Oh no! Ryan Britt at Tor.com reveals why he’s “Probably Going to Have to Break Up With Doctor Who.” Some of the sadness:
We’ve all experienced that moment in a relationship, when the other person is doing the same things they’ve been doing since you met them, but now, it’s just not cute anymore. And for me, the things Doctor Who is doing now maybe aren’t that different than years ago. It’s just that back then I think it was behaving better and was more charming. Also, I was a little younger.
But, it’s not just that I’ve grown older; I’d assert Doctor Who is in a phase of diminishing returns insofar as the episodes are increasingly imitative of previous episodes. If you go back and look at the episode listings for previous new-era Doctor Who season, every single “just okay” episode of this season has a counterpart in a previous season that is way better.
…
Relationships also end because of broken promises. And though there were a few broken promises prior to the Matt Smith/Steven Moffat era, I’d say the real trouble started with the River Song/Silence arc in season 6. All season we waited to discover the mysteries of River Song, her connection to the Silence, and why they put her in an astronaut suit. In the end, the explanation was just that they stuck her in the suit because “it was time to.” And the way the good guys got out of it? River Song “re-wrote time” because she and the Doctor touched each other when they weren’t supposed to. And then a wacky alternate time-stopped world evaporated. Essentially, this episode continued an early precedent of having a complicated problem be solved on the show by either re-writing time or rebooting the entire universe. In conventional fiction, this would be like having a regular novel suddenly become a choose-your-own-adventure book in its last chapters, randomly telling the reader, “hey you can start over.”
There’s much more. Read it if you can without weeping. For even if you don’t agree with everything Britt says, the fannish heartbreak on display is very poignant.
I’m sticking with Doctor Who. I can’t even imagine into what pits of awfulness the show would have to descend in order for me not to watch hopefully each new episode.
What about you? Are you considering breaking up with the Doctor?
Thanks to I_Sell_Books for the heads-up.
(If you stumble across a cool Doctor Who thing, feel free to email me with a link.)
For me, of course, it’s not near as deep- my love affair with the Doctor only started around 2 years ago. And while preferred the Davies era and agree with the complaints in that letter, there have been enough good episodes to make up for it. Also, to me at least, S7 is shaping up to be a lot better than S6.
Fannish heartbreak or fannish entitlement. Pray tell, what has Ryan Britt put into the relationship? What has he done to accomodate the needs of his partner? Or does he think showing up every week is enough? Yes, yes, I get it, it’s just a cute little metaphor to express that he’s just not happy with the show anymore. That’s fine. But if that’s the metaphor he wants to use, then he needs to own it.
“Some relationships have to come to an end, usually because one party isn’t getting what they want.” Sure, Ryan, that’s why some relationships end, if that party is a self-centered, abusive ass.
Maybe its not Ryan who needs to break up with Doctor Who, maybe Doctor Who needs to dump him, and then take some time to figure out why it keeps falling for passive-agressive douchebags like Ryan.
(Seriously, this metaphor is more than a little bit disgusting.)
“Fannish entitlement”: absolutely.
The most interesting thing about this letter for me is what it says about certain strands of fan affect (emotional involvement). It’s interesting that before the advent of fan studies, when the gaze academia turned on fans constructed them mainly as social deviants, some fans effectively played up to it with metaphors of fan-as-religious-devotee. In some ways, as you suggest, this “relationship” metaphor is even more of a problem, especially in the way that it points towards the (false) stereotype of fans as people who are inept at relationships!
On Phil Sandifer’s Tardis Eruditorum, I called “fan entitlement” only a day or two ago to a guy who wrote, basically that the show “belongs” to the fans because they are so loyal to it. A far more perceptive poster noted that really, the other way round works better: the fans belong to the show (the former is about ownership, the latter is about human affiliation).
Mr, Britt’s interest in the show is a mere seven years old. As you pointed out in an earlier post, fans who’ve watched Doctor Who for the best part of the last forty years-through Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy, and the lousy ”Movie”- know the true meaning of disappointment, and are therefore more hardened to it. In fact, it would be probably impossible for a television programme to go on as long as Who has endured without having its ups and downs. It makes it all the sweeter when it’s going through one of its good patches, which I think it is at the moment. I don’t think the author of this piece has thought his rather unfortunate metaphor through properly. It just makes him look a bit silly.
Part of the trick, I think, is to accept that a person’s reaction to a show is a function of both the show and the person – so if I don’t like it and you do (or vice versa), that doesn’t mean you’re wrong. If I don’t like it and the rest of the world does, that doesn’t mean I “should” like it – just that it’s not the right show for me.
I love this expression. I love the way that it delivers withering criticism in such a mild, restrained form. In other words, in precisely the opposite manner to Mr Britt’s overwrought opus.
While one can talk at great length about what’s wrong with the show, and sometimes it’s interesting to do so, I think it’s worth keeping sight of the core purpose: entertainment. If the show doesn’t entertain me, if I find myself thinking “I really ought to watch that rather than the things I’ve downloaded more recently”, then it’s failed as far as I’m concerned no matter who else is enjoying it. Alas, that’s where I’ve been since late season 4.
I stopped watching Doctor Who in the latter part of Tom Baker, but came back again a few years later: not least through having a Doctor Who nut (Ian Marsh) as my first boss. After the cancellation my interest kept up for a while, but the movie snuffed that out. So by the time the new series came round, I wasn’t a fan: I was barely interested. But I’ve been hooked back in as a regular viewer, not least by my son’s interest.
When you’ve drifted away from the show a couple of times and come back, the overwrought reaction of Ryan seems rather laughable. As you say, Roger, if there’s more entertaining stuff elsewhere, watch that.
Personally I still find it entertaining enough to watch. I gave up on Game of Thrones after one season, though, so clearly there’s no hope for me.
I am not breaking up with the Doctor. I am still a fangirl. But I do agree that there has been some broken promises. Some trust has been lost. Why /did/ they stuff her into the space suit? There are much less convoluted ways to train and engage an assassin. Why was Amy kidnapped? Why did Canton pretend to kill the Doctor’s associates, and then they just went on like before, not really taking advantage of the ruse they’d perpetuated? There have been so many incidents in the show that make for exciting watching–like an episode opening with Canton killing Amy and Rory–but then we’re never given a really good reason. The loss of trust means that now when I watch, I have no faith that dangling ends will be tied up.
I don’t think you could make me drop Doctor Who. I’ve watched every possible episode that can be viewed. I have listened to the audios of the one’s that cannot be. I’ve listened to the Big Finish Audios. However, I can always understand the heartbreak and irritation of seeing something you love hit a point where it is lacking in what made you love it. Classic Who saw those days…and I’m not surprised to see New Who do that same. I’ve thought the eps with Clara have already felt far more reminiscent of what I love most about Doctor Who. And I don’t think all the call backs to previous episodes, especially of the Rose era of New Who, are without purpose. (This might be setting me up for heartbreak but alas).
But the idea of who Moffat handled River Song killing a lot of love for the show I can more than understand.
Don’t you find that slogging through Colin Baker and early Sylvester McCoy sets up a wonderful armour, with which you can accept that the show has its inevitable troughs as well as peaks? On a micro (intra-series) level as well as macro (inter-series).
Yeah, this. Anti-Moffat whiners have NO idea!
I still feel kind of bad for Colin Baker. I hated him/his run as a kid, but watched again as an adult and said ‘yes the *writing* is really awful, but he’s really do a good job with what he’s been given.
I am starting to feel a bit like that for Matt Smith. Definitely felt that way for Karen Gillian
Ryan makes a lot of good points, but I’m not ready to toss the Doctor aside and move on to a new beau just yet.
I did begin season 7.2 with a strong feeling of “Prove to me there’s a reason to stick around.” I too was very disappointed in the way things ended up with River, who started out as such a dynamic character and wound up trapped in a backstory that made absolutely no sense (her mother’s own high school buddy Melody? Really?)
I’m still worried that we’re heading for another story in which everything in the universe hinges on the doctor’s companion for some inexplicable reason. But I’m willing to put up with that – for a little while, anyway – because I find Clara a much more appealing character than Amy. There seems to be less frantic running and shrieking now that Amy has gone, also less shrewish nagging from the companion and a bit more witty repartee in its place.
The last two episodes have definitely seemed derivative of late 1970’s Tom Baker era Who, but I saw that as more of a tribute than a lack of originality.
Or maybe I’m just a “Stand by Her Doctor” kind of woman.
It’s Doctor Who fandom. As Philip Sandifer pointed out on his excellent TARDIS Eruditorum blog, for every incarnation of Doctor Who that a fan loves, there’s a previous incarnation that someone else loved, and is now gone. Every time the Doctor regenerates, every time the producer or script editor or showrunner changes, somebody’s favorite show just got canceled. Britt can take his whiny entitlement and shove it.
Jesus. Ryan Britt is breaking up with Doctor Who after a whole six years. Ian Levine is having the sads all over Gallifrey Base because why won’t they listen to him and make 28 episodes a year? The Base itself is full of whingers and whiners and why-doesn’t-Evil-Moffat-resingers.
I’m as love with Doctor Who as I was back in 1977, but I’m getting very tired of Doctor Who fans….
I haven’t read all the comments on this thread, so apologies if I repeat something that’s already been said.
I don’t understand why everyone is complaining about Dr Who at the moment. Every season has had some absolute clangers (1. Boom Town/Aliens of London 2. The Idiot’s Lantern/Love and Monsters 3. Daleks in Manhatten/Evolution of the Daleks 4. (Probably the best series but voyage of the damned was awful if you count that, and planet of the dead from the specials wasn’t great) 5. Victory of The Daleks/The Hungry Earth 6. The Curse of The Black Spot/Night Terrors 7. The Rings of Akhaten etc.
However since Moffat took over there have been some downright fantastic episodes, written both by him and others. I would say without a doubt that Vincent And The Doctor (Curtis) The God Complex (Whithouse) The Snowmen (Moffat) were great. I would also say that The Doctor’s Wife, The Girl Who Waited, Amy’s Choice and A Good Man Goes To War are all very good episodes and all Moffat era.
Looking at Moffat’s writing, I’d say he’s responsible for 3 of my 4 favourite episodes: (Blink, The Girl in the Fireplace and The Empty Child) with Midnight being the only Davies episode to get close to these 3.
The problem is not Moffat, it is not Matt Smith and it is not even Clara (Asylum and Snowmen were both good.) However I do admit that the start of this mid-season was fairly poor. However from Cold War onwards (or certainly from Hide) it is slowly getting back to its best.
I think that a lot of this current wave of complaint is a mood swing. I agree absolutely that a lot of the problems have been present from earlier seasons; but there are now enough people prepared to say something that they’re no longer automatically shouted down by the mass of uncritical fans who will praise anything with the right label on it. The actual change in quality needed to provoke this is really quite small, and I suspect a fair bit of it is reaction to the big let-downs of season 6.
(The fans who like the show when it’s done right, and not when it’s done wrong – the thoughtful ones – get left out, as always.)
I think if we had more frequent/regularly space episodes, we wouldn’t find ourselves dissecting each one. Like, when you go to see a movie, inevitably you talk about whether you liked it.. I don’t really see a series; I see a few episodes and a few specials. If we had weekly romps each individual episode wouldn’t have to be The Next Big Thing. A clunker now and then would be fine. Every episode of Gilligan’s Island wasn’t perfect, right?