The show has sucked since Moffat took over and Matt Smith came onboard. Smith was a terrible doctor and Moffat is a fucking idiot. If Steve Moffat and Tim Burton ever work together, the craptastic spawn of their labor would be so ridiculously insipid (with goth leanings, of course) that it would prolly actually cause the world to have less culture the very moment it came into existence.
YMMV. 
I think Doctor Who’s problem is that is tries to be both epic and not very serious. So, the entire universe will depend on this risky endeavour to save the lives of trillions and ooh look there’s a fez. I’m fine with silly. I’m fine with serious. I’m fine with epic. I’m fine with trivial. But they need to be matched up right.
Smith was a crappy Doctor. Amy Pond stayed too long. I really like Clara and I think she makes even the Smith Doctor better. But I am really looking forward to the new Doctor. Capaldi will hopefully be a better Doctor. Tennant was great and Eccleston was very good.
I don’t dislike Moffat at all. I think Coupling was brilliant and I love Sherlock. Hyde was also quite interesting. So to me he made a bad choice in Doctors, kept the companions too long and off course too many Angels and too many Daleks.
I hope for no more Angels and Daleks and Cyberman in very small doses.
This is kinda why I’m never too worried about the show. The complaints are often just differences of opinion over the same thing.
“Too much continuity”
“Not enough continuity.”
“Too much romance.”
“Not enough romance.”
“K-9 is silly! Get rid of the tin dog!”
“I love K-9! Bring him back!”
“The Doctor is too mysterious.”
“I want to know more about the Doctor.”
“The Doctor is the center of the universe!”
“The Doctor is only a second banana!”
New Who. Same old fandom.
EXACTLY. You absolutely nailed it. At some point Moffat suddenly became the laziest storyteller ever.
My issue with Moffat is far to many uses of the Reset button. ALL THE TIME with the resets. It’s his default go-to. it’s to the point where I feel that there can’t be any real tension because within the season he’ll just undo it again.
I made it through the waaay too long and drawn out Pond business, so I figure I can outlast Moffat.
(I mistyped Moffat and it autocorrected to ‘a offal’. I almost left it).
Anyway, I’m excited again with the change to Peter Capaldi. I don’t hate the Clara character, but she’s 2nd from the bottom on my list of companions.
Lazy isn’t the right word, the opposite is more likely - it is too intricate if anything.
I don’t disagree with most of the criticisms here, but I also completely agree with this. The best description I’ve seen is that its an anthology show. No one will like all the episodes. I no longer worry about trying to figure things out. I just go along for the ride, and it’s usually entertaining.
I agree - much as I like both Smith and Cumberbatch, I feel the characters of the Doctor and Sherlock have both almost turned into Captain Jack Sparrow - a clowning, fast-talking, half-mad jester, flailing about on screen in a supposedly entertaining manner, but almost in spite of the plot, rather than because of it.
I rarely say this:, but LOL! You really are a bitch! 
And you nailed it. Remember when the TV movie came out and it was all “This is the worst thing ever and Paul McGann sucks?” (We spelled out “sux” in those days.) Or how people bitched about the Romana I and II debacle? More of the same, and people will keep bitching as long as I live and beyond.
I don’t see the Sparrowness.
Smith is actually funny and Cumberbatch is not silly.
I prefer the 11th to the 10 and the 10th to the 9th.
12th seems like a new direction (as it should be).
The Christmas episode was a bt silly (although I loved the aging doctor part) but I think it was on purpose; a goodbye episode.
I’m on booard with fewer Dalek and Cybermen.
The moment you the Doctor who too seriously, you should stop watchng a show about a time-travelling police box and a regenerating two-hearted alien.
It’s a family show, for kids AND adults.
I really liked the show how it once was: A solid police procedural about a cop who heard something in the London fog.
Then they went and ruined it forever with that ridiculous sub-plot about an alien child prodigy and her grumpy grandfather.
It doesn’t even matter: either the narrative is structured in a way that makes sense, or it isn’t, and that’s true at any age.
I’m not complaining about the lack of seriousness - it’s just that the narrative has become a chopped salad and takes second place to the spectacle of the character surprising everybody with his random eccentricity.
I mean, there are plenty of ways it can still be a show about a time-travelling police box and a regenerating two-hearted alien, and still be worthy of criticism - for example; The Tardis materialises at the Savoy Grill; The Doctor drops trou and shits on someone’s table - would still be ‘a show about a time-travelling police box and a regenerating two-hearted alien’.
Some of the comments here (especially Trion’s) have put me in mind of one of my favorite humor pieces:
I used to visit the rec.arts.drwho group on what was then Dejanews and is now Google Groups. The second David Tennant was cast, before he’d even STARTED filming his episode, someone on there griped, “Goodbye, Doctor Who…again!”
I stand as one datapoint that it’s not just fan-fiction. Prior to this year, I’d only seen parts of a couple episodes, back in the early 80’s, since my housemate watched (and grumbled about this dumb new yuppy doctor). I remember being too confused to pay much attention, but thought it might be worth a look I just never took. (My housemate was an eclectic with interesting tastes, and yeah, the hero did look like an overgrown frat boy.)
Flash forward to this year; my wife is out of town for weeks, so I’m looking for shows to watch that we don’t watch together, and I try Dr Who, and start with the middle of season 7. I admit, it was a bit confusing; a lot of stuff didn’t make any sense until the final episode of the season, and other stuff still doesn’t, but I know I’m missing a lot.
Regardless, I enjoyed it a lot, and I plan to go back and watch it all starting after the reboot movie. That is, if my wife leaves me alone again, long enough. She’s not interested, and normally if we’re not watching together I have better things to do than watch TV. Like argue with all y’all. 
You’re absolutely right. Upon reviewing my post it didn’t end up saying all what I wanted and came about a bit assholish.
I disagree with your perspective on the state of the narrative and I think it’s working right and, for me, Cappaldi has big shoes to fill; but your “shits on table” point is bang on.
Fair enough - I guess it’s all down to personal taste.
I know a lot of people have already written Capaldi off - I’m prepared to give him a chance.