Howling:Revisiting the why of the cracks

The Howling → Revisiting the why of the cracks

There be spoilers about un-released stories here.
Run back to the forums if you're scared.

Moffat told us repeatedly that the whole reason for the cracks/reboot plot was so he could remove aliens from public consciousness, so people in the 2011 Whoniverse would react to everything exactly the same way as people in the 2011 real world.

That all made sense at the time. But looking back, Amy didn't have a single adventure set in present day Earth since her first episode. When she finally did, after 2-1/2 years for us and 10 for her, the public reactions we saw were played as an intentional homage to the RTD era; The Power of Three would have gone down exactly the same way in, say, series 3. (Not to mention that it isn't even our present day, it's probably years in the future…) The Doctor did have two present-day adventures without her, but both of those were small stories where nobody had to deal with aliens but Craig and his family, so there was no payoff there either.

So, what was the point of resetting history? Was he spending 2-1/2 years setting up for next week, so Amy's final story can play out differently from an RTD finale? Is the fact that Amy's home time has always been a safe zone a plot point? Is the payoff even farther ahead, with the new companion? Or is it just that, for whatever reasons, Moffat never ended up writing a present-day story, so it all turned out to be for nothing? --70.36.140.233^{talk to me} 17:23, September 25, 2012 (UTC)

I reckon it was just a way of allowing Moffat to start from scratch. 94.72.194.203^{talk to me} 20:08, September 25, 2012 (UTC)

Night Terrors was also in the present day, but that doesn't really change any of your point. Moffat probably just wanted the option of setting an episode in the present day without people being used to alien invasions, and just never took advantage of it. I'm sure that it didn't help that right after his crack arc, RTD introduced the most impossible to notice ever event in human history in Torchwood.Icecreamdif ☎ 20:16, September 25, 2012 (UTC)

Icecreamdif, "the most impossible to notice ever event in human history": Is there a "not" missing from that? It would make sense as "the most impossible not to notice ever event in human history" but it makes none as it stands. --2.101.48.190^{talk to me} 22:52, September 25, 2012 (UTC)

I think Icecreamdif is right. Moffat gave himself a way to start over from scratch, but never used it. Maybe he could have used it last week, but by this point a "intentional homage to the RTD era" was more interesting. Still you have to wonder what kind of stories he was planning to do that he never got around to.

Yes, there was suppossed to be a "not" there. I suck at proofreading.Icecreamdif ☎ 00:03, September 26, 2012 (UTC)

Maybe I'm just oversensitive to this because I put so much effort into defending Moffat's plan to other fans, and it's disheartening to see it amount to nothing…

(Also, Icecreamdif, you're right about Night Terrors. And that raises the point that Amy and Rory weren't ahead at all until God Complex; a bit until a season after The Big Bang, it was a bit under a year later for them and for the main Earth timeline, although probably much more for the Doctor given what we saw in the DVD extras. But if that means anything, it belongs in another thread…) --70.36.140.233^{talk to me} 02:10, September 26, 2012 (UTC)

70: I don't think you're being oversensitive about the cracks plan. It has always had the serious problem that it made a high proportion of the fans very uneasy, even those like you (& me) who could understand & defend the rationale. It needed to be justified by achieving something -- basically, good stories that couldn't otherwise have worked -- that was worth all the effort Moffat & co. put into it and all the mental gymnastics it required of the audience and all the uneasiness it caused by meaning that some of the best stories of the RTD era "never happened" as far as most characters were concerned. At the moment, it seems to have achieved nothing at all. Moffat has every right to waste his own efforts (even if that seems foolish) but he's wasted the viewers' efforts, too. --89.242.70.19^{talk to me} 07:49, September 26, 2012 (UTC)

Addendum: I'm left with the impression that Moffat's a very ingenious fellow who can construct elaborate & devious plots, who enjoys being ingenious, who enjoys showing everyone how ingenious he is & who thinks ingenuity is enough -- but ingenuity without purpose isn't enough & he's not shown us he had a real purpose. --89.242.70.19^{talk to me} 08:11, September 26, 2012 (UTC)

89: Nicely put. I've been thinking that about Moffat lately too. Shambala108 ☎ 14:16, September 26, 2012 (UTC)

Well, it's just a small number of hardcore RTD fans who were uneasy; none of the mainstream casual viewers were turned off by it. Also, it was a good story, and it worked, and it got people talking. And, most of all, it's really the first time the show had an effective plot _about_ time travel, instead of just using it as a vehicle to visit history like it was a foreign planet, since the 2nd Doctor era. (The show has had some great parallel universe stories, from Inferno to Turn Left, but that's not the same thing.)

What bothers me is that Moffat doesn't seem to be sure which of his ideas are the best ones, and his enthusiasm is infectious, so we end up focusing on things that have no payoff. When people look back at series 5 today, it's The Big Bang that everyone talks about, but I think in 20 years it'll be Flesh and Stone or Vincent and the Doctor. Really, those are the stories we should be talking about today, too, and it's Moffat's fault that we aren't. --70.36.140.233^{talk to me} 17:01, September 26, 2012 (UTC)

I'd not describe myself as a "hardcore RTD fan". I liked RTD's stuff, certainly, but I've been a fan since 1963, not just since 2005. I can't agree that "it's really the first time the show had an effective plot _about_ time travel ... since the 2nd Doctor era" because Father's Day (9th Doctor) had an effective plot about time travel. So did The Day of the Daleks (3rd Doctor). Such plots are, though, rarer than they ought to be.

Your second point, however, has substantial merit. Some, at least, of the problem is that Moffat has touted things like The Big Bang as laying the groundwork for something to follow but the something hasn't followed. --89.241.65.32^{talk to me} 19:20, September 26, 2012 (UTC)

There have been plenty of time travel plots since the Second Doctor's time. As 89 said, there was Day of the Daleks and Father's Day, but there's also been The Girl in the Fireplace, Mawdryn Undead, pretty much all of the multi-Doctor stories, the entire River Song arc, and plenty of others that I can't think of off the top of my head.Icecreamdif ☎ 21:06, September 26, 2012 (UTC)