Blessed be Clara & Moffat forever. Can we just appreciate just how life-affirming Moffat’s writing is?
I know he has a reputation as the scary one, as a troll, and it’s justified, but he isn’t dark or needlessly cruel. His best stories are the ultimately optimistic ones. Everybody lives, etc. It’s RTD whose stories are *better* when they are dark and gritty (see Turn Left, Midnight, Waters of Mars. I think it’s because he is more pessimistic about human nature, life, and the universe in general, so he often struggled in the family-friendly DW framework.)
Don’t get me wrong, I love Game of Thrones, but in a culture where we are constantly being bombarded by pessimism, by darkness and grittiness, where to be edgy is to be realistic, where to kill characters for the sake of killing them and shock value is considered a great move, where to be cynical is to be wise and laughter and hope are naïve…how much of a breath of fresh air is a Doctor Who that resoundingly goes “No, the Doctor always has been and always will be a kind and hopeful soul. And that is still important and relevant, dammit! Yes, compassion is right, love is never foolish, hope and kindness is what the Doctor stands for”? And then –shock– dares to gives happy endings to poor characters who deserve them, even the Doctor (!), and not always kick them when they’re down?
And then get blamed for not understanding grief (facepalm). In no way does Moffat Who deny the darkness; but it gives us good things in spite of it and maintains that those ultimately make it worth it. (It’s quite unconsciously Christian in that regard.) And I won’t give examples because I know that you’ll probably agree with me, so I’d be preaching to the choir (Though that great post of yours on The Doctor, the widow, and the wardrobe does come to mind). Plus, we’d be here all day.
But I will ramble a bit.
The whole thing with the sis is that besides being an absolute blast, it has also paved the way for some surprising, marvelous insights and currently relevant epiphanies through revisiting the old stuff. Case in point, the Series 5 finale. Besides it reminding me how much, and why I adore Eleven, and the obvious bit about the Doctor saving the day by being kind, duh, which you had noted and hoped for as early as 2010, high five, there was also a great quote in your Big Bang meta:
Why Moffat Is the Weird Trickster Eru Ilúvatar of DW; or as promethia put it in one word, “hopepunk”.
“In addition to its common meaning (hope), the Elvish word estel refers to a complex philosophical concept found in Elvish thought. This idea is best understood as *trust* or "faith", and the hope that comes from it: estel refers to the belief that Ilúvatar, the Creator of the Universe, is good and that his designs for his creatures will ultimately be good as well, despite the troubles that seem to plague Arda, this world. Certain knowledge of what is to happen to the Elves after the end of Arda has thus been withheld from them, so that all they can rely on is estel. The Elven-king Finrod Felagund explained estel as an idea that "is not defeated by the ways of the world, for it does not come from experience, but from our nature and first being. If we are indeed the Eruchin, the Children of the One, then He will not suffer Himself to be deprived of His own, not by any Enemy, not even by ourselves." "
Hope is not just what the story is about; it is in the fabric of the story itself. And it *can* be in the fabric of the story because we trust and have faith in the storyteller.
(We are both Tolkien fans, and yes, I have used this in the past: but now it is meta and conceptualized and important!)
Or, as you had put it:
Moffat to us: “It has never been more important that you trust me.” Audience: “But you don’t always tell me the truth.” (Rory died, Amy died, the Doctor was erased...) Moffat: "If I always told you the truth I wouldn't need you to trust me.”
Re: And when you see it, *I* see it
Can we just appreciate just how life-affirming Moffat’s writing is?
I know he has a reputation as the scary one, as a troll, and it’s justified, but he isn’t dark or needlessly cruel. His best stories are the ultimately optimistic ones. Everybody lives, etc. It’s RTD whose stories are *better* when they are dark and gritty (see Turn Left, Midnight, Waters of Mars. I think it’s because he is more pessimistic about human nature, life, and the universe in general, so he often struggled in the family-friendly DW framework.)
Don’t get me wrong, I love Game of Thrones, but in a culture where we are constantly being bombarded by pessimism, by darkness and grittiness, where to be edgy is to be realistic, where to kill characters for the sake of killing them and shock value is considered a great move, where to be cynical is to be wise and laughter and hope are naïve…how much of a breath of fresh air is a Doctor Who that resoundingly goes “No, the Doctor always has been and always will be a kind and hopeful soul. And that is still important and relevant, dammit! Yes, compassion is right, love is never foolish, hope and kindness is what the Doctor stands for”?
And then –shock– dares to gives happy endings to poor characters who deserve them, even the Doctor (!), and not always kick them when they’re down?
And then get blamed for not understanding grief (facepalm). In no way does Moffat Who deny the darkness; but it gives us good things in spite of it and maintains that those ultimately make it worth it.
(It’s quite unconsciously Christian in that regard.)
And I won’t give examples because I know that you’ll probably agree with me, so I’d be preaching to the choir (Though that great post of yours on The Doctor, the widow, and the wardrobe does come to mind). Plus, we’d be here all day.
But I will ramble a bit.
The whole thing with the sis is that besides being an absolute blast, it has also paved the way for some surprising, marvelous insights and currently relevant epiphanies through revisiting the old stuff. Case in point, the Series 5 finale. Besides it reminding me how much, and why I adore Eleven, and the obvious bit about the Doctor saving the day by being kind, duh, which you had noted and hoped for as early as 2010, high five, there was also a great quote in your Big Bang meta:
Why Moffat Is the Weird Trickster Eru Ilúvatar of DW; or as promethia put it in one word, “hopepunk”.
“In addition to its common meaning (hope), the Elvish word estel refers to a complex philosophical concept found in Elvish thought. This idea is best understood as *trust* or "faith", and the hope that comes from it: estel refers to the belief that Ilúvatar, the Creator of the Universe, is good and that his designs for his creatures will ultimately be good as well, despite the troubles that seem to plague Arda, this world. Certain knowledge of what is to happen to the Elves after the end of Arda has thus been withheld from them, so that all they can rely on is estel. The Elven-king Finrod Felagund explained estel as an idea that "is not defeated by the ways of the world, for it does not come from experience, but from our nature and first being. If we are indeed the Eruchin, the Children of the One, then He will not suffer Himself to be deprived of His own, not by any Enemy, not even by ourselves." "
Hope is not just what the story is about; it is in the fabric of the story itself. And it *can* be in the fabric of the story because we trust and have faith in the storyteller.
(We are both Tolkien fans, and yes, I have used this in the past: but now it is meta and conceptualized and important!)
Or, as you had put it:
Moffat to us: “It has never been more important that you trust me.”
Audience: “But you don’t always tell me the truth.” (Rory died, Amy died, the Doctor was erased...)
Moffat: "If I always told you the truth I wouldn't need you to trust me.”