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

This is the uncomfortable truth us Moffat fans usually have to concede eventually. Under RTD, the show was simply more successful. 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 perhaps most importantly, how to write event television. Every finale is his tenure felt like unavoidable telly. 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 went on to be 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 off screen 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 (in fact, my personal opinion is that Children of Earth is the best thing RTD has ever penned).

This battle to stay relevant was fierce, and the moment RTD and Tennant stepped back, the show began a downward trajectory in terms of viewership (in the UK at least, the show actually started to break America around this time). This trend has continued since, with an aggressive spike downwards from series 8 onwards. Even RTD himself has failed to recapture the lightning in a bottle that he created. 

The fact of the matter is that Moffat’s tenure lost viewers, primarily because his era became increasingly impenetrable for casual viewers. The storytelling was denser and the timelines twistier. For fans, this was wonderful, especially those of us who grew up on the revived era and felt like the show was growing with us, but mainstream audiences gradually drifted away - the show becoming increasingly reliant on dedicated, rather than casual viewership. The casting of Capaldi and the loss of a traditional 'young handsome hero' sadly put the nail in the coffin for a lot of viewers - a sentence that pains me to say. 

The loss of steam we've seen this last decade from the show? It started with Moffat, not Chibnall.