Doctor Who and the Curse of the Anti-Climax

RTD did many great things with Doctor Who. He brought back the show, made it into one of the most successful BBC productions of recent years, and brough an emotional depth to it that had seldom been seen in the so-called "classic" series*. But, by God, was he capable of delivering an anti-climax. He would ramp up the tension, make things seem more and more urgent and desperate. Then he'd hit us with a big anti-climax - a switch is flicked, and the story is switched off. A great example of this is Doomsday - you have Torchwood, parallel universes, Daleks against Cybermen with the Earth caught in the crossfire. And how is it all resolved? A couple of bloody great switches are flicked. Sure, there is more to come - with the heartbreaking scene between the Doctor and Rose in Bad Wolf Bay - but the main story ends up being superb in set-up, amateurish in resolution.

Generally speaking, I'd say that Moffat is better at RTD at creating a credible conclusion to his stories. Then again, his stories - and in particular, the story arcs - have become bigger and bigger in their scope. I've enjoyed the overaching story arcs since he started running the show, but I can't help but notice that he increasingly is using cliffhangers to divert attention away from unresolved storylines. The Doctor's dead, killed by the Impossible Astronaut - but, a-ha, look, a regenerating little girl. There's a regenerating little girl, but we won't focus on the explanation, and instead say that Amy Pond has been kidnapped and replaced with the Flesh. Each time there's an unresolved storyline, Moffat hits us with something else. Which makes for an exciting, surprising and thought-provoking show. But could well be setting him up for a fall when it comes to resolving those storylines.

Part of the genius of Moffat, though, is that he doesn't seem to feel pressure to resolve those storylines at the same time and in line with viewer expecations. What caused the TARDIS to explode in the last season? We still don't know. Which is why - and this will only really be a problem for those slightly dull people who need every plot strand tied up before the end credits roll - I don't expect all of the plot strands to be tied up by the end of A Good Man Goes To War. In fact, quite the opposite - I expect there to be another jaw-dropping cliffhanger that will open up a whole host of new questions.

Except we know at least one thing. Tomorrow night, we're going to find out who River Song is. It's right there, in the trailer - River Song says that this is the day when the Doctor finds out who she is. If Moffat ducks that and doesn't tell us, it's a cop out. But if he does tell us, he's bound to disappoint unless he comes up with something staggeringly effective. She can't be the Doctor's wife - it's too obvious and this series has already made it clear that the Doctor is effectively married to the TARDIS these days. To have River Song being Romana or the Rani would please many fans but probably bemuse many casual viewers who don't have detailed knowledge of late seventies/eighties Doctor Who. My own personal theory - that River Song is a future version of Amy Pond (a tenuous theory based largely on the water related words in their names - Amy POND and RIVER Song) - may have some legs, but for reasons I can't quite put my finger on it just doesn't feel satisfactory (probably the fact that it is all based on a shit pun).

I hope Moffat can pull off something pretty bloody spectacular - and if any Who writer can do it, he's probably the one - but I do think that with this ongoing plot strands and bigger and bigger cliff-hangers Moffat is running the risk of falling foul of the Curse of the Anti-Climax (albeit in a very different way to RTD).

*Not that the original series wasn't classic - I just see the whole thing as one big story, so the division between the classic and new series is largely meaningless to me.