Series 8 (2014) Review

NOTE: This is my original recap of Series 8 that I made on GateWorld Forum in 2014.

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My first real-time Doctor Who series is over(I count the Christmas special as Series 9) and it was not a happy one.
(2015 Note: I do count the Christmas special as Series 8 now. It broke the ice for me quite a bit, but it wasn't until The Magician's Apprentice that I really got back into the show.)

Around the end of the Matt Smith era, we were promised a new, darker and grittier Doctor who would refresh the entire show.
Instead, we got Ebenezer Scrooge, a bossy freak and a whole load of meh episodes. We are not amused.
As I've stated before, the Twelfth Doctor is a very deep and a interesting lead, but I dare say he's no darker than Smith or maybe Tennant. It's not til that Gallifrey moment that I considered him to be near Eccleston's league in terms of acting though. Currently, he's halfway into reaching my Top 5 Doctors list.
What the heck happened to Clara? In Series 7, she was bossy, but cute, in here, she spends half her time whining and half her time complaining. Put on the Awesome Coat and you'd have a female Sixth Doctor. Yuck. At least Colin Baker complained and whined with class.
Most of the episodes were boring as hell(Kill The Moon, The Caretaker, Listen, Time Heist), downright stupid(In The Forest Of The Night, the finale) or just "meh"(Deep Breath, Flatline).
I didn't like Listen at all because the Doctor's wild theories came from nowhere and went nowhere. It was a nothing episode, where Moffat just seemed to wander around the plot cluelessly. The high rating given to this one for its "psychology" sickens me. Go watch the Scrubs episode My Screw-Up for some real psychological analysis or heck, The Edge Of Destruction. At least that story had character development and purpose, no matter its other flaws.
And for horror, we always have Midnight. We don't need what we already have.
Doctor Who isn't about scaring kids, it's not. It's about teaching them. The Daleks went down in history, because it was a warning of what might happen and what did happen. Moffat's inventions are cheap tricks in comparison.
But it wasn't all bad. Robot Of Sherwood was in my eyes, a comedy classic. It had a great set-up(Robin Hood and the Doctor) and the two worlds collided with thunder just as you'd expect. It was written well, it was acted well, it had a great look about it even, the jokes were some of the best... why no one liked it, I will never know.
When I reviewed it a few months ago, I believed it'd be an instant classic and for good reason. It was brilliant.
The second hit was Mummy On The Orient Express, which was tense, interesting, clever, with great characterisation, a classic setting and a murder mystery(way better than the RTD Agatha Christie effort). There was silliness, true, but the story kept you hooked and never let go. That's all I asked for and I got that and so much more.
Notice a connection between these two episodes? Neither of them were written by Steven Moffat.
I so hate to be clichéd and I really don't like wishing ill-will and I thank him for the genuinely great stuff he's brought into the show...
but for Doctor Who to progress, Moffat must go.