This years episodes have been pretty poor writing.

I'm the same. Matt is certainly not the problem and I enjoy Moffats take on the Doctor. Character-wise I think Eleven could end up being my favourite Doctor.

For me I think it's the short seasons and long gaps in between. I find this makes it hard to maintain my interest. There doesn't seem to be any momentum anymore.

Strangely I was thinking that last night and you have summed up my thoughts perfectly. I have also watched Dr Who since the 70's and still love the show but it does not grip me as it used to. I know that over the series you have to mix up the shows but having two back to back stories with no real action, weak aliens and complicated stories was probably not a good idea. I can imagaine kids switching off in their droves because they are bored which is a sad thought.

I know plenty will disagree but I wish Dr Who would go back to basics and produce good old fashioned exicting sci-fi stories with great aliens. That is what you want from a family show in the early evening

OP - it's not just you. I'm now watching DW as an obligation of sorts, not because I really want to. A bit like struggling to watch EE when its going through a really bad patch (like now!).

I was thinking it was just me, and that at the ripe old age of 48 I was just getting too old to enjoy it. So I am glad to hear (sort of) that you and some others feel the same way.

I can't put my finger on what exactly is missing. I think I am just sick of Moffat's "take" on Who - I was never his greatest fan but I think the spark has gone out of it. I hate all the stupid complications - why can't he just let a companion BE a companion and leave it at that without all the hoo haw about who they are etc etc.

I hope I get past this apathy and back to loving Who but I don't think it's going to happen before the 50th anniversary show, which is a real shame.

^^ I completely agree ^^

Moffat has ruined DW for me.It's becoming as cringeworthy as the late 1980s when Colin Baker & Sylvester McCoy turned it into a 'cheesefest for the prepubescents'.
Shame.

Strange, as I find Matt a total wonder and breath of fresh air after watching Tennant became something of a duty during his last season and the (pretty awful) 'specials'. Just goes to show you can never please everyone and everyone gets a turn as not being 100% loving of it...the only thing is I'm not keen on Clara being a mystery girl. I wish she was just a normal girl who enjoyed travelling, and even more that there was another, preferably male, companion as it feels a bit claustrophobic only having yet another pretty, smart, feisty, fast-talking girl with the Doctor and no-one else to play off. The best classic companions were those who had someone else to travel with, as most of them did most of the time. I don't think it's a coincidence that having Rory join the TARDIS added a completely extra dimension, as did Ian, Jamie, Harry, Steven, Ben etc.

Caring less and less for Who nope not me but I am caring less for the fandom. Ever since RTD/Tennant is just become rather unpleasant.

I think sometimes it is an issue of momentum - I feel like Buffy always had that, whereas with Who - the last two episodes being a perfect example - you have a great episode, followed by a poor one. I tune in for Matt Smith and the moments the music swells and something fantastic happens - the first Weeping Angels was genius for example, as was The Doctor's Wife - but I have also learned to accept that the show will disappoint me. Namely, the Xmas Specials and the culmination episodes, which always seem to hang on timey-wimeyness or utterly new, ridiculous components being added like when the Dr 'unages' just because everyone believes in him - good TV, bad canon.

Timey wimey stuff.

Have you seen blink? The episode was all about time.

Maybe if you dont like episodes to do with time you shouldn't watch a show about time travel.

The only thing that annoys me is the rubbish when the episode is all about think and you will get better. Think and the bomb will stop. Think and you will get younger. As mentioned above.

I'm only watching it now in loyalty to the show. I haven't enjoyed it at all since Matt Smith came on board and Moffat became the showrunner. When Tennant regenerated into Smith I thought Smith definitely looked the part and was excited to see his portrayal of The Doctor. Sadly, IMO he just isn't cutting it at all.

"Think and the bomb will stop"? That's what you took away from that episode?

Some episodes are plot driven. Some are character driven. Most are explorations of what it means to be human.

They are that! David Tennant's time on the show was far better and the stories were the best since the show came back in 2005. The stories had more oomph to them and seemed to make a far greater impact on viewers.

The scripts don't seem to be up to scratch as well as they used to be during RTD's time.

I was quite sad when Tennant left just after his Doctor said 'I don't want to go', as I wasn't sure if the next actor to take over, would have the same impact, or if the writing would be as good.

I'm finding too easy to miss episodes now.
I missed the Dinosaurs on a spaceship one, and the Cyborg gunslinger.
It's not necessarily anything to do with quality, but more to do with the splitting the series up into two parts during the year.
I just don't know where I am with it and the gap makes me forget what was going on last time.

If I was a dedicated fan I'm sure that I would retain all memory of the previous half-series. But I'm not. So if I'm busy with other stuff I so easily lose track of where we're up to.
These story arcs with Amy aren't fresh in the memory and I can't honestly remember in much detail what on earth was going on.
I remember her and Rory 'dying', which was a good episode, but as far as what her overall story arc was I couldn't really tell you. Apparently she was 'special'? I can't even remember why. Something to do with being Riversong's mum?

It's all this stopping and starting with this half-series approach.
When it was a one full series format I found it a breeze to follow. Now the gap means that any story arc started in the first half of the series and continued over the gap to part 2 of the series is vague when it comes to remembering crucial details.

Matt Smith is great. The writing generally seems to be fine. Most things about it appear on the surface to be perfectly up to scratch.
It's just that it doesn't seem to flow for me.
There was a lot that I didn't like about the RTD era but his series arcs flowed beautifully. In hindsight I guess I have to credit him with good writing in this particular respect.
It must be the splitting up of the series into two parts...and a Christmas special to boot.
I'm fine with each individual story episode, but these arcs usually involving the companion and what the objective is leave me bamboozled and I forget too much from the previous series half which carries on to latter split of the series.
In the space inbetween I'm just not thinking Doctor Who all the time.

I agree with that. In hindsight I can look back and appreciate things about RTD's writing which I couldn't at the time. But looking back now, knowing how a different writer such as Steven Moffat approaches things, you can put things in more of a context.

Comparing the two, I still have no love for RTD's sentimentality and overuse of broad brush strokes, but on the other hand he had the strength of being able to deliver clarity. End of the world, bang, birth of the universe, bang, death of the timelords, bang. He dealt with such strong bold bullet points to frame everything around that even if you strayed too far from the main story arc it was still easy to find the way back to the main central narrative thread.

I prefer Steven Moffat's writing in general, great flourishes, great turn of phrase, great ideas. But I think that he lacks the clarity and conviction of RTD. He may speak to the viewers as adults, but it can get a bit vague and non-descript and you can easily get bogged down by too many little details. It's easy to stray too far from the main narrative thread, but like swimming through mud to try to find your way back to what the central backbone to the story is about again.

It reminds me a bit of the first series of Heroes and the very clear arc it had in place in series one, and then series two which was bogged down with details and asides which seemed to lose sense of any primary focus.

I have to admit this, and it pains me to say it, very good stories from the RTD era stick with me even now. It doesn't matter if he wrote them or not, for some reason the best stories are engrained in my mind. Dalek, Girl in the Fireplace, Blink, Empty Child, The Unquiet Dead, Father's Day, Human Nature, Utopia, Silence in the Library, god even Rose and The Idiot's Lantern. Even Love and Monsters is somehow in my memory with its ELO music. For whatever reason they all stick in my mind, and you'll notice that Steven Moffat wrote a few of them too. For whatever reason I remember them very clearly.
I doubt that this is pure luck or coincidence alone, RTD must surely take credit for guiding the direction it took and steering its path.

Now I'm not feeling quite the same way about Steven Moffat's era. Nothing wrong with his stories, but they just don't seem to linger in my memory in the same way. Maybe the Van Gogh one does, but it all tends to be a bit fuzzy and vague, and as if it's one long story (which in a way it is) but without the solid landmark episodes which act as some kind framework on which to hang the overall structure of a series.
As an example the Chris Ecclestone series was perfectly formed, what with its Bad Wolf arc, even if I found the conclusion unsatisfying. The build up was near perfect though.

If you think about each series as a roadmap on a big piece of paper, and the stories as nails and Blu-tac used to attach it to the wall, it's as though RTD firmly hammered it to the wall with strong iron nails. It says firmly attached to the wall. Whereas SM tries to use Blu-tac which isn't quite sticky enough and the map keeps peeling off from the wall.

I'm saying this as a RTD 'hater', and a Steven Moffat 'fanboy'.
In hindsight I'd say that RTD was very good indeed at some things which at the time I didn't give him due credit for.

Very strong images though.

Or maybe Stephen Moffat is a better writer than he is at running the whole show.

The difference between an the RTD era and the Moffat era is that each week was like a mini film - great visuals, cohesive story telling and good acting, Now it's more like some whimsical fairytale each week. Not to say there haven't been some good episodes, but there's a completely different feeling about it. I love Matt Smith, but not much else about it.