8 Most Overused Words In Doctor Who Fandom

2. Deus Ex Machina

The fact that this technical term is a Greek transliteration seems to make it particularly appealing to those who like to appear informed and critically aware. Sadly, it is a word all too quickly misused simply to trash a writer or a story that the so called critic doesn€™t like. There is nothing wrong with not liking an episode. Doctor Who is so diverse that IT would be strange if every single episode always hit the spot. But very often the criticism comes down to a matter of subjective individual taste than it does objective technical evaluation. Over the years there have been some notable fails in the technical department, with certain episodes poorly realised for a variety of reasons (Hello Underworld and The Time Monster). If it is to strive for excellence then the show has to learn from its mistakes, and by and large it does. But is it fair to bad mouth the writer, using the clever term deus ex machina? Scripts should be evaluated for their consistency and other areas such as pacing, characterisation and length. But deus ex machine? Let€™s take a look at what it actually means. Deus ex machina literally translates as "god in the machine". It denotes an unexpected resolution to a seemingly insurmountable problem. Done badly, it can make the viewer feel cheated, coming across as a quick fix to a problem that a whole drama might have been focused upon. But it is not a negative phrase. It can bring surprise, add comedy and take the direction of a story to a whole new, unexpected place. In the hands of a competent writer, it is an excellent plot device. In Doctor Who fandom, the phrase appears to be exclusively used to dish the dirt on a story or/and its writer. The sonic screwdriver and psychic paper are often singled out as unsatisfactory quick fix solutions. But are Russell T Davies and Steven Moffat€™s stories filled with unsatisfactory examples of deus ex machina? Well, take a look at that most maligned of cheats - the dream. Steven Moffat has presided over episodes in which the dream sequence is used in a creatively new way (Amy€™s Choice and Last Christmas). In neither case is the dream a cheap way out, instead it is central to the drama and used to disorientate and challenge the audience€™s expectations. Perhaps the ultimate deus ex machina available to writers of Doctor Who is the TARDIS, hence the lengths they sometimes go to separate the Doctor from his magic box. In short, the writer is damned if he does and damned if he doesn€™t. The question €œwhy didn€™t they just use the TARDIS?€ often rears its head post transmission. Sometimes people are driven to look for holes and areas to criticise.