Our Imposter Syndrome cancels out our Dunning-Kruger

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Elizabeth Sandifer

Elizabeth Sandifer created Eruditorum Press. She’s not really sure why she did that, and she apologizes for the inconvenience. She currently writes Last War in Albion, a history of the magical war between Alan Moore and Grant Morrison. She used to write TARDIS Eruditorum, a history of Britain told through the lens of a ropey sci-fi series. She also wrote Neoreaction a Basilisk, writes comics these days, and has ADHD so will probably just randomly write some other shit sooner or later. Support Elizabeth on Patreon.

16 Comments

  1. Jarl
    January 23, 2015 @ 12:10 am

    In America, this was the only way to see the uncut version broadcast. The broadcast version eliminates a huge amount of material. For example, Martha goes right from disappearing from her mother's house to being with all three Osterhagen stations. Terrible, terrible edits. The Bad Wolf Bay scene is completely perfunctory in the BBC America cut.

    I guess it helps to drive up DVD sales, if nothing else…

    Reply

  2. Carey
    January 23, 2015 @ 12:59 am

    A well timed essay considering how here in the UK the first episode of Russell T Davies Cucumber was broadcast last night, and it really showcased Davies talents as a writer, and his differences from the current show runner. Moffat is, as you've said many times, a puzzle-box writer, with a gift for sit-com dialogue: he is brilliant at wit. Davies, meanwhile, self admittedly hasn't the patience for mystery writing: he wants to explore thear after-effects, and his dialogue… Davies is brilliant at constructing images from dialogue. There is a brilliant scene in Cucumber where the protagonist has a room full of people captivated with a fantasy about how a certain Hollywood actor must be gay simply because he must worship his own penis. It is the same sort of brilliance he brought to Doctor Who's best moments (Ruffello's brief appearance, "my planet is gone, Rose," and so many more. It is this, coupled with the energy he brought to the series that contributed to it's success (and possibly what people miss most since).

    When asked what David Tennant's Doctor was like, I think the correct answer is that he was Russell T Davies personified on screen: full of tall, charismatic, full of enthusiasm, but with a huge layer of darkness hiding underneath the surface. So it makes complete sense that Davies is celebrated as much as Tennant in this segment: unlike any other Doctor, I don't think the two are divisible.

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  3. David Anderson
    January 23, 2015 @ 1:07 am

    Phil used Idiot's Lantern as an example of a script not written with Tennant's particular strengths in mind.

    In the meantime, Tennant is doing anguished running around in Broadchurch. It's perhaps a bit more pulpy than the first series, but still doing quite well. It may be playing fast and loose with trial procedure, but it's doing a great job at looking at how the dramatic devices of the police procedural would look if they actually came up in a trial.

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  4. ScarvesandCelery
    January 23, 2015 @ 1:39 am

    I noticed a similar thing when I was watching "Last of the Time Lords" on Netflix the other day. They cut the scene where Francine turns the gun on the Master, but they keep the shot of her spotting the gun, so it's really jarring, and I'm still not quite sure why it was cut. Netflix doesn't seem like the place for a "somebody please think of the children" cut.

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  5. TheOncomingHurricane
    January 23, 2015 @ 2:12 am

    It's not that, it's because they've got the broadcast US version (whereas they have the uncut version of every other longer than average episode). If it was about the children, they wouldn't keep Lucy firing the gun. The Doctor's plan to get the laser screwdriver is also cut down, and the Master singing 'I Can't Decide' is sadly gone completely.

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  6. IG
    January 23, 2015 @ 3:02 am

    You say that Carey, but Steven Moffat has finally managed to cast an acerbic, curly-haired, 50-something Scotsman as the Doctor 🙂

    Reply

  7. Blueshift
    January 23, 2015 @ 3:22 am

    That's interesting. I know the song was cut for licensing reasons, presumably they grabbed the US broadcast version of the ep rather than cut it out of the final ep, for ease? Very odd.

    That said, Netflix also have the US intros with the voiceover on series 6, which are horrid and jarring and I wish they'd get the proper versions.

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  8. Blueshift
    January 23, 2015 @ 3:24 am

    You know, I actually find the decision to just all-out celebrate the Tennant era interesting, as there would surely be the temptation to try and historicise him, insofar as 'Tennant paving the way for the current show' as opposed to 'The Tennant era was the most popular era of the show in history, and even though this current era is popular, it isn't as popular or culturally relevant as Tennant'. Though maybe in America that isn't quite true, as it was during the Smith era that the show really broke out. Certainly in the uk, while the show is still ridiculously popular, the Tennant era was insanely popular.

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  9. ScarvesandCelery
    January 23, 2015 @ 3:35 am

    @theoncominghurricae That makes sense – I wasn't actually seriously entertaining the "protect the children" option for the reasons you give.

    @blueshift I don't actually mind the "my name is Amy Pond" intros – they give series six its own unique feeling, which I appreciate.

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  10. Katherine Sas
    January 23, 2015 @ 6:49 am

    Ha! You're both so right. But that makes Eccleston and Smith as interesting – two Doctors decisively different in personality from their showrunners? Hmm… I'll have to think about that, but there's something there.

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  11. Katherine Sas
    January 23, 2015 @ 6:59 am

    What a lovely little write-up. Among all the Davies and Moffat fans bickering, it's nice to have eras just celebrated for and confident in what they do well. And you're right, he really was a solid foundation as far as a leading man. It's one of my favorite things about Tennant's Doctor – his flexibility. Put him in any episode/story and he'd tune himself to the piece. Not that the others are too rigid, but with Smith's Doctor, for example, he's always emphatically himself. I find both approaches valid and enjoyable in their own way. Actually, just as you say that the Moffat era has experimented with different genres and tones of storytelling through its use of narrative and cinematography, Tennant largely did through characterization.

    I understand why you say it's refreshing to skip the dramatic, emo, rainy goodbye scenes – it risks becoming the cliche of the era rather than looking at what else Tennant could do – but if my one issue with that is that it DOES skip over what I think was his big, iconic thing which sets him apart and that was his relationship to his companions. Don't get me wrong – all Doctors clearly have strong bonds with their companions, and Tennant is far from the only emotional Doctor – but there's a quality of openness and demonstrativeness that I think is unique to him, and it does come across most strongly in those farewell scenes. While I don't like for him to only be pigeonholed as the "emo Doctor", there is a truth in the hyperbole. But that's okay. As you say, maybe it's too soon to say what he'll be remembered for and why he was so successful. On to Mr. Smith!

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  12. David Anderson
    January 23, 2015 @ 7:57 am

    Tennant and Capaldi are the notorious Doctor Who fans.

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  13. encyclops
    January 23, 2015 @ 8:52 am

    When asked what David Tennant's Doctor was like, I think the correct answer is that he was Russell T Davies personified on screen: full of tall, charismatic, full of enthusiasm, but with a huge layer of darkness hiding underneath the surface.

    I was just going to ask "so how DO we characterize Tennant's Doctor?" and I think you nailed it. Nicely framed.

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  14. encyclops
    January 23, 2015 @ 9:04 am

    "The Stolen Earth"/"Journey's End" does make sense from a certain point of view — it's got the full smorgasbord of companions, lots of elements from the previous few seasons, two versions of Tennant, the diverted regeneration, and so on — but it does make me question who these specials are really for. You'd think that the interview/clip stuff leading up to the episode would be directed at casual fans or people less familiar with the show, right?

    But if that's the case, what sense does it make to follow that up with a two-parter that begins with (what is almost) the end of Tennant's era? What, do these relative newbies then go back and watch from "The Christmas Invasion" knowing what happens with not only Rose but also Donna, Martha, and Harriet Jones, not to mention Dalek "James" Caan (or whichever one it was) and a number of other characters and threads? I know a good set of stories can survive being spoiled, but it's rather a strange place to begin.

    So are these specials more for completist fans to enjoy a retrospective and then buy an episode they almost certainly already own? Or is the problem just an accident of the choices available for the Tennant era (and we had the same problem to a lesser extent with "Bad Wolf/Parting," really)?

    I mean, whatever. I'm pretty sure I saw the first and last episodes of Twin Peaks before I saw a lot of the ones in the middle and it never stopped me. It's just odd to imagine what goes through the heads of the presumably extant handful of people who watch these episodes for the first time on these specials.

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  15. peeeeeeet
    January 23, 2015 @ 12:43 pm

    Somebody or other – it might have been Eric Saward – said that when JNT cast Colin he basically cast himself…

    Reply

  16. ferret
    January 24, 2015 @ 12:37 pm

    The "must be about 90 minutes" format is a bit limiting, I don't see why they felt they couldn't possibly show 2 disconnected but representative episodes instead – especially for Ecclestone.

    Reply

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