a Quantum Leap kind of guy.
I want to think that this whole post is a parody of apoplectic Dr. Who fans: if it is, then well-done sir! But if not, then I think somebody needs to RELAX.
i'm waiting for the american remake. i just know they'll base it in new orleans and call it "dr. whodat".
"The Doctor lies." They've been screaming that from the rooftops all season, but people never do listen.
Really, I thought it was fine. I don't know what people were expecting. Considering there was a season finale where the resolution was to have the whole world save The Doctor by CLAPPING THEIR HANDS AND BELIEVING in him, this was not at all the most painful. And considering everyone was convinced that Ganger!Doctor was the one who was going to be "killed," having it be the actual Doctor in a tesselacted suit was kinda of a clever fake-out.
And the "death of time" thing was because a Fixed Point had gone un-Fixed. Again, within the context of the show, it wasn't really a bad explanation.
"Considering there was a season finale where the resolution was to have the whole world save The Doctor by CLAPPING THEIR HANDS AND BELIEVING in him, this was not at all the most painful."
THANK YOU. Gollum Doctor in a birdcage was the single worst moment of DW ever. And I've watched pretty much everything, back to 1963.
@Max Clarke : Yes, yes, and also yes. That trio of episodes (including "Utopia") was so strong in so many ways, but UGH at the shriveled mini-doc in a bird cage and the worldwide kumbaya bullshit — that was just appalling.
@Vulpes You really will buy anything for a dollar. But I suspect you are in denial. To dislike something you love would send you over the edge.
There was nothing clever about using the robot Doctor because the robot Doctor wasn't the Doctor and the Doctor did not die.
Seriously, people are starved for sci-fi that they will accept anything, including a polished turd.
I am also not getting the upset! To tackle what seem to be the problems, one by one:
1. The Doctor did not die. Okay? He was never going to die. If you are genuinely shocked that they weaseled out of the Doctor dying in his eponymous 50-year-old television show you really, REALLY should pay more attention to the conventions of genre fiction. The mystery of the season was always "how is he going to get out of this?"
2. The Doctor fooled time itself. Wrong! Time got fucked up because a "fixed point" — unalterable history — played out incorrectly, NOT BECAUSE THE DOCTOR WASN'T DEAD. The "incorrect" version of this event, which screwed up time, was River harmlessly discharging her weapon. The "correct" version of this fixed point was for her to blast the robo Doctor, fooling everybody. The episode's big reveal was that THERE NEVER WAS A VERSION OF THIS EVENT WHERE THE DOCTOR ACTUALLY DIED. It was a deception all along.
3. This was a switcheroo! A cop-out! A deus ex machina! This is actually one of the most logical and easily-explained finales the rebooted series has ever had. You're telling me you were okay with "Rose Tyler is actually God" and "I do believe in fairies" and "Damnit I know they're villians, but who the fuck puts their primary control console in a PLOT-CONVENIENT RADIOACTIVE DEATH BOOTH" — but you won't stand for "the Doctor's death was actually a trick"?
Didn't hate it, but I was a little underwhelmed. It all felt a bit cheap, rushed, and unearned. It's true that a show like Doctor Who has few hard and fast rules, but this kind of sleight of hand stake-changing just keeps me from getting invested in the story. Why bother caring if they're just going to pull something out of thin air to write themselves out of a corner? I mean, they basically did the same thing in last season's finale, but that was at least cleverly done enough to leave me with a big grin on my face going "FUCK YEAH," and this one…didn't.
I liked the very end and where it lined up the whole new Doctor Who saga. (Saga?) Although I thought the whole pacing of this season was very frustrating. Right after the first episode of this season I knew it would be an aggravating journey to the season finale. I'd rather of seen the last episode somewhere around episode three and then moving on from there. This just seemed like a messy way to set up another season. There was a lot I liked in theory about this season but not a lot that I liked viscerally. Like, I appreciate Moffat not doing another Cybermen vs. Daleks ending and instead doing something new. But watching a Cyberman squawk at a Dalek satisfies my nerd brain in a way that few things can.
Whoever wrote this article, first and foremost, you're an absolute idiot. If you're unhappy with the finale, maybe stop watching the show altogether. No one wants to hear 'your' opinion, because frankly, it doesn't count for much.
Doctor Who certainly doesn't need a simpleton like you expressing your 'outrage' I think is the word you used to describe the ending, I really don't think the frankly brilliant write who is Steven Moffat had an idea in mind to make the ending to everyone's liking, so next time before you decide to publish rubbish articles expressing your 'outrage' at the finale of a great show like Doctor Who, maybe keep in mind that not everyone wants to hear your stupid opinion about how you didn't like the ending, and keep your meaningless opinions to yourself, because like I said no one wants to hear them.
The reason that the season ender did not make sense is two fold in the season opener we see the "Doctor" regenerating and at the end of one of the episodes after the credit roll there is a skeleton holding a sonic screw driver, and the screw driver's light dims and the text says something to the effect even time dies.
I am ok with the teselactor taking the doctor's place if in the opener there is no regeneration and so when this whole thing starts every one thinks it is the doctor but it is really the tesalector, including the Doctor himself. So that in the season ender when he convinces the the teselactor to take his place it is supposed to be there because it was actually there in the opener. I am okay with this logic except for the regeneration and skeleton hand holding the sonic.
Does the teselactor mock regenerative energy or better yet can it appear to regenerate even if it is not true regeneration? Secondly when the at the end of an episode we see the hand with a sonic whose hand was that? Lastly will we ever find out why the TARDIS exploded?
Also I wish Moffat would stop creating alternative realities and to just explain away things. The season ender for this and last season are similar in their execution.
I'm guessing that that is the oldest question because in S06E13 River sent a message to all of time and space, talking about "The Doctor". Ancient civilizations that didn't happen to encounter him would receive that and wonder who the message is about.