Saw Peter Capaldi as the DR for the first time. Excellent I must say, though Ecllestan is still my favorite.

I liked David Tennant, but I really felt Eccleston hit the right notes. Shame he could only stay on for 1 series. I'd loved to have seen more of him.

It ruins it for me that Peter Capaldi is so reused. He was a roman trader in the episode about Pompei and he was was civil servant in Torchwood - The Children of Earth.

So far David Tannant is my favorite doctor.

I remember Moffat saying that it's actually going to be a plot point later on in Capaldi's run. We'll see if he keeps that promise.

Freema Agyeman was a recycled dr who actress too. I don't mind it. Same with multi-roles in the bond movies (maud adams, etc).

Knowing Dr Who it could be material for an interesting episode. Otherwise I don't really mind.

Even MASH did it back in the 70's with Harry Morgan (COL. Potter).

I just started my vacation and so I am progressing steadily now.

Unfortunately I have trouble finding places where I can see "Doctor Who Confidential Season 5" and "Sarah Jane's Alien Files".

Does any of the knowledgeable readers of this site (read: you!) know where I can see or buy those?

Finally wrapped up 2010. That was definitely a year with a lot of shows, spin-offs and specials.

And yes I did finally manage to find all episodes mentioned above. So I haven't had to skip anything so far. :)

In addition I found a saw these that I wasn't aware of when I started 2010:

* Ultimate Guide 2010
* Doctor Who at the Proms 2010
* Backstage at the Proms 2010
* Doctor Song's Monster files (4 episodes)

and then I did a little catch-up from 2009 (after realizing I missed a few) where I saw

* Doctor Who Monster Files (14 episodes)
* Backstage at the Proms 2008 (released 1/1 2009)

2010 was ok, but I don't really like Matt Smith as the doctor. Amy is cute but doesn't really have the coolness of Donna. My all-time favorite pair is David Tennant's Doctor and and Donna Noble. Matha was cool too, but Donna is just awesome.

I spent *so much time* looking for Sarah Jane's Alien Files and when I finally found them they were quite a disappointment. Just 6 x summaries of previous episodes with extremely little new content. If you thought Sarah Jane Adventures was boring just wait to you see this. :)

Next up is 2011. This is when Elizabeth Sladen dies so Sarah Jane Adventures are cancelled.

2011:
* Night and the Doctor (5 ep.)
* My Sarah Jane - A Tribute to Elisabeth Sladen
* Doctor Who - Best of Specials (9 ep.)
* Death is the Only Answer
* Doctor Who Season 6 (14 ep.)
* Doctor Who Confidential Season 6 (14 ep.)
* Torchwood - Miracle Day (10 ep.)
* Torchwood Declassified - Miracle Day (2 ep.)
* Sarah Jane Adventures Season 5 (6 ep.)
* One minute prequels to Season 6 Doctor Who episodes (6 ep.)

In anticipation of the season finale, I decided to necro this thread. In fact, I'm a little surprised I needed to. Was no one here watching this season? It turned out far better than the last one. Still a far cry from the 10th and 11th Doctors years, but a vast improvement nevertheless. And Clara is finally gone, so that alone is a reason to celebrate. Her death wasn't nearly as painful and slow as I hoped, but I'll take what I can get.

Now I just wonder if the season finally will make proper sense of this weeks episode, which was really good, but if the questions it left us with are not answered well, it might turn out to suck in retrospect. And I have to say, I'm not to happy to see the Time Lords return. I hope they won't be back for good. I think the show works much better with the Doctor as the last Time Lord. And I hope we won't be getting a new Doctor soon, as some rumors say. There have been many things wrong with those last two seasons, but Capaldi is pretty much perfect. I want him to stay, at least until he gets a season truly worthy of his talent.

It wasn't a bad episode per se, but it did wrap up all the things that Stephen Moffat has fucked up to do with Dr Who.

Firstly, he shoves plot down our throats, the hybrid references were so laboured that it was just a matter of fact that they'd be in that episode. Watching his attempts to build suspense whilst not giving away what's going to happen is like watching a clown's act in a circus.

Secondly, I really get pissed off that Moffat thinks he's so much smarter than us all. He did it in Sherlock, and is trying it now in Dr Who. You really get a feeling that he feels he's playing with his audience, when actually he's just patronising them. I mean (spoiler coming, don't read on) - "I expect you can still hear me", as the quote, which is going to be amazingly revealed to be "I expect you can still hear, me", where "me" is Ashildr, wow - he's so clever. Equally so, everyone guessed that the hybrid is her, calling a character "me", and then playing on the word is so basic that it's pathetic. Yet I really feel that Moffat feels he's got us all fooled.

In short, not a fan of Moffat. Though at least this story had some more fleshed out plots as opposed to the bollocks with clara diving through time, and some "great intelligence".

Capaldi on the other hand, is great, and I completely agree he should stay. He's getting a nice mix of fatherly, godly, and menacing.

over to others...

I think Moffat was doing really well for the first two seasons with Matt Smith, and still wraped up Matt Smith's run very well in theDay of the Doctor/Time of the Doctor. But after that he really went downhill, and I agree, it's been time for him to leave for a while now. Like you mentioned, when he thinks he's so very clever he really is just predictable has been a problem for a while, even more so when the "clever" thing ends up not making much sense. Also, I think he is a little to "audience conscious". He's more interested in writing in a way that will get people to guess and theorise, rather than just telling a good story.

However, I'll point out the Great Intelligence is not of his creation, it dates back all the way to the 2nd Doctor's times.

Exactly. One of my favourite episodes of the more recent series has been "Human Nature" / "The Familiy of Blood". These were so much better than the others simply because there were little "smarts" in them (except right at the end), just pure Doctor Who, monsters, questions, characters.
I had heard this, but regardless, that final episode when she jumped down his timeline was such bollocks. From start to finish he forgot to make an actual plot.

Very well said. Those are possibly my favourite episodes ever. It's "The City on the Edge of Forever" of Doctor Who.

I actually liked it, but that's because of the mood, some great imagery and Matt Smith being terrific. I really liked the idea of the derelict TARDIS being the Doctor's grave, and the scene when the Doctor reveals he can see River. "I'm not really here.- You're always here for me." Honestly, that was possibly the only scene that actually sold me on the Doctor-River relationship, which never really worked for me in most episodes.

Then again, that does again reveal the weaknesses of Moffat's writing- he has great ideas for scenes, images, memorable lines. But he often fails to put them in context of a good story. His best work are still the episodes he wrote back when Russell Davis was running the show. I guess Moffat can do really great work, provided there is someone else in charge.

Dr Who. Never could get into it. Way too British for my tastes. Besides, my time travel knowledge doesn't go past 1.21 gigawatts.

Oh god. Oh god I hated the season finale. I take back everything good I said about this season. This was horrendous. I think may be done with Doctor Who. At least until Moffat leaves, I don't think I can make myself give a shit anymore. Peter Capaldi is great, but this crap is just... I can't, I just can't. This was one of the worst episodes of anything that I have ever seen. I hated it like I didn't hate anything in a long time, maybe with the exception of the second Hobbit movie. This was horrible on every level. A pathetic resolution to last weeks cliffhanger, a pathetic resolution to the search for Gallifrey started in the 50th anniversary special and pathetic follow up to Clara's death... just pathetic everything. Moffat fucked up everything.

Doctor's return to Gallifrey should have been a major event, with great consequences, but no. Instead it's just another Clara episode, because she's so great, so fantastic. The Doctor could have let go of his other companions, but not Clara, no. She's so special, he could never do that. Fuck Aldric. Fuck the Brigadier. Fuck Susan. No, Clara is the end all, be all of all companions.

The whole point of Clara's death was that she was taking bigger and bigger risks and acting like she is The Doctor, and eventually learned that she is not, that being the Doctor is not just about taking stupid risks, but having the skill and the brains ad the knowladge to win (like we saw in the next episode). It was about her messing up, and owning up to it. But no. Fuck that. She gets to live, and to essentially become The Doctor, with her own TARDIS and everything. Drama? Consequences? Events and characters having some actual gravitas? Fuck that, Moffat's Mary Sue needs a happy ending.

And along the way, let's just dismiss Rassilon, who cares about him, right? And how exactly did the sisterhood of Karn get to Gallifrey? How did Gallifrey get back out of the "freeze" Doctor put it into? Why didn't it result with the great consequences it was supposed to, that were the whole reason behind the events of Time of the Doctor? Because fuck you, Moffat was bored and out of ideas, so he turned in this half assed excuse for a script.