4. People Used To Die
This is probably the most obvious point and the one that most people will agree with: since Moffat started running the show, no one seems to die - or at least, not for very long. This happened a little bit with Russell T Davies: Rose brought Captain Jack back to life, River Song was uploaded to the library database to live forever inside the machine and theres that God-awful paving slab moment in Love and Monsters, if you can call that bringing someone back to life. But these few were the exception and not the rule: countless times wed seen the good guys die in battle and stay dead, but apparently this is no more. It was nice at first: Rory had fallen through a crack in the universe and had wound up never having existed. He'd been gone for a few episodes and, when we least expected it, he and Amy were reunited. But then things started getting stupid. He died again; drowning, when he fell off of the side of a pirate ship. And then, he died again, as an old man, locked in a small room by the weeping angels, desperate to see Amy for the final time. Then, he died again in preventing this, by jumping off of a building. And then finally, he died again of old age. It's not that the episodes were disappointing; they were actually well-written, tense and exciting. But it was a little overkill. Its not just Rory, either. Everyone seems to be popping back from the dead for a second chance at living. In some cases it can be quite sweet: in The Doctor, The Widow and The Wardrobe, the Doctor visits two children in World War Two. Their father, who had previously helped the Doctor, had recently died but their mother had not yet broken the news to them. During the episode they get spoilt rotten, they get into lots of Doctor Who style trouble and they find out about their fathers death. However, at the end of the episode, it is the power of their mothers love for their father that allows him to come back to life and spend Christmas with them. Yes, its sweet and you could argue that because its a Christmas story on a family show that they have to have a happy ending, but didnt anyone think of the implications? That many children watching at home are now devastated because their family member didnt come back to life too. Theres still more on the list of who Moffat has killed off and brought back. Most famously; Clara Oswin Oswald. In fairness, the plot was very compelling, ensuring we would all come back after the confusing Christmas episode to find out just how one girl could die twice. It was interesting to then follow her story throughout series seven, finding that she had lived and died thousands upon thousands of times saving the Doctors life. And then, once shes done, the Doctor brings her back to life and the real world once again as he steps into his own time stream to save her. Its nice because weve all grown to like Clara over the last series but it just goes to show that even when he could have quite easily killed her off at the very end of the series, in the final tense battle, Moffat chose to bring yet another person back to life. And even if Clara is too important a character to the show, he still had another opportunity for a tragic death in the final episode of the series, but he didnt take it. Jenny Flint of the Paternoster Gang was murdered while in a strange minds-only conference call. But she doesnt stay dead for more than a few minutes: Strax is able to fix her up, good as new, before wife Vastra, and indeed anyone watching, has time to grieve for her at all. Its not like Im asking for everyone on the show to die and its not like I want the main characters out of the picture. I just want to see people dying and remaining dead, just like in real life, just for once.