Shutting Up
Further on what I say below, whereas Davies’ version of Who was all about people asking the right questions, never mind the answers — the answers don’t matter — Moffat’s Who is all about these supposedly grand truths, facts, that the scripts dangle just outside the viewer’s grasp. It’s all about the answers; the answers are all that matters, and we won’t tell you what they are.
And also… and maybe this is just me, but I’m astonished with just how often (it’s very often) characters in Moffat’s Who tell each other to “shut up”. It seriously seems like at least once per episode.
I grew up in a household where everyone kept telling everyone else to shut up, and it was not a healthy place to be in. No one talked to anyone, or was interested in what anyone else had to say. Since I’ve gotten older and gotten around a little more, I get taken aback when I hear people say this. It’s just so incredibly rude, and arrogant.
The production and structure of Moffat’s show may follow very closely from Davies’, but its ethos is almost the opposite. It’s not about curiosity and reason; it’s about being quiet while someone else tells you what to think. And I don’t like it.