I would just like to say, thank God for this blog. Throwing in my two-cents about Moffat, it disturbs me greatly that he ignores any kind of criticism. Any writer who ignores critism, I can’t think how they could improve their writing. I also can’t see how Moffat managed to get so far without acknowledging criticism in the first place. His writing could not have been that fantastic in the beginning to land him such a prominent job as head writer of DW without some constructive criticism in the beginning.
He had obviously accepted this constructive criticism in the first place to become the writer he is today. But now that he is getting called out on issues within his writing which are obviously problematic, he ignores them and pulls them down. I don’t think is a wise move by any writer to simply ignore things like that.
Another problem I see with Moffat is his alleged ‘self insertion’ within the Doctors character. After reading through this blog, I have come to see why I was so uncomfortable with the 11th Doctor as a character. As much I like 11 some of his lines seem very OOC. As a fan who has watched both old and new who, I as a viewer have come to understand that the Doctor is someone who can and will accept anyone (unless you are about to commit a terrible crime, which even then he’s willing to give them a second chance). One of the lines (I can’t remember exactly how it goes) mentions that River is so emotionally changeable because she is a woman. (wanting to kill him but then suddenly wanting to marry him). Personally I think that the Doctor as a character would have left it just as ‘brainwashing’, instead of adding that she is woman.
Overall, I enjoy Moffat’s work but only to a certain extent. There are some things I just can’t ignore :/.
submitted by shakespearwasaflirt
I definitely agree with you on all of these points. One thing that especially bothers me about Moffat’s “self insertion” is the way that he acts in interviews - often, if he’s talking about the Doctor, the things he says seem much more like his personal views than those that would be held by the character that he writes for.
-Z
