The Valeyard is, according to the Master, an amalgamation of the darker sides of the Doctor, hailing from "between the Doctor's 12th and final regeneration." He went back in time, framed Colin Baker with the help of the High Council of Time Lords, acted as prosecutor in the following trial, tried to steal the Doctor's…

Eh, could be one of the reissues Takara put out a few years back. The kids' dad is what, 40ish? He'd be around the right age-range for buying expensive Japanese re-releases of toys from his childhood. Or one of the kids picked him up at whatever the British name for a garage sale is.

Yeah, the Salvage Brothers part didn't quite work, but that doesn't really matter, as we got some quality inside-the-TARDIS time.

Yeah, you hear that CLONNNG CLONNNG CLONNNG and you know that Bad Shit has gone down. Helps that it doesn't ring whenever somebody points a gun at it.

Finally, a good old-fashioned running-around-in-corridors episode. We need one of those every once in a while.

I do like the "leftover previous universe Time Lord-equivalent" origin consolidating many of the various Malevolent Psychic Forces, but yeah, making them into actual Lovecraft entities really seemed embarrassingly pander-y. "Hey horror-fans! See, we have those Eldritch Things you like too! They're totally all over our…

Omega's up there in super-badass territory. A mad Gallifreyen super-genius holding an entire antimatter universe together by sheer force of will, desperately clawing to re-enter normal reality even though if he does things go boom is a pretty tough fella to beat.

Completely awesome. Especially the spinny swirly eyes.

Does it also have the Tom Baker-goes-crazy-in-the-museum linking narration bits from the VHS release too?

He's already been the Doctor. More canonical than Peter Cushing, even!

He's already been the Doctor. More canonical than Peter Cushing, even!

Hopefully Moffat has learned to put his toys away after he's done with them. Amy and Rory would have been perfectly fine leaving them at the end of The God Complex but got dragged on and on into more and more pointless-feeling adventures. River Song has somehow managed to become a massive black hole of irritation.

Hopefully Moffat has learned to put his toys away after he's done with them. Amy and Rory would have been perfectly fine leaving them at the end of The God Complex but got dragged on and on into more and more pointless-feeling adventures. River Song has somehow managed to become a massive black hole of irritation.

A song about how horrible the sheer volume of Christmas-time package delivery truly is, sung by the Robot Devil? Yes, please.

A song about how horrible the sheer volume of Christmas-time package delivery truly is, sung by the Robot Devil? Yes, please.

Before we do Trial, we need to suffer through Timelash. Get some perspective on how much of a relative improvement it actually was.

Before we do Trial, we need to suffer through Timelash. Get some perspective on how much of a relative improvement it actually was.

Single biggest laugh of the film: the Oreo Winkies. Felt just like one of those one-off throwaway gags Futurama likes to toss out now and then.

Single biggest laugh of the film: the Oreo Winkies. Felt just like one of those one-off throwaway gags Futurama likes to toss out now and then.

I dunno, an old lady calling Matt Smith "Grandfather" seems a decent hook for showing that Time Lord Biology Is Weird. Plus, there's no real reason that they couldn't just regenerate her into a twentysomething Susan II.