Woe Is Media: Five things shaking my faith in Doctor Who
This is a pretty accurate representation of how I feel, except I’m also really uncomfortable with the number of sexist remarks the Doctor slides in.
Basically if you are not deeply critical of your own creative endeavors at least some of the time, you are probably either Gilderoy Lockhart or Steven Moffat.
I laughed way too hard at this because I could totally see Moffat titling his autobiography Magical Me.
hey instead of a female doctor how about a female writer
“In fact, Doctor Who hasn’t aired an episode written by a woman since 2008[…]. There hasn’t been a single female-penned episode in the Moffat era, and in all the time since the show was rebooted in 2005 only one, Helen Raynor, has ever written for the show.” (x)
“i like that helen mirren has been saying the next doctor should be a woman. i would like to go on record and say that the queen should be played by a man”
wow shut up you unbelievable douche
I would like The next doctor to be Female with a Male Assistant
STEPHEN MOTHER FUCKING HAWKINS (via nostopdasgay)
I also think the role of the assistant has changed since Steven Moffat started overseeing Doctor Who. Rose, Martha and Donna were chosen to travel with the Doctor because they showed in one way or another that they were smart and up to the challenge. Amy and Clara both come to the Doctor first and foremost as mysteries. Amy is the little girl who grew up with a rift in time in her bedroom wall, who doesn’t know why she doesn’t have parents. She spends many episodes being mystically both pregnant and not pregnant but doesn’t know a thing about it and all our information about it comes through the Doctor. What the fuck is that?
Some version of Clara dies on screen twice before she is taken on as the assistant, and it seems like the Doctor takes up with her to find out why. In both cases, the woman is not of interest for her character or her abilities, but for some fundamental mystery in her being. The mystery isn’t even a secret she’s keeping, something over which she has control- it’s something she does not know about, that the Doctor must puzzle out in his own mind. It’s not about her- it’s about what’s wrong with her. When Steven Moffat took over Doctor Who, women became a problem.
because criticism is bad for you
because criticism never helped anyone improve on their writing
because criticism didn’t make a writer reconsider their stories and strive to be a better storyteller than what they started out as
because writers who don’t listen to criticism but shoot it down (be it constructive or not) clearly care more about the quality of their writing than they do about getting their ego stroked
==> sarcasm aside, because you are AN ASSHOLE: most people who are creative (writers, artists, musicians, etc.) have egos but guess what, if you live in a bubble without any criticism ever reaching you, you are not going to have it that easy questioning your own work and you will find improvement is a slow and harrowing process
or what’s worse, you will lose perspective and start thinking that improvement isn’t necessary and believe me
there is always room for improvement
always
in everything (especially when it comes to your writing, Steven Moffat)
and criticism is there because people are capable of rational, analytical thought and just as you express your thoughts by writing, painting or making music, other people express theirs by criticising your work
who THE FUCK are you to tell people what not to think
a book belongs to its reader, a movie to its audience, a work of art to its viewer
drops the mic and ollies out
^^THIS^^
Nothing makes me angrier, as a writer, than what he said about getting criticism. Not a damn thing.
Okay so imagine you ask somebody to tell you a riddle.
They turn to you and they say “the south pole.“
You say “what?”
They just repeat “the south pole!“
So you press them for some sort of explanation. They urge you to figure it out on your own, they say it’ll be better that way. They give you an hour to figure it out.
So you set to trying to figure it out, but every five minutes, they say something like “you still haven’t gotten it? It’s going to be great when you do!” or “but what do I mean by that?“ or “don’t forget: the south pole!”
And then, the hour’s up, and you still have no idea what they mean.
“Okay, are you ready for this?” They ask you. You say yes, and they say:
“Where can I build a house with four walls, all facing north?”
And of course, you reply “the south pole.“
Now, I imagine you’re pretty unsatisfied. You feel like, if you had been given the riddle to begin with, you would have had a lot of fun trying to figure it out
But instead, you were given the answer at the beginning, and it just feels like your friend just spent a full hour enjoying watching you squirm while you tried to figure out what the riddle was
And that’s the problem I have with how Steven Moffat constructs his seasons of Doctor Who
…brilliant