[sterlingice]

I fell like I've written this same screed at the end of every Matt Smith season: The entire Matt Smith era blurs together in my mind. I don't think Moffat knows quite how to use his tools over the course of a season, which is a real shame since his single episodes were so good.

Just to use one illustration, the last time we saw Gallifrey, it was a Russell T Davies grandiose over the top Master episode with Timothy Dalton guest starring. This time, all we get from going to that really important well is a beam of light and another regeneration that could have happened at any time but we took hundreds of years to do it.

And Moffat's best single episode assets become overused: River Song gets dumber as the series goes on and the Angels go from terrifying to commonplace. How did we go from the writer whose episodes created Captain Jack, River Song, and the Angels just sputter along? Home many times under Moffat have we had Daleks, Cybermen, and "all the doctor's enemies" brought together just for the hell of it: at least 3, right (Pandorica, Good Man Goes to War, Time of the Doctor)? Earlier episodes focused on just one because, well, monolithic evil is hard to write well.

Somehow we also get the silly red herring of the Doctor dying, not once but twice. If there's one thing you know won't happen in the show, it's the Doctor dying yet we tried that out twice for whole season plots (Impossible Astronaut and Trensalore). The mystery of his name went nowhere but how could it really- there's just not much meat there?

Amy's character arc is ok- the fish fingers and custard thing started out really well- but then she became kindof generic like Martha. Rory gets the best emotional moment in their whole arc in the season 5 finale, tho the plot to that didn't quite make sense. And there's an insignificant amount of emotional heft when they disappear, even with the Angels shoehorned in. Clara is an odd mystery and I liked the way they resolved that plot with the Doctor's time stream. However, I don't think Jenna Louise Coleman is all that good of an actress.

I'm hoping that with a new Doctor, we get a new way of doing the show. It's not Matt Smith's fault, but I feel the show has lost its way. Russell T Davies overwrote messes but it's better than just meandering around in the dark.

SI