Steven Moffat is an evil genius. No one can truly deny that. From the stolidly creepy Empty Child, to the genuinely terrifying Weeping Angels, to the all too forgettable Silents (get it?), he has a hotline to our childhood fears and he makes regular calls. He is also adept at bringing forth the tears, a la “Angels Take Manhattan”, or killing Rory, again and again. The man in unquestionable a brilliant writer.

But how does he stack up as a showrunner? There is some serious “Moffat Hate” out there, but is that simply a very vocal minority? Does his freedom and lack of supervision lead to a lack of control? We explore these and many other aspects of the man, the myth, the Moff.

  • Blogger criticism: Give up DW to focus on Sherlock?

    • “Moffat’s run on the series has been fraught with criticism which has hampered his Doctor, from convoluted stories (the Christmas special) and lazy solutions to plot holes (jumping into other time streams) to his never-ending series of puzzling quotes about women on the show.”

  • Hypable: Too many weak points in the plot?

    • “When events can be explained away by a giant reset button (Season 5), a robot filled with tiny people (Season 6), or a quick jump into someone else’s timestream (Season 7), it allows writers to go off the rails without planning any real way to reign things back in. It is a problem often faced by fantasy and science-fiction stories, and is one that has undermined the success of Moffat’s era of “Doctor Who.” In “Sherlock,” it is crucial that the showrunner(s) know the end game before they plan out the problem. The constraints of real life mean that the story is more organized, planned out, and better executed. Moffat is unable to rely on a quick fix to tie up his complicated story lines — he must know the answer before he begins. And undoubtedly, Mark Gatiss plays a crucial role in creating a balance between the outlandish and the (somewhat) realistic.”

  • WhatCulture: Reasons why the Moffat era beats the RTD era

    • “I often find it baffling how shockingly overrated the Russell T Davies era of Doctor Who actually is, especially when you consider the people that praise his run so much seem to hate Steven Moffat’s so much. It’s baffling how hypocritical this is considering how much more guilty Russell’s era actually was of the very things people complain about in Moffat’s era.”

      • “Correct” (Classic) Doctor Portrayal

      • Companions better themselves

      • Never pulls death-defying endings out of nowhere

      • No over-importance for the sole sake of drama

      • More substance over style

      • Consequences when it matters

  • WhatCulture: In Defense of Moffat

    • “You can criticise River for being used too much and for being too central to the plot, but one thing that’s undeniable is that she’s the strongest female character seen on Doctor Who for a quite a while. Also, there are a few occasional implications that she’s bisexual. So think on that while you accuse Moffat of misogyny and homophobia.”

Moffat’s Writing Credits in Doctor Who

  • The Angels Take Manhattan

  • Asylum of the Daleks

  • The Beast Below

  • The Bells of Saint John

  • The Big Bang

  • Blink

  • A Christmas Carol

  • The Curse of Fatal Death

  • The Day of the Doctor

  • Day of the Moon

  • The Doctor Dances

  • The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe

  • The Eleventh Hour

  • The Empty Child

  • Flesh and Stone

  • Forest of the Dead

  • The Girl in the Fireplace

  • A Good Man Goes to War

  • The Great Detective

  • The Impossible Astronaut

  • The Last Day

  • Let’s Kill Hitler

  • The Name of the Doctor

  • The Night of the Doctor

  • The Pandorica Opens

  • Silence in the Library

  • The Snowmen

  • (Time Crash)

  • The Time of Angels

  • The Time of the Doctor

  • The Wedding of River Song

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