diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index c438a51629c0..ad8d8f8b9e98 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -64,6 +64,7 @@ doc/examples
 doc/modules
 doc/pyplots/tex_demo.png
 doc/users/installing.rst
+doc/_static/depsy_badge.svg
 doc/_static/matplotlibrc
 lib/dateutil
 examples/*/*.pdf
diff --git a/doc-requirements.txt b/doc-requirements.txt
index 9af746509bae..e0e378a264dc 100644
--- a/doc-requirements.txt
+++ b/doc-requirements.txt
@@ -7,9 +7,10 @@
 #     pip install -r doc-requirements.txt
 #
 sphinx>=1.3,!=1.5.0
-numpydoc
+colorspacious
 ipython
 mock
-colorspacious
+numpydoc
 pillow
+scipy
 sphinx-gallery
diff --git a/doc/conf.py b/doc/conf.py
index fa3acd05d5a0..a75d834377ac 100644
--- a/doc/conf.py
+++ b/doc/conf.py
@@ -38,48 +38,40 @@
 
 exclude_patterns = ['api/api_changes/*', 'users/whats_new/*']
 
-# Use IPython's console highlighting by default
-try:
-    from IPython.sphinxext import ipython_console_highlighting
-except ImportError:
-    raise ImportError(
-        "IPython must be installed to build the Matplotlib docs")
-else:
-    extensions.append('IPython.sphinxext.ipython_console_highlighting')
-    extensions.append('IPython.sphinxext.ipython_directive')
-
-try:
-    import numpydoc
-except ImportError:
-    raise ImportError("No module named numpydoc - you need to install "
-                      "numpydoc to build the documentation.")
-
-try:
-    import sphinx_gallery
-except ImportError:
-    raise ImportError("No module named sphinx_gallery - you need to install "
-                      "sphinx_gallery to build the documentation.")
-
-try:
-    import colorspacious
-except ImportError:
-    raise ImportError("No module named colorspacious - you need to install "
-                      "colorspacious to build the documentation")
 
+def _check_deps():
+    names = ["colorspacious",
+             "IPython.sphinxext.ipython_console_highlighting",
+             "matplotlib",
+             "numpydoc",
+             "PIL.Image",
+             "scipy",
+             "sphinx_gallery"]
+    if sys.version_info < (3, 3):
+        names.append("mock")
+    missing = []
+    for name in names:
+        try:
+            __import__(name)
+        except ImportError:
+            missing.append(name)
+    if missing:
+        raise ImportError(
+            "The following dependencies are missing to build the "
+            "documentation: {}".format(", ".join(missing)))
+
+_check_deps()
+
+import matplotlib
 try:
     from unittest.mock import MagicMock
 except ImportError:
-    try:
-        from mock import MagicMock
-    except ImportError:
-        raise ImportError("No module named mock - you need to install "
-                          "mock to build the documentation")
+    from mock import MagicMock
 
-try:
-    from PIL import Image
-except ImportError:
-    raise ImportError("No module named Image - you need to install "
-                      "pillow to build the documentation")
+
+# Use IPython's console highlighting by default
+extensions.extend(['IPython.sphinxext.ipython_console_highlighting',
+                   'IPython.sphinxext.ipython_directive'])
 
 if six.PY2:
     from distutils.spawn import find_executable
@@ -92,12 +84,6 @@
         "No binary named dot - you need to install the Graph Visualization "
         "software (usually packaged as 'graphviz') to build the documentation")
 
-try:
-    import matplotlib
-except ImportError:
-    msg = "Error: Matplotlib must be installed before building the documentation"
-    sys.exit(msg)
-
 
 autosummary_generate = True
 
@@ -134,7 +120,7 @@
 project = 'Matplotlib'
 copyright = ('2002 - 2012 John Hunter, Darren Dale, Eric Firing, '
              'Michael Droettboom and the Matplotlib development '
-             'team; 2012 - 2016 The Matplotlib development team')
+             'team; 2012 - 2017 The Matplotlib development team')
 
 # The default replacements for |version| and |release|, also used in various
 # other places throughout the built documents.
diff --git a/doc/make.py b/doc/make.py
index 0db0553224dd..e4fead0beeed 100755
--- a/doc/make.py
+++ b/doc/make.py
@@ -301,13 +301,14 @@ def build_all():
 if args.n is not None:
     n_proc = int(args.n)
 
+_valid_commands = "Valid targets are: {}".format(", ".join(sorted(funcd)))
 if args.cmd:
     for command in args.cmd:
         func = funcd.get(command)
         if func is None:
-            raise SystemExit(('Do not know how to handle %s; valid commands'
-                              ' are %s' % (command, funcd.keys())))
+            raise SystemExit("Do not know how to handle {}.  {}"
+                             .format(command, _valid_commands))
         func()
 else:
-    all()
+    raise SystemExit(_valid_commands)
 os.chdir(current_dir)