6. Continuity
This problem might seem like a ridiculous objection for a series that is, not only 50 years in length, but also principally about a time traveling cash-cow in a God-box with a magic wand and a new set of eye-candy to tag along after him every season or so. However, the objection stands. There is a difference in complicated storytelling, and lazy storytelling; and the series dances the fine line between them on a weekly basis now. For example, The Bad Wolf story arc from the Season One of the reboot (and also some in Season 4), was really difficult to follow. We're still not sure where Bad Wolf came from, or why it was important that it was sprinkled throughout history, but you know what? It felt solid. It felt seamless. Yes there were things that were never explicitly explained, but that is very different than Season 5-7+'s unifying "Silence" story arc, which feels needlessly complicated, intentionally misleading, and ragged at every single edge. It doesn't feel like the writers are NOT telling you the details so much as it feels like they CAN'T. Memory loss, brain washing, and "just because" time mechanics are not sufficient to achieve suspension of disbelief. Why is this a problem? Beyond the obvious issues which bad storytelling bring up, with Doctor Who in particular, it makes it very hard to move forward. The shoddy storytelling of today, is the what the future of the series will stand upon, and at this point, it is a very tall Jenga tower, one Melody Pond shaped extraction away from collapse. The rampant and overtly inconsistent plot holes which are now regularly appearing, even within single episodes, have meant that the series increasingly relies upon total timeline resets and other such narrative mulligans as a matter of course. And leaving your fans scratching their heads for an episode, or a half a season is one thing, like when the Weeping Angels get all their new weird super powers in Season 5. Leaving the blog-o-sphere blazing with fan deconstructions of how terrible your story arc management is for three seasons, ala The Silence mega-arc? That IS a problem How do we fix this? Series creator Steve Moffat has been winking about upcoming things for a while now. In interviews he hints at the 50th anniversary being the most amazing Doctor story ever, and talks about bringing old cast members back (despite their careful denials of involvement up till now). He talks about Season 7 being "arcless" but then assures us that like the Doctor, "he lies". And you know what? We want to believe him. We want to be wrong. We want this to be brilliant, and amazing, and totally explainable. We want to wake up the morning after the 50th anniversary and feel like we've got 51st century scrambled egg all over our collective face. But we need an explanation for the confusion up till now. And soon. We need a retrospective episode, explaining in clearer detail the Silence Arc. Or we need a plot revelation that changes the game and ties it all together, acknowledging and explaining away the inconsistencies we've been screaming about for literally years now. We'd even settle for a non-canon radio drama starring Tom Baker where he just reads Moffat's private notebooks on his story plans and the reasoning behind them. Or stick with the tried and true post Season-5 story trope and reboot. Wipe the slate. Let this all have been a bad dream perpetuated by the Dream Lord. If you discover that the story you set out to tell is beyond your capacity as a creator, man up, cut your losses, and let it go. We fans would get over it! It's wibbly-wobbly, plotty-wotty! But realize that while our faith in the Doctor is eternal, our faith in Moffat has never been more keenly finite that this moment in time.