10 Doctor Who Controversies Fans Can't Agree On
1. Who’s The Better Modern Showrunner?
Moffat's return with Boom has reignited the old RTD versus Moffat debate. It's a debate that's raged for years, and there's a compelling case for both.
In one corner, Russell T Davies: two-time title holder, and the big brain behind getting Doctor Who back on our screens. His strengths? Bringing a grounded, modern take to the show, and somehow making a pop-culture punchline into something that appealed to noughties kids, without totally alienating classic fans.
He excels at world-building and carefully setting the stage for explosive finales, and because of this, his era spawned the only two spinoffs in the show’s history that didn’t crash and burn. His companions felt like real people more than any other writer, and his crowning achievement is creating a Doctor that rivals Tom Baker’s mainstream popularity in David Tennant.
But the man has his shortcomings too. He's penned some fairly weak scripts considering his enormous talent, like Love & Monsters, New Earth, and recently, Space Babies. He's also prone to some lazy story resolutions – who could forget the Jesus Doctor, or all the convenient buttons that annihilated the New Dalek Empire?
Then you have Steven Moffat. Under the Moff’s reign, the show finally broke America, garnering international appeal during the Matt Smith era. Most people would agree that he also turned in more 10/10 scripts than any other modern writer, with barnstormers like Blink, The Eleventh Hour, and Heaven Sent, to name just a few.
Under RTD, Moffat's episodes were consistently among the fan-favourites, and it’s no wonder he was given the showrunner job.
That said, he's often accused of convoluted, messy series arcs that didn’t seem to have an end in sight, and his companions tended to be a little more marmite with audiences. The show also entered its first modern slump during Series 7, and you could argue it never truly recovered.
OUR VERDICT: Ultimately it comes down to whose writing style and showrunning style you prefer. For us, Moffat takes this one. We prefer the fairytale magic of the Smith era and the mature undertones of Capaldi’s run. The highs, when they came, were monumental.