Davies definitely developed characters way better than Moffat (wow remember when companions had families and lives and stuff) but I find upon rewatching RTD's initial run, a lot of the other things people complain about Moffat for... Davies did as well. Sometimes worse. I mean, lest we forget the Series 3 finale where "dont even touch the paradox machine it could rip the universe in half" then after the Doctor gets turned into Dobby and then Jesus (in that order) Jack Harkness fires an automatic machine gun at the TARDIS so hard that time reverses and undoes the events of the preceding two episodes :p
Although on the other hand, James Cordon. TWICE. So actually yes, Moffat does deserve execution I suppose.
see the big difference is when RTD did all that stuff it was fucking goofy and camp and we weren't supposed to be taking it super seriously. and when things didn't make sense it was because they weren't important. RTD's plots often are very character arc focused and so the sci-fi plot element can be magically resolved because the character emotional arc resolved and that solves it, sort of like how in anime they might be having a physical fight but the one who wins is actually whoever yelled the more correct philosophical argument while throwing a punch. it's not that they suddenly actually became physically stronger now and weren't earlier but that they worked through some emotional issue or something was resolved in the narrative and that allows for them to be stronger.
We don't need to care about the paradox machine or shooting the tardis to make it run backwards because those things only serve the function of us following characters on their growth in a way that's really well executed. I'm not invested in the paradox machine I'm invested in Martha.
Moffat however is terrible at writing characters but often very good at writing interesting spooky monsters of the week. So what I care about is not James Cordon's crush on his friend what I care about is this interesting upstairs neighbor who lures people in from the street to eat them. If the interesting thing isn't the characters but the monster then I do need that monster to make some consistent logical sense internally because that's the thing I'm focused on and care about and am taking seriously, since the characters are all so flat and unimportant feeling with no good character arcs or growth and the things they're going through often have nothing to do with them because literally nobody in these stories matters except for the Doctor and his struggle with being so very very cool.
In Blink the angels follow very consistent rules and the focus is very much on those rules. We do have characters but we're mostly focused on the angels and so everything that happens with them needs to be well executed, and we can forgive poor character writing if the angels are good.
In the season 3 finale, we aren't that invested in the exact details of the Master's plan. What matters is the hatred and vitriol that the Master has for the Doctor and the Doctor's insistence on continuing to have hope in the Master that he could be a good person and wanting to connect with him. What matters isn't the details of how the Master is oppressing the human race, but the way that Martha is independently traveling the world connecting with people and finding ways to inspire hope despite it all. The reason the ridiculous premise of "everyone thinks about the Doctor at the same time and that makes the cell phone towers bring him back to life" works is because it isn't the Archangel Network we're interested in, it's that what Martha has proven is that the ability of humanity to have hope and belief in the possibility of a better world is still present even when the Master has knocked them down again and again trying to impose his pessimistic worldview by force. The paradox machine only represents something that the Master did out of hatred. The archangel network saving the Doctor represents something that Martha did out of love. That's why it works.
Though yes that final episode of the season 3 finale is probably the weakest of the RTD season finales which sucks since the beginning of that three part finale is some of the strongest writing in the whole show.
