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

This is a difference that has become all the more apparent in the wake of RTD2. Davies has a special reverence for nostalgia, and indeed, seems to base all his big moments around the return of something you remember from back in the day. The first time around, this worked - after all, you can't have Doctor Who without the Daleks, the Cybermen, the Master, or Davros. Even returning companions and characters didn't feel too bad within the context of their own era. 

But when fifteen years passed, the show moved on, and RTD eventually returned to the helm, this routine felt considerably more stale, not least because it wasn't someone else's work he was fondly remembering... it was his own. The return of Tennant and Tate and the attempt to recapture series four to mark the sixtieth anniversary was perhaps a sign of what to come, with the era ending on the jump the shark moment of the Doctor regenerating into Billie Piper (who, if rumours to be believed, will be starring opposite a little known actor called David Tennant in this year's Christmas special). In a relatively short space of time, RTD also brought back the Toymaker, Sutekh, the Midnight Entity, the Rani and Omega and treated each of these like reveals that would shock the nation, when in all likelihood, 95% of viewers would have no idea who they were.

Increasingly, it has become clear that RTD cannot write a finale that doesn't hinge on these nostalgia reveals, having done this eight out of eight times (and that's including both runs of specials). To say the returns have been diminishing would be an understatement. That frustration has been compounded by the fact that, as time has gone on, these characters have less and less resembled their original counterparts, and their impact on the plot has been increasingly minimal, culminating in Omega (the famed Gallifreyan scientist and inventor of time travel) being reduced to a giant CGI skeleton baby that gets blasted out of the plot by a convenient time gun. Omega was there for a reveal, and nothing more. The approach has become entirely soulless and lazy... "don't you think he looks tired?". 

Moffat, by comparison, revelled in building his own mythology, and as a result, his era still feels remarkably fresh on a rewatch. He had confidence in his own ideas, with adversaries like the Weeping Angels and the Silence taking centre stage. Some finales, like series 5, series 7, and series 9, weren't really focused on an adversary at all, but a mystery or hurdle to overcome. Plot first, nostalgia second. Every single time. Not every experiment worked, but the ambition deserves credit. Moffat’s era often felt willing to take risks, and, at its best, was capable of giving us a finale as truly special and subversive as Heaven Sent / Hell Bent. For all it's focus on creating 'content' moments, RTD2 has utterly failed in creating anything that can hold a candle to the highs of the Eleventh and Twelfth Doctors.

In summary, it's fair to say I have a favourite.