3. The Doctor Hates Repeats
It's impossible for a writer not to have tropes and tricks that they fall back on. Moffat may never admit it, but he does have quite a few of these plot points and character tics that repeat themselves. Take a look at River Song and compare her to the character Irene Adler in Moffat's other series, Sherlock: Sherlock may get better every time I watch it, but the femme fatale who grows to center herself around a man is one of many tropes that Moffat falls back on when he's not paying careful attention. When he's focused on one script, Steven Moffat is capable of writing brilliant stories that feel original, but after a couple of years spreading himself thin as show runner, his old ideas keep rearing their heads. Writing this is actually a bit difficult for me because I like most of these ideas! But let's face it. We all got de ja vu at the Spoonhead mantra "don't click it" in the Bells of St. John. We just got another tale of a companion who is a mystery that needs solving. And someone please tell me, what is the difference between the Whispermen and the Silence? After a few seasons, we'll always start seeing similarities in the writing. There's nothing wrong with a need for someone fresh at the helm, and if Moffat went back to writing a script or two each season we'd see more of his episodes reaching Blink levels of perfection.