“Well, Back to Work. Gotta Win the Pulitzer Prize,” Composing, 13/12/2016

So my project blogging through Class is finished. I feel like the posts themselves had the same anti-climactic, hollow ending as the series did. At the same time, I’ve also gotten pretty well-practiced at these kinds of philosophical reviews by now.

I started writing these three years ago, when I wrote a post about the philosophical themes and ideas in The Day of the Doctor. I’ve improved quite a lot as my blogging style has come along with practice. Following that, the two Peter Capaldi seasons of Doctor Who provoked some really insightful writing.

Introducing my new project as a critic.

Looking back at those series, I think I’ve got some decent material for a few small ebooks of television criticism. Just some self-published stuff through Amazon. Nothing too big. But something I could throw together that people could buy as a Kindle package or a softcover.

I’ll probably bundle the Class reviews first, simply because that show is most recent. And I want to supplement what I’ve already written on the blog – just some new content to bring out some more general ideas about Class and Doctor Who.

Here are some ideas and some provisional titles for what I’ll put together over the next while for my Class and Capaldi era Doctor Who indie books.

“In Your Face”
How Class, in its setup and its best episodes, was a confrontationally progressive show – practically trolling the Brexit set. Not just Quill’s joke about “Not another referendum!” in “The Lost.” Consider the show’s depiction of teenage homosexual sex, its frank discussions of religious beliefs with south Asian origins, and the major role of a character from a Polish immigrant family being the most virtuous member of the cast.

“Not That Shocking”
The legacy of Skins on all teen drama that attempts even gestures at realism. Including Class, its most weird heir.

“A Dark, Welsh Shadow”
How Patrick Ness’ attempt to emulate the kitchen-sink spectacle adventures of Davies era season finales ultimately hamstrung Class with a disappointing, empty ending. A sad way for a season with such interesting storylines to close.

“Hell Sent”
The last two episodes of Peter Capaldi’s second season as the Doctor presented two very different visions of the show. “Heaven Sent” was a high point of Doctor Who’s ability to present existential horror. “Hell Bent” was a celebration of Doctor Who’s mad creativity. How do these two modes of the show work together?

“Under the Lake / Before the Flood – Next Draft”
A treatment of what a better version of last season’s worst story would have looked like, at least as far as I’m concerned.

“And the Moral of the Story Is . . .”
The new era of Doctor Who has focussed on building season arcs. The Moffat years especially have constructed complex story arcs spread across the show’s anthology-like format. I’ll compare the season arcs of Capaldi’s first two years with what Class tried in its debut season to see which of the three approaches is more effective.