SHOW LINK: Oy!Spaceman Podcast: "Split Personalities" (City of Death)
Be sure to check out their back catalog of podcast episodes here. They have also started a blog for the podcast which you can find here.
Wednesday, September 16, 2015
My appearance on the Oi! Spaceman - A Doctor Who Love Story Podcast
This week I make a guest appearance on the Oy! Spaceman - A Doctor Who Love Story podcast. I join hosts Daniel and Shana to review one of my favorite classic series episodes, "City of Death", and we also discuss the many problems we have with Moffat-era Who.
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Hi J.B.
ReplyDeleteIn anticipation of your first review of the new season (if you do reviews... and If you are interested in community views)... here is one perspective to add to the fray:
It seems that over the past 3 years the show has slowly, but steadily, evolved into:
A live-action anime/cartoon that wishes it were the Star Wars prequels with dialogue written for children combined with plenty of themes for adults (themes not depth or exploration... no time between the edits and lazers).
Moffat continues to resort to the same over-sexualized tropes for female characters (flirt, kiss, constantly talking about sexuality and relationships = character!). "Between you and me James Joyce was a great kisser." Does that joke work? Nah... because he's a MAN and not a writer of silly romance novels... and you know... not hot. Like Jane was. Cause she's a woman. ;) We can't talk about a women without talking about sex or relationships on this show, right? And the master is a woman now, so lets make that sub-text... TEXT! Boy, I'm looking forward to the next few months of essays on the Mary Sue.
The plotting was again, largely nonsensical, and driven solely by emotional beats Moffat wanted to hit, which then carried little to no weight after the thread "resolves". Only the Davros thread continued without easily avoidable gaps in logic and had some emotional follow through...it was bare bones, but still he managed to connect the two dots correctly.
While there are a handful of fine, but brief, set pieces in this first episode (e.g., Karn looks excellent and the main actor who plays the leader of Karn was top-notch as usual), the production values have devolved to a new low for a season opener since the Moffat era started. (Admittedly, the context is much more ambitious than the Eleventh Hour.) The music, editing, and sets all seemed a bit loose and haphazard. The guitar scene was especially embarrassingly shot and edited, and the sound mix was way off.
Strangely, much of this episode felt like it was written by a 50 year old for a tween audience in the context of the 1990s (perhaps it was cribbed from the "lost" script to Encino Man 3). E.g., "Hand Minds"... classic. ;) Bows and arrows against lazers?! put it in... and look out Beastmaster 3! Teaching Renaissance folk to say "Dude"... ROTFL... playing "Pretty Woman" on guitar (poorly dubbed) while wearing Risky Business shades... kids love Rock and Roll. Plucky school teacher "schools" the most advanced military organization on strategy...Hackers meets If Looks Could Kill without the soundtracks reminding us to party.
In all seriousness, it's ok TV for 11-13 year olds. However, it's great for adults to watch and discuss/criticize with friends, neighbors and strangers on the internet. It's not hate watching. There's no point in that. It's as if Moffat has continued to gift the sci-fi and geek media community and fandom only the finest in modern fodder for MST3K-like humorous deconstruction with problematic sexist writing (and other highlights) to add another layer of depth to the ensuing conversation.
Or... if I listen to the wise words of podcasts like Reality Bomb... any word uttered against the show is "hate" and... so I must be a soulless devil and contradicted myself just a few sentences earlier. Hooray!
Oh boy, I could write about this single episode for quite a while, but will leave you in peace... Instead, I'll look forward to the opinions of others...such as yourself... great podcaster in the cloud... even positive ones.
Hooray for quality television! Thanks J.B.