There's only been about 20 episodes since the end of season five. If I had to guess at why I think those episodes aren't quite as strong overall as what came before, I would tend to put it down to focus, rather than soul.

There are still some incredible episodes, and some great fun to be had even in season six, and in season seven so far. Off the top of my head, there's the power of A Good Man Goes to War, the rompy plot fun of Let's Kill Hitler, there's The Girl Who Waited, and there's Stormageddon in Closing Time, all in season six. Season seven so far has some good episodes too.

But I think that lately the show hasn't been focused enough. All of the individual elements that make for great Doctor Who are still there, but they aren't all working together. You'll get a great narrative-arc-heavy episode that neglects a believable plot or the growth of the companions; you'll get an episode where the Doctor gets to shine and be awesome, but it doesn't have consistent themes; you'll get an episode that grows the companions but the Doctor takes a back seat and things don't make sense. That sort of thing.

I had the feeling in season five that all the gears were turning together. You had a consistent season-long story arc that still managed to have lots of adventures, believable character growth, and all leading to an interesting finale, even though it didn't answer all its own questions. In season six the season-long story arc is complicated and full of red herrings, harder to get a grasp on. Sometimes the adventures are almost entirely subsumed by that narrative arc, rather than being part of it. The character growth and motivation is a little herky-jerky, jumping all over the place at times. It's a bit of a messy season. It's not focused. And in the end, the entire season and all of its mess leads essentially nowhere except as setup for future narrative plot arcs.

Then with season seven, the first half of the season is basically a send-off to certain characters (you haven't watched that far yet, I take it, so I'm not going to name names). There's no narrative arc at all; we just get five random adventures with no real connection, no running themes, no cohesion. Some of them are pretty good adventures, but it doesn't add up to anything. They're sort of like empty calories. It felt to me as though the show handicapped itself by splitting the season in half and setting up the entire first half as a way to send those characters off. The second half of that season is only now getting underway, so I don't think we've seen enough yet to judge it. But the Christmas special that kicked it off was pretty good up until the end, which was weird, and so far the first two proper episodes of the new story have had great emotional resonance even if the stories don't make a lot of sense.

But I worry that the show will now be charging headlong into its 50th anniversary, and might handicap itself again by putting too much focus onto that, again to the detriment of overall cohesion. Time will tell! But at least there's always some fun to be had, even when the show isn't living up to its potential. I think what the show needs is a return to a tighter creative focus that gets all the various elements working together again under the banner of a consistent theme.