Like many Doctor Who fans, my wife and I often debate the most important question of them all: who was the best actor to play the Doctor? She and I both came on board with the 2005 revival, so we don’t have the same passion as veteran fans for classic series actors such as Tom Baker. The source of our debate is quite simple. She prefers David Tennant, whose very human performance made the Tenth Doctor a timey-wimey favorite to fans all over the world. As for myself, I prefer Matt Smith, who tempered his whimsical performances with occasional glimpses of both the tragedy and the darkness that have defined the Doctor’s life.
While both Tennant and Smith give showstopping performances, they each worked for very different showrunners. Russel T. Davies brought Doctor Who back in 2005 and soon transformed David Tennant into a household name. After four seasons, Davies left the show, and Steven Moffat took over. His tenure on the show was quite controversial, and countless fans just wanted Davies to come back. However, Davies did come back for the most recent two seasons, and they were so bad that the show he revived is now canceled again. Now that NuWho is dead for the foreseeable future, the fandom can finally embrace a simple truth: Moffat was the best showrunner Doctor Who ever had!
More Like Doctor Whoa
What made Steven Moffat the best Doctor Who showrunner? For one thing, he delivered episodes that were much more cinematic in nature. The classic series had often cheaped out on special effects, and even in the early years of the revival, Davies relied on some shoddy CGI. Once Moffat took over, episodes started looking more and more like blockbuster films (albeit modestly budgeted ones). Throw in the abundance of excellent two-parters (like “The Pandorica Opens” and “The Big Bang”), and stories often had the runtime of a movie, too. Obviously, this is a matter of aesthetic preference, but I’ll take Moffatt’s cinematic storytelling over Davies’ warmed-over schlock any day of the week.
Speaking of which, Moffat did cool, slow-burning mysteries and reveals better than Davies. Davies often had crazy mysteries (like Bad Wolf) and even crazier reveals (like the Master) that were cool in the moment but made less and less sense the more you thought about them. By comparison, Moffat had meaty mysteries that would keep you on the edge of your seat, including the Pandorica, the Silence, the true nature of River Song, and so much more. In each case, the reveal felt like the rewarding culmination of entire seasons’ worth of build-up. Davies, however, would just show us bonkers stuff and crank out a nonsensical reveal before calling it a day.
The Best Companions, Full Stop
Obviously, a lot of this is a matter of taste. If you don’t care for the mysteries of Moffat, you might be disappointed by how much screentime is devoted to exploring them. Personally, I thought he got the balance of episodic episodes and serialized arcs just right. The unfolding mystery of the Pandorica didn’t keep us from getting standout episodes like “Vincent and the Doctor,” for example, and the mystery of Impossible Girl Clara didn’t keep us from getting bottled brilliance such as “Nightmare in Silver.” Killer standalone episodes and mysteries worthy of TV shows like Lost. Honestly, what more could you want?
If you just said “great characters,” then Steven Moffat still has you covered. Even Doctor Who fans who generally disliked Moffat as showrunner can agree that he brought us some excellent new characters. Amy Pond and Rory are possibly the cutest Companions in franchise history, and they got something most classic Companions never did: their own arcs. Personally, I found their relationship much more compelling than just watching Rose pine for the Doctor in earlier seasons. Plus, under Moffat’s leadership, River gets fleshed out to be a worthy wife for our time-traveling hero. These characters and more got to shine because of how well-written they were from beginning to end.
Gab Man In A Box
That brings me to the last and arguably most compelling reason why Steven Moffat is the best Doctor Who showrunner: the dialogue. Moffat personally wrote a huge number of the episodes under his run, and he gave his characters the wittiest, breeziest banter this side of The West Wing. For as beautifully cinematic as his episodes were, they are almost as enjoyable if you close your eyes entirely and just soak in the weird, found family warmth of the show’s dialogue. Even when Moffat was at his worst (“The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe,” anyone?), he was still writing circles around everyone else.
Long story short? We’re not going to have any new Doctor Who for a while. Possibly a long while; the last hiatus for the show lasted 16 years! There’s no time like the present to go back and watch your favorite episodes of the revival that began in 2005. If you’re someone who hated Steven Moffat’s run back in the day, I encourage you to give him another shot. Every shot is beautiful, every mystery is riveting, and every character is three-dimensional. Throw in dialogue that feels like the lovechild of Joss Whedon and Aaron Sorkin, and you have episodes that can help you do the impossible.
Namely, wash the awful taste of Russell T. Davies’ last two seasons out of your mouth!
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