Somewhere in my head I must like TW because I actually wrote a couple of fics where some of the characters make an appearance. They're not the primary focus of the stories, but they are in there.
Torchwood was any fic writer's dream. *deep sigh*

I was very bummed when the Hub got blown up (just as I was bummed when Angel's original digs got blown up and they moved into that stupid hotel).
I know what you mean, although the Hub was far worse. The sheer history encapsulated was extraordinary, whereas Angel's place was fairly new, all things considered. And I rather liked the hotel. And W&H. I was easy. *g* (Also TW never got a new Hub, they just drifted. Which was bad.)

I'm weird like that--location makes a difference to me--I also felt like Buffy lost something when they moved from the high school setting to the college setting (which is weird cos I work in a college, and I think there are interesting veins you could mine). God, I'm so fickle. ; )
I liked the Magic Box. I mean, I liked the Library in the High School and all that, but as I much prefer the later seasons, I'm a Magic Box gal. ;)

LOL, we'll have to agree to disagree on Jane Espenson. Although I did like some of her early Buffy scripts, "Earshot" being my favorite. Her later stuff really grated on me, and I didn't care for her contributions to Miracle Day.
I always liked her (I even watched her Eliza Dushku thing, the name of which I can't remember), but MD was a great let down. :( Esp. cause her blog was awesome and full of good writing tips.

I will definitely read your piece on Miracle Day and get back to you later with feedback. Again: setting! I don't feel like it worked all that well in the US, although obviously we're supposed to believe TW has branches all over the world (aren't we?). Again, some of the characters just grated, and that silly American blonde bint was the worst one.
We seem to be in perfect accordance as regards MD. *g* (I liked Esther, but... *shrug* So she died. It's what people do.)

CoE was so harrowing. When you finally got the aliens' motives--that they were basically addicts using the kids as a drug source--it was utterly chilling, because the motive was so banal, and yet so horribly evil, and the reactions of the people in the government were honestly worse than the aliens themselves. CoE is like a horrible dark mirror that reflects the worst aspects of humanity. Complete sci-fi, but very believable.
Just amazing. RTD at his very very best.

In hindsight, I think one of the disappointments is that putting Willow in a same-sex romance provided a rich vein to be mined--not unlike the college setting itself--and the writers did nothing with it.
*nods* I didn't see it at the time, but looking at it through different eyes, yeah.

I had similar frustrations with Martha in season 3 of DW--here was an interesting character whose crazy-ass family gave her tons of motivations, and yet everything seemed to boil down to "she's in love with the Doctor." Which we'd just had two years of with Rose. **headdesk**
It could have been worse! No seriously. If Catherine Tate hadn't agreed to come back as Donna, we'd have had another love interest. Mutual. Again. (The horrors I have discovered thanks to The Writers Tale...)

Compare WT to JI or even Jenny-Vastra.
A lot of nodding along to all of this.

A friend of mine made the observation once that most straight male writers can't do lesbians well because "all men have girl-girl fantasies." I definitely felt (at the time) like WT were Joss Whedon's girl-girl fantasy couple.
Apparently they were based on some actual friends of his (which he introduced the actors to), so I guess there's some reality in there. But that doesn't mean he couldn't have done something more.

Having Tara come back only to be pointlessly murdered undercut the character growth that had been done earlier in the season. It was a ham-handed motivation for Willow to "go evil" (an idea I found kind of stupid anyway, but that's another rant for another day). ; )
M-hm. It worked, but it wasn't exactly new or clever.