Saturday 26 June 2010

Thank you, Steven Moffat

Having just watched the season finale of Steven Moffat's Doctor Who - a reboot, let's face it, rather than just a follow-up to Mr Davies' Who - I can honestly say that I've had more fun watching Doctor Who this series than any other bar the one with Christopher Ecclestone.

I've complained, at times, that they've tried to fit too much into one episode, or spread a story over two episodes that would have been far tighter had it been a single episode. I've enjoyed it all, though... Even the 'bad' episodes were better than anything but the very best episodes over the last two series... and those were written by Steven Moffat.

The biggest difference, I think, is that Moffat uses time travel in a way that it's rarely been used throughout Doctor Who's long history. It's not just a case of beginning an episode by arriving at a new place in space and time, there's time travel within some episodes... Time travel is even the whole point of some episodes.

So, the final episode is not only full of time travel, it is the source of the problem at the beginning of the series, and the solution to the problem, and the route by which the solution is discovered.

Throughout the episode, I laughed at the humour and, by the end, I was laughing for the sheer joy of Doctor Who done right.

It couldn't have ended any other way.

And what's next? An Egyptian Goddess? Running loose on the Orient Express? In Space?

Steven Moffat, you are full made of win.

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