Doctor Who actually has some pretty rich lore (which inevitably happens after what, 53 years?) and a lot of it is totally untapped or fleshed out. Whilst I know the show needs more new ideas, I think 50 years is good enough to come back and feel new. They did do an episode with an d enemy in this series but it fell on its face.
I think Doctor Who's main issue is it never wants to break from what it has been. And when it tries to, it likes to do it in a way that feels disjointed from the rest of the show. Moffat tries to push buttons with the Doctors name, his death and even retconning the drama behind the Doctor's persona. But ultimately, these don't change anything, they end up hyped up, only to be whisked away and forgotten come next episode. Every twist feels like some businessman with a clipboard had to stand behind Moffat as he wrote.
The final episode where David Tennant left had the Timelords as the antagonists who literally wanted to End of Evangelion everyone into just being consciousnesses without bodies. And then the latest movie type special went and had the Doctor turn around and save them, simultaneously removing all tension in the backstory of a man who's meant to carry the weight of billions of deaths on his head.
Despite writing a storyline about how the doctor didn't actually kill all of his people, a later episode goes on to have the Doctor give a big speech about how many people he's killed and how terrible he is. Like sure, he racked up a huge kill streak after the whole time war, but he at least can strike a few billion off of the list.
What I'm saying is that Doctor Who tries to move the show in the most superficial ways possible. A new TARDIS, screwdriver and the latest Retcon about the Doctors past never actually alter anything or give you greater insight, the false notion of change is grand at first, but you walk out feeling like you've got a new coat of paint on the same old car. It looks kind of better, I guess, but it's still the same thing you were sick of underneath.
