One must fully understand that, no matter for how long a TV show has run, it should never be only about celebrating the past. And while Doctor Who is more than on par with any contemporary TV show, one can't help missing some of the old elements of the series. A lot of Whovians complain about the lack of proper cliffhangers during any given season. Now, exciting as they are, most of them are nothing more than artificial narrative devices. Simply put, there aren't any cliffhangers in real life. In order to make a successful film or TV show, no matter the genre, an artist should perfectly understand the audience's mature sense of awareness. This is nothing more than an intellectual trait developed during the evolution of post-modernism and our continuous exposure to it. Just look at how self-referential Capaldi's era is; even in Matt Smith's time characters had the obnoxious habit of saying "Doctor Who" way too often. So while a cliffhanger abuse would be definitely dated, the procedure is not obsolete. What fans really want is the return of the two-part episodes that abounded during Russell T Davies' helm, but which Moffat has just seemed to forget about. This is strange because some of his best stories had two parts and such a structure was often found in the first two seasons of his reign. Not only did it make room for proper cliffhangers, it also helped to better underline the story arcs. Now here's the other annoying element of the modern season structuring. No one is arguing against the importance of story arcs, but against their execution. RTD was the master of this; regardless of how satisfying the conclusion would turn out to be, he threw around just enough information to keep you interested. Moffat's arcs have been hit and miss. Season 6 (also unofficially called "River Overflow") was convoluted to the point of implausibility and the ending just did not satisfy. Season 8 and Capaldi's first had a predictable and unengaging arc but the finale was most rewarding. Moffat's most balanced had to be "The Impossible Girl" arc, but even that was ruined by a few poorly written episodes. So until the current showrunner truly finds his balance, this overlong entry about structure will be split into two parts...
Adrian Serban lives in Bucharest, Romania where he has studied screenwriting and film criticism. But it's not all about artsy European dramas for him, as he's also a fan of horrors, kung-fu flicks and sci-fi films of all eras. Monty Python and Doctor Who are two British institutions that changed his life for the better. Or so he thinks.
