As I was looking around about speculation about who will succeed Moffat as Showrunner eventually, I stumbled on this article from the Houston Press. While interesting in talking about Neil Gaiman, it was a comment for the article that got me thinking.

from conatonc:

I also would not want him as showrunner, and it’s not necessarily because he looks to the past when writing. Instead, I’m afraid of the same thing happening to Gaiman that happened to Moffat when he took over the show. We’ve gotten, perhaps, more interesting season-long arcs, but the quality level of Moffat’s episodes has noticeably suffered. Which isn’t to say Moffat hasn’t continued to produce high-quality television, he obviously has. But since he’s been in charge, he’s had trouble reaching the same level of brilliance he had when he just had to do 3-4 episodes a season.

Besides the obvious issue that Gaiman has an established writing career of his own, being showrunner would probably result in a similar problem. I’d rather get a single great Gaiman episode a season, personally.

Really, the more I think about this, the more sense it makes.

Compare Moffat’s Episodes in the Russell T. Davies era to his episodes now. You’ll notice that his episodes are now weaker than episodes such as The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances, The Girl in the Fireplace, and, of course, Blink. Granted, Series 7B was stronger than Series 6B and 7A, but the point still stands. Having a Single Individual Show-Runner gives one creator a little too much power, and also allows flaws of that individuals style to come through without enough other significant influences to compensate for any individual Show-Runner’s flaws or shortcomings.

I think perhaps instead of having one Show-Runner, you have a few of them, a committee of sorts, largely to balance the flaws of each other. While Doctor Who is doing well (Still pulling in a 20-33% audience share in the UK, along with increasing viewership worldwide, with Australia being very notable in this regard), we should avoid the mistakes of the past, which can be seen with Jonathan Nathan-Turner.