Well this is my catch all term for the pacing problems many episodes of Doctor Who seem to suffer from. Often things are happening at break-neck speed, and major elements seem overly rushed. For whatever reason we get flung towards the resolution without really feeling any real involvement, tension or wonder.
When the series was rebooted in 2005, I was immediately concerned about the loss of the serialised format. Even with a slightly longer running time it just wasn't going to be able to do what a four-parter could.
Traditionally the structure of a Doctor Who story was something like this:
Part 1 (Introduction)
We're given a glimpse of the problem. Maybe the Monster of the Week (MotW) interacts with or kills someone, but we don't see the MotW itself. If necessary, we get "Monster Vision". The Doctor turns up and is intrigued by whatever is going on. Maybe he meets some friendlies with tales of woe, maybe he runs across one of the MotW's agents. The episode usually ends with some "Monster Vision" or perhaps a tiny glimpse of part of the MotW if it won't give them away too much.
Part 2 (Investigation)
The Doctor starts sticking his beak in. Roadblocks appear in whatever relevant manner. Perhaps the problem is complex, or he needs someone's help or cooperation and they're not forthcoming. We get insight into what the problem is and why we should be concerned, usually through The Doctor interacting with his Companion. Meanwhile the MotW or its agents continue with their schemes, reacting to The Doctor as needed. The episode ends with a full reveal of the MotW.
Part 3 (Escalation)
The MotW and any minions enter the "end game" phase of their plan, ramping up the threat level considerably. The Doctor needs to push himself to come up with or complete a solution. The Doctor's Companion will (either here or at the end of the previous episode) fall into the clutches of the MotW and either require saving, or somehow save themselves (this is the new millennium, after all). We are shown a very real threat by the bad guys here. The episode ends with the MotW seemingly on the brink of victory.
Part 4 (Resolution)
The solution The Doctor has been striving towards comes to fruition after a final showdown with the MotW. Once victorious, The Doctor does some tying up of loose ends with the good guys and trots off in the TARDIS.
Now you can see a similar structure in use in the new episodes, but it is so highly compressed it loses a lot of the tension. This is especially evident when we get the occasional two-parter, which allows for closer to the same amount of screen time as an old-school three or four parter.
Two-parters like Rise of the Cybermen / The Age of Steel, The Sontaran Stratagem / The Poison Sky, and The Hungry Earth / Cold Blood don't suffer from these pacing issues and very closely fit the traditional structure with two parts instead of four. Whatever other issues those stories may have, Go, go, go, Geronimo! isn't one of them.
As the overarching season plots become more of a focus for the show, they are in danger of overtaking the individual story plot. The more time taken to foreshadow these big stories, the less time is left to make the current one work properly. The best way to introduce the season arc has always been to make subtle references to it. Bad Wolf, Torchwood, Saxon and the Crack in the Universe were all handled reasonably well with only subtle references during or at the end of individual stories. The Silence and Clara arcs are far more blatant, and often detract from what should be the focus of the episode by taking up screen time, or feeling forced in. In some ways this is a symptom of The Companion Show featuring The Doctor.
Not every episode needs to reference the season arc, and even if they don't, the season arc story can reference the other episodes. Vincent and The Doctor is a prime example of this. It had no direct reference to the season arc, but was drawn into the opening of The Pandorica Opens.
Can we fix it?
I suppose the issue is simply one of time, which unless all stories become two-parters isn't very easily fixable.
But if we want to stick to a single 45 minute episode, can we fix the pacing? Well there are single part stories that are paced well, such as The Doctor's Daughter or The Curse of the Black Spot. So what are these episodes doing that others, such as Dinosaurs on a Spaceship or The Bells of Saint John are not? I'd suggest it's what they choose to skip or condense in the structure that makes the difference.
In my two positive examples, The Doctor foregoes a lot of Introduction and is thrust immediately into the problem, jumping straight into Investigation. Escalation happens almost simultaneously with Investigation too, allowing both of these phases to have some meat to them. This allows the threat to seem credible and the eventual solution to seem well thought out and not some sort of rushed handwavium.
In the negative examples, we get too much Introduction and not enough Investigation or Escalation. We get walked through a new setting or some new characters with cursory (and often unsubtle) explanations of the problem, but no real sense of threat. The endings are also rushed, which actually further downplays any sense of threat we may have got by making it seem too easily overcome.
So in short, chuck The Doctor in the deep end, have him work things out as the problem gets increasingly dangerous, and make sure the final confrontation is a risky, down-to-the-wire solution that The Doctor has pushed himself to achieve.
Or maybe they should just make all stories two-parters.
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