I'd maybe push Genesis Of The Daleks up there, and I'm almost always tepid on Dalek stories.

Which I think got worse from when she was introduced. I much preferred Amy back in the first two series of 11 than later.
Conversely as I disliked Amy a little more, I started to like Rory a lot more.
It's almost as if he couldn't write two great companions at once, even if their dynamic was them being together.

I liked the episode, but the concept had potential, but just didn't scare the way you'd think it would.
I partially blame that he was using a technology that just isn't scary, at least not the same way gothic statues can be disconcerting.

I hope he does do some one off episodes too, and doesn't feel him doing that would be undermining his successor.

I'd like to see him write something not set in the past first, if that makes any sense? I do have my concerns whether he can write sci-fi that's not based in a historical setting.
I liked Cold War a lot too, one of my favorites of season 7 (II).

Just for season 12 from Ark In Space to Genesis Of The Daleks he's in my top 3. He was masterful in those.

It didn't bother me at all when I was first watched it, I was so caught up in the ending and the Master/Doctor moment of grief/affection, that the absurdity of the deus ex machina plot device didn't bother me.
Rewatching it again it's a silly idea, but if anything I can't figure out a better one. They wrote The…

I'm not disagreeing. He did put himself out there a lot, but that was before the internet culture took off and there being thousands of sites reporting everything Who related and teasers and former insiders telling things about every process of the show.

Are you the person who used to say the show would be better if it was made by and starring Americans?

Tennant was iconic and had more purely emotional moments, but you're right on the button here that Smith delivered a much more classic interpretation of the role.
I always said about Tennant that if the show didn't explicitly make a point of him being a timelord, you'd almost be forgiven for thinking he was a human and…

I think 9 had plenty of character specific emotional baggage too, in fact he was very, very tortured by it.

To be fair here, there was nothing JTN could have done that would have satisfied the Beeb powers that be, who hated the show and just were looking for any excuse to cancel it despite it still pulling in decent ratings.
I think JNT should have left by then, he'd been on the show too long, but he was VERY publicly…

RTD mistook the idea of what makes a satisfying epic story, it's not the utter and complete destructive threat that matters and more the struggle and the situation it puts the characters in.
At his worst the finales were so over the top that he had to resort to cheats like Martha wandering the earth for a year and…

I really liked Rose with 9 and thought they should have taken '"The Parting of the Ways' on board and had her arc end just after.

Yeah I really liked how they addressed that from his perspective of him being this guy who bollocked up people's lives more often than not, and how that weighed on him.

I suspect Moffat will push for Gatiss, which I'm not sure of. He's a good writer, just I haven't ever been impressed overly with his Who scripts.
I'd definitely look more towards Toby Whitehouse who can write fun interesting stories AND have big themes along with them.

That's definitely true, and probably why I'd edge Moffat ahead-consistency.
When Moffat delivers a bad episode it's generally just average. When RTD did it was a absolute disaster like 'Fear Her'.

Exactly this. RTD nailed emotional resonance, Moffat nails plots, primal fear base monsters and the like.

I like both for different reasons. You're entirely correct that RTD was good at character moments and exploring the 'humanity' of The Doctor, and his constant lingering aftermath of the Time War helped a lot, but big epic adventures and creating meaningful villains wasn't his forte. There's a reason no one really…

Moffat really really does struggle with creating lead characters one can relate to and care for I think.
I don't know quite why that is with 11, but it's almost like he's made him too imperiously perfect to ever truly feel things along with.