Life & Wisdom Quote by Terry Prachett

Pratchett’s takedown lands because it’s less a review than a small act of genre hygiene. He doesn’t argue that the Doctor Who movie is bad; he suggests it barely qualifies as a story at all. The jab hinges on a neat inversion: the only “plot” you can recall is the absence of one, replaced by “plot holes” arranged with the cosmetic logic of a necklace. That phrasing is classic Pratchett: metaphor as scalpel. A “string” implies intention and craft, but here it’s used to mock the pretense of coherence - the film isn’t careless by accident, it’s assembled out of gaps.

Then he twists the knife with “flashing lights,” the oldest stand-in for spectacle when substance is missing. It’s not technophobia; it’s a complaint about priorities. Pratchett came up through, and helped elevate, British fantastical storytelling that prizes internal rules and narrative payoffs. Doctor Who, at its best, is rubber monsters plus moral imagination, a show that can get away with wobble because it’s anchored by character and cleverness. The movie he’s skewering represents the anxiety of translation: a cultishly specific, idea-driven TV institution repackaged into a shinier, broader, export-friendly product.

The subtext is a warning to any franchise tempted to confuse sensory stimulation for enchantment. Flashing lights are what you add when you don’t trust your own story to hold attention. Pratchett’s joke works because it isn’t just funny; it’s protective of the audience’s intelligence.