MOFFAT TO DEMATERIALIZE - NOT BEFORE TIME...

Hooray!  STEVEN MOFFAT's leaving DOCTOR WHO!  From penning some of the best episodes under RUSSELL T. DAVIES' tenure, he went on to oversee (and write) some of the most self-indulgent geek-fests the programme's ever been prone to.  My one reservation about his replacement, CHRIS CHIBNALL, is that he's also a long-time Doctor Who fan, which means he may likewise aim the programme at the anoraks, instead of a wider audience as RTD did when it was revived in 2005.

I'm hoping that PETER CAPALDI stays with the show for quite a bit longer.  He's been poorly-served by banal stories and prattling dialogue, so it would be good to see what he's capable of given some intelligent scripts, and plotlines which involve more than merely running through claustrophobic corridors with doors opening and closing behind and in front of either him or his companions.  What the programme needs is scripts of the quality of STAR TREK's 'CITY On The EDGE Of FOREVER'.

It would also be a very good idea to reintroduce some tension between the Doctor and his companion(s), of the kind that existed between the first Doctor and his original fellow travellers.  I found the over-familiarity of CLARA (and her predecessors), and the running banter 'twixt her and the Doctor (like that of a comedy double-act) extremely tedious.  The companion should always harbour some doubt about the Doctor, and perhaps even fear him a little.  We need that tension.

Remember when Clara slapped the Doctor?  Not only would there've been a stushie had that happened in reverse, it instantly robbed him of his authority and dignity - and all for the sake of a cheap laugh.  (Sadly, violence by women against men seems to be more acceptable on TV.  What a message to give out.)  He's a 1000-odd year-old time-traveller for goodness' sake - not a naughty little brother.  The Doctor should be held in awe and respect by the companions - with a fair serving of fear and suspicion as well.  That's the way to go.

So hopefully Capaldi will stick around and do the Doctor the way he should be done. Let's just hope he loses the sunglasses and the guitar though - these desperate attempts to be 'down wiv the kids' are simply ridiculous.  The show's played for laughs far too often - it's well-past time it returned to being serious drama.  And one thing I hope future writers will take on board is that not every story has to be SF-orientated (apart from the inclusion of the TARDIS, obviously - that's a given).

Here's a novel idea: How about a straight action-adventure or mystery tale set in the past?  Now that would make for an interesting change of pace, and may even reverse the declining viewing figures.

Okay, I'm now strapped into the stocks, and rotting fruit is available - fire away!

CONNECTIONS...

Our old house is the 2nd one from the left

Here's a post about nothing in order to give me something to write about.  When, in 1972, my family moved from our old house to the one in which I currently reside, a friend of my mother's (from our former neighbourhood) became friends with the woman with whom we'd swapped dwellings.  So not only did my mother's chum visit our new home, she also continued to visit our old one to see her new friend.  Given that she may well have gone from one house to the other in the same day, it strikes me that it sort of continued a connection between the two abodes.

What's more, our new next-door neighbour would often visit her old neighbour in our former house, again continuing a connection between both houses and neighbourhoods.  Not that I was aware of that thought at the time - it only really occurred to me relatively recently, and I find it strangely fascinating that my mother's friend would go from one house to the other with carefree abandon, never realizing that she provided a link between our old and new residences.  Is there anyone else who finds that thought as oddly and compulsively compelling as I do?

Nah, didn't think so, but at least it killed some time.