5 Ways Steven Moffat's Doctor Who Is BETTER Than Russell T Davies' (And 3 It's Worse)

2. Worse: Less Mainstream Appeal

During RTD1, the show was simply more successful than it was under Moffat. Bigger ratings, bigger cultural impact, bigger public hype. Davies had a remarkably solid understanding of the TV landscape in 2005 (in 2026, not so much). He knew how to market the show, how to drive ratings, and how to write event television. Every finale in his tenure felt unavoidable. Even people who didn't watch Doctor Who were aware that something was going down.

Davies made the smart move of capitalising on his success early by getting two spin-offs commissioned, both of which became successes in their own right. One of the biggest boons of Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures was that they helped fill the off-season – the Whoniverse was never away for long and was able to remain in the public consciousness.

Back then, the show had incredible momentum, aided heavily by how top notch both spin-offs were – Children of Earth is arguably the best thing RTD has ever penned, Doctor Who or otherwise.

The battle to stay relevant was fierce, and the moment RTD and Tennant stepped back, the show began a downward trajectory in this regard. That's not to say the Matt Smith years weren't popular (far from it, in fact), but it undeniably wasn't the same, and the Capaldi years were even less so. Even RTD, upon his grand return, has failed to capture the lightning in a bottle he created that first time around.

The Moffat era also lacked any notable spinoffs, with 2016's Class flopping on its face and Torchwood dwindling out in 2011. This obviously didn't help the show stay as relevant as it had been between 2005 and 2010.

For all the praise we just gave Moffat for his complex time travel stories, the flip side is that the show became slightly more impenetrable for casual viewers. The storytelling was denser and the timelines twistier. For fans, this was wonderful, especially those who grew up on the revived era and felt like the show was growing with us, but mainstream audiences gradually drifted away.

He might get more of the blame but the loss of steam we've seen this last decade from the show started with Moffat, not Chris Chibnall.