Why does doctor who suck so bad now?

The seasons that you've enjoyed so appealed to a much more broad audience, with only glimpses of what we've seen so far this season. Doctor Who is a quintessentially British cultural thing, and that doesn't always translate well to viewers in other countries.

Doctor Who isn't meant to be the same show every time around, the Doctor isn't the same man after a regeneration, and that is something that non-British audiences may struggle with. This season's Doctor is not David Tennant, definitely not Matt Smith, he's darker and harder and many of the things that the recent Doctors were not. He's got a hard job, he makes the hard decisions, he sacrifices people, people sacrifice themselves for him. Tennant's Doctor fought to rise above that. Smith's Doctor ran away from it. The current Doctor has sort of accepted things, he has less guilt and shame about his shortcomings. It isn't about being better or worse, its character development. It just so happens that you don't care for the direction they've taken the character. Luckily, he's long lived, he'll go lots of directions in the coming years and you're bound to enjoy some of them.

I do agree that they've been a bit short on ideas this season, but you need several throw away episodes each time around - monster/problem of the week type episodes that don't advance the characters and overall story arc. Without these, they would have been out of ideas a very long time ago. I also agree that they need more writers involved, the tone of every episode this time around has been too similar.

I don't feel like they developed Clara's relationship with the current Doctor well enough on-screen - after a regeneration, he knows her, but they needed to do more to show her getting to know him now that he's different. But I like what they did with Clara and her relationship with Danny, the lies and the difficulties, it had a bit more realism than the past companion relationships. I kind of wish they would move on past Clara soon, but do it in such a way that it softens the Doctor rather than hardens him further like it has so many times in the past.

Now that I'm done rambling, to sum up - sometimes Doctor Who is meant to be a drama, that's part of what it is. It is a piece of art that relies on the interconnectedness of sadness and beauty. The action is more fun, the comedy is more enjoyable, but at the end of the day it is a story about a man who has to outlive everyone he ever cares about, and then still find a way to care at all when someone new comes into his life. Every episode and every season can't be everything to everyone, but I am still a huge fan and think it is worth watching....Show more

Because it's turned into a drama show instead of an action one. Steven Moffat needs to let a variety of writers work on the show - in Classic Who, the producer never did all the writing.

They've chosen, for some reason, to make the show companion-centric. The only episode where the Doctor actually did anything was the one with the mummy - which, IMO, was the only good episode in the series.

Moffat doesn't seem to write relationships well, either - we were supposed to see Clara + Danny as all romantic and lovely but their relationship was screwed up by lies, demands, aggression etc. Similarly with the Doctor's relationship with Clara.

He's also decided, rather than have action, to give us insight into the Doctor's struggles ("Am I a good man?") which just isn't working on screen.

I don't know why they've turned it into Eastenders In Space, but I think this series has been the worst since the reboot....Show more

It has been happening for a long time. A shortage of original good ideas gets displaced with ever increasing incoherent gobbledygook as Doctor Who tries to fill the time to coast on its past reputation....Show more