I agree with you that Doctor Who had largely run out of plot ideas. The thing they forgot from the classic Who like Troughton - Baker was that a big part of the charm of the show was its quirky British-ness. The modern writers decided to take the Doctor from being an eccentric space wanderer to being a superhero who always has to be running around like a maniac. People didn't watch Doctor Who for flashy Sci-Fi; they watched it for how Tom Baker or David Tennant could deliver a witty line.