Maius Intra Qua Extra

I liked River in the Library. At the time, she was the efficient archaeologist with a mysterious past/future with the Doctor, and with the implication that she would one day marry the Doctor, she made me wonder what it was about her - about a human - that captivated the Doctor so much that he would marry her. I was especially hopeful of an interesting characterization of a female scientist.

And then when River reappeared, she was the typical Moffat "strong" woman, namely, older hip-swinging femme fatale, superior at everything, always one step ahead of the Doctor, and obsessed with him. (The other typical Moffat "strong" woman is the young pretty-but-tomboyish girl that yells at the Doctor a lot.) How that person became Library!River, I have no idea. I mean, really, River only became a scientist so that she could find out more about the Doctor.

She was not an interesting character. Her entire narrative purpose seemed to be to make the Doctor look like a fool. I never felt that she and the Doctor had any chemistry at all; it seemed to me that she bullied the Doctor into the relationship. And then the last Christmas special destroyed any respect I might have had for her.

And now we have Moffat doing the same thing with Missy: apparently, he feels that if a character is made female, she must only care about her relationship with the Doctor. Honestly, it's the problem I have with all of Moffat's major females - they are all defined by their relationships with the Doctor. Amy's childhood and development was defined by the Doctor, Clara was born to save the Doctor, River was conditioned to kill and then love the Doctor, Missy wants to be the Doctor's friend. Can we please have a female character who is an individual in her own right?

This is probably the entire reason why the only major character from Moffat's era that I really liked is Rory. He's male, so his history and personality is not dominated by the Doctor.

Sorry for the rant. :D