There
are a great many reasons to love Doctor
Who, and the writing is a vital one.
While the actors, for instance, always tear it up, the writing isn’t as
reliable. On a bad day, a subpar script
can unfortunately drag the episode down despite the other elements firing on
all cylinders, but when the writing is there, it buoys up everything around it,
and you’re reminded just how special Who
is. These are my favorites of the bunch.
Toby Whithouse – Whithouse is
interesting, because while he tends to work within a certain thematic
wheelhouse, the stories themselves are always nicely varied. He likes villains that make the Doctor
reflect on who he is, and he’s managed to do that with everything from giant
bat creatures in a school to fish vampires in Venice to a cyborg in the old
West. His Doctor-villain tête-à-têtes are
consistently the best!
Best
episode: “The God Complex”
Gareth Roberts – After writing a
couple excellent celebrity historicals in the RTD era, Roberts carved out a
different specialty for the Moffat years.
Generally, it’s putting the Doctor in a supremely ordinary-life scenario
and letting fun ensue (the Doctor as your flatmate! The Doctor as your babysitter! The Doctor as your coworker!) More particularly, though, he’s become known
for his pair of “Craig episodes” – funny, charming, and touching, often all at
once.
Best
episode: “The Lodger”
Paul Cornell – It’s a shame that
Cornell hasn’t written for the show since series 3, because he’s really
remarkable. Both the stories he wrote
for the show are just gorgeously emotional with top-notch explorations of the
Doctor-companion relationship, as well as excellent material for the companions
over all. He also does quite well with
his one-shot characters.
Best
episode: “Father’s Day”
Neil Gaiman – No surprise, Gaiman excels at neat
concepts. While all the super-upgrades
in “Nightmare in Silver” are a little ridiculous, the Cyberplanner makes the
whole thing exceedingly worthwhile, and he was absolutely the best writer to
take on the task of examining the Doctor’s relationship with the TARDIS (and
vice versa.) He can do humor, he can do
menacing, and he can do beautiful, each with equal aplomb.
Best
episode: “The Doctor’s Wife”
Jamie Mathieson – It’s a shame about
“The Girl Who Died” (I still have to believe the issues there are mostly on
Moffat’s side,) but Mathieson was such a relief in series 8. I feel like he has a better handle on Twelve
than almost anyone else who’s written for him, which I hugely appreciate,
because I sometimes feel like I adore Twelve despite what the writers do with him. Twelve’s and Clara’s relationship is at its
best in his first outing, and I’ve never seen it equaled.
Best
episode: “Mummy on the Orient Express”
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