Many fans love SPOILERS. Many fans don’t.
Count Steven Moffat in the camp that doesn’t like SPOILERS.
The Doctor Who producer says he gets irritated by fans who find out plot details of upcoming episodes and then posts them on-line.
“You can imagine how much I hate them. It’s only fans who do this, or they call themselves fans,” he said on BBC Radio. “I wish they could go and be fans of something else.”
Moffat said he was disheartened by fans who attended a recent press screening of the two-part series six premiere who then went and spilled the beans on-line after being asked not to do so.
“It’s heartbreaking in a way because you’re trying to tell stories, and stories depend on surprise. So to have some twit who came to a press launch, write up a story in the worst, most ham-fisted English you can imagine, and put it on the internet [is heartbreaking]. I just hope that guy never watched my show again, because that’s a horrific thing to do,” he says. “Stories depend on shocking people. Stories are the moments that you didn’t see coming, that are what live in you and burn in you forever. If you are denied those, it’s vandalism.”
I agree with this guy wholeheartedly. It’s the one thing about the internet that makes me hate the internet.
I was able to avoid spoilers for the most part. It’s a shame that people take a nice thing like getting to see the show early and then ignore the obvious stipulation of not spoiling the whole thing after, but for the most part I think people who don’t want to be spoiled were able to avoid it. All this means is that in the future there will be less opportunities for regular fans to do stuff like see the premiere of show early.
Seems to me that if your “stories depend on surprise”, you aren’t a very good story teller. The best tales stand up to multiple re-tellings and some even get better the more you hear/watch them. Has anyone ever seen Star Wars only once?
I actually like spoilers, because for me it builds anticipation for the show/movie. It’s also very simple to avoid – don’t read them!
If people are asked not to post spoilers, they should show some respect & not post them. I wouldn’t post a spoiler if I was asked not to.
i love scifi.i watch them over and over again from the old doctor who, star wars, fire fly ect. and they do get better the more i watch them but i only get the jaw dropping feel the first time like when luke finds out who his father is. so in response to moffat not telling a good story due to not wanting a surprise told before its time think back to the first time you saw empire its not the same the next time also lucas went to great lengths to keep it hidden so you may want to back off just a wee bit when labeling a bad story teller.