Continuing our coverage of the good, the bad and the new Daleks of Doctor Who in 2011. Today we have an award that demonstrates if at first you don’t succeed… write another script four years later.

The Most Improved Award goes to writer Tom MacRae, who came from writing the derided-by-almost-all Series Two effort Rise of the Cybermen / The Age of Steel to this season’s The Girl Who Waited which was one of the best, if not the best, Doctor Who television story this year.

I must be smug here and point out that I knew MacRae had it in him. In my Enlightenment review of the Series Two DVDs, I said, “[Rise/Age] smells to me of (a story) that had way too many cooks in the process of its creation and the story tried to satisfy everyone’s story notes, with disastrous results. Tom MacRae deserves a do-over more than any Doctor Who writer today”. I’m so glad Mr. MacRae finally got his shot.

An honourable mention goes to Matthew Graham. While The Rebel Flesh / The Almost People had its problems it was a quantum leap from the equally risible Fear Her...