One of my new year’s resolutions was to post regularly on this site. This means that some of the time I will be writing ahead of time. It feels like a bit of a cheat but there you are.
Speaking of time did you see the Christmas Day episode of Doctor Who? It was unfortunately not very good. The Doctor Who episodes have, in my opinion, become far to complicated recently. Classic Who tended to be small scale. The base under siege stories were often very good. However now the Doctor has saved not only the Earth, not just the galaxy, but the entire freaking universe! Now let’s be clear. I thought the pandorica story was excellent. The disaster was caused by the TARDIS and solved by the Doctor and in that way wrapped up quite neatly.
Generally though the smaller scale stories are better. Part of the reason for this is how the audience relates to the situation. Everyone can understand the fear of run from the monster. However when the threat is planet wide the solution is complicated, might involve techno babble, and it can be a little difficult to follow.
For Christmas my mum got the first four seasons of new Who. I had forgotten how great it was. The stories were great. The Doctor and Rose faced many creatures and the stories were tight. Of course they dabbled in more complicated plots, Army of Ghosts, but they were still wonderful.
Complicated stories can work, and do, but it takes a very skilled writer to make them work. My own novel is too complicated for me because of all the characters and settings. I’m starting to work out the kinks though. One show that does complicated very well is Sherlock. Naturally I’ve just finished watching Sherlock. I think that the writer of Sherlock should have a talk with the writer of Doctor Who and… oh wait…
When Doctor Who returns with Peter Capaldi I hope that Doctor Who will get back to its routs. It is at its best when it tells simple stories with a few key characters.
Unstable Orbit 