I wouldn't have said it's sudden. The guy will have been doing it for 7 years when his time is up and recently just finished with one of his "major" creations. I'd say that's a pretty good time to announce he's stepping down.

It's not like people really have any build up to announcements they're leaving, it just happens.

Thanks to ZeoRangerV I now know who this guy is.. and I am excited. He did every single one of the best episodes from Torchwood and it means Moffat is finally leaving.

The BEST news. Literally the best. Moffat has fucked around with half realized storylines and whimsical bullshit for long enough. The handful of good episodes he's presided over pale in comparison to the years of bad.

I completely disagree. Moffat is the best thing to ever happen to this show. All of the masterpiece episodes sans the Dalek/Cybermen crossover one were all Moffat's. That includes The Girl in the Fire Place, Blink, Silence in the Library, Forest of the Dead, Let's Kill Hitler, Listen, and Heaven Sent. THe only bad season Moffat gave us was the seventh, but even that had a few great episodes in it.

I hope this new guy can actually give us ingenious episodes that deal with time manipulation like Moffat did.

Hell no, season six is trash. Easily the worst the series has been since it came back.

It's undeniable that he's written some fantastic episodes. But he's also written some godawful ones as well, and to a lot of people his overbearing writing style has grown stale all too quickly. For a show that thrives on change a new show runner is welcome.

Also Let's Kill Hitler a "masterpiece"?! Each to their own I guess..

It was the origin of River, that made it great. Every episode with her is excellent. Season 6 was the best of Smith's run since it led to the big grand finale and revealed all there was to know about River and the Ponds. It was an excellent send off to them to (which was ruined in Season 7).

If you like her sure. The only ones I consider particularly outstanding that she's in is the Pandorica 2-parter. Not to say she isn't in any other "good" episodes, but I wouldn't consider any of them masterpieces by any stretch of the imagination.

You can not convince me that ANY of Smith's run is better than his first. Six and seven don't even compare.

100% agree there. His first series felt like a natural progression of the show for the most part. Go beyond that and there were only a handful of tolerable episodes.

Good News: Moffat is leaving! We might get good storylines from Chibnall! We finally get something different!

Bad News: We have to wait until next year for new episodes... And they're still made by Moffat.

Big Finish: The Diary of River Song series 2!

Release Date: 01/2017

Synopsis:
More Colin and Sylvester? In a multi-Doctor story? Yes, please!

Source: Big Finish

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Radio Times has a trailer for upcoming 10/Donna Big Finish series. I got a bit of a chill hearing the two of them together again, although Catherine Tate sounds a bit different. I hope if the series continues they get Bernard Cribbins back. I still hope that when Big Finish starts producing Eleven adventures, Wilf shows up. Matt was so good at playing an old man in a young man's body that I would love to see him alongside the Crib.