Doctor Who: Moffat the Magnificent...

[fajrdrako]

At long last the announcement: Steven Moffat is taking over from Russell T. Davies. I am, in fact, surprised. There have been rumours enough about Russell T. Davies leaving, for long enough, that I would have been surprised if he didn't. But Moffat taking over? As possibilities go, it seemed too good to be true. I half-expected some no-talent I'd never heard of. Or, worse, some of the half-talents I've seen associated with Doctor Who projects but in whom I have no faith.

But of course I have faith in Steven Moffat. He is one of the gods in my pantheon. One of the best writers in television, if not the best. I don't just love his writing style; and it isn't just that he has such a grasp of cinematic style; I like the way he thinks. His originality. His approach. I'm not sure he has Davies' sense of romance; we shall see.

So now, I'm really, really looking forward to series 5 of Doctor Who. It's going to be an excruciatingly long wait, the equivalent of waiting for Dorothy Dunnett's Checkmate to come out, or - say it ain't so - the apocryphal and much-awaited A Dance of Dragons by George R.R. Martin.

Here's the "Tv Scoop" story.

Comments

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Your post about this is much more coherent ... mine consisted of a series of OMGs!

Big LOL. Well, if ever a BBC announcement deserved a series of OMGs, this is it!

I was like you, afraid we'd get a no-name who'd struggle to fill RTD's shoes.

Yes. Difficult shoes to fill. And how often does a writer like that get followed by someone as good as he was, or better? Not often. Perhaps, in the past, never. But there's a new attitude, I think - an appreciation of good writing and concepts, a sense that it matters.

Instead we got someone who I think can (to stretch a really bad metaphor) stand in his own shoes and make the show even better.

it may be a mixed metaphor but it's well said because it gets to the heart of the matter: someone who is able to copy Russell T. Davies' style competently isn't what the show needs. It needs that spark of originality and unpredictabily and creativity that makes it stand out.

Moffat invented the Time Agency, after all! Not to mention Jack Harkness!

The man is brilliant. He can scare me and make me laugh at the same time, and he's done it on several occasions. How can I not admire that?

And he's written some of the best Doctor Who dialogue ever.