Doctor Who Club of Australia

[Greg]

It seems that the BBC watches the result of this DWCA Forum poll closely, as demonstrated by their choice of the new show runner from 2010 onwards.

Given this, I urge you to use your vote wisely!

Please also let us all know why you chose that writer for their work on series 4.

[Speckled Jim]

Has to be Moffat again, although kudos to Gareth Roberts for a very entertaining one-parter with a dash of old skool Davison-era hamminess.

[Sulp Niar]

For the Series 3 poll, I was surprised that I'd liked RTD's stuff the most that year. For this Series 4 poll, I'm not surprised at all.

Bluntly, although I've enjoyed every episode this year - well, nearly - but for me they didn't really stand out. It's funny what looking back does; at the time I said 'Planet of the Ood' was the greatest episode ever, but even though I still like it now, I think really that was just a reaction to actually having something good in a season I'd expected to be dull. I stand by what I said about the other eps, mind.

RTD's only serious competition this year was Moffat. And yet... the library two-parter was just "Moffat", it was what fans expected. For some fans that's a good thing, but for me, it's dull, considering this is a show that I feel should surprise us. It just felt like he was doing the same thing over again; brilliant, but unoriginal.

Whereas Russell surprised me a few times: I actually liked 'Partners in Crime' a little bit, and I think that's mainly down to the Adipose (if they'd been scary monsters, I'd have been thoroughly bored); 'Midnight' was of course amazing (and managed to use a "repeating monster" just a story after Moffat's, and yet feel more original!); 'Turn Left' was fascinating and powerful (and managed to make the lesser stories - like 'Runaway Bride' - fascinating too!); and then...

...well, okay, I didn't like the finale. And yet, contrary to my reaction at the time, it isn't worthless. 'Doomsday', I feel, was worthless; it told us nothing new, and really was just a flash-bang-lasers finale purely built to get rid of Rose. But 'Journey's End', for all its fanwank, for all its flashiness, for all its smug, unoriginal plot twists... actually told us something about the Doctor, about the people he leaves behind to do his work for him, and about how a companion-less Doctor can be a scary, vengeful, callous god. And on the flipside, it told us how the Doctor can help people, self-centred people like Donna, to become better individuals. The last few scenes between them are perfect.

And so, with a brief nod to Moffat, I can only really find it in me to vote RTD this year. Because for one shining moment, he was the most important writer in all of creation.

(...I'm ignoring 'Voyage of the Damned'...)

[DrJones]

I really like RTD for series 1, 2 & 3 but for series 4 it is Moffat. Although I have always been a big fan of Steven Moffat, right back from his Press Gang days. His stories are just so sophisticated, so neat and tidy and original. RTD is brilliant too, but very different. He likes his pop culture references, he produces some hilarious lines and his stories are very entertaining.

Toughy, but given the patchy series 4, I'll vote for the strongest story and that was Forest of the Dead/Silence in the Library by Steven Moffat.

[Fenric]

I've given Moffatt 3 best writer credits in a row, so RTD for his brilliant "Midnight", if nothing else. RTD has improved as the series go on, from trashy "Aliens of London" or "The Long Game", to classics in "Midnight". Great work!

[montypython]

Despite my enjoyment of the finale, I can't decide whether or not I can forgive RTD for Partners in Crime.

And while I loved Moffat's work for Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead, when I read the transcript online and got up to basically anything River Song said, I found myself either choking, or muttering, "You bitch. You bitch! You BITCH!"