#rewatchathon

someone somewhere described the show under Moffat as more ‘international’ than RTD

obviously that means more of an eye on the US market specifically

US focus was most pronounced with S6, with the debut & finale set partly in the US, and first full season to be broadcast on the same day in US and UK (you can tell I’ve been browsing wikipedia)

I’d also say that focus on the US market involved a certain genre-fication, more awareness of subscription cable niche audiences, more fanboy, less flagship family show (although still flagship domestically - playing to both audiences). Ngl, the fannish shit often appeals.

It paid off in the short-term ratings wise, but I think Moff era kinda lost its way narratively and character-wise

there was obviously a bit of an arc plan, given how much foreshadowing from S5 pays off. It’s actually surprisingly coherent on rewatch, a lot of things I remember making no sense work as part of the whole, although many of the reveals are weirdly fudged - biggest example being the TARDIS explosion, which isn’t explained at all when they focus on it, then gets a brief explanation seasons later. If you can forgive some deliberately fantasy/fairy tale narrative devices, it adds up much more as a multi-season marathon than it did at the time

meanwhile for all Moffat’s narrative obsession, the characters are inconsistently written, the women in the show especially suffer from this - with River’s S6 characterisation veering all over the place in service of plot, Amy getting the sharpest edge of the narrative edginess, and Clara being an amazingly underwritten ‘mystery’ in her first season.

Capaldi-era was a moderate improvement tho. Missy’s a definite problematic fave. Catherine Tregenna’s excellent story made me wish there were more than five woman writers out of like 100 writers in the history of televised Doctor Who.