The setup for the episode happened far too quickly, and was just terrible, I'll admit. From the cornfield to the introduction of Amy's best friend who we'd never heard of before, to the best friend pulling a gun and demanding to be taken back in time, it all felt horribly contrived and awkward. It would have worked a lot better if Mel had been introduced previously, and this shows that Moffat hadn't planned this far ahead yet for this particular reveal.

But once the setup was out of the way, I thought it was great. The reveal of River, having her be a completely different character than the one we knew, the revelation that the Doctor's death in the first episode is one of those fixed-points-in-time that can't be changed, the revelation that it is believed to have been River in the astronaut suit, the Doctor trying to deal with River, Matt Smith's acting when the Doctor was poisoned, the number of questions that were answered with more new ones being asked at the same time, the story tricking us into thinking it was an alien threat episode but then yanking the rug out with the River reveal. I highly enjoyed it.

I don't even care if Moffat isn't planning everything ahead down to the very last detail. He's good enough at making things work and doing reveals that I'm entertained all the way through anyway. His style of storytelling works for me, and I'm enjoying the production and the acting as well.

I think the last season had a better balance than this one, and we could use some more stand-alone adventures and a break from the story arcs, but overall I think Doctor Who under Moffat is stronger than it ever was under Davies. I love the wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey, I love the mysteries, I love the clues and the reveals, I love the characters. It's one of my three favourite shows on tv right now. But since I don't think you like one of the other ones on my top three list either, it's likely a simple case of different folks, different strokes. I just didn't want you to think that everyone felt the same as you.

EDIT - I've linked a review of the episode at the bottom that I agree with. It's nice to see I'm not the only one who thought it was brilliant once it got to the real story.