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Reset for Adventure: Has Stephen Moffat Salvaged the Reset Button?

Next week sees the season finale of Stephen Moffat’s first season as showrunner on the rather excellent Doctor Who. I have to admit that – with one or two minor misgivings – I’ve had a (space)whale of a time, just we’ll save that for the inevitable review. However, being the sort of meta-textual guy that I am, I love that Moffat has managed to balance both integrating this new iteration of the franchise (created and, despite what some naysayers would have you believe, served very well by Russell T. Davies) and connecting with the established history (note, for example, how many times we have seen flashbacks of the original eight versions of the character in these eleven episodes alone). What, however, has really grabbed me about this run of episodes is that fact that Moffat has seemingly decided to take one of the most common elements of Davies’ season finales – a reset button – and stretch it out over an entire season. In effect, he seems to be attempting to reclaim one the storytelling crutches that his predecessor arguably relied upon too heavily, but use it in an interesting and creative manner.

If the walls had eyes...

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The Beastly Side: The Beast Below

Remember last week how I was said I was going to wait until the end of the year to post up one big post-season analysis of Matt Smith’s first season as the Doctor? Yeah, well I’m still gonna do that. But while the episodes still give us food for thought, I might want to post my thought on a given hour (or, in this case, the first episode of the show under an hour long in about two years). Maybe next week I’ll have nothing more to post than simply the fact that spitfires in space represent the coolest concept ever.

The belly of the beast...

Note: This post contains spoilers for The Beast Below, the second episode of the fifth season of Doctor Who (and if you’re going to argue about the given season number, you know exactly which season I’m talking about). I’ll flag them in the article below before I reach them, but consider yourself warned.

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The Doctor is In: Thoughts on The Eleventh Hour…

The Russell T. Davies era of Doctor Who is officially over. The man who revived the franchise has departed, passing the reigns to Stephen Moffat. Similiarly, David Tennant has hung up his iconic brown trechcoat, to be replaced by virtual unknown Matt Smith. The Eleventh Hour, the opening salvo of the show’s fifth season since its return to television, aired tonight on the BBC and we were impressed. Mighty impressed, might we add. This isn’t a review (I’ll do a year-end round up in about twelve weeks), just some thoughts on this new era in television’s longest running science fiction show, based on a sixty-minute opening episode – particularly  on the Doctor-Companion relationship. There are minimal spoilers within. 

“Anywhere you want, any time you want… one condition: it has to be amazing.” 

– The Doctor

"Run!"

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The Indestructable Daleks…

I’ll confess. I loved the malevolent pepperpots. The only plumbers hell-bent on galactic domination, the Daleks are arguably even more famous than Doctor Who, the show that spawned them. Stick an image of a Dalek in front of anyone and they’ll recognise it, even if they can’t name it. Whatever of their invasion plans, their infiltration plans seem to have come to fruition. But are these most famous of arch-foes over-exposed? Should they be forcibly taken away from the powers that be at the new series for at least a few years?

Wonder what their depth-perception is like?

Wonder what their depth-perception is like?

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Doctor Who? Premature Guessing Games on Stephen Moffat’s Season

The Tennant/Davies era of New Doctor Who is well-and-truly over. Despite fandom’s speculations about what a Doctor Who panel at Comic Con means (movie! movie! movie!), it seems that – for the moment at least – the most recent incarnation of the Timelord has made room for his replacement. Filming began yesterday on the first episodes produced by Stephen Moffat and starring Matt Smith as the lovable time traveler. Of course, the photos started showing up around noon. So, what do we make of the newest actor in the role? What do we expect from Moffat as a showrunner (as compared to Davies)? Do we know anything at all?

Who is he? He is Who...

Who is he? He is Who...

Note: This article contains spoilers. Lots and lots and lots of spoilers, based off rumours about Tennant’s departure and the set photos revealed yesterday.

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