Squeeing fit to knock bats out of the sky
Jun. 9th, 2007 08:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
neadodsDoctor Who and the Curse of Fatal Death
The Empty Child
The Doctor Dances
The Girl in the Fireplace
Blink
Stephen Moffat is made of 100% weapons-grade awesome coated with fabulousness and covered with sprinkles of pure win.
Under the cut, I'll get into the spoiler portion of the proceedings, with some actual content.
Oh, there are a couple of loose threads. Why was Sally taking pictures in the first place? How did the angels get the key? A couple of words to fix that wouldn't have gone amiss.
Y'know what I love about Moffat? It's that although his stories are all based on the same general premise, they work so beautifully and are individually unique.
Think about it. With the exception of Fatal Death (which was a parody and thus has its own rules), his stories have several things in common:
1) The villain is remote and unswayable. Moffat doesn't do the over the top "I am determined to prove a villain" kind of baddie. Good, because that kind is always stilted and boring and that's why I hate 'em all. (Which is why I regard the rumors regarding Mr. Saxon with a certain eye-rolling loathing.) Nor does Moffat do the "I'm not a villain, I'm a good guywho does bad things; a more subtle and interesing protagonist.
His are always remote, alien, things doing what those things do. Nanogenes and clockwork droids following their programming. Vampire statues from the dawn of time just trying to eat. They do not brag. They do not negotiate. They just *do,* with no particular regard to humanity at all.
2) The stories are scary as crap. Never thought you'd practically wet yourself at the sound of a small child calling "Mummy?" did you? Or a clock ticking? Or a grave angel? Admit it, how many of you twitched at the icon now?
And yet, frightening as they are, 3) the body count is very low. "Everybody lives!" the Doctor jubilated at the end of EC/DD. Of all the people we "knew" in GitF only one died, and that was of natural causes in the proper time. In Blink, scary as the angels are, they didn't actually *kill* anyone, and the two people we know who were dumped back in time seem to have made fairly decent lives for themselves and made the best of it. (Which seems to be exactly what "Sparrow and Nightengale" seem to be doing for themselves in the present... making the best of their situation for themselves.)
He writes scary stories full of hope and with more than a little humor. And that's a genre I adore.
Now all I want to do is reread the original short story from the 2006 annual, and I can't lay my hands on it, damnit! Hope it bubbles back to the surface in the crap, because replacing anything with the Ninth Doctor is either impossible or expensive (and sometimes both).
The Empty Child
The Doctor Dances
The Girl in the Fireplace
Blink
Stephen Moffat is made of 100% weapons-grade awesome coated with fabulousness and covered with sprinkles of pure win.
Under the cut, I'll get into the spoiler portion of the proceedings, with some actual content.
Oh, there are a couple of loose threads. Why was Sally taking pictures in the first place? How did the angels get the key? A couple of words to fix that wouldn't have gone amiss.
Y'know what I love about Moffat? It's that although his stories are all based on the same general premise, they work so beautifully and are individually unique.
Think about it. With the exception of Fatal Death (which was a parody and thus has its own rules), his stories have several things in common:
1) The villain is remote and unswayable. Moffat doesn't do the over the top "I am determined to prove a villain" kind of baddie. Good, because that kind is always stilted and boring and that's why I hate 'em all. (Which is why I regard the rumors regarding Mr. Saxon with a certain eye-rolling loathing.) Nor does Moffat do the "I'm not a villain, I'm a good guy
His are always remote, alien, things doing what those things do. Nanogenes and clockwork droids following their programming. Vampire statues from the dawn of time just trying to eat. They do not brag. They do not negotiate. They just *do,* with no particular regard to humanity at all.
2) The stories are scary as crap. Never thought you'd practically wet yourself at the sound of a small child calling "Mummy?" did you? Or a clock ticking? Or a grave angel? Admit it, how many of you twitched at the icon now?
And yet, frightening as they are, 3) the body count is very low. "Everybody lives!" the Doctor jubilated at the end of EC/DD. Of all the people we "knew" in GitF only one died, and that was of natural causes in the proper time. In Blink, scary as the angels are, they didn't actually *kill* anyone, and the two people we know who were dumped back in time seem to have made fairly decent lives for themselves and made the best of it. (Which seems to be exactly what "Sparrow and Nightengale" seem to be doing for themselves in the present... making the best of their situation for themselves.)
He writes scary stories full of hope and with more than a little humor. And that's a genre I adore.
Now all I want to do is reread the original short story from the 2006 annual, and I can't lay my hands on it, damnit! Hope it bubbles back to the surface in the crap, because replacing anything with the Ninth Doctor is either impossible or expensive (and sometimes both).
