Doctor Who S10
Jul. 3rd, 2017 09:23 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sabotabbyHot damn this was the best series of NuWho. But the finale was kind of a typical finale, in that it was a let-down from the incredible penultimate episode. Which is not to say that it's bad, so much as I'm just really glad we get one more episode with Capaldi because if he has to leave (*tears*) it should be on a high note.
And the thing is I dislike almost all the season finales, because they illustrate the biggest flaws both Moff and RTD have with writing arcs, which is EPIC SET-UP followed by not knowing how to conclude all of the plot in a narratively satisfying way.
The problem is that I figured out a way to fix it.
A few things bothered me, namely:
1) Neither the Master or Missy had any effect on the plot. The Cybermen would have still happened without the Master's intervention; the Doctor explicitly says so. Bill wouldn't have become a Cyberman, but that's really it. Nor did the Doctor's season-long attempt to redeem Missy have any narrative consequence; he doesn't get to find out that he was right, she doesn't really do anything but create a finite time loop in her lifespan that will be broken the second the show wants to use the Master again, and the episode would have been stronger without either of them.
2) Bill's exit, while good, is the same as Clara's exit.
3) Too much of the Doctor being an action hero, not enough of the Doctor trying to talk people out of things.
4) The presence of the old Cybermen drive home just how rubbish the new Cybermen are, also I still don't like that they can fly.
These are generally mild critiques in a season that basically did everything I ever wanted DW to do, don't get me wrong. But I woke up this morning and realized...
If Nardole wasn't in the season, the last episode would have been way stronger.
Hear me out on this: No Nardole. The Doctor still has his plan to blow up the level, taking all the Cybermen with him. Someone still has to help the children escape. Bill can't because she's useful and also she will eventually succumb to her programming. Who will lead the kids to safety and protect them?
Missy.
Missy suddenly has a purpose for being there, and a chance to prove that she's redeemed herself. She gets the powerful exchange about whether it's more badass to die fighting or to live the rest of your life protecting scared, helpless, and most of all boring humans. Her sacrifice isn't standing and fighting—it's the opposite of epic. It's doing the right thing for a small number of people that she doesn't actually give a shit about. It's suppressing her own instincts to sow terror and evil for long enough to eventually reach the top floor and escape.
She still runs off into the woods with the Master, still betrays him, and sends him back to his own TARDIS to regenerate. But instead of dying, she goes back. And agrees that the only way that she can change is by doing the boring, difficult work of saving a handful of humans.
(And then of course eventually gets bored and fucks off, leaving them all to die, because she's the fucking Master and a good Master makes no sense and is no fun, but that's for next season.)
Why did they not do this?
And the thing is I dislike almost all the season finales, because they illustrate the biggest flaws both Moff and RTD have with writing arcs, which is EPIC SET-UP followed by not knowing how to conclude all of the plot in a narratively satisfying way.
The problem is that I figured out a way to fix it.
A few things bothered me, namely:
1) Neither the Master or Missy had any effect on the plot. The Cybermen would have still happened without the Master's intervention; the Doctor explicitly says so. Bill wouldn't have become a Cyberman, but that's really it. Nor did the Doctor's season-long attempt to redeem Missy have any narrative consequence; he doesn't get to find out that he was right, she doesn't really do anything but create a finite time loop in her lifespan that will be broken the second the show wants to use the Master again, and the episode would have been stronger without either of them.
2) Bill's exit, while good, is the same as Clara's exit.
3) Too much of the Doctor being an action hero, not enough of the Doctor trying to talk people out of things.
4) The presence of the old Cybermen drive home just how rubbish the new Cybermen are, also I still don't like that they can fly.
These are generally mild critiques in a season that basically did everything I ever wanted DW to do, don't get me wrong. But I woke up this morning and realized...
If Nardole wasn't in the season, the last episode would have been way stronger.
Hear me out on this: No Nardole. The Doctor still has his plan to blow up the level, taking all the Cybermen with him. Someone still has to help the children escape. Bill can't because she's useful and also she will eventually succumb to her programming. Who will lead the kids to safety and protect them?
Missy.
Missy suddenly has a purpose for being there, and a chance to prove that she's redeemed herself. She gets the powerful exchange about whether it's more badass to die fighting or to live the rest of your life protecting scared, helpless, and most of all boring humans. Her sacrifice isn't standing and fighting—it's the opposite of epic. It's doing the right thing for a small number of people that she doesn't actually give a shit about. It's suppressing her own instincts to sow terror and evil for long enough to eventually reach the top floor and escape.
She still runs off into the woods with the Master, still betrays him, and sends him back to his own TARDIS to regenerate. But instead of dying, she goes back. And agrees that the only way that she can change is by doing the boring, difficult work of saving a handful of humans.
(And then of course eventually gets bored and fucks off, leaving them all to die, because she's the fucking Master and a good Master makes no sense and is no fun, but that's for next season.)
Why did they not do this?
no subject
Date: 2017-07-03 02:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-07-03 02:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-07-03 02:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-07-03 04:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-07-03 03:41 pm (UTC)You need to become a show runner.
no subject
Date: 2017-07-03 04:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-07-04 05:19 pm (UTC)I do like your fix for Missy. This is clearly what should have happened. Though what they did did have the element of tragedy - Missy's effort to, for once in their life, make a good choice and stand with the Doctor, is thwarted by... themself.
I can forgive them for repeating Clara's exit, because it means Bill gets to live. And reintroducing puddle girl was kinda cool.
no subject
Date: 2017-07-04 10:13 pm (UTC)So I'm not nitpicking because it wasn't good—I'm nitpicking because the rest of the season was near flawless.
no subject
Date: 2017-07-04 10:22 pm (UTC)AND HE OFFERED SOMEONE A JELLY BABY! Fan service FTW.
Tatiana Maslany for Doctor. She's available now, pretty much?
no subject
Date: 2017-07-04 10:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-07-04 11:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-07-04 11:29 pm (UTC)Tatiana?
Date: 2017-07-09 02:05 am (UTC)Good fixes
Date: 2017-07-07 03:51 am (UTC)Not Good, because as is Moffat's wont, the programs were all High Concept rather than Story. (Why am I Capitalizing everything? Stop it, Young Edifice!)
That said, unlike your enjoyment of the good, your analysis of the bad is spot on. Nardole never seemed to have a reason to be in the program, and giving Missy something heroic to do would have given her a purpose for being (in the show). Me, I've never liked the Master (or Missy) for precisely the reasons that you do ("she's the fucking Master and a good Master makes no sense"), but if she had to be there, your fix would have made things a good deal better.
Why did they not do this?
Because Peter Moffat a decade ago transmogrified himself from a story-teller to a conceptualist. More's the god damned pity.
Here's hoping that Chris Chibnal brings his Broadchurch game to the preceedings. It's a pity Peter Capaldi won't get any time with a new show-runner.
Re: Good fixes
Date: 2017-07-07 01:00 pm (UTC)This episode really does show Moffat's weakness as a writer. Weirdly, he ends up failing at the very thing he tends to do that screws up the arcs—making Everything Very Important and Meaningful—by introducing a plot that's big, but has no importance or meaning. The rest of the season has been episodic, though, which is what he does best.
I love the Master/Missy; it's a big narrative kink of mine to have someone like the hero, but off the rails, intelligent enough that they might be a sometime ally, or even friend again, but fucked up enough that this can never be permanent. And Gomez is just delightful.
Here's hoping that Chris Chibnal brings his Broadchurch game to the preceedings. It's a pity Peter Capaldi won't get any time with a new show-runner.
That's the biggest disappointment. He's been given some weak material over his run and still sold it, but I know what he can do with really great material.
Re: Good fixes
Date: 2017-07-07 04:22 pm (UTC)1, 2 and 4, with 3 getting half-marks. To my mind the entire Moffat run has been a dramatic disaster, with a few individual episodes as honourable exceptions.
Weirdly, he ends up failing at the very thing he tends to do that screws up the arcs—making Everything Very Important and Meaningful—by introducing a plot that's big, but has no importance or meaning.
Er, if you start the above with the word typically, rather than weirdly, we're in agreement.
As for the Master/Missy, as I said, they've never been my cup of tea, in any incarnation, and no matter how good the actor playing them. Evil for fun just isn't my thing, I guess; at least the Daleks have a reason for their viciousness.
But again, I'm looking forward (hopefully, but with trepidation) to a show-runner who remembers he's also a story-teller. (Have you seen Broadchurch, by the way? It's really quite good.)
Re: Good fixes
Date: 2017-07-08 12:42 am (UTC)I watched the first two seasons of Broadchurch, loved it, and keep meaning to download the third. I'm looking forward to Chibnall as a showrunner.
Re: Good fixes
Date: 2017-07-09 02:05 am (UTC)