bagheera_san | The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe (Reply)

The good things:
- nothing infuriating about this episode
- the Doctor being a bit rubbish at various things but especially interior decorating (I rather like to think of interior decorating as a metaphor for the Doctor shaping the universe... into something that is a bit stupid and not very habitable) and childcare, and Madge telling him that he's rubbish
- Madge's coat
- Lily's coat... Lily was pretty cool in general
- Rory's terrible hair
- Manny from Black Books as random Androzani guy! Manny was the best thing about this episode.

The bad things:
- the plot was paper-thin
- Cyril. I really wish this kid had been eaten by a tree or something he was so dull and unsympathetic...
- Moffat and Women Fail (what! I hear you say. But this was all about how women are stronger than men and save the day! Yes. But a) it was very obvious that this was Moffat's way of saying "here! I have strong women!" and b) it just proves again that for Moffat there are only three acceptable roles for women: little girls, hot girls and mothers.) Props to the actresses, though, Lily was pretty good and Madge was rather charming.
- I really think Moffat should let other writers write more episodes because he's clearly struggling to come up with both original plots/ideas and original dialogue. Everything he writes sounds like he's imitating himself, if that makes sense. Once more, all the things that happened in this episode are things that happened in Moffat episodes before: apparently dead person is saved by deus ex machina, monsters that move when you don't look, a living forest that becomes dangerous, the Doctor and a little girl teaming up, stepping through doors/portals into a new world, the TARDIS is broken, people in spacesuits, the Doctor comes back to meet the same people again after some years and magically make everything better like some megalomaniac fairy godmother...
- "the Doctor is a lonely, lonely man and humans become his adopted family to make him happy" is, arguably, THE oldest story in Who history, but even old and good tropes can be overused to the point where they feel like meaningless ciphers. Also, Amy once again fails by not slapping him in the face and hugging him way too quickly.
- In related news: why does the show create a situation where the Doctor pretends to be dead for vague plot reasons and then does absolutely nothing with it? You could have done interesting things with that, in my opinion, like the Doctor having to pretend to be someone else (which would be HARD for him) or using this to work out some Seven-ish plot against the bad guys. A pointless twist AND a wasted opportunity.

Just generally I wish New Who would stop trying to pander to its audience (creepy monsters! strong women! little kids! we KNOW you like this stuff) so much and just tell genuinely good stories. I know the temptation - sometimes I sit down and think, "I'm going to write a really popular story that everyone in fandom will love, because fandom loves Ten/Simm and BDSM and OOC fluff and double rainbows and the Doctor saying "reverse the polarity of the neutron flow" a lot" but it never works because this isn't how you tell a good story. Or let me put it this way: even if you REALLY love chocolate, you can't bake a chocolate cake without flour and eggs and salt and baking powder to keep it all together and make it rise.