The Problem With Stephen Moffat

I’ve just watched Silence In The Library and Forest Of The Dead, from Doctor Who Series Four.  It started as an exercise in charting River “Melody Pond” Song, but turned into a nostalgic longing for the days when Steven Moffat wasn’t the show runner, and just popped up once or twice a season as an extra-special treat.


I’d forgotten how much I used to look forward to the Moffat-penned episodes.  My first introduction to him was “The Empty Child” and “The Doctor Dances”.   before these episodes, you’d had classic Doctor Who aliens like the Autons and the Daleks and generic aliens-trying-to-take-over-the-Earth stories like “Aliens In London”.  With the exception of Paul Cornell’s “Father’s Day”, there was very little in the way of originality in the series, which seemed basically more of a homage to the classic series than something trying to find its own way.  In the first new series, it’s very hard to blame the producers for this; there was a lot of history there, they had a huge obligation to Classic fans to keep it interesting for them, and it generally worked for the Ninth Doctor’s tenure.  But “The Empty Child” and “The Doctor Dances” were completely different beasts.

The historical setting.  The introduction of Captain Jack, a time traveller from the 51st Century.  Malevolent forces having the ability to control things they really shouldn’t be able to.  The child, trapped in a gas mask, searching for his Mummy.  The young mother hiding the truth from her child.  Creepy abandoned buildings.  It was an old-fashioned horror tale clad in the trappings of the Who universe, and it was all new and wonderful.  But this is my point.  It WAS all new and wonderful.

Now, all these things that made Moffat’s episodes special have been overused to the point where I’m sick of them.  It seems to me that in trying to remove himself from the way Russell T Davies made the series (essentially fan fiction with a special effects budget), Moffat’s gone to the other extreme: he pays way too much attention to the things he has created himself, the stuff that had the spark of originality, and wrung any of that genius and creativity out of it.

Bear with me.

Moffat’s next episode was “The Girl In The Fireplace” from Series 2, the Tenth Doctor’s first series.  It was all new and exciting because it showed the Doctor dipping in and out of the same person’s life at different points in their timeline, and even falling a little bit in love.  The clockwork robots were a beautifully designed and terrifyingly logical menace, the next in Moffat’s line of wholly original threats.  The story was engaging, showing what happens when the Doctor has such a huge, continuous influence on someone’s life.  There were some familiar repeated elements from the previous season, however.  The 51st Century reference.  The abandoned spaceship.  The robots controlling fireplaces and windows in Versailles.  But because Moffat was only writing one episode per season, repeated themes were no bad thing.  They put his mark on them and made them stand out from the rest.

Blink was the next, and I think possibly my favourite Doctor Who episode of all time.  The Weeping Angels are a truly marvellous creation.  You can’t kill them.  You can’t even blink, or they’ll get you.  The episode deals with the perils of time travel, of having to live your life in a different era to the one you were born in, it plays on primal fears like the dark and the feeling that someone is watching you, and even to this day I still warily eye stone statues wherever I go.  Again, it was Moffat’s only episode of the series and as a result, stood out and made a huge impact.  Despite the Doctor himself not showing up very often, his influence is all over the episode, and it’s just one of those things that’s pure perfection.
This episode is mostly a completely original Moffat creation, though if you really want to pick holes, certain themes are popping up again.  Criss-crossing timelines.  How time travel affects individuals.  But these ideas are presented wonderfully and again, in the context of the series over-all, quite stand-alone.  When issues like this are explored so rarely, they feel special and interesting and precious.  They were deviations from what had become the overblown norm, and were things to be savoured.

“Silence In The Library” and “Forest Of The Dead” were Steven Moffat’s last episodes for the Russell T Davies era, and you can really see him try to swing off in a different direction to show runner.  Here he started introducing stories and themes that became incredibly prominent when he took over.  The main one is of course River “Melody Pond” Song, but even within her story he begins repeating himself.  The 51st Century connection.  Someone who can time travel.  Someone who’s timeline criss-crosses the Doctor’s.  Someone who’s life has been vastly affected by the Doctor dropping in and out of it at different point.  Even the name of episode contains the word “silence” which we all know now becomes hugely important under Moffat’s rule.  It’s got a child in a pivotal role, as in “The Empty Child”; multiple realities; romance for the Doctor; an abandoned planet; Vashta NeradaTARDIS with a snap of his fingers.  The Doctor in the TARDIS.”  These two episodes basically being used here to set up Doctor Who from Series Five onwards.  This is were Moffat stopped being a shining beacon in the middle of what turned out to be expensive fan fiction and started striking out on his own.

In his very first episode as show runner, Moffat begins playing with the same themes.  Enemies that use your eyes to hide themselves, and take over technology to communicate with us.  The Doctor dipping in and out of someone’s timeline and changing the course of their life.  The introduction of Silence Will Fall as a series arc (though, in fairness, Davies had his series arcs too).  The repeated line of “The Doctor in the TARDIS”.

On a side note, taking account of the most recent series, could “Silence In The Library” be clever word play?  Amy is told that she will bring the silence - she gives birth to River - River’s in the Library… It is astonishing how long Moffat’s been working on this story.

“The Beast Below” mainly just continues the theme of Silence and cracks in things, but it also pushes the focus more strongly onto Amy, which is a continuing thing up to the most recent episode.  I like her character, but the show was never supposed to be about the companions.  You can see the Doctor start getting sidelined here, as Amy saves the day by recognising that the Doctor and the Star Whale are one of a kind, the last of their respective races (another theme of the series).

“Time Of The Angels” brings back both River Song and the Weeping Angels.  Also, the concept of data-ghosting.  It introduces the army of Clerics, who reappear in “A Good Man Goes To War”.  It mentions the Headless Monks, who also reappear in that episode.  There are cracks, criss-crossing timelines, 51st Century connections,  “spoilers”, handcuffs,  Pandoricas.  And again with the focus shifting from the Doctor to his companions.  Two very enjoyable episodes, I have no complaints about the entertainment value, but you have to admit that there are various things being repeated a tad too much.


I hope at this point I’ve given you enough evidence to back up my points.  Moffat works best when he is a guest writer, not the main event.  He’s at his best when terrifying you in “Blink” and “The Empty Child”, or giving you history with a sci-fi twist in “The Girl In The Fireplace”.  He’s brilliant at inventing monsters that make an impression on you after only one episode.  He’s at his best when he leaves you wanting more.  His mistake these days is to keep giving where he should withhold, and to keep dangling the bait with thing that he should just explain (one reason that the River = Amy’s daughter revelation was so underwhelming was because it had been dragged out so long).  Ideas that were once energising to the series are dragging it down and being worn thin, and making the show into the sort of convulated mess that Lost turned into.  I miss the days when a Steven Moffat episode was something rare and precious that made you count the days till you could watch it.  I can only hope that next season, with the River Song mystery finally out of the way, he’ll go back to his roots and pull something amazing out of the bag that will have us glued to our seats.