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  1. #1
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    Default Moffat's Biggest Regret

    Steven Moffat reveals his biggest regret from his time on Doctor Who:

    When asked what he would change if he could, Moffat said: "I'd change all my mistakes but that would be exhausting."

    He then added: "There's one mistake that rankles me to this day because it's just wrong. There's a scene at the end of a season 5 episode called 'Flesh and Stone' where Amy (Karen Gillan) comes on to the Doctor (Matt Smith) and it's a very good idea for a series because she's been through this traumatic experience and she doesn't quite know who or what the Doctor is or what his interest is in her.

    "There's a brilliant scene to be written there and I entirely avoided writing it. I played it for laughs and it's so wrong."

    And his biggest triumph?

    Moffat added that he was most proud of "not screwing up 'The Day of The Doctor'", especially given there were "many opportunities for me to screw it up and screwing it up is something I'm really good at".

    It's hard to argue there.

    What would be your biggest hits and boobs of the Moffat Years

  2. #2
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    Interesting that - at the time, I think that last scene of Flesh and Stone caused some considerable debate (well, online anyway).

    I'd say perhaps his biggest hit was Matt Smith, and somehow managing to make the show (at least between 2010-2013) even bigger than it had been before then.

    Boobs... well, too much hype. 'Every Dalek ever', 'one of these characters will die', 'a huge stunning cliffhanger'. Don't big up something which you can't deliver on, that would be where the Moffat years failed for me. There were individual stories that were a bit naff (although generally by guest writers, not the Moff) and I didn't enjoy series six being one long epic (although a lot of others did) but it's where our expectations were unreasonably (and foolishly) built up that I think his 'showrunnering' let him down.

    And he's right, The Day of The Doctor could have been a disaster but for me at least worked brilliantly as a summing up and a celebration of everything I love about Doctor Who - plus just when you think it's all over, Tom Baker appears!!!

  3. #3

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    My biggest problem has been with people being killed off and then coming back to life. Okay, I'm not the greatest fan of the current tendency to kill off major characters, but when you kill them off and bring them back repeatedly it utterly destroys the effect. Adric dying was quite shocking. Bill being turned into a Cybermen; not really. By that point you expected she would be brought back somehow.

    Quote Originally Posted by Andrew Curnow View Post
    plus just when you think it's all over, Tom Baker appears!!!
    Everything is better with Tom Baker.

  4. #4

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    Of his three Christmas Specials only three were great "A Christmas Carol","The Snowmen" and "Last Christmas".
    Being preoccupied with Sherlock cost us a series. And for all the radicalism of Doctor Who, more liberties were taken with that other show which got terrible long before .
    He was good at giving opportunities to new writing talent.
    His own stories mistook Epic with time length as opposed to the dramatic set up. I know it happened in The Deadly Assassin, but narration has no place in this show! "Changing viewer trends" or not.
    Didn't live up to Blink but wasn't a disaster as some Internet would declare.
    Although "The Doctor, The Widow & The Wardrobe" and "The Return Of Doctor Mysterio" happened on his watch.
    Last edited by Dino; 24th Jul 2017 at 12:11 AM.

  5. #5
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    Quote Originally Posted by egdcltd View Post
    My biggest problem has been with people being killed off and then coming back to life. Okay, I'm not the greatest fan of the current tendency to kill off major characters, but when you kill them off and bring them back repeatedly it utterly destroys the effect. Adric dying was quite shocking. Bill being turned into a Cybermen; not really. By that point you expected she would be brought back somehow.
    Yep, that, 100%.

    Best things about Moffat: Casting Matt Smith, Amy & Rory, Bill, pretty much all of the episodes he wrote alone bar some of the Christmas Specials, getting in great guest writers like Richard Curtis, Neil Gaiman and Simon Nye.

    Worst things: Clara, especially the way he made her such an important part of the Doctor's past. Danny Pink, who could have been a great character but just became annoying. The flying Brigadier. Using Chris Chibnall and Mark Gatiss way too often.
    "RIP Henchman No.24."

  6. #6
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    I think the worst thing has been people being too glib and clever, not enough vulnerability. Every female character has talked in one-liners. I don't know what the whole Oswin Oswold thing was all about, a real mistake that. And many times I longed for a story to just start traditionally, not throw you into the middle of a situation and leave you scrabbling to catch up.

    Best thing was his ideas - I don't know how he kept coming up with good ideas and keeping the series fresh for that long.

    Si.

  7. #7
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    Best thing was his ideas - I don't know how he kept coming up with good ideas and keeping the series fresh for that long.
    I agree with that. There are certain Moffat Tropes that turn up time and again (How many stories feature barns, for example?) but he always manages to surprise. You kind of knew what to expect with an RTD series finale, but Moffat's have been all over the place. We got a story with no apparent monster (Listen) and just the Doctor on his own (Heaven Sent).

    Even the format of the show was constantly changing. Splitting the season in two! Doing all one-parters! Doing all two-parters until it got too hard! Expanding your worst story into a three/four part story arc in the middle like a bloody albatross round the neck of the season! It's almost as if the production of Doctor Who was a great rambling ball of chaos-ey-whaos-ey stuff.

    Biggest mess up for me was the pushing the boundaries of taste and decency way beyond any acceptable limits in Death In Heaven. I think it's the worst Doctor Who episode of all time. Some of the other disappointments I would class as "A bit limp" or "Doesn't really make sense" but Death In Heaven is horrendous.
    Pity. I have no understanding of the word. It is not registered in my vocabulary bank. EXTERMINATE!

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