I know, the BBC series has been around longer than I have been (and I'm 19). So there's a lot of history there, and there's always been an impudent sense of humour embedded in the whole enterprise. The Doctor is a lot of things, but he's always been a little bit mischievous. He's the guy who goes around the universe poking things with a stick (or a sonic screwdriver) just to see what might happen, and no alien crisis is without its share of quips and tart observations.
But I'm finding that the combination of Steven Moffat as show runner and Matt Smith as the Doctor is proving especially fruitful in the humour department. I've largely enjoyed the current season of "Doctor Who," which begins a 2-episode conclusion this Saturday on BBC America, but the sense of deliberate structure, the chemistry between Karen Gillan as Amy and Smith as the Doctor and the sharp humour may be my favourite aspect's of the Eleventh Doctor's first set of adventures.
I loved me some Russell T Davies but there was always a chaotic element to his seasons of the show. It's not that he never foreshadowed events or built up to big conclusions, but, under his leadership, the show sometimes hurtled from dud to brilliance to middling competence without necessarily giving the viewer an overall sense of where things were headed. Davies' finest hours tended to be the two- and three-partners on "Doctor Who" and the "Torchwood: Children of Earth" miniseries -- contained stories that always ratcheted up the dread and tension nicely. My sense is that Davies is a writer who works best when he knows the end point of a story before he starts to write it.
1 comments:
Matt Smiths, or if he's sticking to the scrip, Moffats humour I find to be in a more humbling and self depreciating tone.
What we perceive to be the actors character is really spawned in the writers mind.
Also what was first written might be modified several times before the final line is delivered.
Some of the best qualities of humour is the spontaneity and originality of the quip.
So imagine the difficulty of rehearsing the same same gag and how that would sound to the writers ear before he'd want to tweak it one way or another.
Eccleston had 5 different writers that included Moffat and Davies.
Tennant had about 18 writers.
It does put a different perspective on the shows when you look at them grouped by writers rather than order of appearance.
One thing I'd like to see is seasons 16 - 17 when Douglas Adams took over as script editor and even penned a few shows.
His deft touch of the sublime and ridiculous set the pattern for so much of the best use of wry and intelligent humour we see now.
Across the water we are deluged with US sitcoms, a vehicle that should have died out with disco and Tiny Tim.
The same six jokes with an added laugh track milked for all it's worth.
The only time I saw it attempted in DW was in Love & Monsters with the chase scene of Rose, the Doctor and some generic alien from one room to the next.
Sorry Davies, just too derivative and trite.
Tennant has has the talent and experience for comedy if given the material. He does have that leg up on Smith.
But
This years structured story arc gave room for more lighthearted and playful interaction. Most of the funny scenes Tennant had was in conflict with Donna.
So, yeah. This was probably the funnierest season and as an assignment, everyone should read or reread all of the Douglas Adams books over this summer.
And yes, there will be a test in September, now get revising ;)
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