Yeah, one of the reasons I liked RTD's chars from the get-go is that they all had other relationships, too; you got a strong sense of who they were and how they fit into their lives right away. That kind of character establishment is one of RTD's strengths as a writer, and I think it's because that's what he cares about; he feels to me like one of those writers who writes because he loves the chars he writes about. Moffat comes across more like he's interested in characters only so far as he can use them to say clever lines and tell the stories he wants to tell, less like he actually cares about the characters themselves. And while I can appreciate the skill of the latter, I tend to naturally prefer the former style, since it matches my own...

I agree with all of this. And it's kind of sad, because I was looking forward to getting new blood in the creative department, and since Moffat's a sharp idea guy, seeing what fresh and interesting ideas he'd bring to it. But the result has been a Who that's much flatter and less interesting than RTD's version, to me at least, and I think what you've said above is precisely why - I'm a character viewer, have always been, and the way that RTD developed his complicated, flawed and likable characters and their friends and family really worked well for me, despite my issues with his writing in other areas. But I think you're absolutely right that Moffat is a plot writer, not a character writer, and while it worked fine when he'd come in and move RTD's vivid, unique characters around on a canvas, when he's the one who has to come up with the characters from scratch - it's not working so well.

I hope that the flaws will iron themselves out and the characters will become more vivid once the writers develop their "voice" and the actors are able to settle into their roles. But if characterization isn't one of Moffat's priorities, then it doesn't give me a lot of hope that the show will develop in a way that's really going to work for me ...