^ Couldn't have said it better myself. Also, this may just be coincidence, but I also feel as though the overall quality of the show has gone up since he was put on. I was watching Planet of the Dead last night, and although there was nothing overtly terrible about it, I did find that Carmen's acting positively cringeworthy. And her secondary character is not the only one I remember from Tennant's run that was cringeworthy.
Aesthetically, it's gorgeous nowadays. In the last era, a city looked like a city. Bold, bright colours, people all over. Something about the colour palette, and the effects, nowadays, everything looks a little less big-'n'-bolshy, a little more... I can't find the word. The house style is a little more, "muted," perhaps but also more inventive. Both approaches are cool, both are clearly the net result of hours and hours of work apiece from the most talented production team in British TV, but one feels a little more "modern Who," and the other feels "All of time and space." My kind of look.
I can't imagine them doing the Sontaran spaceship in Moffat's Who. Current team, Michael Pickwoad in particular, would realise it very differently. Likewise, I don't think Aliens of London would've looked half as grounded - and, therefore, don't think it would've been half as effective - with the current house style. As much as it's not Whovians' favourite episode, now, that was an
incredibly pivotal moment. That was a huge episode. It was flawed, there were more than a few issues with it, and when we hold a show to such a high standard it's those we notice, but it nailed way more things on the head. I think the S5 approach might yield a more convincing Slitheen, but one of the most exciting and most imperative things about the episode, is that to work, and to bring back Doctor Who, modern day London had to be recognisable, it had to be the world you could walk into, and despite The Bells of St. John, I'm not sure the current "look" evokes the people on the ground quite as well.
Beautiful, though. Utterly gorgeous.