Best writer?

Which showrunner was the best writer?


Moffat. Had he left the show at the end of Series 5 I wouldn't have had many bad things to say about him. Although The Bells of St. John, Listen, Heaven Sent, The Pilot and World Enough and Time were pretty decent stories, the majority of his work post Series 5 was rather poor. RTD wrote a few decent ones but he came across as a lazy hack most of the time. I thought Midnight was a bag of shit honestly.

Although his self-loathing and pandering nature eventually resulted in some of the absolute worst episodes of Who I’ve ever experienced (see Death in Heaven, Hell Bent, Twice Upon a Time etc), when on form, he was aeons better than RTD, who I’d say has only written one or two half-decent scripts (and that’s pushing it). He’s far more vacuous and lazy than Moffat too- as smug as Moffat could get, there was usually some semblance of a good idea behind his early scripts and certainly a stronger sense of creativity. RTD had no creativity whatsoever.

Moffat during the RTD years.

Has to be Moffat I think. Because he could at least sometimes produce gold as a writer.

The negative was that at worst his writing came off as heartless and sociopathic in a way RTD's rarely did, for all his faults.

He could be a good writer.

He just sucked as a *head-writer*.

I miss giving a shit about what they were fucking up.

I blame Moffat that I don't anymore.

Moffat was a great writer, the best since Bob Holmes IMO but once he became showrunner he went to shit and got predictable, clichéd and lazy.

RTD is the luckiest Soap opera writer that's ever lived.

Moffat.

His scripts for the RTD era were the most successful of that period and when he came along and took over the reigns of showrunner in 2010. I hoped with his mostly excellent Series 5 that we would finally see NuWho steer towards being just as good as the original series. Sadly by Series 6, he seemed to have let his ego get the better of him and by Series 8, the SJW's had bullied him into cucking the series and it's hero.

I think Moffat had better ideas - but RTD created a show the masses (and even Michael Grade) enjoyed. Yes, it was pretty dumb and lazy - but it came across as fresh and full of energy too. The soap opera elements were core RTD - and a lot of the public didn’t seem to mind. So RTD was the better writer for generating interest in the show.
Moffat’s era saw a decline in the public’s interest. Smith was liked, but not as much as Tennant, and the stories just seemed flatter. Capaldi was a massive let down, and I think most of the public weren’t interested by then. From “Deep Breath” (after the 50th anniversary showed the last flicker of interest) it was “slow death”. And the Chibnall era seems to cater and appeal to absolutely no one.

Muppet is the better and worse writer than Fathead.

Both are Harold Pinter and Dennis Potter compared to Chincunt however.

Agree with Rob. Moffat was better as a storywriter (more intelligent) but even worse as a showrunner than Davies. Totally self-indulgent and lost the ability to plot coherently.

Curiously RTD has occasionally impressed me with other stuff since his rotten Nu Who stuff finished (the Jeremy Thorpe drama). Moff on the other hand is as pants as ever (Dickula).

Mott1 wrote:Agree with Rob. Moffat was better as a storywriter (more intelligent) but even worse as a showrunner than Davies. Totally self-indulgent and lost the ability to plot coherently.

Curiously RTD has occasionally impressed me with other stuff since his rotten Nu Who stuff finished (the Jeremy Thorpe drama). Moff on the other hand is as pants as ever (Dickula).

^
This.

When Muppet is better than Fathead he is streets better, but when he is worse - Holy Fuck, I didn't think ANYTHING could be worse than Last of the Time Turds & Muppet comes along and scripts Death In Heaven which makes Fatheads turd look like Robert Holmes chocolate by comparison.