Whatever you think of the Russell T. Davies era, the final two or three episodes of the series were always met with great anticipation. We cottoned on eventually that the final bow of the series would usually see some classic series villain reinvented for the modern age and, even if you weren't familiar with them, you knew the resulting battle would be of epic proportions. Whilst Moffat's decision to split up each series into two parts probably helped prevent this formula becoming stale, it didn't have the intended effect of doubling the number of event episodes. If anything, it reduced it to zero since the mid-series break wouldn't have enough build-up to make it exciting and the true series finale was too long-awaited to not be disappointing. This wasn't helped by making hauty promises in episode titles that we knew wouldn't be delivered upon (namely 'The Name of the Doctor'). We know now that Capaldi's first series will be an uninterrupted run of (we assume) 13 episodes, so now is the best opportunity for Moffat to make the series finale feel like an event once more. He should pick some great villain thought long-dead and weave his fiendish plot into the background of the episodes, only to be revealed at the end of the series and clash with the Time Lord. Moffat tried to do this with the Great Intelligence, but (in my opinion) the story was to convoluted to have any impact.
