diff --git a/changelog.d/707.doc.rst b/changelog.d/707.doc.rst
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..4c36532612220c83762c3f4a4d729f8dbbe61468_Y2hhbmdlbG9nLmQvNzA3LmRvYy5yc3Q=
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelog.d/707.doc.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,1 @@
+Changed the default theme to sphinx_rtd_theme, and changed the sphinx configuration to go along with that. (gh pr #707)
diff --git a/docs/conf.py b/docs/conf.py
index 215a1a8b1fd6853fa7d623757effbd8cd1d0d567_ZG9jcy9jb25mLnB5..4c36532612220c83762c3f4a4d729f8dbbe61468_ZG9jcy9jb25mLnB5 100644
--- a/docs/conf.py
+++ b/docs/conf.py
@@ -106,7 +106,7 @@
 
 # The theme to use for HTML and HTML Help pages.  See the documentation for
 # a list of builtin themes.
-html_theme = 'default'
+html_theme = 'sphinx_rtd_theme'
 
 # Theme options are theme-specific and customize the look and feel of a theme
 # further.  For a list of options available for each theme, see the
diff --git a/docs/requirements-docs.txt b/docs/requirements-docs.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..4c36532612220c83762c3f4a4d729f8dbbe61468_ZG9jcy9yZXF1aXJlbWVudHMtZG9jcy50eHQ=
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/requirements-docs.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+Sphinx>=1.7.3,<2
+sphinx_rtd_theme>=0.3.0
diff --git a/tox.ini b/tox.ini
index 215a1a8b1fd6853fa7d623757effbd8cd1d0d567_dG94LmluaQ==..4c36532612220c83762c3f4a4d729f8dbbe61468_dG94LmluaQ== 100644
--- a/tox.ini
+++ b/tox.ini
@@ -53,7 +53,7 @@
 [testenv:docs]
 description = invoke sphinx-build to build the HTML docs, check that URIs are valid
 basepython = python3.6
-deps = sphinx >= 1.6.3, < 2
+deps = -r docs/requirements-docs.txt
        {[testenv]deps}
 commands = sphinx-build -d "{toxworkdir}/docs_doctree" docs "{toxworkdir}/docs_out" {posargs:-W --color -bhtml}
            sphinx-build -d "{toxworkdir}/docs_doctree" docs "{toxworkdir}/docs_out" {posargs:-W --color -blinkcheck}