"No, Not the Mind Probe!!?!"

I'm trying to keep an open mind - I'm prepared to be positive about Moffat and Matt Smith until either or both of them prove me wrong. As you say, though, the received wisdom among people in the TV industry seems to be that in order to be popular and to remain popular in the modern environment, a show has to be done a certain way, with a certain type of emphasis. "Character driven", in other words, which is often just a syonym for low-grade soap opera. As you say, oldschool Who, at the height of its powers, was full of at times very subtle character insight (even in the case of very minor villains/guest characters in a lot of cases), without it ever being detrimental to the storylines or ideas. I think it was something television in general did better in those days. Still, to play devil's advocate, I think that the soapy stuff has been less prevalent in Seasons 3 and 4 of NuWho, while always present; maybe this reflects growing confidence on the part of the production staff as they realise they don't have to keep constantly ticking demographic boxes to keep their audience share. Whether this will continue into the new era is something that remains to be seen - I worry about what the year out may have done to the show's audience base, because if it has been affected I worry about what Moffat and co might do to try to win them back. There are already all sorts of stunt-casting rumours flying about, but I hope those are just the usual paper-talk.