Human Nature was originally a book, wasn't it? Maybe they should take more ideas from the best of the DW books or even BigFinish?

Books and other longform media have a greater leeway to have more complex, character driven stories.

The thing is though, that assumes that the BBC will continue to spend money making a show with such diminishing returns....

I think if it does continue to go down this route, it will be with a much reduced budget and episode count.

For me, it just doesn't feel like Doctor Who anymore. Perhaps with a less established actor, there would be more of a willingness to play the material against type - but for me (and others) it has become a series about an obviously depressed person being emotionally tortured on a weekly basis.... It's the drama equivalent of an I'm a Celeb trial where someone is shoved in a coffin with cockroaches... or like watching an execution for fun...

I'm glad some fans are enjoying it... but what I have always loved about Doctor Who are the feel good moments... Tom's Beaming Grim etc etc... they are now non existent. Or badly executed gimmicks (The guitar, the shades) which totally miss any kind of truth... IMO

When the only character I find myself enthralled by is the Villain of the piece (and you wonder how FANTASTIC Michelle Gomez would have been as the Doctor!) i do realise why it's gone from my 'must view live' list. I'd much rather watch a Missy series than Doctor Who to be totally honest...

My personal litmus test for 'Doctor Tolerance' has always been-could I imagine William Hartnell doing it. The original, yet most varied of Doctors. I could see much of the 11th Doctor material fitting him well... yet can see very little in common between the 12th and the first. it is just not the same character... that's not character evolution. And it's easy to blame the script... I personally don't think that's the problem

To be honest-the 'depressive' portrayal Capaldi is taking, is one I can't imagine any previous actor taking in the role... so at least he has found a new way to take the part in a new direction.

It's just not one i'm liking peronally

I'm not sure anyone - love its current form or loathe it - can argue that it's gone from a very popular show, appealing to the masses, to a more niche sci-fi drama.

By season four of the reboot, my entire family were watching the show live on a Saturday. My parents bailed half through Matt Smiths' second year, my sister his last and I've finally given up half way through the current season.

It's nothing to do with the actors, just a gradual descent into a murky mess of story threads and a lack of 'heart' for want of a better word.

I tuned back in a couple of weeks ago for Clara's death and felt absolutely nothing. I don't feel particularly connected to her and the show always has some way of resetting these things. Plus she's been yet another companion who's 'special' who wanders in and out of the TARDIS without any sense of wonder or urgency.

Personally the biggest problem the show has is the lack of payoff. I've sat through numerous TV series because usually the conclusion to a story makes it worth it, but that doesn't seem to happened anymore.

It was created as a Saturday night children's show, it grew into something more as the years went by but that has always been part of its DNA.

That appears to have almost gone now, there's no sense of adventure or wonder to appeal to the kids and the big kids..

It suits 10pm BBC2 slot more than a Saturday night slot.

I've found myself getting bored of the show as well. Love Capaldi as The Doctor but I don't like Moffat being the showrunner.

Didn't really enjoy the Matt Smith era but that was mainly down to Moffat's style and story lines.

I'm getting the word 'reboot'

I just spent most of the day gradually making my way through this thread. I agree with most points although I myself struggle to put my actual thoughts down.

I have struggled with Dr Who for a while now. I have been having it on in the back ground recently ad totally missed Saturdays episode. I really thought the Zygon episode would reignite my passion for WHo being a massive fan of Terror of the Zygons but I found it poor and I actually now hate the Zygons, That has left me with a bad taste now. Most iconic monsters just don't seem to work well in New Who. Cybermen, Silurians, SOntarans and now Zygons all ruined IMO.

They had an opportunity to have a great sequel to Terror of the Zygons but there was no threat or tension at all.

I started watching Dr Who back in 1980 and really still enjoy Classic Who. I recently watched Seeds of Death and Sea Devils again.

I am 40 now so not as old as some guys on here but I seem to have lost the faith. Maybe I am too dumb to watch the show now. All I know is what is the point if you no longer enjoy it? No fun at all.

At least I have a great back catalogue of DVD's to watch again

If Moffat keeps the going the way he has been, Doctor Who will end up being shown at 11pm on BBC4 by 2017..,. like all the BBC4 dark dramas 500,000 U.K. bohemians in their forties watch (alone) with their open-toed sandals, Kashmere sweaters, neatly manicured fingernails & a tube of cheese & onion Pringles for company.

It's all gone 'Doctor Poo'.

It sometimes feels as if Moffat is writing the show he wants it to be and not the show it actually is.

Last night decided to watch The Christmas Invasion. Now thats more like it. It was fun, exciting and hugely entertaining. It had darker moments and serious parts but it didn't take itself too seriously. And Davd Tennant could be serious and sinister and slightly darker when he needed to. But he didnt spend twenty minutes droning on about it! Case in point. letting the leader of the sycorax go and then turning round and throwing the orange sending him to his death and saying No second chances. He looked like he meant business and had a darker side. Also when Harriet Jones ordered the destruction of the spaceship. He turned more sinister and told Harriet it was murder. If it was a current episode there would be huge ten minute debate on it! Anyway after finishing Christmas Invasion I went to this weeks episode and watched two minutes of Peter Capaldi droning on and switched off.

That's the impression I got of RTD. Unfortunately, we can't read their minds so we don't know.

Yes
By Paul Cornell
It was a 7Th Doctor NA and part of an arc that deal with a painful loss

I feel this way too.

Now, I appreciate that he IS the show runner and so therefore it makes complete sense that it it is his take on the show.

However, I get the sense of a gleeful little boy not wanting to share his presents with any of the other children. By that I mean - the retcons; the timey-wimey elements; the "special" companions; the lack of emotional connections. Fair enough if that is how SM sees it - but he should be open to the fact that in doing so he is alienating (no pun intended!) a lot of viewers. If he could compromise a bit on it that would do me.

I particularly dislike the "specialness" he attributed to both Amy and then Clara. He has said that he sees Doctor Who as the companion's journey, not the Doctor's. Boy, does he ever. I want to watch a show about the Doctor, not the Doctor's companion. SM does not seem (imo) to appreciate this.

I can only hope that the new companion is either a completely normal human or an out an out alien. Either would do me. Another "special" companion would really take the biscuit.

I would also like the new companion to be a normal human (in fact I'd like two un-connected normal, human companions) but I don't think the notion of the companion being special was something which began with SM. Not with all the Bad Wolf stuff going on with Rose and the Doctor Donna. In fact the only 'normal' long-term companion in NuWho so far has been Martha.

After recently watching the latest James Bond movie where he travels from one location to another to collect the next clue in the mystery it struck me the perhaps Moffatt is trying to mimic this style of narrative but for me it doesn't feel right for Doctor Who week on week. It's ok for a movie that's released every few years but for a weekly tv show it's frustrating for me and not enjoyable. For me he should watch The Flash as a recent example where the audience are privy to the secret/mystery and the characters are not. By excluding the audience as well as to what is going on every week is becoming annoying imo.

True, but it seems to have been taken to the nth degree with Amy and Clara. A nice, normal companion would be a breath of fresh air!

I feel that's what missing the last couple of series there were moments of of fun and wonder and the next minute the docotor goes dark

Like the family episode the doctor hid himself from them not because he was scared of what they would do to him it was what he would do to them and the whole
"Ooo you shouldn't have let me press all those buttons " right before blowing up the ship

Or when Matt smith was talking to colonel Manton and the whole " col runaway speech " and the to to kovorian "good men don't need rules .. Now is not a good time to find out why I have so many " there was polar sides to the doctors

Now I'm not faulting capaldis chops as actor I really enjoyed heaven sent but for me that polar opposites thing is missing. At least for me

True.

I think it probably all comes down to the writing again. Despite the RTD companions having something special about them, it was usually built up as the season progressed with ominous hints here and there. Plus they were written as 'normal' characters in their own right.

Both Amy and Clara were written as mysterious from the start, something was a little 'off' about them. As a result they came across as a bit cold, for me anyway.

The companion should be experiencing extraordinary situations very different from their ordinary life.

These days they're cool and sassy from the start, taking it all in their stride and making quips to the Doctor as they may be about to die.