September 27, 2015
*sigh*
Sit back and get a
little comfy. I'm going to blather on about my disappointment in the new season
of Doctor Who, which feels almost
sacrilegious, but necessary. Maybe if I purge myself, I'll enjoy the show more.
So… as mentioned
before, I'm not a huge fan of Capaldi as the Doctor. This has nothing to do
with his acting. I enjoy his work. But… here's the thing… I just can't get past
the fact he's been two other characters besides the Doctor in the
Whoverse—Caecilius in The Fires of
Pompeii and John Frobisher in Torchwood:
Children of Earth.
But wait! What
about Eve Myles? She played a character in Doctor Who before being in Torchwood. Why doesn't that bother me?
One simple reason.
The character she played in The Unquiet
Dead, Gwyneth, by rights, could have been an ancestor of Torchwood's Gwen, so… my brain has no
problem wrapping around the idea. But Capaldi's characters? Not so much. Wanna
know why?
Because THE DOCTOR
doesn't have ancestors on earth. Even if I bought the idea Caecilius—a social
climbing Roman—could be the ancestor of John Frobisher—the man who learns
ass-kissing doesn't always pay off and can, instead, bring a tragic end, I
can't buy the idea they're somehow related to the Doctor. EVER. It's just a
big, fat NOPE.
Again, because the
Doctor doesn't have ancestors who are human, with the exception of maybe Ten
and Rose in the alternate universe. So, yeah, I struggle—a lot—to get into
Capaldi as the Doctor.
And while I'm on
the topic, let's chat about Missy the Master. Hooray for having a woman Master.
Seriously, I love the idea and think it's wonderful. That said, the way she's
written is a big, fat disappointment.
Staying strictly
with New Who, I wouldn't want to be the actor who had to fill the big shoes John
Simm left behind after playing the Master. Michelle Gomez did a superb job in
the previous season and I would have been thrilled to bits if that would have
been the end of the Master's manipulations.
But, of course,
it's not. We open the season with two full episodes of her. Bleh. And it's not the
actress, in my opinion, it's the writing. Simm's version had a terrific arc to
show how he became insane, why he did the things he did, and finally, a thread
of redemption.
But Missy? Eh, she's
a little too over the top, yet… at the same time a little too shallow and look at me, look at me, look at me, to
be believable. And maybe that's the point, but it's not one I'm enjoying in any
way, shape, or form. The apparent I'm
just here to screw with the Doctor and have fun while doing it doesn't interest
me. And that's the way her role in the Whoverse comes across for me. She
serves no other purpose than to muck things up for the Doctor. Don't we have
all the other monsters and villains for that purpose?
Finally… let's take
a look at this Doctor. The War Doctor made a comment about having a mid-life
crisis when he got a look at Ten and Eleven and their young visages. So, awesome, we have an older guy for this regeneration. Should be great, right?
Eh, not so much. For a more mature version, Twelve is certainly getting in tune
with his inner child.
I guess I'm not
thrilled with the idea Twelve brings an electric guitar and a tank to his
battle with the medieval-looking opponent. Because honestly? The incredibly
stupid jokes that people will get in a few hundred years were too lame to be
humorous. Personally, Nine, Ten, and Eleven had a higher mental age than the
current Doctor, who runs toward temper tantrums and super snit fits. Don't get
me wrong, he's got some amusing moments with both, but it may not be enough to
sustain my interest.
Do I take this
Whoverse stuff way too seriously? Oh, hell yes, I do. LOL But… I miss the
continuity of the earlier Davies seasons. The sweeping emotional arcs we got in
a single episode sometimes. And Moffat is more than capable of writing that
way. I mean Blink is one of the most
emotional roller coaster episodes I've EVER watched on TV, so he's got the
chops to connect with me on that level… when he's not trying to be too quirky
or clever or whatever the hell he's trying to be with the gimmicky shtick he's
been throwing out lately, especially with the two opening episodes of this
season. They were disjointed and messy and I'm honestly not sure what I was
watching, but it's not the Doctor Who
I love.
And no worries if
anyone vehemently disagrees with me. I'm totally okay with the rest of the
planet loving the Doctor as much as they always have. I'm just not quite there
yet—maybe I never will be—but I'm hoping Moffat rises to the challenge of
keeping me as a viewer.
Whew. I feel WAY
better now. Thanks for letting me vent.
As an aside, I did
read the concept that the familiar faces of Caecilius and Frobisher would be
explained sometime this season, but truthfully, unless it's super brilliant—and
it totally could be—I'm still going to have big issues wrapping my head around
the idea. So yeah, there's that.
And for now, I'll
keep watching—because I've had a lifetime of Classic and New Who.
~M~
