I keep wanting to refer to the writer as Moffat, but IIRC he didn't write that episode.

He did.

And I agree with everything you've said.

I do think part of Moffat made her a gay pro dom partly because in his id, that's like, the ideal woman.

(Hey, Lesbian Spank Inferno WAS based on a true story. I'm just saying.)

Both characters disdained sexual attraction, he because it's a distraction to his work, and she because it IS work.

Hmm. I don't see her disdaining the sexual attraction, though. Only when she was explicitly not being honest. But I do see the sexual attraction as part and parcel of the intellectual attraction there. It's the flip side of Moriarty in ways I will attempt to articulate with less wine in my system.

(I, umm. Sometimes suspect Moffat and I share an id. And we call it Jeff.)

I do think part of Moffat made her a gay pro dom partly because in his id, that's like, the ideal woman.

I was gonna say, he's not the only one.

(I, umm. Sometimes suspect Moffat and I share an id. And we call it Jeff.)

HA! And, oh dear.

I think Moffat has already done the heavy lifting required for me to not give him the benefit of the doubt when it comes to writing women. They come off better onscreen than they do in his interviews, but when it comes to filling in the cracks and answering questions, I remember shit like this:

"There’s this issue you’re not allowed to discuss: that women are needy. Men can go for longer, more happily, without women. That’s the truth. We don’t, as little boys, play at being married - we try to avoid it for as long as possible. Meanwhile women are out there hunting for husbands."

So it colours my interpretation of the Irenes of the world. It can't not.

Apparently, that particular quote was taken out of actual context.

Me, my Moffat memory is always going to be the whole bimbos in miniskirts thing from his Usenet days.

Do you have the larger context? I'd be interested to see how that's mitigated with other words.

Do you have the larger context? I'd be interested to see how that's mitigated with other words.

Someone amended a rant on it with it at one point recently, but I can't get to it from here. The apparent context was him speaking about character POVs in Coupling, rather than his own personal POV.

Not that he doesn't say utterly stupid things on a regular basis. I just think that he writes complex women better than almost any other male writer, despite himself.

The interview: [link]