I’d say the arcs in Capaldi’s era are more to do with the stages of grief.
S8: death and denial
S9: Anger and bargaining
S10: Acceptance and moving onwards.
As opposed to the RTD-type mystery boxes.
But I’d still agree that it leans towards modern than classic.
I just meant that series 11 doesn’t have any kind of arc, and the companions aren’t “impossible girls” or anything, so it’s a bit more like Classic.
Exactly 
I’ve not seen Whittaker’s run and the chunk of classic that’s been mentioned, but now you say it, I do think that why I’m liking Capaldi’s era much more than the previous rest of NuWho is that it feels a little bit Wilderness-y. Like they’re willing to experiment a bit and not be afraid to possibly alienate potential audiences by doing weird shit.
Like Twelve is very in your face manipulative and mean but underneath really sweet and caring. Pretty much the opposite of the most popular incarnation. There’s the whole whatever you want to call what he has with Clara, which is so different and kinda 8/Charley even? And Deep Breath, Sleep No More, Heaven Sent, all the S9 two parters actually, are all so uniquely structured and very risky approaches compared to ‘the usual formula’. And yesterday I watched Oxygen and there they just throw away all subtext and have the Doctor say: Capitalism was a mistake, and idk, it feels tonally more Big Finish, for example, than NuWho to me.
I would even say that Moffat series overall is the least similar to classic Who. It is much more focused on the overarching plot than both RTD and CC (except for Flux).
The historical stories in Series 11 are done in a Hartnell-esque way aimed for more educational than NuWho’s typical ’bit of an action romp fun fest with a celebrity historical’ gearing.
Arachnids aims for the same underlying ecological tragedy that Green Death is. Business interests ■■■■ over a bunch of creatures such that the Doctor then has no way to help him, and has to try and rationalise what’s the most humane way to see them die. Three poisons the maggots, Thirteen locks them in a room.
Kerblam is just - and I did not think about this until I read the Obverse analysis book on it - a story in the same space as The Robots of Death. It’s about automation, rather than the backgrounded elements of the society - which the Doctor doesn’t confront after the demise of a murderous extremist who has understandable motivations related to those elements. (Capitalism and slavery, respectively.)
Series 12 contributes to this still a bit but moves away a fair bit. But yeah - Praxeus is a touch Sea Devils and Green Death, whilst Orphan 55 is a (struggled) speedrun of The Mysterious Planet.
You’ve got a trio of companions around the Doctor a la Davison, and the Doctor is more blunt and guarded a la aspects of what you get with Colin & McCoy.
Things like that.
If he came near me with them I’d shove them up his eye of harmony!
I’m liking those parallels @NullScenario - I can definitely see what you’re getting at with 12 and 13.
Been thinking about this quite a bit now that I’m listening to Eight and Charley’s first season again after many years. They have a different flavor of codependency in comparison to Twelve and Clara, but it is, as you put it, a similar ‘whatever you want to call it’ Doctor/companion relationship. “I can fix him!” – proceeds to make him worse. More reasons to why these two TARDIS teams are stellar.
The Perfect Mentality when you want to be a Companion of Dr.Who!
Wait now that Scherzo is a 9/10 for me I need not only a new controversial take but a new personality…