Meeting Yourself Coming the Other Way
Dec. 29th, 2010 02:19 pmOn Christmas Day, I found myself watching Steven Moffat's version of Dr. Who. I watched Matt Smith go through his paces in a typical Moffat-style continuity finale, The Big Bang, and then we continued into this year's Dr. Who Christmas special A Christmas Carol.
I admire Steven Moffat's writing abilities. The man is an intricate plotter. He uses elements of his finale in early episodes of the season. In true Moffat style, we don't know what we're looking at until we know what we're looking at. Often these intricacies can be passed off as continuity errors, but with Moffat, everything happens for a reason.
Another theme Moffat employs is people meeting themselves coming and going in time. The Big Bang gives us two Amelia Ponds. No, the universe doesn't heave a shuddering sigh of entropy and explode. It cleans itself up and keeps going. Similarly, in A Christmas Carol, Kazran Sardick, both young and old, meets himself (themselves?). The theme of exploring who you are and who you will become, evaluated by yourself as you were or will be is a nice theme. It doesn't consider the physics of the issues, but it does get at the marrow of interpersonal reflection in ways those only considering the science conundrum can't touch.
Every once in a while, I'd like to sit down and talk to myself coming the other way. What might I say?
Mirrored from Writer Tamago.